User Reviews

Whoever wrote this episode of "Mannix" must have been a fan of Akira Kurosawa, as the style of the show bears a lot of similarity to his famous film "Rashomon"--a film in which the same story is told from three very different viewpoints.

This film begins with a man's secretary and girlfriend coming upon him and his soon to be ex-wife arguing. The soon to be ex falls into the ocean from a cliff but is saved--and the secretary runs away and disappears. When you hear about this story from the husband and wife, the story is very different--and you're pretty sure once the real story is learned that it will be yet another angle on the story. Somehow Mannix needs to figure out the truth--and it won't be easy.

So is this 'Rasho-Mannix' any good? Well, it's decent but not great. Much of this is because Mannix seems to pick up on who's really behind everything a bit easier than you'd expect AND the man even admits (for no clear reason) to Mannix what he'd done! Huh?! Too bad, as it was a lot better than the ending.

The beginning is well done and intriguing. Three people tell about the same event from different viewpoints and seeing different results. I won't go into the plot as it has been covered by other reviewers. The plot holes are obvious and make you wonder. The wife being rescued and then kissing her savior on the beach is too much. She should have remembered that her lover, who she knows is capable of murder, is watching from his boat. If the murder plot had worked, the rescuer would have seen it from the beach. After all, he did see and rescue the "drowning" wife.

The cast is good. Robert Lansing is always an intense and self-assured actor. It works as General Savage on 12 O'clock High but here he seems too intelligent for his predicament. Diane McBain (wife) is always good. Seems like she is a better fit for the Lansing character (George Diamond) than his secretary. The big downfall in the episode is the Mike Farrell character. As pointed out in earlier reviews, his actions are totally ridiculous. He has a dozen chances to kill the secretary before he actually tries it and then bungles it. Since the secretary came to him for help, he should have realized she did not see him in his boat so had nothing to fear from her. How Joe comes up with the site for the proposed killing of the secretary is beyond common sense.

I have to mention that I did wonder about the boat just yards from a "drowning" woman and not helping. Then the wife falls for another man in about ten seconds and tosses over the man she had plotted a murder with. Hard to believe. Just too many such instances in this story. At least Mike Farrell surrendered without the usual car chase and/or gunfight at the end. Nice change. With a better resolution and filling in the plot holes, this could have been a top notch episode.

A young secretary witnesses her boss (and lover) attempting to murder his soon-to-be-ex-wife by shoving her off a cliff and into the ocean. The frightened secretary takes off in a panic and disappears, and the lover (and would-be killer) hires Joe to track her down.

But things are not what they seem.

Joe pieces the story together through a series of interviews with the various participants, who all tell competing accounts about what happened.

But the truth, when it finally emerges, makes no sense at all.

Mike Farrell is revealed to be the primary villain. Farrell, it seems, was in cahoots with the wife with whom he was having an affair, and their plan was to lure the hapless husband to a watery death near the cliff, then take control of hubby's vast publishing empire.

But after their attempt to do so failed, the wife fell in love with someone else (rather abruptly, I might add)...

-- and the show has Farrell murdering the wife mid-story, then going after the secretary whom he believes (mistakenly) can place him near the scene of the attempted murder near the cliff.

Farrell tries to SHOOT the secretary at the motel she is hiding out in. What is never explained is why the secretary doesn't simply tell Joe it was Farrell who opened fire on her! (The story makes it clear she sees Farrell there)

But she doesn't bother to. Which is crazy. Nutty. Bad writing.

Then Farrell drops his gun and somehow ABDUCTS the secretary from the motel and drives her to the same seaside location where the story began in order to throw her off the same familiar cliff and into the ocean. Or something. But Joe gets there just in time to stop him.

Now, leaving aside the fact that earlier in the show, Farrell was at the publishing office when the secretary left for the beach house at 11 AM... and then suddenly he was on a motorboat near the cliff when she arrived at her destination an hour later (impossible)... leaving that aside for a moment... what is truly bat**** crazy about this episode is the fact that the secretary, it seems, sought Farrell's help after she witnessed her boss attempting to kill his wife (or so she thought), and Farrell agreed to help her lay low for a while. He even traded cars with her.

This should've told Farrell she did NOT see him near the cliff that morning -- or else why would she be running to him for help?!

And if Farrell still wanted to kill her (for whatever reason) he could have done so then, when she came to him for help and he had all the time in the world to get away with it, instead of running the risk of doing so later at the motel, when Joe Mannix was there.

Uncommonly sloppy writing overseen by the uncommonly talented producing duo of Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. Too bad.

This one is about a woman who thinks she may have seen her boss attempt to kill his wife. She then disappears and her boss hires Joe to find her.

There are numerous plot holes. For example, if Winifred thought she had seen an attempted murder, why didn't she go to the police? And if Riegles wanted to get rid of Winifred, why didn't he do it while she was at his apartment on Friday night instead of going to her motel later? Which leads to another huge plot hole - how was Riegles able to magically show up at Winifred's motel when he had NO WAY OF KNOWING she was there? Also, when Joe goes back to Winifred's motel room after the shots were fired at him, he hears a scream and briefly walks out in front of the motel room and looks around and then just goes back into the motel room WITHOUT EVEN WALKING AROUND THE GROUNDS to try to find out where the scream came from. Absolutely appalling. None of it makes any sense.

Then at the end, after Riegles magically shows up at Winifred's motel and kidnaps her, he then takes her back to the beach house, the one place he SHOULDN'T take her, and then Joe shows up there and Riegles HELPS HIM UP OFF THE CLIFF, and with no police on the scene and no guns pointed at him, he MAKES NO ATTEMPT to escape or fight Joe, but simply confesses to everything and gives up. Absolutely ludicrous and laughable.

Then there's the issue with the scene at the beach house, which is replayed so many times you'll want to bang your head against the wall.

This is a really bad episode in what has been a lackluster season so far. There's really no reason to watch this one.