User Reviews

In this one, a woman is accused of murder and Joe is hired by her husband to find evidence that will prove she's innocent.

Unlike many episodes, the killer is not obvious and there are many possible suspects, so there's a genuine mystery here and some nice twists.

The performances from the entire cast are excellent, including Tina Sinatra in a rare television appearance. She only made a handful of them and only one more after this, so this is a rarity.

There are some obvious plot holes, like how did Joe know there was something in the fire extinguisher and how did he know Snowy was the killer and that Snowy was planning to steal the heroin? Where's the evidence of all this?

This one sets the record for the longest opening scene without Mike Connors appearing, at seven minutes.

This is the first mention of Albie in several years, although he doesn't actually appear. His last appearance was in Merry Go Round for Murder in season two.

There are a couple clichés - Joe gets clobbered in the head again and shot at but not hit.

There are some good action scenes but unfortunately one of them is played in slow motion, which completely ruins it.

This one has a really good mystery and great performances from the entire cast but it's taken down a few notches by the obvious plot holes and clichés and one of the action scenes being played in slow motion, but it's still slightly better than average.

This is a typical Mannix episode. A murder on a rich family's yacht leads to friend of the family Snowy Bartlett (Murray Matheson) suggesting they hire Joe to help clear the wife. She (Christine Belford) is caught with a gun standing over the body of the slimy playboy that are in all these type of plots. Her husband, Bruno (Cesare Danova) does hire Joe and then clashes with him on several occasions. Tina Sinatra as the daughter and John Hillerman as the gossip columnist are onboard to provide some red herrings. Hillerman ends up dead for his trouble. Drugs come into it and Joe get to the bottom of the sorted story.

I give the writers credit for two different items in this story. The wife is completely unlikeable and you find yourself wishing she would be guilty and the other is the nickname "Snowy". Never heard that before. As often happens with cop or PI shows, there are gaps in logic. Snowy is the one who recommended hiring Mannix so he clearly knew him and his reputation. Since Snowy is also the murderer, he recommended hiring a guy with a 100% success rate in closing cases to try to catch him and, sure enough, Joe does exactly that. Was the first choice Sherlock Holmes but he was busy? You would think Snowy would recommend the Three Stooges or something along that line.

The cast is fine but the entire show comes across as a bit robotic and "by the numbers". Pretty much everyone is unlikable. Belford and Matheson would be together in Banacek during this same timeframe and both are better there.

Joe gets hit over the head and does get paid so I guess this is a win for the big guy. He should stick to back alleys and shabby bars. You meet a better class of people there.