User Reviews

A millionaire's wife appears in a compromising photo, and the millionaire is being blackmailed to keep it from going public. Mannix gets hired to put a stop to the shakedown.

But all is not as it seems.

This is a good, if not great, MANNIX mystery, featuring a baffling set of circumstances that at one point has Joe being framed for the blackmailer's murder, and his employer claiming to have never even hired Joe in the first place. What the hell??

The solution to the mystery is clever, if a bit far-fetched... okay, INCREDIBLY far-fetched (there had to've been easier and less convoluted ways for the villains to deal with the guy who was blackmailing them). But it's never uninvolving.

Rate this one a solid "B."

Joe seems to get many clients who are crooked and setting Joe up to take a rap/get killed/take out the competition. Joe always get to the bottom of the real story. You would think word would get around that Joe is no patsy.

Joe is hired to pay off a blackmailer and ends up killing him. Things go south then. His client Martin Emory (Peter Mark Richman) pretends not to know Mannix and the police lieutenant (Dane Clark) handling the case is after him for the shooting. Joe heads out to his client's house and confronts him and sees the wife (Marian McCargo) for the first time. Finally, he realizes the extent to how he has been set up. He goes back to the hotel room where he shot the blackmailer and figures out how he was set up. He also get the fingerprints of a Harry Gliddon from the room. Problem is the guy has been dead for ten years. Joe has to find him. He does met an old girlfriend of Gliddon's who got a tattoo for her boyfriend decades before it became fashionable. Joe figures out his client is actually Gliddon and confronts him at his house. A shootout and chase leads to Lt Deegan showing up just in time to make all the arrests. Thank you, Peggy.

The cast is good. Dane Clark as a police Lieutenant Deegan who actually clashes with Joe is a nice change from his usual chummy relationship with the police. Richman is usual intense, crooked character. Marian McCargo is always pretty and regal. William Fawcett has a nice turn as a desk clerk. That guy did about a million westerns during his career. Parley Baer is comic relief as the world's oldest hippie.

Not sure what the wino on the bus hitting up Joe for money was for. Did they need to pad the episode for time or to show Joe is a sweetheart?

As often happens, the bad guys have a plan that is ten times more complicated than necessary. They don't need Joe at all. They grabbed the blackmailer and set it up for Joe to shoot him. They could have just staged a suicide or thrown him out a window or something.

Joe did say he got paid in cash so for once he got money out of his crooked clients. He should have bought Peggy lunch. A decent episode if you buy into the elaborate plan.

This episode is about a guy who's being blackmailed and hires Joe to handle the payoff, which is part of an elaborate scheme by the guy and his wife to frame Joe for the blackmailer's murder.

The whole scheme is ludicrous because if they really wanted to get rid of the blackmailer, why not just hire a hit man to do it? Why go to such elaborate lengths to choose a private detective at random to frame for the blackmailer's murder? Ridiculous and far-fetched to say the least. It was also never explained why the guy was being blackmailed to begin with.

Another problem is there was a huge contradiction in the middle of the episode when Joe is talking to his client and tells him it's his (the client's) decision as to whether he wants to continue with the case or not and the client says he doesn't want to continue with it and RIGHT AFTER THAT Joe says he's going to CONTINUE WITH THE CASE. What??? He totally contradicted what he just said ten seconds ago!!

Then there's the issue with the blackmailer deciding to meet IN BROAD DAYLIGHT when he could be easily identified. Totally unrealistic.

I also didn't like Peggy's performance as she was constantly whining and badgering Joe for more information about the case. She should be happy just to have a job.

The one bright spot in this episode is Dane Clark's performance as Lt. Deegan, who, unlike Lt. Tobias, Malcolm, and Ives, is not friendly with Joe and actually stands up to him and yells at him, which is a refreshing change. The scenes with him and Joe are really good.

So overall, a weak episode but with a good performance by Dane Clark, but his performance isn't enough to save this one.