I enjoyed this outing and it must be seen with the sequel that was done on Diagnosis Murder in the mid-90s. This has one of the best casts of guest stars seen in the entire series. Sam Elliott looks strange when not on the open range. As the victim, HM Wynant has a smaller role than he normally does. Julie Adams is always worth watching. Dawn Lyn was a veteran child actress who does well here. All this gets rating stars but the poor conclusion takes a few away.
Early in the story, we learn Joe actually failed in a case when he admits he tried to find the wife (Julie Adams) years prior but couldn't locate her. A rare swing and miss for our guy. Apparently, Pernell Roberts remembered this and hired Joe again thinking he would fail again. No such luck. Bad guys should never hire Joe! A mounting body count follows Joe around as he solves the case, more or less. I like Beverly Garland's assist in helping Joe out in the climax. See the sequel to get the whole solution.
A reviewer for the Mannix series wrote Joe was knocked out 55 times and shot 17 times in the eight year run. This works out to 6.875 and 2.125 per year. Mannix started in Sep 67 and the sequel is done in Feb 97 so let's call it thirty years. That means, if Joe maintained the same pace of operations, he was knocked out 206 times and wounded 63 times (figures rounded off). In the Diagnosis Murder episode, Dr Sloan (Dick Van Dyke) is worried about Joe's heart. Seriously?
Anyway, since Joe was hired by the bad guys, he doesn't get paid again. Imagine my surprise.
Early in the story, we learn Joe actually failed in a case when he admits he tried to find the wife (Julie Adams) years prior but couldn't locate her. A rare swing and miss for our guy. Apparently, Pernell Roberts remembered this and hired Joe again thinking he would fail again. No such luck. Bad guys should never hire Joe! A mounting body count follows Joe around as he solves the case, more or less. I like Beverly Garland's assist in helping Joe out in the climax. See the sequel to get the whole solution.
A reviewer for the Mannix series wrote Joe was knocked out 55 times and shot 17 times in the eight year run. This works out to 6.875 and 2.125 per year. Mannix started in Sep 67 and the sequel is done in Feb 97 so let's call it thirty years. That means, if Joe maintained the same pace of operations, he was knocked out 206 times and wounded 63 times (figures rounded off). In the Diagnosis Murder episode, Dr Sloan (Dick Van Dyke) is worried about Joe's heart. Seriously?
Anyway, since Joe was hired by the bad guys, he doesn't get paid again. Imagine my surprise.