This starts as one episode and morphs into another. A woman (Kim Hamilton) jumps into Mannix's cab at the airport while being pursued by mob people. She hires Mannix with the usual lying cover story that Joe's clients are famous for. Joe falls for it and takes the woman to a place to hide out. The bad guys force the cabbie to talk and get to Mannix's office. Through a screwup, they kidnapped Peggy thinking she is the client. Kim Hamilton exits the episode by pulling a gun on Joe and running away. You would think Joe would get the police to grab her at the airport since he knows she is on the 8 o'clock plane to Tokyo but he doesn't do it.
Lonnie (Lincoln Kilpatrick) is assigned the job of killing Peggy. He has his own problems, one being his addiction to cigarettes. He is always smoking early in the episode. The other problems become apparent as the episode progresses. The hidden room is hard to believe. It makes a convenient jail, too convenient. Lots of convenient things in this plot. It is convenient that Kim Hamilton is run over in Tokyo so gets her just desserts for not helping Joe. Or so we think she didn't help him.
It is convenient that Joe is in a drugstore looking for a witness who might have seen Peggy and the druggist happens to mention a guy buying Peggy's type of lipstick. Joe questions him and he freely provides information that Lonnie bought the lipstick and has a vague idea where he lives. What are the odds of that happening? Joe finds Lonnie's place and it is conveniently for sale. Joe gets a tour by saying he is interested in the house. Joe leaves and Lonnie figures out it was him. Then Lonnie gets a job out of town and has to make a decision. He has his anxiety attack and Peggy almost gets away. Surprisingly, Lonnie lets it slide. As usual, Joe and Art argue about the case and, as usual, Art refuses to buy into Joe's famous hunches, this one about Lonnie. Of course, he will be proven wrong, yet again. Joe isn't the only one with hunches. Lonnie's boss, Wexler, gets a hunch about whether Lonnie killed Peggy and goes to see Eddie Firestone (Cap), a ship's captain who does drug runs because he and Lonnie are tight. Of course Cap talks because that's the only type of characters Firestone plays. He cops to Peggy being alive as he dies. Wexler shows up at Lonnie's place. A shootout kills Wexler and one henchman. Lonnie is conveniently wounded and dies with Peggy. Joe and Art show up as they got information from letter mailed from Hawaii by Kim Hamilton so she did help a little. In a rare event, Joe is not in the action at the climax.
Gail Fisher is excellent in this outing. She is a fine actress. Eddie Firestone (Cap) looks to be more than the standard stoolie/low life in this one but he isn't. Kilpatrick is good but the anxiety (?) attack is a little overacted but the script doesn't help him here. Not sure why that attack has to be in the script except maybe as a way to explain the hidden room and gain him some audience sympathy. Leonard Stone (Wexler) is making the last of his many appearances on this show. He has been both a good guy and bad guy on previous outings. I like him better as a bad guy. Alex Hentelhoff made a career of playing weak underlings.
Joe doesn't get paid and Peggy definitely deserves a raise. Lots of convenient stuff makes this a hard one to believe but it is not the first time that has happened on Mannix. A decent hour.
Lonnie (Lincoln Kilpatrick) is assigned the job of killing Peggy. He has his own problems, one being his addiction to cigarettes. He is always smoking early in the episode. The other problems become apparent as the episode progresses. The hidden room is hard to believe. It makes a convenient jail, too convenient. Lots of convenient things in this plot. It is convenient that Kim Hamilton is run over in Tokyo so gets her just desserts for not helping Joe. Or so we think she didn't help him.
It is convenient that Joe is in a drugstore looking for a witness who might have seen Peggy and the druggist happens to mention a guy buying Peggy's type of lipstick. Joe questions him and he freely provides information that Lonnie bought the lipstick and has a vague idea where he lives. What are the odds of that happening? Joe finds Lonnie's place and it is conveniently for sale. Joe gets a tour by saying he is interested in the house. Joe leaves and Lonnie figures out it was him. Then Lonnie gets a job out of town and has to make a decision. He has his anxiety attack and Peggy almost gets away. Surprisingly, Lonnie lets it slide. As usual, Joe and Art argue about the case and, as usual, Art refuses to buy into Joe's famous hunches, this one about Lonnie. Of course, he will be proven wrong, yet again. Joe isn't the only one with hunches. Lonnie's boss, Wexler, gets a hunch about whether Lonnie killed Peggy and goes to see Eddie Firestone (Cap), a ship's captain who does drug runs because he and Lonnie are tight. Of course Cap talks because that's the only type of characters Firestone plays. He cops to Peggy being alive as he dies. Wexler shows up at Lonnie's place. A shootout kills Wexler and one henchman. Lonnie is conveniently wounded and dies with Peggy. Joe and Art show up as they got information from letter mailed from Hawaii by Kim Hamilton so she did help a little. In a rare event, Joe is not in the action at the climax.
Gail Fisher is excellent in this outing. She is a fine actress. Eddie Firestone (Cap) looks to be more than the standard stoolie/low life in this one but he isn't. Kilpatrick is good but the anxiety (?) attack is a little overacted but the script doesn't help him here. Not sure why that attack has to be in the script except maybe as a way to explain the hidden room and gain him some audience sympathy. Leonard Stone (Wexler) is making the last of his many appearances on this show. He has been both a good guy and bad guy on previous outings. I like him better as a bad guy. Alex Hentelhoff made a career of playing weak underlings.
Joe doesn't get paid and Peggy definitely deserves a raise. Lots of convenient stuff makes this a hard one to believe but it is not the first time that has happened on Mannix. A decent hour.