This is an excellent and enjoyable Mannix episode. Mannix finally kisses the girl, not once but three times. The lovely Joanna Pettet is stunning as Cindy Warren a Reno lounge singer whom a mob enforcer named Victor Jory falls for and convinces her to come with him to Los Angeles where he has booked her at a bigger club.
They stay at her Aunt's beautiful house. Conveniently, the aunt is out of town. Jory plans to pick up $100,000 of mob money from a courier named Monty Dawes, Mannix's friend. Monty double-crosses the mob and comes up with a story that someone attacked him and took the money. The mob does not believe his story. Jory pays Cindy to lure Monty to her Aunt's house where he will kill him. The plans go awry and Monty kills Jory. He holds Cindy hostage. This episode begins with this standoff. Mannix is driving up to the house because Lt. Art Malcolm called asking him to come.
Mannix is allowed to run into the house and confront Monty who is highly agitated and holding a gun to Cindy. When Mannix attempts to take Monty's gun away from him, Monty drops the gun. They get into a fight and tumble down the stairs. Usually, Mannix wins the fight but this time he falls back and goes down the steps giving Monty a chance to run up the stairs and attempt to take the gun from Cindy. Mannix tells Cindy to get rid of the gun and throw it away, but Monty is attacking her, so she shoots him in self-defense. Monty falls to the first floor and is dying. Before he dies, he mumbles something unintelligible about a General D to Mannix.
Malcolm, the police team, and Monty's Mom, Sara, played by Irene Tedrow rush in. Malcolm does not ask Mannix what happened, instead, he asks "...did he tell you anything, give you any reason?"
At least he tells Sara and Mannix that he needs statements from them at the station. Malcolm seems fine letting Mannix take over and does not appear to follow police procedures.
Mannix has poor taste in friends. Usually, something bad happens to them. This is an ideal setup for Mannix to get involved in the case. The problem is that this is the third episode in a row where he will not be paid. Later on, David Sheiner who excels as mob leader Sanford, offers Mannix $10,000 as a finder's fee to help him recover the $100,00 that Monty stole from him. Of course, the ever-ethical Mannix refuses the offer. Mannix would have been a better show if we could see him earning money and getting paid for his work!
At this point, Mannix does not know Cindy was paid to set up Monty. He believes she needs protection. He has the gall to ask Sara if Cindy can stay at her ranch. Sara of course has no problem helping out and states she likes Cindy. This is nonsense. In reality, Sara would be outraged at Mannix for making this request. Sara just lost her son Monty and is in mourning. Sara most likely knows what went down and that Cindy shot and killed Monty. Even though Cindy acted in self-defense, Sara would likely be upset with Cindy. The last person Mannix should ask to help hide Cindy would be Sara. This is not a believable plot line.
Mannix locates the key to Monty's lock box where he hid a briefcase containing a book of historical letters at the YMCA. A thug named Krebs confronts him at gunpoint. Unknown to Mannix, his office is bugged which is how Krebs knew he was going there. They had Cindy plant the bug. Mannix throws a stool at Krebs disrupting him and allowing Mannix to get away. There is no chance Mannix could pull this off because Krebs would have shot him dead when he threw the stool. It makes no sense for Krebs to confront Mannix in a public place. Better if he tailed him afterward and got him somewhere private. Why would Krebs be dumb enough to point a gun at Mannix in a public place?
There is an obligatory chase scene which adds nothing to the plot. A thug in a red sports car chases Mannix after he leaves the YMCA but loses control. The car goes off a cliff, tumbles down, bursts into flames, and kills him.
Hallelujah! Mannix finally gets some action. It turns out Cindy likes Mannix. She gives him a huge kiss. In total, they kiss three times! Knowing Mannix, there is no way he would make the first move. Joanna Pettet was a beautiful young blonde in 1971. I am glad our hero finally got some love. I would travel back in time to meet Joanna Pettet!
The next day Mannix visits a nutty bank manager who asks him if she could bum a cigarette from him. Because Monty is dead, she tells Mannix the loan was for Monty to purchase a round-trip airline ticket for $188. This lead helps Mannix determine that Monty flew to Houston and traded the $100,000 cash with a book publisher to purchase a valuable letter signed by a revolutionary general and ties into what Monty was trying to tell Mannix before he died. Monty had the letter hidden in a book of letters.
In the previous episode, Peggy was kidnapped, held hostage for several days, and nearly killed. She is back and acts like nothing happened. Peggy is not worried in the least bit when Mannix and she arrive at the office to find it ransacked. Peggy needs to work for Lt. Malcolm in the safety of the police station. There is no way Mannix and Peggy would stand having Peggy in harm's way all the time. I guess the Paseo Verde landlord was not aware of this incident but realistically should have evicted Mannix a long time ago because of the weekly gunshots and violence taking place there.
Mannix decides to go visit Monty's grave to dig up some evidence. Krebs confronts Mannix at gunpoint and tells him to dig. I love that Krebs discloses to Manix that he is allergic to the dust. Periodically he has to close his eyes and blow his nose. This gives Mannix the perfect opportunity to fight Krebs off and escape!
Sanford who has been listening to the wiretaps becomes more active. He threatens Cindy. He is smart and instead of working against Mannix, he offers to work with Mannix offering him $10,000 as a finder's fee to help him locate the money. Mannix refuses the offer, but Sanford tells Mannix he has 24 hours to find the money, or he will be killed.
Mannix finds the bug and sets up Sanford and Krebbs to confront Cindy and him at her Aunt's house. The show opened with Monty and Jory's death at the Aunt's house. I am sure police procedure requires contacting the Aunt about this. I do not think the Aunt would allow Cindy to keep using her house. She would probably be back in town!
Mannix has figured out everything including Cindy's involvement. When he tells Cindy he knows Krebbs is at the house because he sees Krebb's tissue on the table, both Sanford and Krebbs come out. When Mannix refuses to tell Sanford where the money is located, he orders Krebbs to kill Mannix. Krebbs has a nice line. He tells Mannix he is being paid $2,000 to kill him. An altercation ensues after Mannix announces that the police have the place staked out. Unfortunately, Cindy stupidly rushes the armed Krebbs and gets shot. Mannix clobbers both men and as usual, gets no help from the police who only arrive after he has laid them out.
There is a nice scene where Mannix and the injured Cindy talk as she is loaded into the ambulance. However, later on, Mannix gets called and informed that she died.
I loved this episode's great acting and overall solid plot. Mannix was not hit on the head.
The writers used a plot device to explain how Mannix found the bug under his desktop. He is going through his mail and sniffs perfume on one of the envelopes. This is presumably from a girlfriend. He drops it on the floor and while picking it up locates the bug. This is a subtle hint that Mannix does go out with the women. It's a cute scene but easily missed if one is not paying attention. The writers should have broadcast Mannix as a lady's man on the screen featuring him in love scenes with the beautiful guest star.
Most of all, I loved seeing Mannix finally connect with a beautiful woman. There was no reason to kill Cindy off! They should have ended the episode with Mannix and Cindy having some fun. Later episodes could feature Cindy as Mannix's girlfriend or if Joanna Pettet was unavailable, references to her could be made. Joanna could have been written out at the end of season five. A new girlfriend could be introduced in season six. A character like Mannix who plays hard in life would have several girlfriends in his life. Because he is surrounded by danger all the time, it makes sense that none of his relationships would last. Mannix is an attractive guy and someone who loves women. He is not some celibate loner.
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