Mannix (TV Series) Missing: Sun and Sky (1969) User Reviews

Funniest bit I've heard in the entire series.

[rjelpd · 8/10 · 23 December 2017]

Joe Mannix is looking into a crime. Big surprise huh? He interviews one man following the incident .

Man, as he paces the room, recounts the beginning of his day

" I got up at 4:30. Did you ever notice Mr. Mannix, that them that gets paid the least gets up the earliest? And then... huh, I had my breakfast, some cold spaghetti and a piece of lemon pie. It's what I had for dinner the night before and I put it in a doggie bag. Oh, an a glass of beer."

Mannix with a bemused look on his face asks

"At 4:30 in the morning???"

Man replies

"I just love lemon pie".

And nobody cracked a smile!!! Classic!

My wife was just happy no horses were harmed!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 10 November 2013]

As I sat and watched this episode of "Mannix" with my wife, I was bemused by my wife's reaction--she was happy that no horses were harmed in "Sun and Sky"--it was just a kidnapping. It's funny how many people are more upset by horses or dogs than people. As for my wife, she like "Mannix" reruns and hasn't complained about all the PEOPLE killed in the prior episodes! The show begins with a plane transporting a horse to the racetrack at Timonium, Maryland. It seems the horse is a favorite for the upcoming Preakness and it COULD end up winning American racing's triple crown. However, during the flight, crew and passengers start falling asleep--the victims of adulterated coffee. When the plane is later discovered, it has landed and everyone aboard is asleep--and the prize horse is missing. What happened? How did the plane successfully land? And, oddly, why isn't anyone demanding ransom?! This is a very novel story in which not a single horse was injured. Interesting--especially when a group of hippies end up saving poor Mannix's life!

Mostly on the right track

[filmklassik · 7/10 · 28 December 2016]

This is an okay episode involving the elaborate "horse-napping" of a million dollar thoroughbred from a special equine transport plane during its flight across the desert.

The crime is appropriately baffling and the story is (somewhat) inventive.

One memorable bit: At one point Joe gets the tar beaten out of him by a quartet of thugs led by a menacing sadist named Paddy, and comes to in the lava lamp-festooned pad of a trio of spaced-out hippies who'd demanded an incredibly small ransom -- $753 -- for a horse they didn't even steal.

Joe (groggily): "Why 753 dollars? What kind of ransom is that?"

Hippy Chick: "It's a very beautiful number." She indicates her smiling drug-addled friend. "Lazarus composed it."

A few problems...

There are signs of obvious "camera vamping" to pad out the running time.

And one question that -- ah -- nags at me (pardon the pun): Why would Joe want to release the pony Alexander and thus draw the attention of the bad guys when he knows the cops will be arriving any minute??

The sun ain't gonna shine anymore.

[Guad42 · 8/10 · 12 March 2023]

Apologies to the Walker Brothers. Couldn't resist it.

Much like the required boxing story, if a PI show lasts long enough, you get a horse story. I know Perry Mason did it a couple of times and Banacek found a stolen horse also. Even the first McHale's Navy movie had the PT-73 gang running a racehorse out to the track. I sure there are other examples.

This is a good Mannix episode. A husband-and-wife team named Greene own a prized racehorse named Sun and Sky. That horse and a second horse are being flown across country. The crew of the plane transporting the two horses are drugged into unconsciousness and the plane is landed in the desert. The horses are stolen. Joe is hired by the insurance company to investigate before the plane is even found. Joe finds the plane and the crew. Their coffee was drugged. Everyone assumes a ransom demand is coming so Joe (actually Peggy) does background checks on all the key players while everyone waits for the ransom call. Joe is visited by Paddy Wright (Richard Davalos) who tries to bribe him to go easy on this case. Of course, it doesn't work. Joe meets a trainer/owner friend of the Greenes named Sam Dallas (Alex Dreier) who is sure there will be a ransom demand because the horse has a tattoo inside his lip so the thieves could never run the horse in races themselves. Sam is a down on his luck but very friendly with everyone. The ransom demand comes in and the bad guys want $753. Hmmm. Joe delivers the ransom to an alley trashcan and gets beat up by Paddy's henchmen as Paddy watches. Joe wakes up with four hippies who had saved him by blowing a police whistle. The bad goons had run away and Paddy drops his address book. The hippies had demanded the ransom but had no part in the horsenapping. They give the money back. They settled on $753 because it was a cool number. Hippies! What can you do? Meanwhile, Peggy finds out one of the air crew was a bomber pilot in the USAF and worked for Sam Dallas when he had a horse business. Joe consults Paddy's address book and find a connection to Sam Dallas. Joe goes out to Sam's old ranch and catches the bad guys with the horse. A jeep-horse chase later, the cops show up and the case is over. Sam gives a speech about being a "real horse man" to those damn interlopers, the Greenes, and then he and Paddy are taken away.

A few comments. Why do any bad guys try to bribe Joe? Since he and Paddy know each other, Paddy should have told his boss that it wouldn't happen. How is it nobody knows Joe's reputation? I knew Floyd Brand (Harry Carey Jr) was the bad crewmember based on the "biggest guest star" rule. Harry had a long career and was in the cadre of John Ford actors. I can't see him taking a role that has two or three scenes and five lines of dialogue. The hippie interlude was a severe mood change for the episode, but they were fun. Paddy losing his information book and the hippies finding it was a serious stroke of luck.

Joe gets beat up but he does get paid. Peggy gives solid support. The cops show up in a timely manner, a rarity for Joe. This outing is well worth the hour.

A Fun Episode

[januszlvii · 10/10 · 2 August 2023]

I have been watching Mannix on Amazon Prime. I finished Season one and am picking out episodes seasons 2-8. Missing Sun and Sky from Srason 3 is a rare fun episode, about the theft of a prize racehorse.. What makes it fun? No one dies ( not even the bad guys), and there was a scene where a horse trainer explains what he had for breakfast ( disgusting but funny), Mannix was saved from a beating by hippies. Last and not least, no horses were killed. Oh by the way, Joe actually got paid, the horse's owners ( played by Hollywood veterans Gene Raymond and Anita Louise) actually helped Mannix and were NOT the culprits, and Peggy played a large role in helping Mannix get the horse back without being in peril. Really enjoyed the episodes one of my favorites. 10/10 stars.

MANNIX, THE HORSE AND THE HIPPIES!

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 11 March 2023]

There's some catchy dialogue in this one and, apparently, a very clever villain at work. Watch the opening scene with the pilot. Classic Mannix.

Interestingly, the story revolves around the theft of a famous race horse called Sun and Sky. This brings to mind many of the old CHARLIE CHAN mysteries, which the writers obviously were watching on tv in reruns. This dynamic episode may have also inspired a later story, all about a disappearing race horse on BANACEK. Horses seemed to be a good bet for story potential back in the day, and this is a prime example. Try to figure it out.

Best of it all are two legendary co-stars; Gene Raymond (as Richmond Greene) who was starring in movies since the 1930s and enormously popular on tv, and Anita Louise (as his wife, Althea). Louise, who resembled Loretta Young, was best prepared for this role having starred in the tv series, MY FRIEND FLICKA. I am sure there must have been a lot of promotion about this episode, considering the talent involved. Sadly, Anita Louise passed a few months later. She was billed as one of the most beautiful and best dressed actresses in Hollywood, since the 1930s. Her final role was in MOD SQUAD.

Watch for Alex Dreier as Sam Dallas. Alex was originally a network radio newsman, but built for the screen for over the top roles, usually as a crafty villain. He was a one of a kind actor, sort of in the tradition of Raymond Burr, but slick. Also Harry Carey, Jr appears, son of the famous screen cowboy and popular actor William Phipps.

To note, Dreier worked at ABC news during WWII and may have worked with Telly Savalas (KOJAK) who was also a newsman and reporter back in the day.

Dreier gained famed covering the Korean War for radio and was dubbed "the voice".

Believe it or not, Joe puts the ransom money in a trash can! He gets beat up, too! Again, shades of all those classic, old mysteries we love. And keep watch for the hippies who like money!

SEASON 3 EPISODE 12. Remastered CBS dvd box set. MERRY CHRISTMAS 1969.

Joe must have a death wish

[pkfloydmh · 2/10 · 8 July 2021]

This one is about two horses that are stolen and the horses' owners hire Joe to find them.

This is a terrible episode that features two of the most annoying characters (Paddy and Sam) that I've seen on this show. I would have loved to have seen one or both of them killed during this episode but unfortunately that didn't happen. In fact, there's no body count at all in this episode, which is very unusual for this show. It certainly would have been a big improvement if Paddy and Sam (as well as the four hippies) all ended up in the meat wagon, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. When Paddy lectures everyone at the end about horse racing, it's just nauseating. I would have loved to have seen one of the horses come over and trample him right then and there.

Oh and then there's the moment where Joe suspects some coffee has been poisoned and he then proceeds TO TASTE THE COFFEE!?!?. Wow, what a brilliant decision. Then, as if that weren't bad enough, Joe concludes that one of the pilots intentionally POISONED HIMSELF in order to steal the horses. Absolutely ludicrous.

I didn't think any episode could be as bad as the disaster from two episodes ago (The Sound of Darkness), but this one is just as bad.