Mannix (TV Series) Moving Target (1972) User Reviews

Good plot twists and Art Buchwald!

[Apple-Girl · 9/10 · 27 May 2023]

The plot held my interest. Lots of twists and turns and surprises. I loved Art Buchwald as the disgruntled employee. Perfect for the role. He did good! He was an amazing person in real life. Google his obituary. It's a film he made of himself saying "I'm Art Buchwald and I just died." He was funny and irreverent to the very end.

As always, I watch Mannix for the fantastic 70s vintage vibe, and this episode did not disappoint. Althea (Jessica Walter) is the quintessential 70s girl, from her excellent hairdo, clothes and makeup to her wood paneled house. The paneling was on the diagonal! Just like a ski lodge.

The hostess robe she wore when Joe came over for a drink was fabulous. A full-length paisley number in red, harvest gold and avocado green. For the "dinner date" she wore an ivory satin shirt with large scarf-tie in front and billowing sleeves. Over that, she put on a gorgeous dark velvet jacket. Even Joe complimented her on that outfit.

Oh, that beautiful 'Cuda sure took a beating. The whole front end was a goner. On the ill-fated dinner date, Althea was saying to Joe: "didn't you wonder why I insisted on taking my car instead of yours?" Heck girlfriend, I thought it was because Joe's car was all smashed up and still in the shop.

The end shot of Joe smiling and happily going to sleep on Art's sleeve was rare. Simply delightful. Today's police should seriously look into using tranquilizer guns on unruly criminals. Just sayin.

THE WRITERS DID SOMETHING DIFFERENT.

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 30 August 2022]

I agree with the last reviewer, this episode is rather unique as there is NO murder. Also it's a super tv trivia question.

One of the best writers in the business, Karl Tunberg, is the author, known for such classics as BEN HUR, HARLOW and TARAS BULBA. He began his career writing for Shirley Temple films. True, there are attempted murders -- and yes, Joe's client --without fail -- does not tell the truth. Nevertheless, it's a dangerous assignment and it's classic Mannix.

The cast is superior. Charles Aidman plays the owner of a toy company who is ALMOST killed. The catch here is the number one suspect may or may not be alive? Jessica Walter plays Aidman's gal friend, who is also playing head games with Joe. There's a super cameo appearance by legendary Washington Post columnist Art Buchwald, and according to notes, this was his only acting gig.

Look for one of the best senior actresses, Lucille Benson, playing Ida. She was quite popular on a variety of tv shows and movies in the 70s. Without fail, a solid car chase for all of us thrill seekers. To note, thanks to the last episode, it was finally confirmed the producers got the doomed cars from junk yards, possibly in real accidents themselves, but in good enough condition for filming. Very clever.

Applause to master director Richard Benedict, although this was his only series episode. He spent 10 years directing for HAWAII FIVE O, also many years with POLICE STORY. For movie buffs, Richard played funny bad guys in scores of films, such as the BOWERY BOYS and in tv's SUPERMAN. A Hollywood original.

Don't miss.

SEASON 5 Episode 18 remastered CBS/Paramount dvd box set.

Not horrible but...

[Guad42 · 6/10 · 4 March 2021]

Much like the first reviewer wrote, you don't want to think too much about this outing. A good cast headed by Charles Aidman and Jessica Walter helps ease us through the story. At least Aidman gets a better script than his other appearance on the show, "A Gathering of Ghosts." Mannix looks for someone trying to kill Aidman and zeroes in on his silent partner in his toy company, a Paul Anders. Mr Anders supposedly commits suicide and then Aidman is charged with his murder. While in jail, Aidman says there is no partner, he was made up for tax purposes. (There are easier ways to dodge taxes.) When Jessica hears this story, she says the partner is real and she was married to him. Turns out Jessica puts her husband in the role so the two of them can get Aidman out of the way and use his plan of a fake partner to take over the company. Joe takes Jessica on a date in her car and she gets the drop on him but Joe gets out of it with timely help from the police. Why didn't Joe ask Jessica about her secret admirer who sends roses when it first happens. Seems a logical question. Lt Malcolm keeps odd hours. Joe shows up to file a report late at night and there he is. Peggy gets some serious phone time. Art Buchwald, a well known humorist at the time, has a cameo for no apparent reason. Joe should get paid for this case. He did save his client.

For a CEO, he's awfully dumb

[pkfloydmh · 5/10 · 6 November 2021]

This one is about a business owner hiring Joe to find out who's trying to kill him.

The plot is well-written, intriguing and unique, but despite that, I had a hard time taking this one seriously because of all of the stupidity.

First of all, why did Mitchell, the CEO, hire Joe to begin with if he didn't want his partner Anders investigated? Obviously the first thing Joe is going to do is investigate the partner. What did Mitchell expect him to do?? And once he did hire Joe, why didn't he remove the Anders name plate from the door so Joe wouldn't see it and start investigating him? And why did he leave the bottle of hot sauce in plain sight at the hotel when he already knew Joe was aware of his use of this sauce? And why didn't he conduct a background check on Althea before hiring her? If he had done so, he would have known her husband's name was Paul Anders. This has to be the dumbest CEO I've ever seen.

Althea and Anders are equally dumb. Why did they try to kill Mitchell at the factory when there was a security guard right there? Why didn't they do it somewhere else? This is mind-boggling stupidity.

Joe is incredibly stupid too for continuing to work for Mitchell after Mitchell was evasive early on about Anders and tried to steer Joe away from this angle. This was a big red flag and Joe should have known better than to continue working for Mitchell after this.

Not to be outdone, the ending is really dumb too, with Joe smiling and falling asleep after being hit with the tranquilizer dart and Malcolm laughing at him. Really cringe worthy.

This was an especially rough outing for Joe. He gets shot at, beaten up, run off the road, and knocked out with a tranquilizer. He also gets utterly humiliated when his own client is arrested right in front of him.

The action consists of a pretty good car chase and a couple of fight scenes.

So a mixed review. The plot is interesting and original but at the same time the stupidity is overwhelming, which means I end up right down the middle.

Decent but the ending didn't make a lot of sense when you think about it....

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 16 February 2015]

"Moving Target" is an okay episode of "Mannix". However, the ending, when you think about it, really made no sense. It's also an interesting because it's the only episode I remember where there is no murder-- just attempted murders.

When the show begins, the owner of the Mitchell Toy Company* is attacked late at night. His night watchman fortunately shows up in the nick of time. However, instead of calling the police, he contacts Mannix to investigate. However, throughout the entire show, he and his lady friend CONSTANTLY lie to Mannix--making the show seem a bit contrived. This also occurs when the man's supposed partner is supposedly killed---I'd say more but the plot is convoluted and I might give it away. However, the ending is a mess. For some inexplicable reason, the conspirators decide to kill Mannix...but there really is no reason for them to do this. It just left me scratching my head because of this.