Mannix (TV Series) Search in the Dark (1973) User Reviews

An interesting jewel caper

[pkfloydmh · 9/10 · 14 April 2015]

In this one, Joe is hired to try to find some stolen jewels.

This is an excellent episode with some interesting and funny characters, an intriguing story and some nice twists.

Victor Buono is terrific as Hamilton Starr and has some hilarious one-liners. Speaking of hilarious, check out the red and blue plaid pants that Eddie Ryder is wearing at the beginning. They're just as bad as the similar plaid pants worn by Peter Haskell in A World Without Sundays just two episodes ago.

There are no clichés, which continues the trend for this season as most episodes so far have had very few if any of them.

The one problem I had is at the end when Starr, who is blind, is able to overtake and kill Orville, who is much bigger and is not blind. This is obviously implausible and laughable, but beyond that, this one is terrific and is one of the best episodes this season.

Unusual characters highlight this show

[Guad42 · 8/10 · 29 April 2021]

One of the better recent episodes. Joe throws a party, on a week night considering everyone is at work the next day, and one of the guests is mugged after a rendezvous with her father in a park. This leads to an old case involving stolen jewels. We learn Joe has failed in a second case when he didn't find these jewels. A few episodes back in Little Girl Lost, we learned Joe failed to find Julie Adams. Two strikes on Joe!

Anyway, Art Malcolm is involved due to the mugging and the case is reopened. Joe gets to visit Jonah the fence (Charles Tyner) and then Hamilton Starr (Victor Buono) and his lackey Orville (Eddie Ryder). Is there a creepier actor than Charles Tyner? Is there a better scenery chewer than Victor Buono? They both play good characters here and the henchman Orville does dress bad. Tyner gets the end he usually gets in all his tv appearances and there is a nice twist as to who the bad guys are. How Joe gets to the final answer is another one of his classic gut hunches. He and Art catch Victor just as he is killing his henchman and they get to arrest him for it. The jewels are found and the case is closed. At least the police show up in time to actually be of some use to Joe. Why wasn't Art Malcolm invited to Joe's party?

Joe doesn't have a client so no pay once again. Maybe a finder's fee for the jewels. I wonder what happened to the myna bird.

Pretty good...and you learn that Mannix IS fallible.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 8 March 2016]

When this show begins, a woman meets her father in a strange way...she's sitting down in a dark park and he talks to her while in hiding! As she leaves, someone else chloroforms her and she wakes up in the hospital. At this point, the audience is totally confused and then Mannix explains a bit about what's been happening. It seems that years ago, Mannix tried unsuccessfully to recover some very valuable stolen gems called collectively 'The Auroras'. The man in hiding was one of the suspects--one Mannix thought was innocent of any involvement and the chloroformed girl is his daughter. Now the innocence of the man is highly in doubt and it looks like someone is really desperate to get the gems. One of them turns out to be a really weird criminal type (Victor Buono) who is blind...and he MUST possess them...even though he is freaking blind! Apart from this odd angle, the show is very good and worth seeing...though a blind guy who arranges to steal painting and gems is just inherently dopey.

THE BLIND MAN AND THE DIAMOND CAPER.

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 25 October 2022]

A Gem. (pardon the pun) 10 Stars.

The age-old tale of the man with a plan to steal a fortune --only this time he's blind? Unforgettable Victor Bouno plays Hamilton Starr, an eccentric blind man of means (he resides on a yacht) who lives and breaths for the Auroras, an elusive collection of diamonds, believed to have been stolen years ago.

Mannix also has a connection to the mysterious case, but it was years ago. A whole lot of fun, bordering on film noir with the usual twist and turns. Malcolm (deadpan Ward Wood) teams with Joe and tosses a bunch of theories back and forth. Watching them is fun, and you have to admit, they make a super team.

Salute to writer Ben Roberts, who created CHARLIES ANGELS, and wrote, perhaps, the greatest crime thriller of all time, WHITE HEAT (1949) for James Cagney.

Peggy also has some more exposure for a change of pace. Rascally Charles Tyner plays Jonah, who got his start in films thanks to Paul Newman.

Always fun to spot the classic actor, such as popular 1940s star and Hollywood DJ Steve Dunne, still the smooth gentleman. Dunne also appeared on THE BRADY BUNCH, shot at Paramount.

OLD SCHOOL BIT: Watch for the secret envelope shoved under Mannix's door with the pasted on letters. Priceless. Inspired by CHARLIE CHAN, of course. The crew must have been up late watching lots of classic mysteries.

It's safe to say, Victor Buono steals the show.

SEASON 7 EPISODE 10 remastered color CBS/Paramount dvd box set.