Mannix (TV Series) The Dark Hours (1974) User Reviews

Joe gets shock AND knocked out several times....the man is apparently indestructible!!!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 20 March 2017]

This show begins with Mannix being hit from behind and knocked cold...only the 204th time (give or take) he was knocked out in the show's history. In fact, he'd get knocked out a couple more times...but I am getting ahead of myself. The thugs then drag him off, shoot him and toss him down a hill. When he's found, the EMTs and cops say he's dead and throw a blanket over him on the stretcher. However, on the way to the hospital, he shows signs of life...because he's like the terminator and cannot be killed! Oh, did I mention he'd been shot about a dozen times in the series before this?!

The show then uses a series of flashbacks to show what happened before he was knocked out. It begins with him meeting a new client, Karen (Elizabeth Ashley), as she's worried about some man who keeps following her. The case soon turns out to involve a couple mob bosses, Brandon (Victor French) and Kordick (William Devane)...and a plan to do away with one of them. How does the nearly dead Mannix sort all this out, solve the crime AND never seem to ask anyone to pay his fees?

Other than the fact that I laughed at the knock outs and shooting and an AMAZING feat of shooting*, it's a very good episode--- exciting and OTHERWISE original.

*The shooting stunt was hilarious and the second time I saw this on the show...but this time it was not performed by Mannix. Like the Mannix shot several seasons before, this involves a guy with a rifle and scope opening fire on a guy with a revolver way down below. The guy with the pistol is able to shoot the marksman...a feat nearly impossible...even if you are an Olympic caliber shooter!!

Good episode despite several clichés

[Guad42 · 7/10 · 8 May 2021]

Ol' Mannix standards are on display here in a decent episode. Joe gets knocked out. Joe gets shot. Peggy gets kidnapped. A sniper with a rifle lines up a shot on an unsuspecting target, misses, and then dies due to an amazing pistol shot. There are a couple of rare things here also. Joe calls Lt Malcolm and the guy is actually in bed. I thought he lived in his office. The cops arrive in time to actually do something besides arrest people. Lt Malcolm gets to shoot a bad guy (although he did that in another recent episode). Joe didn't fire the amazing pistol shot. A nice mix of old and new events.

Another problem was the medical people didn't check Mannix when they first found him and it is only in the ambulance that they figure out he is alive. Hard to believe.

The cast is fine. I think William Devane looked better as he aged. Victor French is underused but ends up being a semi good guy. Elizabeth Ashley is another great leading lady for this series. She brings a grown-up slant to the "lady in distress" role.

At least Joe got paid for this one. He definitely earned it. Recommended viewing.

Mannix meets Elizabeth Ashley

[belanger75 · 9/10 · 28 July 2019]

The result is an interesting ep. But why does beautiful Ashley's character get anxious when she talks to Mannix alone in her apartment but she is later so cool with being kidnapped by a hoodlum gang?

Plot is intricate.

ALMOST LIGHTS OUT FOR MANNIX!

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 2 November 2022]

10 Bruising Stars.

Don Mullaly wrote this brutal episode, who was also working on IRONSIDE at the time. Creative writing to the max.

As most of the reviewers note, and I agree, the brass knuckles are back and Joe gets a good thrashing here. The only debit is you can see the faces of the stunt men in a couple of scenes. Mullaly also added a bit of the macabre ... Mannix is left for dead in a weedy, remote area outside Hollywood (looks like Griffith Park) and the emergency medics actually declare him dead! A series first.

The rest of the tale unfolds from his hospital bed --Joe attempts to put the pieces of this hardcore puzzle together. Ain't EZ. Malcolm (Ward Wood) lends some very good support. Yes, the flashback technique is very similar to the Season Four episode, "What Happened to Sunday." Can't keep a solid idea down.

One excellent cast to match, lead by award winning actress Elizabeth Ashley (as Karen), who also guested on IRONSIDE at the time of this episode. She later co-starred on EVENING SHADE with Burt Reynolds, and was married to tv detective George Peppard (BANACEK). William Devane is cast as a mob boss, and look for Victor French, who played both heavies and goofy guys for years. Best remembered (to all us grown up kids) as the secret agent staked out in a trash can on GET SMART.

Yes, famous bit actor Bob Harks appears as a bomb disposal officer. The man who should have been in the Guinness Book of Records for the most tv appearances.

Surprisingly, Reza Badiyi DID NOT direct this episode as this was his cup o'tea, having directed some of the most violent productions. DO NOT miss this one.

SEASON 7 EPISODE 16 remastered color CBS/Paramount dvd box set. 6 dvds. Released 2012.

Epic and Sad Episode

[seriesappgaming · 10/10 · 27 April 2022]

I thought that this episode was really good and intriguing, although I thought the part when they found Joe was sad but all the flashbacks, suspense music, action and the whole episode itself tells that this episode is really good and I would definitely recommend anyone a fan of Mannix to watch it!! Especially at the end when Joe is back as himself.

Hallelujah! Our favorite cliché makes a triumphant return!

[pkfloydmh · 5/10 · 19 April 2015]

In this one, Joe gets shot, and while in the hospital, he tries to figure out what led up to the shooting through flashbacks of the events that occurred just prior to it.

This is the second episode where Joe uses flashbacks to reconstruct a crime, with the first being What Happened to Sunday from season four and the flashbacks worked then and they work again here. The story is intriguing and there's action throughout, but there are lots of problems also, which results in this one being just an average episode that is nothing special.

What's notable here is for the first time this season, Joe gets clobbered in the head!! Yes, after a long and unprecedented absence, the cliché that we know and love has returned, and it returns in grand style because it happens within the first minute of the episode AND it's shown twice, which is a first. Maybe the writers wanted to assure everyone that they definitely have NOT forgotten about this cliché and figured that showing it twice would really drive this point home, or maybe they figured that after fifteen episodes without it, they desperately needed to make up for lost ground so they can meet their head-whipping quota for this year. Whatever the case, the headaches are back for Joe.

William Devane and Victor French are absolutely awful and totally unconvincing as syndicate bosses. Neither one of them knows how to play the role and both of them are just going through the motions. Devane is too timid and soft-spoken and too agreeable to everything that anyone says, which is just not believable for a syndicate boss. French doesn't look or act anything like a syndicate boss and lacks charisma and excitement. Both of them look disinterested and bored and Devane looks like his mind is elsewhere and doesn't seem to be taking anything seriously. The meeting between the two of them towards the end is absolutely cringe-worthy and laughable. They're totally inept and will certainly never be mistaken for gangsters. Both of these clowns are way out of their league here.

There's some horrendous acting by Mike Connors when he's in the hospital bed. He sounds like a robot with his stilted speech. This gets irritating very quickly.

The real highlight is Ward Wood, who plays a substantial role and is excellent. Elizabeth Ashley is radiant and does a fine job as Karen Winslow. Paul Shenar is great as Johnny Sands.

There are some plot holes. There's no way Joe or anyone else could have seen what time the wristwatch was showing in the picture. And how did Sands know Joe mailed the picture to himself? And why would Joe mail it to himself in the first place? Why didn't he lock it in his safe? Then when the hood checks the bedroom, he doesn't go all the way in to see if the woman is in there, which is just maddening. And once again, we have an elaborate scheme to kill someone when it could have been accomplished much easier, which is a plot element that has been seen in many previous episodes also.

This was a particularly brutal outing for Joe. He gets shot, beaten up, clobbered over the head and nearly run over by a car.

The guy rolling down the hill at the beginning and the guy who jumps from the balcony are obvious stuntmen as you can clearly see their faces and they're obviously not Mike Connors.

So a mixed review. The flashbacks are interesting and there's plenty of action but there are also plot holes, clichés, some terrible acting and some of the worst casting decisions of any episode to date, all of which add up to just a mediocre episode.