Mannix (TV Series) The Mouse That Died (1970) User Reviews

Obviously inspired by "DOA'" but still very entertaining.

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 14 July 2014]

"The Mouse That Died" is an episode of "Mannix" that was strongly inspired by the old Edmund O'Brien film noir thriller, "DOA". In the film, SOMEONE has somehow poisoned O'Brien and he spends the entire film looking for that person before he ultimately dies from the poison. In this case, obviously someone wants Mannix off a case and somehow they slip poison into his system. It will kill him unless they can figure out what it is and the doctor (Robert Ito--who played Sam on "Quincy") is stumped.

For most of the film, Mannix is heavily impaired--with dizzy spells, hallucinations and the like. How he manages to keep investigating is a testament to the sheer manliness of Joe Mannix!! I really appreciated Mike Connors' acting in this one and the makeup folks did a nice job making him look like death warmed over! Overall, an exciting episode filled with some nice twists even though the show was obviously taken from "DOA".

Nicely acted by Mike Connors

[Guad42 · 8/10 · 12 January 2021]

A taut episode with a tenseness that is usually not a Mannix show trademark. Also the direction is a bit different with several low aspect shots of the action to add to the mood. But mostly this episode highlights Mike Connors acting ability and the makeup dept's ability to make a man look near death. Connors goes through a variety of emotions as his character realizes he is in deep trouble. He is short with people and demanding. He is sarcastic with Art the cop. Not the cool Joe Mannix we are use to seeing. Joe is poisoned with a slow acting, unknown substance and he needs to find the antidote by finding the person who slipped the poison to him. The case started as a search for the brother of his client, the sister. The sister calls off the search at the brother's request but then puts it back on. Joe is then poisoned but continues to search for the brother thinking he is tied into it. The brother turns up dead and Joe has to follow the clues to the brother's activities to get to the truth. Good supporting cast with Hugh Beaumont providing gravitas. Robert Ito (pre-Quincy) as the poison specialist. Richard Bull (pre-Little House) doing his authority figure character, this time as an educator. David Henderson is a bad guy who is in too deep. Kudos to Ward Wood who gets to display more emotion than we usually see from Lt Malcolm. The cops actually do more in this episode than just show up at the end to arrest people. All in all, an above average episode. Joe should send Hugh Beaumont a hefty bill for this case. He deserves it.

MANNIX LANDS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE. A MUST SEE.

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 8 July 2022]

10 Stars Plus. OUTSTANDING.

Chester Krumholz wrote this absolutely spellbinding story. It may have been written, in part, due to the positive reviews last season when Joe was accidentally blinded. This time, Mannix is poisoned and an antidote is needed ASAP. Krumholz would soon be associated with POLICE SURGEON.

Popular actress Patricia Stich (as Holly) hires Joe to find her missing brother, a college student, the hunt leading to Hugh Beaumont's ( LEAVE IT TO BEAVER) multi million dollar company. Beaumont effectively plays Mr. Hammond who wants to know what sort of sordid stuff is going on behind closed doors at his business. The result: someone wants Joe DEAD immediately. This was similar in concept to the cult film noir DOA (1949). Beaumont was a favorite of the producers, and as I said, had he not retired, he would have returned to the show many more times.

This is as suspenseful as it gets, and one of the very best episodes of the first four seasons. NO ONE is to be trusted here, even good guy Mr. Hammond -- who looks a bit suspicious himself, at least surprised at the way Mannix is deteriorating.

The makeup in this episode is exceptional, thanks to series artist Jack Obringer who outdid himself. Jack did the makeup for 193 episodes. This story also shows was a terrific actor Mike Connors was in a truly sympathetic role. You really beieve he is dying.

Look for Robert Ito (QUINCY) playing Dr. Yoshro who can't figure this one out. That's scary. Series director Sutton Roley, who headed 16 episodes, brings out the best of the cast here, and some truly bizarre TWILIGHT ZONE-like situations and scenes. Roley also directed for MISSION IMPOSSIBLE.

Evereything clicks. Should have been Emmy nominated for best actor, writing and direction. Hands down.

Recommened by all us kids who grew up on Joe Mannix. Remastered color CBS/Paramount dvd box set from SEASON 4. 1970.

The mouse could have lived

[raypierce-48543 · 10/10 · 22 February 2021]

A small point, but the mouse should have lived and then been an annoying pet for an episode or two. But Mannix had no story arcs from what I can see.

Pretty Bad

[zombiemockingbird · 4/10 · 24 June 2023]

I really don't understand why this episode has such a high rating; I was going to turn it off after about 10 minutes, but I suffered on because I kind of wanted to know what was going on.

The story itself was kind of interesting, but watching it was sheer torture. All of the hallucinations were tiresome and made it difficult to figure out what was happening because something happened then suddenly it was just a hallucination and didn't happen. Mannix seeing everything in threes got really annoying. It was all disjointed and hard to follow. The camera work was weird too; lots of close-ups on people's faces while they over acted embarrassingly. Most of the acting in this, by normally good actors, was pretty bad, honestly. Other reviewers are raving about the great make-up making Mannix look half dead, but one close-up just looked like he had baby powder on his face. Overall kind of an interesting story but really poorly done.

Overacting throughout

[pkfloydmh · 2/10 · 22 July 2021]

This one is about Joe being poisoned. It's sheer torture to get through. It features dreadful overacting by everyone involved - Joe, Peggy and Art. Seeing Joe stammering around and throwing things and yelling at everyone is just nauseating, and of course you KNOW how it's going to end, because without Joe there's obviously no show. Also, the constant references to the mouse are just maddening.

The only positive thing in this disaster is there's a pretty good chase scene involving a helicopter, but parts of it are obvious stock footage, so even that wasn't as good as it could have been.

This is a disgraceful episode and the worst one of the season so far.