A mobster's lawyer desperately wants Joe to recover a briefcase that was stolen in a hotel robbery. His life depends on Joe getting it back.A mobster's lawyer desperately wants Joe to recover a briefcase that was stolen in a hotel robbery. His life depends on Joe getting it back.A mobster's lawyer desperately wants Joe to recover a briefcase that was stolen in a hotel robbery. His life depends on Joe getting it back.
Photos
- Pete
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis is Robert Reed's final appearance as Lt. Tobias.
- GoofsWhen the car Mannix jumped out of is going over the cliff, it becomes a Ford with vertically stacked headlamps rather than the Dodge with side by side headlamps he was driving during the chase.
- Quotes
Joe Mannix: [Mark Prentiss enters Mannix's office] Mr. Prentiss.
Mark Prentiss: Mr. Mannix. Can we, uh, get right to the point?
Joe Mannix: Of course. Please sit down.
Mark Prentiss: Thank you. I use the safe deposit vault at the Bedford Hotel. And last night, that vault was broken into.
Joe Mannix: Yes, I was just reading about it. They got away with about $150,000 in jewelry, a hunk of cash, bonds...
Mark Prentiss: And a briefcase.
Joe Mannix: A briefcase?
Mark Prentiss: Mine, as it happens. Recover by Tuesday, Mr. Mannix, and I'll write you a check for $5,000.
Joe Mannix: That's some briefcase. What was in it?
Mark Prentiss: Papers, depositions... to be used as evidence in a murder trial. Useless to anyone else, but absolutely essential to me, if I'm to free my client. I must have them back.
Joe Mannix: Now, who's your client?
Mark Prentiss: Vince Adante.
Joe Mannix: Yeah. Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Prentiss, but suddenly I don't like the smell of your briefcase.
Mark Prentiss: Adante is innocent.
Joe Mannix: Vince Adante doesn't know what the word means.
Mark Prentiss: Mr. Mannix, my client is facing a 20-year sentence. Suppose a year from now, two years, five- that missing evidence turns up? How responsible would you fell for Adante's false conviction? The law judges a man's guilt on a particular charge. It acquits a man on the basis of evidence, and that evidence was in my briefcase in my safe deposit box at the Bedford Hotel, and I must have that briefcase back. It is worth $5,000 to me.
Joe Mannix: But not to me. Now I have a great deal of respect for you, counselor, but I don't like Vince Adante, guilty or innocent. Now, you'd be wasting your money. Besides, that briefcase is probably in a sewer by now.
Mark Prentiss: All right, Mr. Mannix... find me that sewer.
- ConnectionsEdited into Mannix: A Choice of Victims (1974)
It's about a briefcase that is stolen during a hotel robbery and the owner of the briefcase, who is a syndicate lawyer, hires Mannix to find it. The lawyer is played by Barry Atwater and it's well-known that he was a heavy steroid user which resulted in significant and noticeable changes to his face, which is evident here as he looks pretty bizarre and sickly. In fact, Joe himself even comments on his appearance at one point. In the scene where he's talking to syndicate hood Johnny Larkin at Larkin's house, he said that he had just met with his client and that "he looked awful", which is quite prophetic as Atwater died at the age of 60 about four years after this episode aired.
Robert Reed makes his final appearance and has a substantial role and is excellent. Barbara Rhoades makes her third and final appearance and shows off the long legs that she's known for. James Luisi makes his second and final appearance and is solid once again as a syndicate hood.
There's an exciting and extended car chase, the best one in quite a while. There's also a great action scene at the end.
There are no clichés once again, which has been the case for pretty much this entire season, which makes this season unique in that respect as all of the previous seasons were loaded with clichés from start to finish. Joe has only been clobbered in the head once this entire season!
Joe should know better by now than to be talking to syndicate hoods in a dark and lonely warehouse. That never turns out well.
The total body count is four, the highest in quite a while.
One problem I had is at the end Joe is essentially able to solve the entire case based on one thing that Peggy said, which is unrealistic, but other than that, this one is outstanding.
- pkfloydmh
- Apr 23, 2015
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Filming locations
- Griffith Park Pony Ride - 4400 Crystal Springs Dr, Los Angeles, California, USA(scene near beginning at pony rides)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro