Mannix (TV Series) Trap for a Pigeon (1974) User Reviews

A great episode that includes a prophetic statement by Mannix

[pkfloydmh · 9/10 · 23 April 2015]

This is a terrific episode with an intriguing plot, some great action scenes and some nice twists. The bodies really pile up too.

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.

A client lied to Joe when hiring him! Imagine my surprise.

[Guad42 · 6/10 · 18 May 2021]

Two crooks pull a hotel robbery and get jewels and a briefcase. Next morning, a syndicate lawyer (Barry Atwater) hires Joe to get the briefcase back as it contains proof that the lawyer's client, mobster Vince Adante, is innocent. Joe goes to a fence, Eddie Richter, thinking the crooks will show up there to fence the jewels. It happens that way and a shootout follows. Richter the fence (Jay Robinson) gets killed. Not the first time Jay has been killed on Mannix. The casual way the two crooks regard the jewels makes Joe think the jewels aren't important and the briefcase is the real issue. Joe gets the lawyer to admit the briefcase contained a million dollars for a witness that can clear the mobster. Joe visits the hotel clerk who assigned the security boxes for the guests as he figured the clerk told the robbers which boxes to hit. The man refuses to talk and, later, shows up at Joe office just in time to die before he talks. Joe gets the police to tell the newspapers that the clerk talked before he died so the bad guys will come to Mannix. Joe gets police protection to help so, of course, Joe dodges them by switching cars with the lawyer. Joe sees the mobster's wife (Barbara Rhoades) and a partner of the mobster Johnny Larkin (James Luisi). They announce they are going to fire the lawyer and hire Mannix themselves. When Joe leaves them, he gets involved in a car chase that ends with his car going over an embankment. Of course the car explodes for no reason whatsoever. Thank God it was the lawyer's car. Joe hides out in the brush as the two bad guys get out of their car and see the burning car and conclude they had done a good job. Joe and Tobias go to the lawyer's house and find him dead. From there, Joe and Tobias go to another body at the pier which turns out to be Johnny Larkin. Next morning at the office, Joe figures out the whole deal. The money is for a breakout at the courthouse. Larkin put it up but staged the hotel robbery to get it back while appearing innocent. He wanted Vince to go down so he could take over. How Joe managed all this in an instance is another classic Mannix hunch. At this point the episode gets a bit too much. Joe and Tobias go to the courthouse as Tobias calls in other cops. These two manage to get taken hostage during the breakout and Joe gets wounded by gunshot. After screwing around with a police roadblock, the bad guys get out on the road but Joe and Tobias overpower them and everyone is captured. Why the bad guys would give up two women hostages for a cop and a PI is beyond me. The story was good up to the courthouse and then it seemed like nobody thought of a good ending so tacked on the escape.

A decent cast with many of them return performers to the Mannix series. Robert Reed's last appearance as Lt Tobias. Barbara is always pretty in her few scenes. Luisi is an intense bad guy. Jay Robinson is suitably slimy. Orlandi did many similar roles as a bad guy chieftain. Barry Atwater did many roles but I will always remember him as the vampire in the original Nightstalker mover.

Joe gets wounded and doesn't get paid. A typical Mannix case.

GET THAT BRIEF CASE OR ELSE!

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 11 November 2022]

10 Stars.

Who better to play a creepy syndicate lawyer than Barry Atwater? Atwater will always be remembered as the vampire (who scared the heck out of us kids) in the tv cult classic NIGHT STALKER (1971). Here, Atwater plays Prentiss, a lawyer for the mob who asks for Mannix's help ASAP to find a stolen briefcase containing evidence that will actually help his client. That alone is a neat twist.

Joe isn't exactly into this type of stuff, but he takes the bizarre case which leads to a lot of dead bodies.

There are some great action scenes, making this one of the most adventurous episodes. Production notes indicate this was partly filmed at Griffith Park, used many times by the series. After dark, it's a genuinely spooky place. Barbara Rhoades appears once again, playing Ruth, obviously to balance out all the villains in the cast. James Luisi is appropriately cast as Larkin, one of the bad apples.

This also marked Robert Reed's final appearance on the series as Tobias. The story goes he literally walked away from THE BRADY BUNCH tv series because he was dissatisfied with the scripts. The show may have continued for another season, but was soon after cancelled. Bottom line, because both shows were filmed at Paramount he was gone. I always thought it was a bad move on his part.

One episode not to be missed, exceptionally directed by Harry Harvey, Jr. Harry was actually a walking encyclopedia of the show, also serving as script supervisor for the entire run of the series. Good trivia question. His actor father also turned up in small roles.

SEASON 7 EPISODE 23 remastered color CBS dvd box set. 6 dvds. Released 2012.

This one didn't make a ton of sense...

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 15 April 2017]

When the episode begins, two professional strongmen enter a hotel and take the deskman prisoner...forcing him to take one of them into the safe deposit boxes in the back. You learn later that these two darlings killed the deskman for good measure.

Soon after this, a prominent lawyer comes to Mannix to beg him to take his case. It seems that a briefcase filled with information about a case was in safekeeping inside the same safe that was robbed....and Mannix begins to suspect that stealing this might have been the real reason for the robbery. Although Mannix hates the man the lawyer is defending, as he is mob scum....and Mannix HATES mob scum, he takes the case because without the briefcase the lawyer might just be a dead man.

What follows is an odd story where the briefcase really isn't that important and Mannix starts to realize that something is up with the case and might end up with a shootout. How does he realize this? I have no idea...he must have read it in the script.

The bottom line is that this story seemed weak and filled with a few plot problems. Of course, it's still watchable but shows that after seven seasons, perhaps the franchise is wearing a bit thin.