User Reviews

The guest stars on this one were a hoot. First we've got Peggy Pope as yet another maid. Jack Kruschen plays a guy not afraid to be a good Jewish Maher who references another good Jewish Maher. Awesome! I wasn't so thrilled with Jennifer's line that the guy following them "doesn't look like a Martin; William, maybe, but not a Martin." Dude is black. Not sure if that makes a difference or not, but the line didn't sit well with me. One does get a bit baffled why, after a while, the Harts wouldn't get Wary of strange cars hanging out across the way from their gate. They're always bad guys. Anyway, the most interesting part of this whole episode for me was the use by the main bad guy of some kind of offshoot of the Vulcan Neck Pinch. He reached over to Max did some kind of voodoo behind his ear, and he went down like a Red Shirt. The whole undercover ruse is great, and Jonathan's panic over Jennifer's safety is gold for any Hart to Hart fan. Note: Jonathan plays age 40, more than 10 years younger than RJ is. Which I love. The final climactic scenes remind me a lot of Bachelor Party. And the sexual innuendo all over the place only added to it.

A neat bouncy episode pockmarked with intrigue, double agents and more intrigue as the Harts get involved in tracking a double agent. There's a main villain who pinches Max's neck and makes him unconscious. No surprise that he's got a British plummy accent. At one point he kidnaps Jennifer in exchange for information. Jonathan complies but not without some help.

We learn early on from CIA agent William Dean (Kene Holiday) that the fictional Martin Sole was created by the CIA to smoke out a double agent, Patrick Burke (Paxton Whitehead). Dean's partner, Alex Cain, was the body Jonathan found at the start of the show. Max recognizes, and Dean admits, they got the idea from a Cary Grant movie (North by Northwest). I hope people think Mr. Holiday looks like a "William"; I think he does.

Anyway, this episode was elevated by the fact that the villain was played by Paxton Whitehead, a wonderful English character actor, with a quintessentially British name. And, of course, Received Pronunciation English accents always add to a villain's portrayal. Well, any portrayal really, he was adept at comedy as well. I was sorry to read Mr. Whitehead passed away this year (2023), but he had a lovely, long, distinguished career, so we will be able to continue to enjoy his performances.