10 Stars. Catch this one.
Whenever you had Bradford Dillman on board, you knew he was going to be someone of intense scrutiny. He made an art of portraying "I'm smarter than you think" bad guys to perfection. Frequently on BARNABY JONES. A class act.
A pretty neat story. Cannon helps a young woman (Jess Walton) whose father boarded a plane and disappeared in thin air. The catch is he also just got out of prison. Hmmm? Here's the thing. Dillman is so much fun to watch, trying to outsmart Frank Cannon. Jess Walton (playing Janet) makes another appearance on the series, soon to become a regular (as Jill) on THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS. She has an excellent role here, caught in an genuinely awk-weird situation.
Super bit with Eddie Barth (as Paddy) enjoying some good eats in Cannon's famous green kitchen. Best remembered for years as the voice of Miller Beer. What a fun guy and you can tell he was having a time with Bill Conrad and the crew.
One powerful scene finds a pool player attempting to strangle Cannon, and he almost does. It's fairly graphic, but par for the series. Credit Carey Wilbur for this adventure, long associated with cop shows and tv westerns. William Wiard returned as director.
Interestingly, this may have been a story, or an idea "borrowed" from BANACEK. Banacek (George Peppard) generally specialized in disappearing people and objects. He was also paid millions from insurance companies. Accordingly, and adjusted for inflation, Cannon would be paid over 2 million bucks for this case. He would legally split half with Janet, still leaving him with at least a million dollars. Sound familiar? May have been an unsold script from that series, re-worked by Carey Wilbur.
The Beverly Hills mansion featured here is the famous Harold Lloyd estate, one of the most sprawling properties in southern California. The story goes that later owners of the property had difficulty maintaining it because it was TOO large, but great for filming movies and tv productions.
Recommended whodunit 100 percent.
SEASON 4 EPSODE 18 remastered color CBS dvd box set. 2016 release. 21 hrs total length.