User Reviews

This was an unusual Mannix episode in that he gets involved between two factions of a Mafia family, one led by young rebel Lloyd Battista (from the Tony Anthony Euro westerns), the other by his repulsive uncle, old- school Hollywood mob guy Mark Lawrence who has snuck back into the States after being deported and wants his chair back. This is not the Wasp-corporate mob that was popular in late sixties TV. This is old school Italian-American Mafia. Phrases like "the family" and "the brotherhood" are used by Mannix before The Godfather popularized the terms. The heavies were cast for their ethnic looks. In a wild, rock-em, sock-em closing scene different from the usual Mannix story, a swarm of hit men on motorcycles attack the farm house where a wounded Angelo is recuperating. This also predates the use of motorcycle-riding executioners that became popular in Europe in real-life hits. In a very twist-plotted story, Mannix is saved by a beautiful hostage (Corinne Comacho). There are some very over-the-top events here. Mannix takes a case that he knows should have been reported to the police and in doing so violates his own personal code, and there's some ridiculous shooting by Lawrence that almost sinks the show at the very end.

Driving home from a party one night, a middle-aged couple runs someone over -- or thinks they did. But when they go back to check on the body, it's gone. Did they imagine the whole thing? Enter Joe Mannix, who learns that the missing (but not dead) body belongs to an exiled mafioso who has entered the country illegally and cannot afford to be found.

The problem: The injured mobster believes it was JOE behind the wheel that night -- and that the collision was no accident. Uh oh!

A few nagging questions:

Would the mob really give a family whose home they're invading the run of the house, and not check on their prisoner (Joe Mannix) occasionally too? Probably not.

And why was the mobster walking on that particular street that night anyway? This question is never really answered.

Despite these flaws, and despite some promiscuous use of the zoom lens (an infectious disease making the rounds of Hollywood in the late 60s - late 70s) this is still a (mostly) well-directed and consistently surprising episode.

7/10

She plays a murdered model and her beautiful twin sister in a second season ep. Here she plays a kidnapped victim of the mob.

The plot starts off being about a man hit by a couple. The couple disappears very very early from the show not to return ( like minor characters in a Shakespeare play who open up the story) and Mannix soon gets involved with the mob. The show really takes off once he meets up with beautiful Miss. Commacho. A great episode solely due to her!

This one is about a mob boss who is struck by a car and severely injured and the individuals in the car then turn around and go back to the scene of the accident but find that the man who was hit is now gone and they hire Joe to find out what happened to him and Joe eventually gets caught in the middle of a gangland war between two feuding relatives within the same crime family.

The first few scenes have several glaring plot holes, one of which is how could the man who was hit by the car suddenly get up and walk away from the accident within a few seconds when he was clearly shown laying on the ground and not moving following the accident??? NO WAY, especially since he's an old man. There's also NO WAY someone could have picked him up and taken him away since it only took the couple in the car about ten seconds to turn the car around and return to the scene of the accident and find him gone. It's impossible anyone could have picked him up in that short period of time. This plot hole was never followed up on and it was never revealed how the man disappeared from the accident scene.

Then two of the mob guys miraculously show up at the witness's house when they had NO WAY OF KNOWING where he lives or what his name is or that there was even a witness to begin with.

The ending is equally absurd when the old mob boss is able to shoot and kill his nephew while lying face down on the floor and without even knowing where the nephew was as he never made eye contact with him.

I did like everything in between the beginning and ending however and there's a great shootout at the end involving motorcycles, but this one is taken down a few notches by all of the plot holes. Also, Joe gets clobbered over the head again, which is an overused cliche on this show, so another notch down for that.

So overall, not a great episode but not a horrible one either, but just average.

This show has its moments but too many holes. The plot has been covered by others so I get to the problems. Why the old gangster (Marc Lawrence) is on the street alone to be run over is never explained. He has all these men with him and none are present at the accident scene. Two of them show up to intimidate the witness while having no idea there was a witness. How did they get the information? Must be a leak in the police dept.

The middle of the episode is the best part. Good plan by Joe to follow a doctor who took care of the old guy before. Well done dialogue between Joe and the young nephew (Lloyd Battista). Joe gets clients in the strangest ways! Nice scene between Joe and the old gangster while he is in his bed in the basement. You almost feel sorry for the guy.

The ending is too over the top. Thugs show up on motorcycles to attack the old gangster's hideout? Really? Reminds me of the old westerns where Indians ride around the circled up wagons doing nothing but making themselves targets. It seems this "attack" is staged for dramatic purposes only and not to make any actual sense. I guess you could give it points for originality. Never seen a gangster attack like that before or since. Marc Lawrence's pistol skills are on the same level as Joe's own superb marksmanship. He shoots a gun out of Joe's hand and kills his nephew with a no-look shot from the floor. It is convenient that everyone dies. Make the clean up easier for the cops.

Since the doctor is the information leak, it would appear he gets away with it as there is nobody around to finger him at the end. One of the few times snitches aren't bumped off.

The cast is fine. Marc Lawrence could do the gangster role in his sleep. Richard Bull has played many professional types and does it here as the doctor. Has Richard Bakalyan ever done anything but a thug? He is good at it. Corrinne Camacho is a help in the beginning but is useless at crunch time. I like the two hitmen, Smith (Peter Mamakos) and Brown (Ric Roman). They were a little different than your average torpedos. Lt Malcolm (Ward Wood) gives the usual police lieutenant advice and support.

Joe gets knocked out. He doesn't get paid by his gangster client so will have to bill the couple who started all this by running someone over. All in all, a few good points but not a great episode.