Mannix is hired to look into who's trying to kill a movie studio's popular, but non-believing, arrogant male star.Mannix is hired to look into who's trying to kill a movie studio's popular, but non-believing, arrogant male star.Mannix is hired to look into who's trying to kill a movie studio's popular, but non-believing, arrogant male star.
Photos
- Prop Man
- (as William Erwin)
- Bud Nicholson
- (as Tom Huff)
- Cang
- (uncredited)
- Crew Member
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaExcept for the series premiere, this is the only episode in which the special guest star (Robert Conrad) is listed at the beginning of the episode.
- GoofsWhen Mannix plunges into Cantrell's gut---to save him from the falling spotlight---Robert Conrad's stuntman is clearly spotted because he has a major receding hairline. (Unless Conrad himself took off his toupee?)
- Quotes
Mona: Hi.
Joe Mannix: Hi.
Mona: A star is born.
Joe Mannix: Well, you see, I happen to be sitting in this drug store.
Mona: Do you happen to have a drink?
Joe Mannix: So happens. Scotch?
Mona: No, nothing. Thanks. I gave up drinking. I just wanted to remind myself that I'm a girl of tremendous willpower. Mitch knows you're watching him. He doesn't like you.
Joe Mannix: Figures. Excuse me.
Mona: Oh, relax. They're just going over to wardrobe. It's Friday night. The Mardi Gras. They'll be back. That Mitch is an independent cat. He looks after himself. Resents you. He'd do anything to get you off his back.
Joe Mannix: He's already had a go at it.
Mona: Well, you didn't yell chicken.
Joe Mannix: If I didn't get out, it'd be bad for business.
Mona: What did you hear from the Prop Department?
Joe Mannix: I drew a blank.
Mona: That's very funny.
Joe Mannix: Wasn't intended to be.
Mona: Well, somebody switched that blank with a live cartridge.
Joe Mannix: Question: Who is he?
Mona: Or she. There's something you should know.
Joe Mannix: There's something you've been aching to tell me ever since you breezed in here.
Mona: You know Carol Relly-- that girl who was on the motorcycle with Pete Joplin yesterday? She thought Mitch was picking her up. That's a game-made play when Mitch has had it with a girl, she gets passed on to his double. 'Course, it comes as a complete surprise to her. There's been a long line of those hand-me-downs. Any one of those girls would have good reason to to kill him. How do you like that Mitch?
Joe Mannix: How do you?
Mona: Well, he's just a boss to me. Strictly business. I don't fall for that famous Cantrell smile.
Joe Mannix: A girl with tremendous willpower.
Mona: You bet.
Joe Mannix: Even this morning when you were massaging him. The way you warmed the job, that isn't what I would call strictly business.
Mona: You were seeing things.
Joe Mannix: Yeah. A lot of willpower going down the drain.
[the phone rings]
Joe Mannix: Hello? Uh, Mona, wait.
[Mona walks out of the toom]
First up is Conrad's full-on performance as an unsympathetic, swaggering creep that appears to be an unflattering portrait of himself. This was done shortly after his CBS series "The Wild Wild West" ended. Conrad was known for doing dangerous stunts and using his star power to influence the series. He and his stunt-men pals more or less dictated the direction of the show. Mitch Cantrell is a fearless star of a Western show/film (we see him shooting a scene), hangs out with his stunt-men buddies, and acts like he owns the studio. Cantrell, like Conrad, is also from Chicago -- which leads to our second point.
Cantrell often visits the "Chicago Street" on the fictional Majestic Studios (Paramount) lot because it reminds him of his hard-scrabble childhood. A key scene between him and Mannix has been unwisely trimmed down for syndication (recently by Heroes & Icons and probably other networks). The truncated version just shows Cantrell starting to talk about his past then abruptly ends with him staring at an alley across the way with no explanation. In the original uncut version he recalls being chased by a street gang and hiding in an alley, scared out of his wits. This was the turning point where he decided to rise above his fears to the point of being a reckless, selfish jerk. Without this dialog, his breakdown in the finale -- cowering in the alley -- comes out of nowhere and makes no sense. Too bad the need to shoehorn in more commercials gutted this episode, robbing it of any meaning. (Thanks, Heroes & Icons -- you suck.)
- jivers01
- Mar 10, 2016