Project Phoenix

The prototype of a revolutionary automobile called The Phoenix is taken off a railroad flatcar while being transported at night. In fact the flatcar itself turns up missing in the cold light of day. The most unusual train robbery since Jesse James started the profession.

Of course George Peppard is called in for the job. As it turns out there is a fatality of a hobo who happened to hear if not see the thing go down, but the crooks are taking no chances. It takes Peppard to make the connection though.

The company it is robbed from is owned by William Windom and Bert Convy who recently fired designer Joanna Pettet for her being an industrial spy for rival Peter Mark Richman. All of these people are suspects though Banacek wouldn't like the idea of Pettet being the guilty party.

Solving thefts can be just as enjoyable as solving murders as so many other mystery series concentrated on. Here the murder is just a byproduct of the crime. Nice performance here by John Fiedler as one of the deceased hobo's pals.

Thomas Banacek(George Peppard) is called in on a case involving a top secret experimental car called the Phoenix that somehow went missing/was stolen en route by train to Boston, flat car and all. Two men working on the Phoenix(played by William Windom and Bert Convey) are of course very concerned, and suspect a former employee of involvement(played by the beautiful Joanna Pettet) and taking it to her former company headed by Andy Cole(played by Peter Mark Richman) Both deny any knowledge of the theft, and it will be quite a challenge for Thomas to decide the who, how, and why of the crime. Good cast here helps maintain interest in the twist-laden story,

I have only seen this episode and the previous one and both provide a seemingly impossible conundrum....something that disappears and it seems pretty much impossible! In this case, an experimental car and the train car it's on disappear! How could this happen and who would do this? Of course, Banacek eventually figures it all out in order to save the insurance company millions. And, of course, he explains it all at the end of the episode.

This is a pretty fascinating and quite unique episode. Sure, it all was extremely improbable...almost impossible. But it was done so cleverly you can easily overlook that and the show made it all seem so real! Well worth seeing.