Trap for a Pigeon

10 Stars.

Who better to play a creepy syndicate lawyer than Barry Atwater? Definitely will always be remembered as the vampire (who scared the heck out of us kids) in the tv cult classic NIGHT STALKER (1971). Here, Atwater plays Prentiss, a lawyer for the mob who asks for Mannix's help ASAP to find a stolen briefcase containing evidence that will actually help his client. That alone is a neat twist.

Joe isn't exactly into this type of stuff, but he takes the bizarre case which leads to a lot of dead bodies.

Some great action scenes, making this one of the most adventurous episodes. Production notes indicate it was partly filmed at Griffith Park, used many times by the series. After dark, it's a genuinely spooky place. Barbara Rhoades (Ruth) appears once again, obviously to balance out all the villains in the cast. James Luisi is appropriately cast as Larkin, one of the bad apples.

This also marked Robert Reed's final appearance as Tobias. The story goes he literally walked away from THE BRADY BUNCH tv series because he was dissatisfied with the scripts. The show may have continued for another season, but was soon after cancelled. Bottom line, because both shows were filmed at Paramount he was gone. Always thought it was a bad move on his part.

One episode not to be missed, exceptionally directed by Harry Harvey, Jr. Harry was a walking encyclopedia of the show, serving as script supervisor for the entire series run. The go to guy. Good trivia question. His actor father also turned up in small roles.

SEASON 7 EPISODE 23 remastered color CBS/Paramount dvd box set. 6 dvds. Released 2012. The official 7 Bullet Box.

This is a terrific episode with an intriguing plot, some great action scenes and some nice twists. The bodies really pile up too.

It's about a briefcase that is stolen during a hotel robbery and the owner of the briefcase, who is a syndicate lawyer, hires Mannix to find it. The lawyer is played by Barry Atwater and it's well-known that he was a heavy steroid user which resulted in significant and noticeable changes to his face, which is evident here as he looks pretty bizarre and sickly. In fact, Joe himself even comments on his appearance at one point. In the scene where he's talking to syndicate hood Johnny Larkin at Larkin's house, he said that he had just met with his client and that "he looked awful", which is quite prophetic as Atwater died at the age of 60 about four years after this episode aired.

Robert Reed makes his final appearance and has a substantial role and is excellent. Barbara Rhoades makes her third and final appearance and shows off the long legs that she's known for. James Luisi makes his second and final appearance and is solid once again as a syndicate hood.

There's an exciting and extended car chase, the best one in quite a while. There's also a great action scene at the end.

There are no clichés once again, which has been the case for pretty much this entire season, which makes this season unique in that respect as all of the previous seasons were loaded with clichés from start to finish. Joe has only been clobbered in the head once this entire season!

Joe should know better by now than to be talking to syndicate hoods in a dark and lonely warehouse. That never turns out well.

The total body count is four, the highest in quite a while.

One problem I had is at the end Joe is essentially able to solve the entire case based on one thing that Peggy said, which is unrealistic, but other than that, this one is outstanding.

This episode of "Mannix" involves a briefcase which would clear a gangster that his lawyer wants badly. Joe takes the case despite his hatred for that gangster to possibly protect that lawyer's life. Oh, there was also some stolen jewelry but that may have been a distraction, so to speak. There's also a henchman and a beautiful gangster's wife played here by Barbara Rhodes. This turned out to be Robert Reed's final appearance as Lt. Tobias. I'll just now say this was another exciting ep of "Mannix" with many chases and quite a number of fatal accidents, that's for sure! I had many eps taped but for some reason, I can't access them so this may be my last one for this series for awhile...

When the episode begins, two professional strongmen enter a hotel and take the deskman prisoner...forcing him to take one of them into the safe deposit boxes in the back. You learn later that these two darlings killed the deskman for good measure.

Soon after this, a prominent lawyer comes to Mannix to beg him to take his case. It seems that a briefcase filled with information about a case was in safekeeping inside the same safe that was robbed....and Mannix begins to suspect that stealing this might have been the real reason for the robbery. Although Mannix hates the man the lawyer is defending, as he is mob scum....and Mannix HATES mob scum, he takes the case because without the briefcase the lawyer might just be a dead man.

What follows is an odd story where the briefcase really isn't that important and Mannix starts to realize that something is up with the case and might end up with a shootout. How does he realize this? I have no idea...he must have read it in the script.

The bottom line is that this story seemed weak and filled with a few plot problems. Of course, it's still watchable but shows that after seven seasons, perhaps the franchise is wearing a bit thin.