Shape-Up

When it came to gangsters and guns, producers faithfully called in director Paul Krasny, who directed a record 28 episodes for MANNIX. Gets the job done here.

Gerald S. O'Laughlin (known for the ROOKIES) plays a mob boss, working the waterfront, extorting money from docked ships and eliminating "interference." Almost a foolproof enterprise until Phelps pretends to be the skipper of one of the vessels -- the one where Delaney (O'Laughlin) killed yet another person. Next Casey enters the scene, pretending to be the dead man's daughter. Mission; Guilt complex, and everything the team could do to psyche him out and derail his business.

Plenty of underworld types in this story (as opposed to the usual kings and premiers). Christopher Stone (DAYS OF OUR LIVES) plays the Number Two racketeer, Saunders. Anthony Caruso, who made a career out of playing crooks, is cast as Morgan. The man at the top -- giving all the orders -- noneother than Robert Mandan, and lookin' sharp as "Mister C." I'm suprised they didn't call him Mr. X for nostalgia sake, the name often used in classic movies.

Lonny Chapman, seen in a wide variety of parts, this time turns up as the police, Lt. Orcutt.

O'Laughlin in a solid dramatic role, particularly the second half when he's boxed in. Thanks to Paul Krasny. In fact, he gets the most out of the entire cast, Lynda Day George exceptional here, from the Barbara Bain school of acting.

SEASON 6 EPISODE 5 remastered Paramount dvd box set. 6 discs. A cool yellow cover with a lit fuse burning away. The entire series in a red mega box.

Delaney (Gerald O'Laughlin) and Morgan (Anthony Caruso) are mobsters who run the longshoreman's union and are in it for every dime they can squeeze out of it. While this clearly is a case for local law enforecement or the FBI, like many organized crime cases, this one is give to the IM Force. Their goal is to break the hold these men have on the docks and bring them to justice.

I've mentioned it in quite a few reviews already, but the organized crime episodes are usually some of the poorest in the series. And, sadly, season 6 and 7 are full of such tales instead of those where the team fights some enemy government. Why the series switched focus, I have no idea...but the big problem with the stories about crime is that the police or FBI in most cases could just arrest the people or the team just put a bullet in the gangers' heads!

The team is trying to target Delaney in particular. That's because they know he murdered his best friend some time ago...though no one can prove it. So they try to get Delaney to believe the dead man's daughter is visiting...and she's being visited by his ghost! And, of course, the ghost might just tell her that Delaney murdered him. What's next? Watch the show.

This is an okay episode. But like so many mob episodes, you wonder why the IM Team is needed. Still, it is enjoyable and worth seeing...but give me an enemy nation episode instead of more like this one.

Delaney controls the waterfront and eliminates any potential witnesses in behalf of an organized crime boss- the IMF have 72 hours to bring him to justice before the grand jury closes. Barney infiltrates Delaney's waterfront organization and sabotages it, while Jim is a captain of a Norse ship, The Orion, on which Delaney once killed a man.

Casey poses as the dead man's daughter and tries to implicate Delaney. The team capture Saunders, Delaney's killer, and Barney then claims to be employed by Delaney's Syndicate liaison Morgan and forces Saunders to set up a meeting on-board the Orion. Saunders ""escapes"" and warns Delaney, and they kill Morgan. The Syndicate head Mr. C is also present, lured to the ship, and witnesses the killing. He leaves one of his men to kill Delaney ...

Very good entry which is set mainly on a dockyard where the team weave their usual mastery, making Delaney lose his nerves by having Casey appear as his late dead friend's daughter ( he's obviously peeved about this as he did kill her father), then his dead friend's ship appears and the rest of the team set the scheme to a nail biting conclusion.