Mannix (TV Series) The Open Web (1972) User Reviews

It's easy to hate Rip Torn's character in this one!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 27 February 2015]

When the show begins, a nice young cop is brutally murdered by Victor Roarke. Vic thought it was Mannix and he's got a grudge against him because Mannix was responsible for catching this jerk for an armed robbery. But the guy got bail and immediately came to kill Mannix.

Later, Roarke begins talking. He tells the police he knows where a murdered judge is buried and offers to show them. Naturally, this is just an excuse and soon his gang shows up to rescue him. Mannix escapes but Lt. Malcolm is taken hostage. Soon, the gang makes there way to a home and they also take three more folks hostage. Then Mannix attempts a rescue and is caught--now they have 5 hostages! As for the kidnappers and their BFF, Roarke, they are now demanding $500,000 and a jet to take them out of the country--but they don't seem like the type to honor their agreement to let the hostages go--especially Mannix!

This is a nice, tense episode. I appreciated the nice twists the show made and I thought the little kid, Chuck (Jimmy Putman) did a nice job in the show. It's sad then when I looked up Putman on IMDb that I learned he died when he was only 33. How sad.

Does ALL of season 6 pull its punches like this?

[filmklassik · 6/10 · 25 October 2020]

Rip Torn makes an okay bad guy who's out for revenge, and, eventually, half a million bucks, and this minor variation of THE DESPERATE HOURS does provide moments of white-knuckle tension now and then. But too much of the story makes no sense (Joe surrendering to the villains after he has Torn at gunpoint? No way). And the climax is incredibly unsatisfying. I have to believe it was the network cracking down on onscreen violence that explains why Torn dies by his own hand instead of Joe's. It would not have ended this way in season 2, that's for sure.

It's all just too watered-down and implausible to be fully satisfying. It isn't awful (MANNIX is never awful) but it isn't particularly good, either.

Typical episode

[Guad42 · 6/10 · 14 March 2021]

This is an average outing. Rip Torn is a fine villain in his only appearance on the show. I like the idea of the gang impersonating cops in a helicopter to free their leader. An earlier reviewer saying there seems to be a move to tone down violence in this new season 6 seems to be right on. A uniformed cop is shot by a bad guy at close range with a rifle. Later, Joe helps him into the squad car and the cop acts like he twisted his ankle. Rip Torn dies from falling from a helicopter rather than a shootout that would normally happen in earlier shows. After freeing their boss, the criminals flee by helicopter and plan to switch to cars at this house with three family members. The police foil this plan and the criminals take the house family as hostages while also holding Art Malcolm. The plot twist is the grandfather of the family is in on this and had agreed to let the gang use the place for the transportation switch. He gets paid off with ransom money and that's when the truth comes out. My question is how would he have been paid if the plan went as envisioned? There would be no ransom money and the bad guys would have been there only a few minutes as they moved from helo to cars. I guess they would have sent a check. Despite being listed as "credit only", Peggy is in a few scenes. Yet another case where Joe doesn't get paid.

JOE AND THE KOOK WITH THE GUN.

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 8 September 2022]

Arnold Laven was brought in to direct this first episode of Season 6, and for good reason. Laven played a large part in tv westerns, notably THE BIG VALLEY as producer.

This story is familiar... but a real nail biter and with one outstanding cast. Famous NYPD detective turned actor Eddie Egan makes an appearance at Lt. Haber. This guy had the credentials. In his career he made over 8000 arrests and was one of the detectives in the real FRENCH CONNECTION heroin investigation, later an iconic movie, where he played the police captain. It would have been neat had he played himself in this episode. But that's the way it goes.

Making his only appearance on the show is Rip Torn (as Victor), an actor's actor. Watch him at his best.

Without too much surprise, he's the bad guy out to even a score. He kills a cop, thinking it's Mannix, then takes Joe and Malcolm (Ward Wood) hostage in a wild chain of events. There's a lot of running and ducking on Joe's part (across the Paramount lot), but Rip Torn is the one to watch with that itchy trigger finger. Doesn't it all remind you of a western? That's why they brought in Arnold Laven. Torn later played President Nixon and General Grant in his long career, garnering wide acclaim.

Parts of this episode (the helicopter scene) were shot near the fabled Hollywood sign, high in the rugged Hollywood Hills, and it fits the description. In fact, to this day, nothing much has changed in the neighborhood, except more high fences and always the chance for a brush fire. The old broadcasting building up there was later converted into the engineering and antenna site for KCBS TV.

Special nod to John McLiam (as Tim, one of the hostages) who appeared routinely on MANNIX and dozens of cop shows, usually as someone's dad or a family doctor. Model Maggie Johnson plays Sarah, who was married to Clint Eastwood at the time, and was his longest partner.

Always great to see another kook get his just dessert. SEASON 6 Episode 1 remastered color Paramount/dvd.

Terrible 😢 Ending!!!

[dannyboy-69253 · 10/10 · 5 March 2024]

I love this show Mannix and watch it every night at 2am. But season 6 they changed the theme song just a little. And I missed the teaser they usually did in the beginning of the show. Well usually the ending to the show is usually good and believable in some ways. But in this episode and for the first episode of a news season. They could've made the ending a little more believable. When the bad guy jumps into the helicopter. And instead of sitting down and flying off to freedom. The director had him standing on the helicopter entrance and I could not figure out what was taking him so long to sit.

A dreaded hostage crisis with clichés galore

[pkfloydmh · 3/10 · 11 November 2021]

In this one, Joe and Malcolm are taken hostage by a criminal who killed a young cop in Joe's office.

This hostage crisis is just like all of the other ones that have been seen on countless other TV shows and has all of the same clichés - the ransom demand, the demand for a fueled up jet on the runway, the ultimatum that all of the demands must be met within an hour or a hostage will be killed every twenty minutes, the police chief saying he doesn't have enough time to get the money, and on and on and on. It's all out of the same playbook and it's all been seen an endless number of times before on other TV shows. We also have the usual cliché where one of the kidnapper's accomplices has a change of heart, as if we haven't seen that before.

Of course, you know neither Joe or Malcolm are going to be killed because without them there wouldn't be a show, so there's no suspense whatsoever.

The kidnapper (played by Rip Torn) isn't very interesting and in fact is really annoying, with his yelling and loud outbursts. He's also really dumb too and makes an inexplicable number of mistakes, like not checking the dish cloth, not taking the gun away from the kid, falling for the "I have to go to the bathroom" trick, and not keeping a close eye on his hostages. This has to be the dumbest kidnapper I've ever seen. He obviously didn't comb his hair either. That mop on his head is atrocious.

Ward Wood looks bored throughout. He can see what a bomb this is.

This is just another dull hostage crisis with all of the usual clichés, right down to the details of the kidnapper's demands. There's nothing new or interesting here, except for the ending, where we see the fate of Roarke, the kidnapper. What happens to him is certainly unique, but nothing else is.

Season six is off to a horrible start.

Bad first episode

[calvinboldjm · 5/10 · 1 April 2024]

I love Mannix, and am currently watching every episode from season 1 on. So up to season 6 episode 1. Not a good start. One of very few Mannix duds. First, a young cop, detective, whatever, is shot when Rip Torn mistakes him for Mannix. But then he becomes an afterthought, never mentioned again, no Mannix revenge, no anger or grudge, nothing. Then, where did the perps get a helicopter and uniforms? Far fetched. Then, Torn, a great actor, was given a horrible script, must have been titled "the world's most stupid criminal." Lets the kid play with the gun, doesn't check the woman's tea towel, yells and screams a lot, fails to properly enter a helicopter and falls out as it ascends. Please. And how would they have paid the guy in on the scheme; if the plan had gone without a hitch, the woman and her son would not have even been there, thus no ransom money, no payment. What, the check's in the mail? Love Mannix, but a very unsatisfying opening episode with no tension. I hope episode 2 is better. There's nowhere to go but up.