Death Has No Face

When the show begins, some psychotic sort of guy phones Mannix and begins ranting about how he hates the detective and is out to torment him...before ultimately killing him. While this sounds like some sort of crank, this guy definitely means it and also seems to REALLY enjoy this...as he laughs and laughs in a menacing manner throughout the call. He insists that Mannix must 'pay him back'for what he's done to him...but for what?! Who is this man and what slight does he feel was done to him?! All we do know initially is that he loves what he's doing AND he knows how to build bombs, as one nearly takes Mannix's head off as he heads up the stairs!!

Following a VERY tenuous lead, Mannix travels out into the country to look for a guy named Ira Beecher who just got out of prison. Here's where the episode seems NOTHING like the first portion. There are no more scary phone calls or threats...just Mannix somehow thinking Ira might be responsible for the phone calls (this is very tenuous). What actually occurs is that Mannix was lured her to KILL Ira...to get this guy out of the way.

So is it any good? Not really. The two portions of the show are two disparate but worse yet is the ending....where Mannix STILL hasn't proved he didn't kill Ira...but somehow the police arrest all the baddies and everything magically worked out...with no explanations about HOW. Badly written and confusing...which stinks as it started off so well.

I'll never forget Joe's office getting blown up, even after all these years, and who would ever do a thing like that. Someone creepy is after Mannix -- even going as far as to mess with his new Camaro. As offbeat as a story could be, and exactly WHO is the notorious mastermind?

The chase takes him to "another" remote town with trigger happy cops and suspicious folks around every bend. Keep your eye on co-star Lynn Carlin, whose career was short, but memorable, earning an Academy Award nod for her very first film, FACES (1968). She later played Eve Plumb's mom in DAWN, PORTRAIT OF A RUNAWAY.

Peggy takes this one to heart, especially the office being in shambles. Watching Peggy through the years, you often got the feeling she was family, and just as vulnerable as Joe. This is camp stuff, perfect example of meticulous direction, thanks to Don McDougall, who headed many tv adventures. Shimon Wincelberg wrote the story, also five other episodes, also doing scripts for POLICE WOMAN. A winning combo.

If some of the old town sets look familiar, they were used on MISSION IMPOSSIBLE occasionally. Veteran actress Ann Doran plays the hotel manager, cast in many cop shows in the 1970s, also a comedienne who acted with the THREE STOOGES back in the day.

Guessing the bad guy will take awhile, which is fun. On location scenes were done in Ventura County, probably near Ojai, replete with some beautiful scenery and lots of back roads.

True, the weird phone calls are tried and true after all these years, but we'll take it. Listen carefully to the voice and try to guess who.

SEASON 8 EPISODE 6 remastered color CBS/Paramount dvd box set. 6 dvds. Released December 2012. Classic front cover portrait of Mannix, very similar to CANNON Season 5 box set. Excellent artwork.

Every sheriff in every small town is corrupt. All the people in every small town are either crazy, killers or just stupid. This whole episode made no sense whatsoever.

The beginning, some crazy sounding person is phoning Mannix and threatening to kill him. Mannix thinks it might be this one guy, so he heads off to yet another small town to find him (even though he was obviously in LA, because he planted bombs in Mannix's apt and a picture in his car). When he gets there, everyone is weird, and the story dives into the non-sensical. I won't bother explaining the plot because it's incredibly stupid, and at the end suddenly they're arresting the bad guys, with no explanation, after spending the whole show believing Mannix was the murderer. Huh? Did I miss something?

Along with this absurd story, we have some really bad acting. Tom Stern was awful. So were Lynn Carlin and Diane Shalet. Warren Vanders was passable, and Ron Thompson was actually pretty good. Overall, a skippable episode.

As always when one of these California based episodes features a small town all the usual clichés are employed: corrupt sheriff, secrets, faux southern accents in California (WTH?), nasty people. Yep, this episode had them all. All the characters were so loathsome that I honesty didn't even care who did what.

Reading the other reviewers' comments, I'm always confused as to why they even watch. How can you rate a 50-minute crime show a 1 or a 2? Please. Yes, the plots are thin, too much is sometimes left to inference, and the acting is occasionally subpar. So what? I watch shows like this, which aired when I was in grade school and high school, for the cars, the clothes, to see which character actors I remember, and most importantly, to observe the chemistry and interaction between the main characters. A crime has to be committed, the investigation done, with some people killed or otherwise harmed, and the loose ends tied up, all in 50-51 minutes. Sometimes there's a twist, sometimes you can figure it out early, sometimes there are too many loose unexplained ends, but in any case, sit back and enjoy the ride. They shot 24 episodes a season on a small budget (why else would Joe drive up and park a car that he hadn't driven since season 7, and then later be shown driving the car he's driven since episode 1 of season 8)? Stock film. Relax and enjoy.