Did they just throw this episode together at the last minute? It seems like this one wasn't thought through much. The title is a parody of "To Kill a Mockingbird". The item Max and 99 are trying to recover resembles "The Maltese Falcon" and comes complete with a fat man named Dietrick (Oscar Berengi Jr., back again after his season two plan to use Fang to destroy Max and 99 failed). The big climax is a parody of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly". Somebody needed to figure out what they were parodying and to stick with it. The Clint Eastwood parody might have been the best choice. As is, that part of the show is easily the highlight.
The story has a CONTROL agent named Esperanza (Poupee Bocar, who also appeared in the episode "Die Spy" and even stranger, the "Banacek" episode titled "If Max is So Smart, Why Doesn't He Tell Us Where He Is?") coming across the legendary Tequilla Mockingbird. Before she can tell CONTROL where its hidden (using Morse code through castanets!) she is killed. Max and 99 are sent to Mexico to find where she hid it. 99 replaces the ill-fated Esperanza and even gets a chance to lip-sync somebody else's song. A comic highlight is the work of character actor Lewis Charles who plays Valdez, the chief of police. He seems to be channeling Chico Marx in his performance.
Don Adams, who did some decent directing in past shows, gets a little sloppy here. He misses shots and blows a couple of jokes with his framing. Of particular note is the scene where Esperanza is performing and Dietrick orders Valdez to kill her. Valdez asks "In front of all these people?" The shot screams for a wide shot to show the place is empty. Instead we have a tight two-shot. Nevertheless, the laugh track obediently busts a gut as though the shot was there anyway.
The story has a CONTROL agent named Esperanza (Poupee Bocar, who also appeared in the episode "Die Spy" and even stranger, the "Banacek" episode titled "If Max is So Smart, Why Doesn't He Tell Us Where He Is?") coming across the legendary Tequilla Mockingbird. Before she can tell CONTROL where its hidden (using Morse code through castanets!) she is killed. Max and 99 are sent to Mexico to find where she hid it. 99 replaces the ill-fated Esperanza and even gets a chance to lip-sync somebody else's song. A comic highlight is the work of character actor Lewis Charles who plays Valdez, the chief of police. He seems to be channeling Chico Marx in his performance.
Don Adams, who did some decent directing in past shows, gets a little sloppy here. He misses shots and blows a couple of jokes with his framing. Of particular note is the scene where Esperanza is performing and Dietrick orders Valdez to kill her. Valdez asks "In front of all these people?" The shot screams for a wide shot to show the place is empty. Instead we have a tight two-shot. Nevertheless, the laugh track obediently busts a gut as though the shot was there anyway.