Mannix (TV Series) A Choice of Evils (1971) User Reviews

Peggy, have you ever thought about finding a BETTER job?!

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 9 December 2014]

Mannix's secretary, Peggy, has the most awful job in the world. After all, she's been repeatedly kidnapped and threatened during the course of the series...and here, once again, this is the case. When the show begins, two hired thugs take her prisoner and leave a note for Mannix saying it's life or death that he get in contact with their boss, a noted mobster (Stephen McNally). When Mannix arrives at the boss' place, he learns that his secretary is being held hostage and she'll be released, unharmed, if he does a job for the man--to determine which of his three trusted 'associates' is actually working for the police. Naturally, Mannix cannot just turn a guy over to these hoods to be murdered and so Mannix has to work the case and bide his time.

This is a very tense and interesting episode. I particularly appreciated that one of the kidnappers was Georg Stanford Brown--a guy who soon would be known as one of "The Rookies" on TV--a COP! Worth seeing and I particularly appreciated the tense ending and what the dying man says to Peggy.

Pick one, any one

[Guad42 · 8/10 · 19 November 2021]

Peggy is kidnapped by Sam (Georg Stanford Brown) and Max (Paul Carr) and a note is left telling Joe to contact Lawrence Powers. Joe does this and finds out he has to find the informer from among three of Powers' associates or Peggy is done for. Joe starts investigating after ensuring he will be shown a photo of Peggy with the daily newspaper in front of her at the beginning of each day so Joe will know she is still alive. The police get wind of this investigation and Lt Malcolm tries to warn Joe off but to no avail. The three associates beat Joe up quite thoroughly and the doc says he'll be sore for a couple of days. We know from past experience that this will barely slow Joe down. Lt Malcolm tries to get Joe to come in to HQ and Joe knocks Art out! Eventually, the spy identifies himself to Joe. It's John Phillips (Robert Colbert) but he can't pull out of the situation as he is close to wrapping up his federal case against Powers. Meanwhile, Peggy is getting chummy with Sam. Since we have all seen TV kidnappings before, we know Peggy will be killed when Joe is done with his work. The question is whether she can soften Sam up so he can't go through with it at the end. Joe says he knows who the spy is and will turn him over when Peggy is released. Joe is stalling for time but he is told by Powers that he has to kill the spy. Powers has arranged for the three associates to show up on a pier and Mannix is to shoot the spy with the other two as witnesses so Joe can never double cross Powers as there would be a murder rap hanging over him. Joe joins the three men on the pier, chases Phillips, shoots him and his body falls in the water. Of course it is all a set up and Powers is suspicious as there is no dead body. Joe figures out where Peggy is and rushes to get to her. Powers calls the two kidnappers and tells them to kill Peggy. Sam gets to do the killing but hesitates as Peggy pleads with him. Joe comes in at a very opportune time, shoots Sam and beats up Max. Peggy holds Sam as he dies.

Two kudos to the writers. Having Peggy signal the address of the hideout by using her fingers while holding the newspaper was excellent and having the dying Sam admit he would have shot Peggy despite hesitating was also superb. The cheap out would have been Sam saying he wouldn't have done it and then the audience would feel sorry for Sam but the writers didn't do that. Good for them!

As often happens with Mannix plots, there are a few things you wonder about. The note left by Peggy in the beginning says she is going shopping. When Joe arrived home after Peggy is taken away, he parked next to Peggy's car and it is raining. So Peggy is shopping on foot in the rain? Joe should have known something was up. Why do the kidnappers take Peggy's photo with the newspaper outside on the beach. First it gives a clue as to where Peggy is and, secondly, there should be plenty of bystanders on the beach and they would see two guys taking a photo of a distraught woman holding a newspaper in front of her. I think your average passerby could put that together as something bad. They should have taken the photos inside the hideout. Why does kidnapper Max tell Sam to shoot Peggy while he goes pack. It is clear Sam is conflicted with this and Max should have taken care of it himself. The packing can wait. Why does Powers think Joe is going to shoot the spy? Does nobody know Joe's straight-arrow reputation? No way he does that!

The cast is quite good. Stephen McNally is an excellent bad guy. Paul Carr made several appearances on the show and I think every one of them ended badly for his character. Gail Fisher as Peggy gets to do more than in a typical Mannix episode. She can act. I wish she had had more opportunities in her career to prove it. Her Emmy and Golden Globe wins were well deserved. Maidie Norman has a brief appearance as Toby's impromptu babysitter. She was just in the last episode as a different character. I don't think I have ever seen one actor appear in back to back episodes of a series while playing different characters.

Joe gets beat up and, naturally, doesn't get paid. Peggy is still alive so that count as a win. Joe needs to give her a raise. This is a very good outing and I recommend it to you.

Powerful and original but with a HUGE plot hole

[pkfloydmh · 7/10 · 6 September 2021]

This one is about a syndicate hood who has Peggy kidnapped in order to force Joe to work for him to find the mole in his organization.

I loved Stephen McNally's performance as Powers. He plays the part perfectly and is totally convincing as a mob hood, with his suave demeanor, diabolical and cunning ways, and his taunting of Joe. It's a great performance.

Peggy's performance is surprisingly strong. Usually she's relegated to getting the coffee and calling her DMV cronies to look up a license plate number, but she has a larger role than normal here and she really shines, as does Georg Stanford Brown as one of Peggy's kidnappers.

Joe takes a vicious beating from three thugs in a warehouse and lands in the hospital. I'm surprised this brutal thrashing didn't take place in the previous episode (The Glass Trap) since that one was all about the fighting and nearly everyone in the cast was beaten to a pulp with the exception of Joe, who emerged scot-free. The hellish shellacking he takes in this one makes up for that in spades. Of course, when Joe is taken to the hospital, we once again see the same old stock footage of the ambulance going past the Safeway and turning into Memorial Hospital, a clip that has been played an astronomical number of times on various TV shows. Then at the hospital, Joe's doctor utters the mother of all understatements when he tells Joe he'll be hurting for a few days. Gee, really? You think? After this colossal whomping, he'll be lucky if he isn't still hurting after a few MONTHS.

For the first time ever, Malcolm gets slugged in the face and knocked out.

It's really interesting how Peggy revealed the address where she was being held through the use of the pictures of her with each day's newspaper. This was really original and fresh and I applaud the writers for coming up with this great idea.

In the great action scene at the end, Joe jumps off a balcony and tackles one of the kidnappers and they get into a fistfight on the beach.

The major problem with the episode is that Powers is NEVER ARRESTED despite being involved in kidnapping, extortion and conspiracy to commit murder. This is a massive plot hole and takes this one down a couple of notches. It's hard to believe this was overlooked.

So overall, despite the loose end regarding Powers, this is still a better than average episode.

WHO IS THE DIRTY, DIRTY RAT?

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 16 May 2023]

You're a mob boss and you want to know which one of your men is ratting you out to the cops. All you have to do is call Joe and kidnap his secretary?

Right?

That's the wild scenario here, and its a winner with special guest Stephen McNally as the top man, and he's ruthless. McNally is best remembered for playing outlaws in westerns. Lots of punches and even Malcolm (Ward Wood) gets knocked out cold. A first! Peggy is kidnapped (at least once per season) and will be returned unharmed --if Joe exposes the fink.

Fairly potent stuff written by James Schnerner who wrote several episodes for CHIPS, later a producer for the great tv western series, HIGH CHAPARRAL.

Georg Stanford Brown (THE ROOKIES) has a solid role as Sam, who kidnaps Peggy --and is there a slight attraction? Ya know Schnerner had to toss that in. Also popular actor Paul Carr plays his partner in crime. Carr was one of those versatile types who good play real good guys or rats, and with such perfection.

Character actress Maidie Norman guest stars, who appeared many times on MARCUS WELBY. Best remembered as the maid in WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?

Did you catch it? Look for the rather clever kidnapping gag; Peggy uses a "finger code" in one of the tense scenes. Watch for it. Being Joe's secretary made her quite resourceful, although as I have written many times, Peg should have secretly packed a rod. Sort of in the tradition of Mrs. Peel on THE AVENGERS.

Producer Barry Crane and the rest of the top brass were always on the look-out for old stars, and wouldn't have been something had they gotten a hold of James Cagney or Edward G. Robinson for this one. No complaints about Stephen McNally, though.

NOT to be confused with the SEASON 8 episode called "A Choice of Victims." SEASON 5 EPISODE 9 remastered CBS/Paramount dvd box set.

Great episode but Peggy would have to quit her job!

[george_cherucheril · 10/10 · 10 April 2024]

This is a great episode where Peggy was kidnapped, held hostage for days and nearly lost her life before Mannix rescued her. The problem though is that Peggy's experience leads to only one conclusion, that Peggy must quit her job. Of course this was overlooked and Peggy continues in her job in subsequent episodes. The trauma of what she experienced is forgotten. This cheapens the characters.

Peggy's character is a loving Mom to her son. There is no way she would take a risk that her son Toby could be orphaned. After all her late husband and Toby's Dad, a policeman, was killed in the line of duty. Peggy is all Toby has in the world.

In fact to be honest, both the characters of Peggy and Mannix would agree that Peggy should quit her job. I would have liked to see the episode end with Peggy and Mannix agreeing she needs to quit. The final shot would show Peggy and Toby walking away from us on the beach barefoot holding hands and smiling. The next episode would have Peggy working as Lt. Malcolm's secretary within the safer confines of the police department.

It is almost a weekly occurrence on Mannix for someone to shoot bullets into his office. The writers were out of control with the office violence. It was too much. Even without the kidnapping episode there is no way Mannix and Peggy would continue their working relationship for her own good. Besides the Peggy problem, there is another consequence. Mannix lives in a nice neighborhood and his landlord would not put up with the weekly shootings at his apartment/office. Mannix would be moving to another residence. The best solution would have been to minimize the violence at his apartment/office.

Stephen McNally is excellent as Lawrence Powers who is intelligent and ruthless with Mannix. I loved how he kept Mannix at bay and kept changing the terms of their agreement. He used his leverage fully. It was smart for him to continue to hold Peggy until the body of the traitor washed up on shore. This put a nick in the setup Mannix had with the agent to make it look like a real shooting. In the end Powers was vicious and ordered Peggy's execution, also quite realistic.

Georg Stanford Brown as Sam has wonderful chemistry with Peggy. He made me wonder about the balance between his attraction for her and his professionalism as a killer. At the end when Mannix shot him and he lay dying in Peggy's arms he really seemed more happy that he did not kill Peggy and accepting that he was going to die.

Mannix should have been able to confide in Lt. Malcolm. They have a trusting relationship. Mannix should have come clean to Malcolm about how Powers had Peggy kidnapped and was blackmailing him to find the undercover agent. The producers could not resist giving Mannix a reason to deck Malcolm!

As noted by other reviewers there is a lot of laziness in recycling footage of the older Dodge car which is clearly not the same as the model Mannix was driving in season five. They should have shot some street video of the season five model and not used old footage for driving scenes.

All the other guest actors are excellent and help make this episode a powerful one. I like how Peggy had sense to communicate the address in Malibu in the hostage pictures with the number of fingers she raised. Mannix figured this out in the nick of time to arrive in Malibu and save Peggy.