Mannix (TV Series) Figures in a Landscape (1970) User Reviews

Pretty Stupid Hastings

[movies-109 · 8/10 · 31 March 2021]

Yes, that was pretty stupid... Hastings.

Way back in the 70s I used to make audio tapes of TV shows to listen to - I still spend more time listening than watching these old familiar shows. Anyway, I taped this episode and when I re-used the tape, I inadvertently made a loop tape of "That was pretty stupid... Hastings". Having a brother who remembers everything, now almost 50 years later if I ever say "well that was pretty stupid", he always adds "Hastings".

Hastings was pretty stupid. There isn't much dialog in the last third of the show but that one memorable line. Because of that it's one of the episodes I remembered in the greatest detail when I eventually got the DVDs. Some of them I barely remember if at all. The whole darkroom bit - wondering if "double X" (aka Kodak Plus-X film) has high enough resolution to make out the faces of people in a window a couple hundred feet away. I was into black & white photography at the time and noticed the nice setup - I believe a Beseler 45 MXT enlarger with a powered carriage to raise and lower it. For expanding those large format 4x5 negatives.

Mannix discovering that Barry had duplicated the negative and airbrushed out the faces - but on triple X (Kodak Tri-X) was the key to the whole thing. As usual Mannix isn't watching his back while all this is going down. Hastings was pretty stupid - first allowing himself to be blackmailed by Barry, then killing him and dragging Mannix into it to fulfill the plot. But bringing Mannix into anything you don't want found out is... pretty stupid, Hastings.

Although two people die, amazingly the bad guy is alive (maybe a little dehydrated) to turn over to Art. Instead of the usual "Hey Art, bad guys are in there, all dead - I'm leaving with the girl now, see you tomorrow".

What can I say, it's a good episode and it's different.

Kind of Static in the late section, but Legs are Worth Watching

[DKosty123 · 6/10 · 6 December 2018]

The mystery here is why the killer seems to be so stupid in order to get himself caught. That is the big letdown late in this episode. Up until then it is pretty good. Of course the episode has a Major Benefit.

Major Holihan, Loretta Swit, is a blonde photographer who becomes involved with Mannix in an episode where he seems to have a stalker trying to kill him. While the set up is clever, the main thing I like is checking out Switts legs in a major short micro mini skirt. She looks great and the camera gets some great angles on her.

If the script were better, this would be a top episode, but Mannix scripts after the first season seemed to let down the quality a bit. There are some good ones but the establishment of Mannix as his own boss seemed to lose an edge that made the show a hit the first year.

THINGS TO DO IN THE DESERT. WHY NOT?

[tcchelsey · 9/10 · 5 April 2023]

Don Mullally wrote this episode which is as clever as it is confusing. Watch carefully. Don was also writing for IRONSIDE at the time, and began his career with RICHARD DIAMOND.

In a way, the story actually borrows from PETER GUNN with a creepy start. Joe receives a threatening call from a weird character, the voice disguised, which is even more creepy. His promises ring true. Mannix becomes a subject for target practice ASAP.

Next, in steps Victor French (playing Hastings) who wants Joe to find his missing wife, and shortly after, he meets up with photographer Loretta Swit (as Jill). Hastings and Jill figure prominently in the roller coaster ride that is about to happen, without giving too much away. Buckle Up.

Jill and Joe take a ride into the scorching California desert... and watch how it all unfolds. We kids loved this stuff back in the day, but I do agree with the last reviewer the killer went through a lot of trouble to do them in. You be the judge.

Both French and Swit were in the early days of their respective careers. French gained popularity a few years earlier as Agent 44 on GET SMART (the guy always in a trash can or candy machine?) He also held a record for appearances on GUNSMOKE. Swit was just a few years away from super stardom on MASH, and this role may have gotten her noticed by producers.

The sweltering desert scenes were filmed at picturesque Joshua Tree National Park (filled with beautiful Joshua trees), just outside the city of Twentynine Palms. This truly is a remote section of the state, but so beautiful, especially if you have lived in the desert.

Keep the ice water handy!

SEASON 4 EPISODE 4 remastered color CBS dvd box set.

Enjoyable episode

[glitterrose · 10/10 · 19 April 2022]

There's some things I can let go of and not obsess on how it doesn't make sense for the bad guy to come up with this backwards way of getting rid of Mannix/possible character that's along for the ride. I watched this episode and wasn't thinking about how stupid Victor French's character was. But I did do some nitpicking. But let's get Victor out of the way to start with.

I LOVE "Little House on the Prairie" and Victor is on that series as Mr. Edwards. Mr. Edwards was overall a pretty nice guy. But Victor also got to show how great of an actor he was on that series. Mr. Edwards didn't have the best life imo. I'd say he was tied with Mary for how many bad things can happen to a character. Mr. Edwards had a drinking problem. Overall it was played up for laugh but I think of one episode in particular where it wasn't played for laughs. Anyway, you got to see Victor playing a total opposite character from Mr. Edwards on this series. He really was a fantastic actor and his character on this episode definitely wasn't a nice guy. He killed his wife and attempted to kill Mannix and Loretta Swit's character.

You did have several mysteries throughout the episode. Who's harassing Mannix this time? Pretty lucky it was a male voice calling Mannix. I imagine it'd be a hard time for Mannix to come up with a list of all his lady friends. Don't just think of his lady friends that he's dating on the episode. You also the phantom letter writers. ;) Makes one wonder if the lady's the one that did the dumping or if Mannix was the one to cut the strings. Anyway, you have the mystery involving Hasting's wife being missing. I thought the picture was an interesting way to prove who was involved with the wife's death.

Here's where I start snarking. I think I sweat more taking the garbage out on a hot day than how much the three characters were sweating out walking through the desert. Take the time to chap up Mike and Loretta's lips but not put a bit more sweat on them. It's a small detail to point out but it's hilarious at the same time, ya know?

The last 15 minutes pretty much ruin this one.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 13 July 2014]

Victor French and Loretta Swit star in this below average episode of "Mannix". It's a shame, as the first 2/3 of the program is pretty good- -it's just the final portion that pretty much ruins everything.

The show begins with Mannix receiving a threatening call from an electronically altered voice. Whoever it is on the phone, they tell Mannix that they're going to kill him. In fact, shortly after this, a bullet nearly gets him at his door.

At the same time, Mannix has been hired by some rich guy (French) to look for his wife. How this plays into the other story is something you EXPECT to happen.

From meeting the client, Mannix visits a local photography store. There, Mannix spots a guy with a sniper rifle when he looks through a telephoto lens. Mannix screams at the owner to duck and a bullet soon races past Mannix and hits the owner--killing him. Mannix assumes the bullet was meant to him considering the phone call and the other shot taken at him.

After the shooting, a woman (Swit) comes into the store to retrieve her developed film. Little does she or Mannix realize that this will bring them inextricably together...and then comes the stupid part. What is the stupid part? Well, I don't want to go into great details--suffice to say that the villain doesn't kill when he has a chance but manages to come up with a super-complicated method from which there are opportunities to escape!!!! Why, for once, can't a villain just blast the hero in the head repeatedly...like what would happen in real life?!

Horrible Ending

[zombiemockingbird · 5/10 · 24 June 2023]

The beginning of this one is pretty good. The story is interesting, and fairly well done; the plot makes sense and seems rather clever. Then we get to the end. Apparently, the writers ran out of story too soon, so they wrote 15 or 20 minutes of filler, that was perhaps the most boring and non-sensical thing I have ever seen.

Why on earth would killer Karl (Victor French) make this elaborate plan of having Mannix and Jill (Loretta Swit) hike endlessly through the desert, (and do the same himself) to make their deaths look accidental, when there are soooooooo many other ways he could have killed them? And about that, maybe I missed something, but if their car broke down, why would they hike off into the middle of the desert instead of walking down the road? Then Karl has this jeep hidden out there in the middle of nowhere that they finally get to, even though it seems like they have been hiking randomly. At the end when Mannix collapses, why didn't Karl just leave? If Mannix wasn't dead, he would have been soon enough, but instead Karl suddenly becomes stupid and goes to check on him so Mannix can throw sand in his eyes, overpower him and save the day. The ending completely ruined the whole story.

This was a good episode...until it wasn't

[Guad42 · 5/10 · 9 July 2022]

One reviewer of the Mannix series calculated the number of times Joe had been shot and knocked out. It would be interesting to know the number of times he was hired by criminal clients and the number of times he wasn't paid. I bet the two results would be higher than we think.

Anyway, both situations happen here. It begins with threatening phone calls to Joe and followed by a near miss rifle shot that kills Joe's office door. Joe thinks an old adversary is out for revenge. Joe has a client, Karl Hastings (Victor French), who wants his missing wife found. He gives Joe an undeveloped roll of film that has recent photos of the wife on it. Joe goes to the photo shop across the square from his office. The shop's owner, Barry Nolan (Jason Wingreen), reports the film roll is blank as the photographer didn't remove the lens cap. Joe then see the sniper on a nearby roof. He shouts a warning but the sniper shoots and kills Nolan. The cops show up and so does Jill Packard (Loretta Swit), looking for her developed photos. She can get them later but we know she is involved. Things now seem to go Joe's way as a sniper suspect is identified and he and Art go to get the man. The suspect ends up falling to his death, so the case is closed, maybe. Hastings's wife is found floating offshore. After Karl identifies the body, he wants Joe to stay on the case to track down the murderer, even though Art Malcolm says the cause of death isn't established yet. Joe goes on a date with Jill and, as they exit Joe's car, the sniper strikes again with another near miss shot. Joe does some figuring and comes to the conclusion that he is not the sniper's target but Nolan and Jill were. He and Jill look at her recent photos and figure out one is an altered copy. They go to the photo shop to find the original. Due to a classic Joe deduction, they find it hidden in the garbage can lid. A copy of blown ups photos later, they see that Jill had inadvertently captured an image of Hastings strangling his wife. Joe figuring and the work in the photo lab is excellently done. It was interesting and seemed realistic. Joe may have had one great deduction, but he should have had two - lock the front door of the shop! Hastings comes in and gets the drop on them. The truth comes out. Nolan was developing Jill's film and saw the killing. He wants to blackmail Hastings so Hastings hires Joe to use him as a prop in his plan to kill Nolan and Jill while making it look like Joe is the target. The irony is Jill knew nothing as Nolan had airbrushed the scene from the altered negative and she never saw the crime. As always with Mannix plots, there are questions that are best not asked. How did Nolan know it was Hastings? He is just a guy in a photo. How did Hastings know that Jill took the photos? Nolan told him? I doubt it. What are the odds that Jill would show up at the shop while Joe is there? Long odds indeed and if they don't meet, Hastings can't use the "Mannix angle" to kill Jill. Lucky break for him they did meet. Wouldn't the autopsy on the wife show she had been strangled and the husband would automatically have been the number one suspect? Like always, we'll overlook all that.

Up until now, I'm still invested in the plot but now the episode goes off the rails. Hastings takes Joe and Jill out in the desert in Joe's car. Jill has to take photos to provide a reason for the trip while Joe loosens the radiator hose. The plan is they will drive the car in the desert until it breaks down and then Joe and Jill will die as they try to walk to safety. The car does break down and the two victims walk with Hastings behind them with a pistol and a canteen. They spend the night in the desert and start again in the morning. Hastings had hidden his jeep out there and they come upon it. Now he gets in it and drives behind the two others. Jill collapses and then Joe does the same. As Hastings turns him over, Joe throws sand in his face, gets the gun, and the trio drive out in the jeep. The end. This desert sequence is an episode killer. Why didn't Hastings just take them back to his house, lock them in the basement and wait for them to die of old age? Makes as much sense. The holes in this plan are many and massive. To cover just a few - what if they had run into other people? The plan gave ample time for Joe or Jill to jump Hastings. He had to stayed up all night to cover them. What good plan would have that in it? They were in the desert for around 24 hours. Good thing TV characters never use the bathroom. Not sure about the logistics for that. When Hastings uncovers his semi-hidden jeep, I immediately wondered when he prepositioned his jeep out there, how did he get back to civilization? Just a few of the many obvious problems with this ending.

The acting is good. As Swit and French would prove through their long careers, they are both fine actors. Wingreen had a short appearance here, but he was a trooper for any years. Ward Wood as Art provided his usual strong support.

Stray thoughts. There is an odd conversation when Joe first meets Jill in the photo shop. Joe tells her that the owner took a bullet meant for him and she replies, "Lucky you." First, Joe never should have told her that. The information should stay within the investigation and her reply was a bit callous considering Joe clearly feels guilty about it. This has no bearing on the episode, it was just strange. Should not have been written that way. Second, whoever dressed the Jill character did her no favors. The knee-high white boots and mini skirt are nice to look at, but the large white cap worn by Jill in the first meeting makes Swit look like a go-go dancer on "Laugh-In". I don't think a globetrotting famous photographer would dress like that. She would be more practical. I guess any fashion looks ridiculous fifty years later. I definitely don't want to see Joe in a Nehru jacket. Lastly, would a world-famous photographer be getting her work developed in a local neighborhood photo shop?

The first 2/3 of the show was an 8 and the ending was a 2 so let's give it a mediocre 5. Joe gets dehydrated, sunburnt, and not paid. He has repair bills for his car. He did get to commune with nature and, hopefully, dated Jill more times.