Mannix (TV Series) Little Girl Lost (1973) User Reviews

A great episode, but with a very unhealthy Barry Atwater

[pkfloydmh · 9/10 · 17 April 2015]

This one is about a newspaper columnist who gets gunned down by a syndicate hood.

This is an excellent episode with an intriguing and intricate plot, a compelling mystery with some nice twists and excellent performances from the entire cast. There are also very few clichés.

What's particularly notable is the unhealthy appearance of Barry Atwater, who has a noticeable bulging forehead as well as what appear to be protruding bones in both of his cheeks, near both eyes. It's well-known that he was a heavy steroid user and his bizarre-looking face appears to be a result of that. It's pretty ironic that he plays a doctor here because he certainly looks like he needs one. He ended up dying about four years after this episode aired.

Joe gets shot at and beat up but doesn't get slugged in the head. There are a couple of great fight scenes.

The total body count is three.

This is one of the best episodes of the season so far.

Great cast, good plot with one large hole

[Guad42 · 7/10 · 21 April 2021]

I enjoyed this outing and it must be seen with the sequel that was done on Diagnosis Murder in the mid-90s. This has one of the best casts of guest stars seen in the entire series. Sam Elliott looks strange when not on the open range. As the victim, HM Wynant has a smaller role than he normally does. Julie Adams is always worth watching. Dawn Lyn was a veteran child actress who does well here. All this gets rating stars but the poor conclusion takes a few away.

Early in the story, we learn Joe actually failed in a case when he admits he tried to find the wife (Julie Adams) years prior but couldn't locate her. A rare swing and miss for our guy. Apparently, Pernell Roberts remembered this and hired Joe again thinking he would fail again. No such luck. Bad guys should never hire Joe! A mounting body count follows Joe around as he solves the case, more or less. I like Beverly Garland's assist in helping Joe out in the climax. See the sequel to get the whole solution.

A reviewer for the Mannix series wrote Joe was knocked out 55 times and shot 17 times in the eight year run. This works out to 6.875 and 2.125 per year. Mannix started in Sep 67 and the sequel is done in Feb 97 so let's call it thirty years. That means, if Joe maintained the same pace of operations, he was knocked out 206 times and wounded 63 times (figures rounded off). In the Diagnosis Murder episode, Dr Sloan (Dick Van Dyke) is worried about Joe's heart. Seriously?

Anyway, since Joe was hired by the bad guys, he doesn't get paid again. Imagine my surprise.

Solved in Diagnosis Murder

[safenoe · 7/10 · 25 November 2020]

Wonderful to see Mannix's Little Girl Lost having a sequel in the Diagnosis Murder episode Hard-Boiled Murder, and what a twist it was in solving the murder of Lou Reynolds. Who would have thought?

THE CAST TAKES THIS AND RUNS, GO!

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 15 October 2022]

What a cast! Veteran Chester Krumholz, who created POLICE SURGEON, and wrote lots of scripts for MANNIX and KOJAK was the right choice.

The storyline is actually fairly porwerful, co-starring Dawn Lynn (sister of singer Leif Garrett) playing a little girl who witnesses the murder of her father --then thinks it was all her fault? Psyche 101 Plus.

Joe takes over and literally bumps into some lethal characters. Two leadings ladies of tv, Julie Adams (as Edie) and Beverly Garland (as Stella), who both appeared on CANNON the previous season, give this episode lots of appeal. Does not get any better than this. On the male side is Pernell Roberts (as George) and also Sam Elliot from POLICE SURGEON fame. Look for mysterious Barry Atwater, best known as the blood thirsty vampire in the cult NIGHT STALKER series.

One of the great character actresses is featured, Rosemary De Camp (as Mrs. Arferro) best known as Marlo Thomas' mom on THAT GIRL and Shirley Jones' mom on the PATRIDGE FAMILY. Long a Warner Brothers regular, she was cast in PRIDE OF THE MARINES, YANKEE DOODLE DANDY, starring James Cagney. Note cute Dawn Lynn played Garland's daughter in MY THREE SONS. Robert Reed is back as Tobias; he's ok, but I lean toward Ward Wood because he looked like a cop whose seen it all, not to forget his wife killed in an earlier episode.

Best of it, watch Beverly Garland who is having a blast with her role. It's so obvious. They just let the camera run. And I'll bet it was all done in one take.

Interestingly, most of cast in this episode returned for a sequel story (about 15 years later!) in an episode of DIAGNOSIS MURDER. Recommended for a late, late night with cookies. SEASON 7 CBS/Paramount remastered color dvd box set. Same style as CANNON and BARNABY JONES.

"Little Girl Lost" was an enjoyable ep of "Mannix" with several familiar guest stars

[tonyvmonte-54973 · 8/10 · 3 May 2024]

My main interest in watching this ep of "Mannix" was in what I thought was a reunion of mother and daughter Beverly Garland and Dawn Lyn from "My Three Sons" for this one. Turns out, Ms. Lyn is not Ms. Garland's offspring here and in fact, has no scenes together! Dawn plays a young pre-teen girl who witnesses her father get killed at a zoo and because she had wished him dead just minutes earlier, thinks she caused it. Beverly plays a sexy woman who has some tapes that are incriminating. I'll stop there and just say this was quite an exciting ep of this show. Besides Lyn and Garland, other recognizable guest stars include Pernell Roberts who I knew from "Trapper John, M. D." a few years later and Robert Reed who was still on "The Brady Bunch" during this time. Since he didn't have his mustasche during this time, I didn't recognize Sam Elliott when he was on but his voice was familiar to me while watching. I just found out this was continued as an ep of "Diagnosis Murder" a couple of decades later. If I ever view that one, I'll review that here...

Joe's gift

[DAshton1918 · 6/10 · 22 July 2020]

Not much to add here...I do like that they've ramped down the typical Mannix cliches in this 2nd-to-last season. Maybe the lower ratings in Season Six after the top 10 finish in Season 5 had something to do with that.

We all know how it's going to end...but I am once again impressed with how well Joe deals with kids...particularly young girls...the character AND the actor. Not the easiest thing to do. That makes it a solid 6 despite the ridiculous ending as Martin mentioned.

There is a sequel to this episode.

[dronzewski · 7/10 · 13 April 2020]

There is a crossover episode of Diagnosis Murder that feature Joe Mannix and continues this story.

This episode has one of the biggest plot holes I've ever seen....and it completely ruins the show.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 18 January 2016]

It's very funny, but apparently pkfloydmh and I are both watching and reviewing "Mannix" and, for the most part, we never seem to agree!!! He has often given shows 1s or 2s that I have scored 7 or 8. Now, in a bit of a change of pace, he gives this one a very high score (9) and I give it a very low score! We never seem to agree....and if you read both our reviews it gives you a chance to see shows from two different standpoints and that's not so bad.

The show begins very, very well. A newspaper reporter is at the zoo with his daughter. Soon, a 'friend' arrives and starts trying to scare the reporter off some story. When the reporter doesn't agree, suddenly a shot rings out and the reporter is dead...right in front of his little girl!

Soon Mannix arrives at the reporter's home following the funeral. It seems that the dead man's boss has hired Mannix to investigate the killing. Mannix puts the pieces together and comes to realize that the dead man had been working on a story about a supposed accidental death...one orchestrated by organized crime!! And soon, these crooks are out to kill Mannix and anyone who could possibly pose a threat.

This sounds like a good, tense episode, right? Well, yes...it was very exciting and offered a lot of neat twists...except for one. At the end, Mannix discovers that the SAME MAN WHO HIRED HIM WORKS FOR THE MOB!!!!!!!!!!!!! So why, oh why, would he hire Mannix in the first place?!?! The show tried VERY unsuccessfully to address it...and this really made the entire story fall apart. It's a shame as the show had some nice acting, a nice subplot involving the traumatic reaction the killing had on the girl as well as seeing Mannix behaving so decently towards her. A lot to like...completely undone by the dumbest plothole I can recall in a Mannix show!