Private investigator Mannix (Mike Connors) reluctantly accepts an
assignment handling a divorce case, and he only accepts it in the first
place because the client is his ex, Gloria (Gloria DeHaven), who has left
him for rich Farnsworth (Richard Derr), the very man she now wants to
divorce. But while Mannix tries to get some incriminating pictures of the
husband, he is suddenly knocked out, then wakes up besides Farnsworth's
dead body, shot by a bullet from his own gun, which he is still holding in
his hand. This of course makes Mannix the chief (and only) suspect in the
murder, and a man on the run. On the run though, Mannix tries to figure
everything out, and he soon discovers that Farnsworth was by no means the
rich man he was supposed to be but merely a front for a (crooked) high
stakes gambling operation run by mobster Malloy (Robert H.Harris) - yet
that information doesn't render Mannix innocent, especially since he can't
find the slightest motive for Malloy wanting to have Farnsworth killed.
Yet someone whom Farnsworth might have cheated out of a fortune might have
had a motive - and thus Mannix spreads the information that Farnsworth was
in league with Malloy, then uses Malloy as bait to lure the real killer
(Frank Aletter) out of hiding, who is ultimately shot in the final
shootout while Malloy is apprehended by the authorities for illegal
gambling. Abd by the way, in the end, Mannix does not take Gloria back. Ok
crime drama that comes across as violent and mean enough to sustain
interest, yet on closer inspection, it features quite a few plotholes and
subplots that lead to nowhere, and the final solution is rather pulled out
of the hat and a tad on the childish side. Still, not too bad.
|