Banacek (TV Series) The Three Million Dollar Piracy (1973) User Reviews

Will the ship sail?

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 24 June 2016]

The key to this particular Banacek episode is that there are two simultaneous attempts to steal a wedding coach that has been studded with precious jewels. The rather stupid and clumsy attempt is actually what uncovers the fact that the whole coach has been lifted in a very clever robbery. Had an alert Christine Belford not decided to take a last minute look in the cargo hold of Captain Titos Vandis's ship the really good thieves would have gotten away with it.

There's a little more humor in this Banacek episode than others. Belford has decided to actually marry uptight insurance drip Linden Chiles who George Peppard takes a laconic delight in upstaging and earning another big finder's fee from Chiles's company.

Besides those already mentioned there's both an amorous jeweler and first mate of the freighter played by Dick Gautier and Don Knight. Both are key to solving the mystery. Also Arlene Martel as the B picture actress who is set to marry an Mid-Eastern potentate is for whom the coach is intended. If Charles and Diana could have a royal wedding coach than she was certainly entitled to one.

And by God she got one and Martel sails with the coach as Banacek uncovers the solution before Vandis sails.

The Missing Coach

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 1 March 2016]

Thomas Banacek(George Peppard) is called in on a case involving a 3 million dollar wedding coach being sent over seas that was somehow stolen between the time it was placed in a shipping container, and the time it was placed on a ship that was being overseen by two familiar employees of Boston Casualty Insurance, Carlie Kirkland(Christine Belford) and Henry Dewitt(played by Lindin Chiles) who can't believe it was taken right under their noses, but they still plan on getting married, much to Banacek's amusement, (and Carlie's resentment). Will it be found, and the two of them married? Astute viewer will likely figure out solution, but this is still entertaining.

Once again, Carlie is there...whatever.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 23 January 2021]

"Three Million Dollar Piracy" is another episode of "Banacek" after the series 'jumped the shark' at the end of season one. The writers or producers apparently thought Banacek needed a love interest/sparring partner and introduced Carlie...a rather one-dimensional lady who is a faux-feminist. This means she seems like a very liberated woman BUT her purpose is really to show that such women are a mess and NEED a man, such as Banacek. In this case, she is about to marry a dullard....and Banacek is worried she'll toss her life away on the guy.

The story is about a stolen gem-encrusted carriage that was made for the upcoming nuptials for a Middle Eastern shah and his American actress fiancee (much like when Rita Hayworth married Prince Aly Khan back in 1949. During this entire investigation, Carlie and her dullard boyfriend spar with Banacek. Guess which one of these folks solves the crime!

This is a decent and enjoyable episode. Apart from the unwanted presence of Carlie, it's very good and intelligently written.



By the way, the comment in the trivia about Molly Pitcher is incorrect. As a history teacher, I know that there never was a woman by that name. Instead, 'Molly Pitcher' was a nickname given to female camp-followers...and the stories about her manning a cannon at the Battle of Monmouth are myth.

A rare miss on a Banacek

[VetteRanger · 5/10 · 21 May 2019]

Most of the Banacek mysteries were very clever thefts where the plots that accomplished the theft stand up pretty well.

Not so much with this one, which would have involved everyone involved missing that a shipping container was still sitting in the spot it was supposed to have been moved from. And LOTS of people could have seen the "trick" that accomplished the theft. Plus, a later view of the pier didn't match the scene when the theft occurred.

It just didn't hold up. Possibly this is because the year was 1973 -- the year of the writers' strike. There were a LOT of very thin plots in TV shows that season, and a few of the Season 2 Banacek shows sadly suffer from that situation.