A teenage baseball team hires Mannix to find their missing coach, who is a parolee who been running, and hiding his identity, ever since he got out of prison.A teenage baseball team hires Mannix to find their missing coach, who is a parolee who been running, and hiding his identity, ever since he got out of prison.A teenage baseball team hires Mannix to find their missing coach, who is a parolee who been running, and hiding his identity, ever since he got out of prison.
Photos
- Lee Thomas
- (as Jonathan Lippe)
- Nurse
- (as Scottie MacGregor)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe cast includes two future residents of Walnut Grove, Minnesota on Little House on the Prairie (1974). Katherine MacGregor was a regular on the series as the thoroughly unlikable Harriet Olesen, and Charlotte Stewart appeared in 45 episodes as the schoolteacher, Miss Beadle.
- GoofsA woman falls down a few feet, on the landing in the fire escape stairs. She lands on her back and, all of a sudden, she is unconscious. She might be in pain, but she would absolutely be conscious due to a fall from such short distance.
- Quotes
Mr. Bryant: [Joe enters Mr. Bryant's garage] Yes, sir, can I help you?
Joe Mannix: Maybe. My name is Joe Mannix. I'm a private investigator.
Mr. Bryant: Something wrong?
Joe Mannix: Well, I'm looking for a Lee Thomas.
Mr. Bryant: So am I. He's gone.
Joe Mannix: When was the last time you saw him?
Mr. Bryant: Oh, 4:00 yesterday afternoon. He left for the park. Crazy about baseball. He manages a kid's team.
Joe Mannix: What else can you tell me about him?
Mr. Bryant: Why? Is he in trouble?
Joe Mannix: I won't really know until I find him.
Mr. Bryant: Well, I can't really tell you much, Mr. Mannix. He's pleasant, but kind of quiet, and he never talked much about himself.
Joe Mannix: How long has he worked for you?
Mr. Bryant: Oh, seven or eight months. Good mechanic, great hands.
Joe Mannix: Any idea where he's from?
Mr. Bryant: No. But he never gave me a minute's trouble. He did his work, never watched a clock. I can't pay him what he's worth, but I let him sleep upstairs. There's a room and bath up there.
Joe Mannix: Did he have a girlfriend?
Mr. Bryant: [thinks for a second] Uh, not that I know of.
Joe Mannix: I wonder if I might borrow a wrench or some tool that might have his fingerprints on it.
Mr. Bryant: Why?
Joe Mannix: Well, Lee Thomas didn't exist up until eight months ago. That's when they issued his Social Security number.
Mr. Bryant: You figured he changed his name, huh?
Joe Mannix: It looks that way. Well, if his prints are on file, we'll find him, and if I can put a name to him, maybe I can help him.
Mr. Bryant: Well, his toolbox is over there on the bench.
Joe Mannix: [walks over to the tool box] This one?
Mr. Bryant: Yeah, that's the one.
[Joe opens the box and looks inside, he then takes out his handkerchief and pulls out a wrech]
This is the best episode of season five so far. It's intense and exciting and has numerous action sequences and fight scenes, so the punches are really flying in this one and that's what makes it great.
Joe gets shot at but doesn't get whacked in the head. Osborn sure takes a beating though as he gets his wrist and ribs crushed by a baseball bat.
Val Bisoglio is not credible or convincing as Larrabee, the mob boss. He doesn't look or sound sinister and was a poor choice for this role. The acting from the rest of the cast is superb, especially Charlotte Stewart as Barbara.
Woodrow Parfrey makes another appearance as an informer and proceeds to double cross Joe and almost ends up on a slab as a result.
There's no body count in this one, which is incredible considering all of the seedy characters involved. I thought for sure Osborn and Small were goners, but shockingly it didn't happen, although Joe himself almost ensured Small would end up in the meat wagon but held back. It's actually implausible that Osborn wasn't rubbed out since he failed to kill Thomas when he had the chance and was extremely clumsy in the process as he made it SO OBVIOUS that he was following Thomas.
This is the first good episode of season five.