The Color Of Murder is a decent Mannix episode featuring an excellent guest starring cast, including Diane Keaton, John Lupton, Virginia Gregg and Johnny Haymer. The hook, which is a young woman being harassed by a mysterious female caller who claims that her late politician father, murdered several years earlier, was killed by some unknown person, and that there's a Big Reveal behind it all. The plot is convoluted, as was often the case with this series, with nearly the guest players suspects one degree or another.
This is far from the best Mannix I've seen but it's above average to very good in its parts more than as a whole. The big picture, which offers some tantalizing glimpses into how the Mob operates in L.A., the way political figures are often linked to unscrupulous people, feels about right. There's an almost laid back, unflashy knowingness to not only this episode but all the better Mannix entries that I've seen that contribute to it being, overall, not only a very good detective series but also a classy one.
The twists and turns of the plot of The Color Of Murder are mostly just that. They're there to keep the viewer watching and guessing. There must be an aesthetic (of sorts) behind all this that all good crime and mystery writers love, honor and obey, as if it were an marriage. If there's a downside to this particular episode it's that there's little in the way of empathy for or among its various characters. Mannix (and his secretary) are or appear to be the only two unambiguously decent, ethical human beings around, which ramps up the danger level a good deal, and holds the viewer's attention.
This is far from the best Mannix I've seen but it's above average to very good in its parts more than as a whole. The big picture, which offers some tantalizing glimpses into how the Mob operates in L.A., the way political figures are often linked to unscrupulous people, feels about right. There's an almost laid back, unflashy knowingness to not only this episode but all the better Mannix entries that I've seen that contribute to it being, overall, not only a very good detective series but also a classy one.
The twists and turns of the plot of The Color Of Murder are mostly just that. They're there to keep the viewer watching and guessing. There must be an aesthetic (of sorts) behind all this that all good crime and mystery writers love, honor and obey, as if it were an marriage. If there's a downside to this particular episode it's that there's little in the way of empathy for or among its various characters. Mannix (and his secretary) are or appear to be the only two unambiguously decent, ethical human beings around, which ramps up the danger level a good deal, and holds the viewer's attention.