Mannix - Edge of the Knife (S02E07) review

Is there something familiar about the plot of this show? I chose it at random, it is not well regarded by some people reviewing it at IMDb.

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Dr. Cameron McKenzie (Fritz Weaver), Chief of Surgery at California Medical, known as the "heart valve man," picks up his young son Brian at a music school. After they leave, McKenzie shows up again … this time it is the real McKenzie -- the previous one, including the car, a Mercedes, was a duplicate. Of course, the real doctor is disturbed.

McKenzie goes to Mannix's office to hire him, there is no mention of how he got Mannix's name. Mannix knows a lot about McKenzie, even though he just looked briefly at a resume his secretary Peggy drew up. The doctor wants to hire Mannix, but when he mentions the word "kidnapping" in connection with his son, Mannix says that's definitely something for the cops to deal with, saying that the cops have "licensed, inspected and suspected" him. McKenzie doesn't trust the police, he says they have "leaks." Mannix agrees to a deal that if he doesn't find the kid within 24 hours, they will get the police involved.

Mannix talks to Karen Shapiro (Christine Matchett), a precocious and obnoxious kid who is a fellow student of Brian's at the school. She conveniently knows the license plate of the car which picked Brian up, since she has a thing about memorizing plate numbers. She remembers the first two letters of the license – ST -- but the rest of the plate was "filthy." There are some weird camera techniques as Mannix is talking to her.

Mannix talks to Janet Paulsen (Priscilla Morrill), the instructor at the music school. He is getting annoyed, because she says that the kidnapper called her and told her to keep her mouth shut or Brian would be killed. We then cut to McKenzie talking to his wife Katrina (Geraldine Brooks). He has been divorced from her for some time, they were married for seven years.

Although Mannix is supposedly in the Los Angeles area, he starts to investigate places where the white Mercedes used in the kidnapping could have been rented. Surely there are tons of such places! One of these is Omega Auto Rentals, where this guy tries to convince Mannix to rent a Jaguar. Mannix has a good line: "Cars named after animals make me nervous."

Mannix then goes to another place which rents cars (I think) … there is an abrupt transition to this place. Mannix talks to some blonde-haired guy there who is fixing a car as classical music plays. (We will find out later this guy's name is Walter (played by Timothy Scott).) Walter says they have "several models of Mercedes." Mannix wants to know if they have a white model where the license begins with ST." They have the exact car where the license starts with SD. It was rented for one day by a "John Randolph." When Mannix shows this guy a copy of McKenzie's driver's license, Walter says "That's him, all right." Mannix starts to leave, but he gets hit on the back of the head with a lifting hook, and some red-haired guy (uncredited, played by Red West, IDd in the credits as "Thug") then punches him out after throwing a blanket over him and it looks like he stabs Mannix. But when Mannix recovers, he wasn't stabbed, he finds a scalpel stuck into the front seat of a car where he ended up.

Mannix doesn't snoop around this place, trying to gather clues as you might expect (or maybe this is just not shown), but goes to McKenzie's, where the doctor and his wife have been squabbling. The scalpel is identified by the doctor as "an inferior instrument," typically used by students in dissection. Because of this scalpel, McKenzie says "I'm to be implicated in the kidnapping." Mannix says it looks like the kidnappers are "frightened," therefore dangerous. He is almost ready to call the police, saying that he has run into a "dead end" as far as his investigation is concerned (really?).

Mannix then notices a bust of Brian, which the wife created, cast from a life mask. Having a brainstorm, Mannix figures that she also made one of her husband, which is true. We cut to Brian, in the place where he is being held. The red-haired guy is there, and so is Walter.

Mannix goes to some place which creates theatrical masks, and the guy there says he kept the mold of McKenzie which the wife created (isn't that a nice coincidence?) … therefore, it was used in the deception at the school. This guy pulls a mask off his own face in a manner seen on Mission: Impossible, a show connected with Mannix's creator Bruce Geller. Mannix accuses this guy of making a second mask of McKenzie recently which was used in the kidnapping.

The guy says the mask made from the mold was ordered three weeks ago … by a woman. There is a suggestion this was ordered by McKenzie's wife, but when Mannix returns to McKenzie's place, the wife says that this doesn't make any sense, and the doctor and his wife argue some more. Finally, Mannix just blows up: "Your son's life is in danger and I don't like being kept in the dark." In a scene noticeable for its very bad acting, McKenzie finally reveals that the kidnappers have contacted him, and one of patients he has to operate on the next day has to be killed in order for his son to released. The identity of the victim is not established yet, but it will be prior to the surgery.

In the next scene, presumably at the doctor's hospital office, where his wife is present with him, he talks about the three possibilities for murder: Roscoe Bell, 78 years old -- even if the operation is a success, the prognosis is not really good. Marion Harriman, 9 years old, a good chance to survive because of her age. And Robert Goldberg, 28, who has the "best chance to survive." With about two hours until the revelation of who the victim will be, Mannix investigates the three, who are all in the hospital, waiting.

Goldberg is a part-time teacher at UCLA who is working on his doctorate in philosophy. No problems there. Goldberg's wife, by the way, is played, uncredited, by Veronica Cartrwright. The little girl's parents are much older than you would expect. If we consider the actors' actual ages, the mother had the kid when she was about 46 years old. The mother says, "We're not young, Marion is the only child I can ever have." The kid has a weak heart. Mannix is puffing away on a cigarette as he talks to the parents! The parents became acquainted with McKenzie because Marion attended the same music school as Brian. Mannix goes and talks to the kid; this is a "cute" scene. Mannix thinks there is something fishy because the parents talked about setting up a scholarship with the school, in other words, the school can benefit because of their relationship to Marion.

This leaves only Roscoe Bell. Mannix acts like he knows who this guy is, that he has some criminal connection, which he does – he is a lifer in prison who has been brought to this hospital because you can't get an operation like he is having in the prison hospital. Bell has only two months to live without the operation, maybe a year or two with it. For prolonging his life for a short while, he is going to blab about the syndicate; he was the regional juiceman (extortionist or loan shark) for the local mob.

The cops put a trace on McKenzie's phone, but was this before the call that he already received? Or one which was made in the interim? Bell is to be prepared for his operation, and the attendant doing this is none other than Walter, who we have met earlier in the show. There is more mediocre acting between the McKenzies as the husband debates as to whether he can violate his medical code of ethics and intentionally kill Bell in order to save his own son.

The operation on Bell is carried out successfully, but a dummy is substituted afterwards for his body. As the gurney comes out of the operation room, Walter volunteers to take the body down to the morgue. A nurse talks to Walter, saying his name, as if she knows he works in the hospital, which is peculiar … was this set up from a long time ago? Mannix confronts Walter outside the morgue after he discovers the dummy, saying that if Brian dies, Walter will be an accomplice to murder. Walter tries to ram Mannix with the gurney and escapes. But he doesn't get outside of the hospital grounds because the cops already have this area covered, as we find out from the head cop who was guarding Bell's room earlier. (This actor is mediocre.) Outside on the hospital grounds, this cop says that one of his men spotted someone on the hospital roof where there is a boiler room (seriously).

Of course, Mannix goes to the roof. The kid is being held there, watched over by the red-headed guy, who looks like he has passed out in his own breakfast. In order to get into this room, Walter has to use a key to enter … did he not want Red and the kid to escape?

This whole sequence on the roof and in the boiler room is stupid. For some reason, the kid keeps rolling around and making noise, which eventually Mannix hears from outside the room. Walter tells Red "Get the kid ready, but where are they going to go? The kid keeps rolling around making noise like he is having an epileptic fit or something, Mannix breaks into the room through the window and fights off the two men. Red is put out of commission quickly, and Walter tries to fight Mannix using a piece of an antenna from the roof! I was hoping that Walter would fall off the roof to his death, but he is just dispatched by Mannix.

Meanwhile, the doctor and his wife plus some other people from the hospital are watching the fight on the roof from the ground below. Brian is rescued and there is a happy ending, maybe even suggesting the doctor and his wife will be reunited?