This is one of the more fun episodes of Mannix, full of switchbacks and the occasional cliche'. Mannix is hired by a shady and desperate industrialist to locate design documents belonging to his company after the freelance designer is assassinated on a golf course. The designer has come up with a computer that would fit into a suitcase(!) and the future of Bill Gates is in jeopardy. In the midst of the search Joe encounters the designers' (total hottie!) blonde girlfriend and enlists her aid. They are pursued through the picturesque Big Bear area of SoCal by a morose hitman driving the worst undercover car ever, (til the Starsky and Hutch Torino) a new '71 Hemi Orange Road Runner. This is one of the better car chases of the whole series. For once Joe doesn't get tossed over the edge of that same Los Feliz hill(!)and the '71 Cuda retains its original shape.
Cliches kick in at mid-point but they weren't cliches in 1971! Adventures like this one are part of the reason this series was so popular for so long!moreless
