It's difficult to guess just how this intricately plotted episode of Mannix is going to end. The Girl In The Polka Dot Dress is a title worthy of Wallace Stevens, and like a Stevens poem. It goes this way and that; and it doesn't give its game away.
There's a matter of fact suggestion of the paranormal, as a man claiming to be able a see into the future figures prominently in the story. This self-proclaimed psychic, well played by veteran actor Alfred Ryder, does indeed guess right the first time, and the Polka Dot girl does survive an attempt to murder her.
There are more murders to come in this episode, and a nice balance of dark city streets and California sunshine that was the Mannix style, and common in detective shows of the 70s ; howeve, this one did it the best of all.
The show's plot is like a cat's cradle of conspiracies. There's an intelligent, albeit unappetizing, sophistication regarding the reality of Evil in this tale. The Big Bad Guys "of the moment", as it were, do get taken down.
Nor is there any ambiguity in this episode, or in Mannix in general, that there are many more like them, just as diabolical, and equally clever, just around the corner.
There's a matter of fact suggestion of the paranormal, as a man claiming to be able a see into the future figures prominently in the story. This self-proclaimed psychic, well played by veteran actor Alfred Ryder, does indeed guess right the first time, and the Polka Dot girl does survive an attempt to murder her.
There are more murders to come in this episode, and a nice balance of dark city streets and California sunshine that was the Mannix style, and common in detective shows of the 70s ; howeve, this one did it the best of all.
The show's plot is like a cat's cradle of conspiracies. There's an intelligent, albeit unappetizing, sophistication regarding the reality of Evil in this tale. The Big Bad Guys "of the moment", as it were, do get taken down.
Nor is there any ambiguity in this episode, or in Mannix in general, that there are many more like them, just as diabolical, and equally clever, just around the corner.
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