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The Girl In The Polka Dot Dress
Originally aired 9/16/73

Do you believe in premonitions? Does Joe? This question he must answer as clairvoyant Emory Davis tells him of the pending death of a beautiful young lady in a polka dot dress. Whether Joe believes in premonitions are not, he is not going to chance someone being killed when he could have stopped it. Lt. Adam Tobias knows of no recent murders of ladies in polka dot dresses, anyway he is too busy with extradition on some big Mafia guys from a bust in Hawaii to talk with Joe about fortune telling. Joe is off to the Glenville hotel at midnight. Sure enough, the lady in the polka dot dress appears and Joe saves her life by shooting the Mafia-connected hired killer. No idea why she might a target. Her "midnight lover", Bob Foreman, a wealthy businessman and friend of Joe's, appears in his office and asks Joe to find out who is trying to kill her. Once again Joe has stashed his beautiful client, Jennifer Crane, in a luxurious house in the canyon, complete with swimming pool and riding stables. Joe does have some well-heeled friends! Working with a love triangle, Joe questions both Bob and Jennifer about their relationship. During the questioning of Bob, Joe easily counters and confronts a private detective following Bob. Know a six letter word for "don't move a muscle"? This PI is gathering divorce information for Bob's wife. Another call from the fortune teller to Joe to tell him of pending death for the girl. Peggy has researched Emory Davis and found him to be of a very suspicious nature; fore-telling the future with less than impressive results. Davis admits to a certain amount of deception with his profession, but continues to swear that the girl is in danger. Jennifer calls Joe - there is someone in the house! Joe speeds to the scene and tangles with the assailants. One is dead and one gets away as Adam arrives, but Jennifer has fallen from her hiding place high in the hay bales and is taken to the hospital. There, Joe in his somewhat messed-up look, deduces that he is the target of these hired killers - not Jennifer, but why? Adam, Joe and long-time Patrolman Charlie enter Davis' apartment to get some answers. But Davis is dying from poisoning and cannot reveal his killer. Joe returns to his office, tells Peggy to go home, reloads his 38 and waits for the arrival of another hired killer. He isn't disappointed as another hired gun comes calling. This guy is sloppy and easy - Joe jumps him from his balcony and with a couple of solid hits puts the guy down. Still puzzled why he is the target of hired killers, Joe sits in Adam's office reading the newspaper. (We know almost nothing rattles our guy - is he COOL or what!) The picture in the newspaper - Joe remembers him. He saw him leaving Bob's yacht as he was arriving last weekend for a cruise. The head Mafia boss was on Bob's yacht! Joe is off to confront Bob and finds himself having to "freeze". Taken out into the bay by motorboat to be killed, Joe convinces the other PI (who has been added to the Mafia payroll) to switch allegiances and save his own life. Joe is returned to the yacht and overpowers the bad guys, giving Bob a stunning right fist in the kisser. Joe prefers to be smart rather than accept Bob's offer of being rich and calls Tobias to complete the Mafia roundup with the West coast connection. This was a great show although it had a couple of misses. I missed the Barracuda convertible. By now Joe is into the Challenger which doesn't look as good around him as the 'Cuda. The body styling on the Challenger wasn't as COOL as the 'Cuda and besides - Joe needs a convertible. Also, for the super-sleuths - Davis brought to Joe's office a newspaper dated the 10th - later in the show when this date is critical to tie Bob to the polka dot dress- the date was remembered as the 12th. So what are a couple of days! Once again, to their own high standards, the writing and the acting were superb. We must get "MANNIX" back on prime-time TV - only with Mike Connors as Joe!

 

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