TAG THIS... "creative writing 101". Richard Landau wrote this adventure, who before turning to tv in the late 1950s, penned several cult movies, such as VOODOO ISLAND (1957) with Boris Karloff. Landau does not let the audience down.
Joe is on the mend from his last case, hobbling(?) into an unfriendly small town (which there will be so, so many more to come), all to get a signature on an important document. He winds up killing a creep who deserved it (and more to come) but this opens an even more complicated case peppered with some ominous folks.
IF you are a movie buff, right away you can see some shades of BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK, the outstanding Spencer Tracy film. Tracy also came to a hostile town, not on crutches, but still disabled with a fake arm he lost in the war. Like Joe, he reaches the burned down home of a dead man he's to meet. What a coincidence?
There's an excellent cast at work here including Steve Ihnat (as the sheriff), who will appear a few more times in the series as does Ford Rainey, playing the old town doc. Paul Stevens portrays the mayor and Sandra Smith (as Violet). Smith was in several tv shows in the 60s and 70s and then retired from Hollywood.
Special note to one of the great stuntmen, Dale van Sickel, who is running a bulldozer in this one. The bulldozer scene is terrific. Sickel, before coming to Hollywood, was a star high school football player (in the early 1930s) and to this day ranks as one of the best players in the game with an incredible record of touchdowns. A super sports trivia question!
Filmed partly at the famous Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills, California, about 35 miles from Los Angeles. This was the site of so many classic movie and tv westerns and, unfortunately, much of the historic western town burned down in a flash fire in 2018. It is all being rebuilt as of this writing and the ranch is open to the public. If you are in the area, stop by.
Prime two fisted MANNIX all the way. SEASON 1 EPISODE 9 remastered CBS dvd box set.