Mannix (1967) s01e15 Episode Script

1
♪♪
The bar will open after the interview.
Hi, Rona.
Hey, Arm. How are you?
Well, a few drinks could make it easier to swallow
the kind of publicity she'll try to jam down our throats.
You can say that again.
All right now, fellows.
Settle down.
Now, Miss Marion will give her statement,
and then you can ask your questions.
Ah.
Well, hello, fellas.
It's good to see you all again.
And, Army.
Rona, darling. Oh
Oh, it's wonderful to see you.
How is your daughter?
Well, my baby's taking her nap right at the moment.
Ah.
Baby.
Okay, now, let's get this over with,
and then we can all have a drink, hmm?
I have not been active in pictures recently,
because my time and attention have been turned elsewhere.
Now, come on, guys.
Army, you've been writing about me
as though I'm all washed up.
And, Rona, you have been saying that I never could act.
And the rest of you have been talking about me
as though I were dead.
Now, if, uh, you go on doing this,
you're going to look like a bunch of dummies.
That's, uh, on the level, but off the record, hmm?
Hello, Annie.
I heard what you're doing,
and I swear, I'm going
to belt you silly if you
And that's not for publication, either!
Now, Jim, please.
You're never going to get away with this.
Oh. Ooh!
All right, I'm not going to take time
to argue with you now, but you remember this.
There are certain things that a man is willing to die for,
or kill for.
That's a great line.
I remember it from your last picture.
That's the one in which
the bad native chief is going to torture
the big white hunter, hmm?
Are you all right, George?
Yeah. Thanks, Miss Marion.
You're sure? I'm okay.
Okay, you're fired.
Now, uh, as I was saying,
before we were so rudely interrupted
It's a great act, Annie.
Gets both you and Jim Dancy some space in the papers.
Are you kidding?
I wouldn't be caught in the same newspaper
with that hammy klutz!
Now, look, I invited you all here
to tell you that I am writing my autobiography.
Now, this book Hey, look!
Come on, Annie.
Planting a phony bomb?
You can be more original than that.
Oh, that was one of your best performances, Annie.
You should win the Oscar for
♪♪
We don't compete with the police.
I think this is a job for them.
Well, you see, Mister
Uh, your first name is Lou?
Well, Lou, uh, the police know about the bomb,
and they're checking on it.
Well, they're perfectly competent, Miss Marion.
Well, uh it's like this, Lou.
You see, there have been
publicity stunts in the past,
and, uh, the police have not been too happy about it.
Jewel robberies, I got lost in the desert.
You know, things like that.
I don't think they trust me.
Why should I?
I'm paying you to.
Not good enough.
What do I have to do to convince you, get myself killed?
If I go home tonight and get my head blown off,
you'll feel pretty silly, hmm?
As a matter of fact, I won't feel so good myself.
All right, let's see who's available.
Uh
Oh.
Howard.
Yes, sir?
Would you come to my office, please?
Wait a minute, Howard.
We'll call you back later.
Miss Marion.
I want this one.
Yeah.
Yeah?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Uh, Miss Anne Marion in?
Oh, come in.
The average man at the time of the Crusades
was five feet, four inches tall.
Oh, really? Too short for me.
Well, how about the ones above average?
Couldn't you pick a tall Crusader?
Well, he might not fit.
What? A suit of armor.
One of these days, I'll open the door,
and there'll be my knight in shining armor.
Says so in every storybook.
I'm Carol, Anne Marion's daughter.
I'm Joe Mannix.
Sorry my name isn't Lancelot.
You're a detective. Mm.
Did Mother plant the bomb?
Well, I don't know.
She is sort of publicity conscious.
All right, Carol, back to the salt mines.
It's good for my education to talk to an interesting man.
It will be better for your education
to study hard, get good grades
and not flunk out of college.
Ida, you're a square.
That is because I did not go to college.
Let it be a lesson to you. Out!
Mr. Mannix?
Yes.
I'm Ida Colby, Anne's secretary,
companion and punching bag.
How do you do?
She'll be with you in just a moment.
Thank you.
Um, one of my jobs is to protect Anne.
Sometimes from her own hair-brained ideas.
Was she responsible for that bomb?
Sure, you stupid clod.
It was a Fourth of July surprise, three months early.
How did you hear about the Fourth of July,
on the late show?
Girls, Anne.
Ida, please. All right, Otto.
You just keep out of this.
You're as crazy as she is.
Next, uh, you'll be writing your memoirs.
Get out, Otto.
I may be only your agent,
but I expect to be treated like a person.
Why?
Listen, if he won't go, I could always
get the DDT.
Hang around.
You'll get used to us.
I will? Mm-hmm.
The way I act, most people would be considered loopy,
but, uh, with me, it's, um, artistic temperament.
Drink?
I'll take a rain check.
I'd like the answer to a question.
One question
in particular.
Does he always eavesdrop?
Of course!
I try to protect my clients!
I should have let Ida use the DDT.
You want to get back in pictures.
Publish your book,
and you'll play your next part in a funeral parlor!
What book's he talking about?
Let him go.
I have warned you, Annie,
and a strong-arm man won't help.
Go ahead with your book, and you will have slow music.
You won't hear it, but it'll be playing.
Make faces at kids.
They scare.
I'll try to sell you for that part at Metro.
It's possible you'll live to play it.
You're keeping him as your agent?
Unless I find a bigger thief.
Well, let's get back
to the answer I'm looking for.
If the question is, did I plant the bomb,
I may bend a table over your head.
A lot of tables to pick from.
Why don't you choose one?
Did you plant the bomb?
I did not.
And even if I did, you are working for me.
So, if I say that it's night,
don't you tell me that the sun is shining.
You just pull those drapes and say, "Yes, ma'am."
The sun may rise and set on Anne Marion,
but I wind my own clocks.
Now, this whole thing smells of a publicity stunt,
and I want no part of it.
Did you come to this decision by reading tea leaves?
Call me. I won't call you.
Now, hold it, Joe.
All right, you've got a hunch.
If you're wrong, you've got nothing to lose.
The lady could get killed.
Put somebody else on it.
She won't take anybody else.
All right, even if it is a publicity stunt,
if you can prove it,
we'll use it.
Publicity?
This detective agency,
like any legitimate business, thrives on being known.
That's called publicity.
It's not a dirty word.
Fine. Hire a press agent.
If she isn't pulling a fast one, she needs protection, Joe,
and she won't take it from anybody but you.
She's a lot of woman, Joe.
Yeah.
Too much for several husbands.
Or they weren't up to par as men.
Read this computer report.
Okay, Lou.
I'll go see the first ex Mr. Anne Marion.
♪♪
♪♪
Hold it!
Hold it! Hold it! All right, kids,
let's get the legs up a little higher.
Right in front, and up.
Annie's sensational.
Great gal, and if I was the kind of a guy
who had stayed with one woman
All right, let's go.
Here we go, and
Hold it! Hold it! Hold it!
Hey, special effects, I want that smoke on the beat,
not just anywhere.
The blond in the red and white stripes
wild.
What about Annie?
Oh, yeah, some, uh
sometimes divorce ends up with a great deal of hostility.
Between Annie and me, forget it.
She could have my right arm if she needed it.
I was interested in a different kind of request.
Did she ask you
to make a bomb for a publicity stunt?
Yeah.
Uh, thanks.
Oh, do me a favor, will you?
Give her my love, and ask her to call me.
I'd like to know how she got the bomb to explode
when I wired it so it wouldn't.
All right, kids, we'll take it again.
This time, everything works. Ready and
On five.
The bomb exploded because it was a bomb.
Wasn't any potato pancake I threw out that window.
Your ex-husband says it couldn't have detonated
because it wasn't fused.
Well, that just shows you how wrong he can be, hmm?
Uh, stop me if I'm wrong.
The bomb was to be discovered at the press conference,
and then found to be mis-wired
when the bomb squad got to it.
You'd get your press coverage, and, uh
nobody'd get hurt.
What's to lose, just between us girls?
It was a phony.
Tom made it and I planted it.
What's the difference?
Enough to get me off the job.
What do you mean?
Well, I quit.
Just out of curiosity,
how did you fix it to explode?
And why take that kind of a chance?
I did not fix it, and I did not take any chances.
Look, I may not tell the truth, but I certainly never lie!
That's earthy indignation.
The basic performance was developed about 1962.
Oh, she doesn't mean to put on an act.
It's just that she's been doing it for so long,
she can't think of what's real.
Well, her daughter is real.
Nice meeting you, Carol. Mannix?
You going because you're angry at her?
Well, don't be.
She couldn't hurt anybody intentionally.
Well, apparently, nobody's going to hurt her, so, uh,
I've got no job here.
That's what happens to all my knights.
Even the ones without armor.
They disappear.
You're all right?
If I'd been lying down, I would
Mother! I'm all right now, baby.
Anne, darling, can I help you?
Oh, now, come on, Ida, don't be a slob.
The room needed redecorating anyway.
You see, I always take a nap at this time of the day.
She was talking to you, and that delayed her.
Otherwise she.. You saved my life.
Convenient.
You mean, you still don't believe
that somebody's trying to kill me?
I don't know who tried to kill her,
but I know one man who'd enjoy doing it:
Kosloff.
Nice guy.
He could make president of Jack the Ripper's fan club.
Come.
Police report on the first explosion.
Thank you.
The D.A. grilled Lockwood, her first husband,
for three hours, but he stuck to his story
that the bomb he made was a deliberate dud.
Any theories floating around?
If the bomb was fused originally,
then it was rerigged later with a timing device.
When it was thrown, it was jolted into exploding.
What have we got to go on?
I tried to get a rundown on everybody
with whom Miss Marion is known to have fought.
Forget it.
You'd need a dossier on most of Hollywood.
The lady has a notable temper.
I picked the recent ones.
Lockwood?
He says she's the greatest.
He's been known to say other things.
Look, can we put a tail on him? Mm-hmm.
And also on that guy, Jim Dancy, and Otto Trenk.
Now, would you take care of that, Howard, please. Mm-hmm.
Well, what about Kosloff?
He is for me.
You're taking on a fair-sized handful, you know.
He wasn't always a movie director.
Ex-prizefighter, lumberjack, sandhog
Experience in explosives.
Uh, killed a man once, saloon brawl.
Messy one, too.
Knife and broken bottle.
Kosloff used the bottle.
Cut the other man to ribbons.
The jury called it self-defense, but the judge read him off
for deliberate sadism.
I'll try not to make him angry.
Do that.
♪♪
Kosloff?
Would anyone else push an oversized knitting needle
through an overstuffed cushion?
My name is Mannix. I'm from Intertect.
My business manager takes care of my insurance.
Intertect Detective Agency.
I'd like to talk to you about Anne Marion.
Have you something unpleasant to say about her?
No.
Then I don't wish to hear. I'm a petty man.
I take pleasure in my enemies' misfortunes.
There's been two attempts made at her life.
Come back when you can report a successful attempt.
Did you try and kill her, or just scare her?
Kinderspiel.
Is that a shock tactic to make me confess?
Suit yourself.
Our organization is big enough to dig up everything on you
you might want to hide.
Whoever is trying to kill my ex-wife, Annie,
undoubtedly has excellent reasons.
She's a terrible actress.
She never had talent,
and what she did have is faded.
She's been dead a long time.
Then why'd you try and kill her?
It wouldn't be your first killing, would it?
Oh, the gun is a mistake.
It forces me to defend myself.
That ought to pay for the coat.
Now that we've got that settled. Talk.
Angina pectoris, my heart.
Sudden attacks.
Pills in my pocket.
I don't believe you.
Ah, the hero of my last picture
got out of trouble with that lie.
I told the writer it wouldn't work.
When was the last time you were at Anne Marion's?
Three days ago. Why?
You know as well as I do.
The same reason half the town's
been marching to her doorstep.
Tell me.
Her book, her life story!
She's threatening to write it
to get back into pictures.
It's nothing but blackmail.
Well, it really isn't blackmail technically.
It's just that I'm writing a book,
and I'm going to tell the truth, the whole truth.
If you really want to scare the daylights out of someone,
just threaten to tell the truth.
You've got somebody worried enough to want to kill you.
Oh, hello, darling.
Get rid of him.
Mannix, this is Jim Dancy.
How do you do? How do you do?
Boy idiot.
I want to talk to you, Annie, alone.
And these two gentlemen must be nursemaids
hired by the studio to feed and dress him, hmm?
Artie. You know it!
Hello, Mannix.
And it talks.
Beat it.
I think Miss Marion would like me to stay.
Take a walk with us, Mannix.
It makes sense.
You ain't got time to pull a gun.
Take him. Mannix,
I wouldn't lie to you.
Perhaps Jim has something to say to me privately.
Take a walk, Mannix. Please?
Sure is a pretty place.
Yeah, it sure is.
Hold it. Mannix, you know how it is.
No, how? I sure like this neighborhood.
You and me, we're the same kind.
We're hired to do a job and we do it.
Nothing personal.
My boss don't want that lady
to think she's got protection.
It's nothing personal.
We've got to prove you can't help her.
Have you called all the newspapers?
Yes. Did you arrange TV coverage
for my press conference? Right.
Hi.
Carol, would you please get out? I'm busy.
Mannix! What happened!?
Oh! Are you all right?
Yeah, I'm fine.
Well, they really worked you over.
I wondered what had happened to you.
You didn't bother to ask Dancy?
No, taking lumps is your job, Mannix.
You get paid for it. You should be good at it.
That's a horrible thing to say!
Will you stay out of this, Carol?
I told you to get out!
Does it ever occur to you how often you hurt her feelings?
Complain, that's all you ever do.
Dancy didn't give you any trouble this afternoon, huh?
It was agreed that I should co-star in his
next picture. Oh, I see. Are you going to call off
the whole book or just the chapter about him?
Mannix, I don't need you anymore; You're fired.
Good, I'd rather be fired than quit.
'Cause when I read about your death in the papers,
I don't want to feel like I should've tried to stop it.
You can't scare me into keeping you on salary.
I'm announcing that I'm not writing the book.
Every minute you're alive is pure velvet you're marked.
And that won't change.
Somebody's trying to kill you
because you're trying to blackmail him.
I'm not blackmailing anybody.
Artie!
Not now.
What happens when this picture's
over and you want another one?
If I'm killed, you can say, "I told you so."
It won't bother me.
Now, get out.
Artie!
Jim thought I might need protection.
Mr. Mannix is leaving.
Sure. Hello, Mannix.
Artie. You going to make it easy on both of us?
On one of us.
And like the man said earlier,
him and me, we're two of a kind
we both got a job to do.
Nothing personal.
It's just so the lady don't think she got protection.
Baker, Arnold and Kluwiski are on the Anne Marion case.
Pull them off. The case is closed.
I owe you an apology.
I should never have taken the case.
At the very least, I should have agreed to call it quits
when you wanted to early in the game.
Did Baker or the other two turn up anything?
Baker reported two musclemen
accompanied Dancy to the Marion residence.
He couldn't get a clear view,
but he thought someone
might be taking a beating in the garden.
I had a clear view.
Anything else?
No. Why?
Just curious.
Now, Joe,
you've been known to peek under rocks
when you got curious.
Don't. I made the mistake of involving Intertect
with a client who was blackmailing.
I don't want the mistake repeated.
Yes?
Yes, I'll tell him.
Someone waiting to see you in your office.
Yeah?
Carol Marion.
Joe?
I don't care what she wants,
just remember, we have permanently
disassociated ourselves
from this case.
I can't think of one reason
why I should care about Anne Marion.
She may be killed.
I'm sorry, Carol, I can't help you.
Look, uh, go to the police, tell them.
She's a taxpayer.
What would they do?
She grins and says she doesn't believe she's in danger.
Carol, what do you expect me to do?
Help her.
Look, if I knew who, if I knew how, if I knew why, I
If I could point to one man and say he was the person
trying to kill her, I could help, but I can't.
If you say there's nothing you can do
I'll believe you.
There's nothing I can do.
I'm sorry.
Thanks.
I guess I was really asking you to help me
and there's no reason why you should.
It would have been better if those pills worked.
What pills?
What pills, Carol?
Mother's.
Last year, I swallowed a whole bottle.
The doctor got to me too soon.
All right, look, uh
Does your mother keep a diary?
Get it for me.
I can't.
If you tell me there's nothing you can do,
I'll believe you.
Carol.
What are you doing in here?
Nothing.
In my room, in the dark, like a thief.
I'm sorry. I'll go.
No.
Come on.
Like a thief.
I'm sorry.
I just wanted to borrow it.
It's so pretty.
Whenever you wanted anything, you always got it,
if I didn't need it, isn't that right?
Yes.
Were you ever deprived of anything?
No.
And yet you turn into a rotten little thief.
I'm sorry!
Don't ever let me catch you in my room again.
Carol, come on in.
I shouldn't feel so rotten.
I am doing it for her.
Do you have to read it?
Would you rather I waited till it was in print?
I'd like you to go home, Carol.
She doesn't know I've taken it.
Couldn't you read what you want
and then I'll take it back?
Carol, somebody's trying to kill your mother
because of what's in here.
Now, even if this diary were destroyed,
they'd still try and kill her because she knows it all.
Then why?
I figure when the killer finds out I've got the diary,
he'll try to get to me first
before he gets to your mother.
You could be hurt.
I'll try not to.
I'd like you to go home.
I don't want you here, Carol.
Kosloff? Mannix here.
I'm calling a few friends to tell them
I've acquired a diary of considerable interest.
I'm sure you can guess whose diary.
Well, I'd be glad to read you a few choice excerpts.
I'll be at home waiting.
2742 Canyon.
Dancy? Yeah, Mannix here.
I'm calling a few friends to tell them
that I've acquired a diary.
I think it would be of interest to you.
Let me go, Mannix, please.
Look, I-I can't buy the book.
I haven't got the money.
All right, I was going to steal it.
I wouldn't recommend burglaring as a trade for you.
You have heavy feet.
Look, housebreaking isn't my bag.
You caught me on my solo flight.
Come on, give me a break. Sit down.
Please, you've got to let me go. You've got to, please!
As long as I've got a gun in
my hand, I don't gotta anything.
All right, I've got nothing to lose.
You give me the diary and let me walk out of here
with that gun in my hand.
Sounds like there's an "or else"
on the end of that proposition.
In exactly
90 seconds boom.
All gone house, you and me.
A bomb, huh?
What's to stop me from finding it?
Look, man, I said 90 seconds.
A spring could be tight, inaccurate.
It could be 80 seconds,
70, less. If you're not lying.
Look, I want to live, but I'd just as soon die
as to have that diary running around loose.
40 seconds to go.
I-I've got $3,000. It's yours.
30 seconds.
You want to tell me where you planted the bomb?
What is this some crazy game of chicken?
See who can wait longer,
come closer to getting blown to bits?
Twenty.
Nineteen
eighteen
You'd ride it out, wouldn't you?
Not if I really thought there was a bomb.
You couldn't be sure.
No, but I play the odds.
I don't think you'd try to break
in after you planted the bomb.
I think you'd be less noisy,
and you'd have that gun in your hand.
I think you wanted to get caught
so you could throw a scare.
Mannix, you're good.
I'll still pay you the three grand.
Is that all the diary's worth?
Come on, you know better.
Unless you like dying at bargain prices.
Somebody's trying to kill for
Me?
Look, somebody's
somebody's liable to pull a trigger
the minute that door starts to open.
There's nobody there.
Now, what are you doing here?
Paying a social call.
Like you.
The gun.
Tear gas.
A deterrent.
You're a man who leans toward violence.
Mannix,
there are sections in that diary.
You could tear out pages.
I'll give you $3,000 for mine.
Send him away, we'll do business.
I've got nothing left to bargain with.
Mannix, don't let that diary get away.
You'd be doing me a bigger favor by
putting a bullet into my head.
The gun isn't necessary.
All right, let's get this over with.
There isn't much time.
If you're in such a hurry, come back tomorrow.
I'm in no hurry. You are.
If, as I assume, you've told a number of people
you have the diary, you should soon be dead.
Set a price within reason.
It needn't be cheap.
I'm willing to pay for what I want.
And you'll see that I stay alive.
If you're smart enough to take the money
and go very far away to another country
another continent.
If it were feasible, I'd recommend another planet.
You seem awfully sure I'll accept.
I am. Nobody outbids Steven Kosloff.
Why don't you leave, Kosloff.
I've decided not to sell to you.
I told you to name a price.
I don't like huckster's tricks.
How much?
No sale.
Tell me how much!
It cost me $30.
Your money won't buy the diary,
neither will your temper.
Out.
How sweet of you, Carol.
How did you know I hadn't eaten all day?
I didn't know.
Mother fixed it for me.
But, my darling, you had something to eat
less than two hours ago.
Mother says young children need energy.
I'm surprised she didn't fix you Pablum.
What? Nothing.
Do you mind, darling?
I'm starving.
Ida, you're as subtle
as a slap in the face with a wet mackerel.
I don't know what you're talking about.
You hate milk
and I've never known you to be wild
about peanut butter sandwiches.
Well, mature women need energy.
You know, Ida, someday you're going to get fat
just trying to keep me from getting fat.
Take it.
I wasn't hungry anyway.
You're not hungry?
Something really must be bothering you.
Tell me.
Nothing.
Is it your mother?
Well
Now, come on.
You're talking to Ida.
We don't have any secrets.
What's Annie done now?
Tell me.
I'll handle it the way I always do.
It's what I've done.
What have you done, darling?
I took her diary.
Who is it?
All right, hold it.
All right, just drop the gun.
Welcome aboard.
All right, now throw your guns
into the middle of the room.
Over to the corner by the stairs.
All right, now, look.
I bought Annie off with a lead in my picture.
Now, that should have been enough.
It's a shame.
You don't have to believe it, Mannix.
You wouldn't have been touched if you gave over the book.
The guns were to make it look serious
in case there was trouble.
I believe it, Artie.
How much?
Hmm?
On your stomachs.
Come on, move.
On your stomachs, stay down.
Carol
Him? No.
As you were.
If he had really wanted me dead,
he would have sent his flunkies to do the job
and stayed away to establish an alibi.
Could I talk to you?
Go ahead.
I have to talk alone.
Carol, it's too late for secrets.
I talked to Ida.
I want I have to have the book back so she won't know.
We'll both take it back.
I was faked out.
The diary isn't the real motive.
If it had been, one of your mother's chums
would have been here trying to kill me
instead of offering to buy.
Then who?
Carol and I are leaving.
You won't know when or how.
If I were you, to be safe, I'd stay just the way I am
and I'd count to 7,000 by, uh, 13s.
Mannix, please, who?
If I'm right, you'll know soon enough.
Eh, eh, as you were, fellas.
Let's try the chaise.
Now look to the left, please, Miss Marion.
Oh, I never look to the left.
No photographs from that side.
Sam, I told you.
Sorry, Annie, we'll just shoot your good side.
Oh, that's okay, Tony.
Only don't release any of these
prints unless I okay them, hmm?
Sure, Annie.
It'll be a great spread.
Three pages all about you back at your favorite studio.
Have you got enough?
I don't know, maybe we ought to get another set.
He always wants another set.
We'll maybe use five.
You already got 50.
Okay.
Thank you, Miss Marion.
That's okay.
You're a doll, Annie.
Why don't you go get the car
and I'll get out of this rig, hmm?
Thank you, boys.
Good night.
Oh, uh
want me to wait around?
No, thanks, Tony, I'm okay.
Good night.
Good night. Good night.
She still looks pretty good.
A little retouching on the negatives,
you'll never guess her real age.
I hope not.
I'm cutting five years off her age
in this story.
Tony?
Ida?
Sam?
♪♪
You.
Good-bye, Annie.
Why?
Why, why?
Tell me.
Faithful, faithful Ida, hmm?
With you all these years and you never wondered why.
You won't.
I stayed with you because of Carol,
to protect her from you.
That time she tried to kill herself because of you,
I was the one who saved her.
Ida, Ida, for the love of Heaven,
you just can't kill a person.
But you're not a person.
What do you want me to do?
Tell me, Ida, tell me.
I've told you all these years.
I'm awake.
It's happening.
Wait!
No, you won't change.
You'll keep her a baby for the rest of her life.
Now, you don't know the truth about Carol.
She needs and loves us both.
She told me just today.
You all right?
Yes.
Ida.
She tried to kill me
because she thought I hadn't been a good mother.
Well, I've been more a mother to her than you have.
I've brought her up.
That's no reason to try and kill her.
You could go on raising Carol.
I'm not going on.
I've heard from my doctor
that in a month or two, I'll be dead.
Now what's going to happen?
I need someone to help me,
to take care of the press conference tomorrow,
call Otto, help serve the liquor.
Carol?
No.
When you need help for something important, call me.
What could be more important than?
What's got into her?
She could be growing up.
Press conference is tomorrow
wardrobe fittings.
Nothing's ready.