Episode #65 "Knock, Knock...Who's There?

[ViceFanMan]

Been watching the original Mission: Impossible TV series, and tonight was watching a season 6 episode (“The Encounter”) from 1971 & one of the guest stars I knew I knew her, but at first I couldn’t quite place her...then suddenly I realized it was a very young Elizabeth Ashley (before the cigarette-induced, gravely voice ) or better known in this episode of MV, as DEA agent Linda Colby!

[Mr. Vigilante]

I'd never guess that was her!  Pretty lady!

[ViceFanMan]

6 minutes ago, Mr. Vigilante said:

I'd never guess that was her!  Pretty lady!

...pettier than by the time she was on MV. 

[Bren10]

Beware coffee and cigarettes, ladies.

[ViceFanMan]

42 minutes ago, Bren10 said:

Beware coffee and cigarettes, ladies.

Lol...definitely the cigarettes!   Nothin’ like a little death-tar-nicotine-arsenic rattle.   

Edited February 16, 2020 by ViceFanMan

[TylerDurden389]

In an alternate universe, that actress played Lois Lane in the Superman movies lol. Her and Margot could've played twins back then. Funny thing about smoking and what it does to your voice is, I remember watching Don's first movie (can't remember the name of it) when he was only around 20 years old, and even back then he already hadthe scratchy Crockett voice. Dude must've started lighting up when he was 12 lol.

 

[ViceFanMan]

14 hours ago, TylerDurden389 said:

In an alternate universe, that actress played Lois Lane in the Superman movies lol. Her and Margot could've played twins back then. Funny thing about smoking and what it does to your voice is, I remember watching Don's first movie (can't remember the name of it) when he was only around 20 years old, and even back then he already hadthe scratchy Crockett voice. Dude must've started lighting up when he was 12 lol.

 

Yeah, Margot Kidder was a heavy smoker too...but I think Elizabeth Ashley had a deeper, raspier voice, lol! I think smoking affects women’s voices worse than men, though. 

[Buddy Love]

Any ideas why Stroh was so much on Sonny’s case? Flash vice cops maybe, but he seemed to have no problem with Rico. Seemed more intense and personal with Sonny.

Does Stroh ever appear again?

[Dadrian]

13 minutes ago, Buddy Love said:

Any ideas why Stroh was so much on Sonny’s case? Flash vice cops maybe, but he seemed to have no problem with Rico. Seemed more intense and personal with Sonny.

Does Stroh ever appear again?

Yeah. He’s actually all over Tubbs in “Amen...Send Money”. 

[AndrewRemington]

Pretty good episode here! A bit sad, but many of the good/great episodes of Vice had sad moments... Especially sad endings. This episode felt kind of like a season 2 episode to me, but also fitting with season 3 for the most part.

I love when Crockett says, "Suck eggs, pal!" to Stroh!  If you caught Don's 1985 interview on Letterman, he said he doesn't like eggs. Sad, because I love to have eggs every morning if I wake up early enough!

 

[ViceFanMan]

1 hour ago, AndrewRemington said:

Pretty good episode here! A bit sad, but many of the good/great episodes of Vice had sad moments... Especially sad endings. This episode felt kind of like a season 2 episode to me, but also fitting with season 3 for the most part.

I love when Crockett says, "Suck eggs, pal!" to Stroh!  If you caught Don's 1985 interview on Letterman, he said he doesn't like eggs. Sad, because I love to have eggs every morning if I wake up early enough!

 

Very tragic, but moving & profound episode! This is definitely one of the more noir-ish ones. 

This was back in the day before TV shows were allowed to cuss much, and they’d use words like scum or dirt-bag, or chump, or maggot, lol! I actually miss those days...it still got the point across without all the unintelligent “locker-room” talk of nowadays, that seems to only try & fit as many cuss words into one sentence as they can...to try and sound “cool”. 

[AndrewRemington]

2 hours ago, ViceFanMan said:

Very tragic, but moving & profound episode! This is definitely one of the more noir-ish ones. 

This was back in the day before TV shows were allowed to cuss much, and they’d use words like scum or dirt-bag, or chump, or maggot, lol! I actually miss those days...it still got the point across without all the unintelligent “locker-room” talk of nowadays, that seems to only try & fit as many cuss words into one sentence as they can...to try and sound “cool”. 

Aw man, I agree with you! I’m not a big fan of excessive profanity even though there are movies I love with excessive profanity. It seems more intelligent to use other words than just curse words.

[ivoryjones]

There's a character named Balcala that was in the shooting with Brian Adams music. He tries to make a deal with Crockett and Tubbs on the next scene. Could never get the name of the actor, which, if I am not wrong, is possibly the same one that played small roles on "The Home Invaders" (the police officer shot by the invaders crew member played by Esai Morales) and "Hit List" (the SWAT team guy who says "Would you sit on your hands, Crockett" on the night club just a little before Mendez is caught). All of those roles seem to be uncredited, even IMDB ignores them.... Whoever was his agent was in the wrong business, would have a hell of a career on the secret service... 

[Dadrian]

15 minutes ago, ivoryjones said:

There's a character named Balcala that was in the shooting with Brian Adams music. He tries to make a deal with Crockett and Tubbs on the next scene. Could never get the name of the actor, which, if I am not wrong, is possibly the same one that played small roles on "The Home Invaders" (the police officer shot by the invaders crew member played by Esai Morales) and "Hit List" (the SWAT team guy who says "Would you sit on your hands, Crockett" on the night club just a little before Mendez is caught). All of those roles seem to be uncredited, even IMDB ignores them.... Whoever was his agent was in the wrong business, would have a hell of a career on the secret service... 

I believe @RedDragon86 was alluding to some of this in a trivia yesterday. “Maybe you two could work together”. 

[jpaul1]

On 2/16/2020 at 12:29 AM, ViceFanMan said:

Been watching the original Mission: Impossible TV series, and tonight was watching a season 6 episode (“The Encounter”) from 1971 & one of the guest stars I knew I knew her, but at first I couldn’t quite place her...then suddenly I realized it was a very young Elizabeth Ashley (before the cigarette-induced, gravely voice ) or better known in this episode of MV, as DEA agent Linda Colby!

great post. she would have made a great Miami vice 2006 actress, don't you think.  . more seriously according to wikipedia she is a pretty active actress. she played in lot of movies/series, including the six millions man

[ViceFanMan]

1 hour ago, ivoryjones said:

There's a character named Balcala that was in the shooting with Brian Adams music. He tries to make a deal with Crockett and Tubbs on the next scene. Could never get the name of the actor, which, if I am not wrong, is possibly the same one that played small roles on "The Home Invaders" (the police officer shot by the invaders crew member played by Esai Morales) and "Hit List" (the SWAT team guy who says "Would you sit on your hands, Crockett" on the night club just a little before Mendez is caught). All of those roles seem to be uncredited, even IMDB ignores them.... Whoever was his agent was in the wrong business, would have a hell of a career on the secret service... 

I don’t think Izzy’s goofy-creepy driver, ‘Manny’, has ever been identified, either...and IMDB offers nothing to who he was? 

[AndrewRemington]

1 hour ago, ViceFanMan said:

I don’t think Izzy’s goofy-creepy driver, ‘Manny’, has ever been identified, either...and IMDB offers nothing to who he was? 

That is really odd! If anybody could identify him, it’d probably be Martin Ferrero! It seems like the guy who plays Manny would have identified himself online by now. I’d be riding on my high horse if I had anything to do with MV!

[ViceFanMan]

8 hours ago, AndrewRemington said:

That is really odd! If anybody could identify him, it’d probably be Martin Ferrero! It seems like the guy who plays Manny would have identified himself online by now. I’d be riding on my high horse if I had anything to do with MV!

I’ve always thought this, too! It’s always made me wonder whatever happened to him?

[ViceFanMan]

This is one of the very few episodes that over years/decades and time, I’ve pretty much completely changed my mind on. I used to not really care much for this one...but I’ve really come to enjoy it, and I now consider it one of the “gems” of the season! 

“Knock, Knock” was a sad, deep & tragic episode...but totally understandable for Linda. Elizabeth Ashley (Linda Colby) is a very good actress, and has done a lot in her career. You knew she was making wrong and bad decisions...but you knew why! You felt for her, and Chuck, and I as a viewer wanted to help them...but of course they have to play it out. 

The tragedy behind Linda's motives makes them totally understandable...but you also know nothing good would eventually come of it, and she'd ultimately face the consequences for her choices. Very film noir! 

The colors and lighting again were awesome--love the neon green against the buildings (like they used in "Lend Me an Ear") and the neon pink hallway at the end--where Crockett chased Montoya down, was superb! Also, the alternating pink and teal flashing lights in Montoya's club were very MV! 

However, despite the colors I mentioned above, there were many "dark" aspects as well (both figuratively and literally)--and more night scenes than some of the other episodes. There are other "dark" episodes of the series, by all means, but this one just seemed to focus more on the tragic-conflict aspects...which again is very much film noir--there's a conflict or tragedy and some or all of the main character/s do things that we can identify with...but know they're the wrong or bad choices & ultimately the outcome is not going to be roses & candy...all amongst a dark & shadowy background/backdrop.

I know MV was created to be and considered a modern (for its time) neo-noir show, even though it used colors, lighting, and MTV video-type aspects as well. It was superbly done, and in my opinion this episode is one of the superb noir examples! 

Izzy was freakin' hilarious as the whacked-out, still-mannequin/mime thing, in the tidied tights, with the purple punk wig! What the heck??   ‘Love’ the jerk, Internal Affairs Stroh's receding hairline that he tried to compensate with a mullet. That looked stupid even in the 80s!

I also loved the music in this one...as always Jan Hammer's themes were perfect! But, even though most here have gone on about Bryan Adams song (Heat of the Night) used in the episode...my favorite song was Underwater Boys by Shriekback! That was an awesome, “haunting” & captivating song and a perfect one for any episode of MV! Ride Across the River by Dire Straits was pretty cool too.

The only issue (and it’s not that big a deal at all) I sort of still have with this episode is, I felt Elizabeth Ashley looked a little too old for the part she was playing. She sort of looked like she could have been her husband Chuck's mother...and her 8 year old son Brian's grandma.  Also...the lady seriously needed to lay off the cigarettes! She practically had a deeper voice than Crockett's cigarette-induced "gravel".  But, she's an amazing actress & still alive and acting today...so I hope by now Ashley's given up smoking. FYI, she also narrated/voice-hosted a documentary on MV while the show was still on (probably sometime during Season 4).

 I just really like the plot, performances, the noir aspects, the MV lighting & colors, the music, etc... I originally gave this a 6. If I had bothered to really focus and realize the complexity & captivation it offers, and if I was given the opportunity to change it, I would have given it a 9-9.5! 

Edited July 5, 2021 by ViceFanMan

[RedDragon86]

On 7/5/2021 at 9:58 PM, ViceFanMan said:

This is one of the very few episodes that over years/decades and time, I’ve pretty much completely changed my mind on. I used to not really care much for this one...but I’ve really come to enjoy it, and I now consider it one of the “gems” of the season! 

“Knock, Knock” was a sad, deep & tragic episode...but totally understandable for Linda. Elizabeth Ashley (Linda Colby) is a very good actress, and has done a lot in her career. You knew she was making wrong and bad decisions...but you knew why! You felt for her, and Chuck, and I as a viewer wanted to help them...but of course they have to play it out. 

The tragedy behind Linda's motives makes them totally understandable...but you also know nothing good would eventually come of it, and she'd ultimately face the consequences for her choices. Very film noir! 

The colors and lighting again were awesome--love the neon green against the buildings (like they used in "Lend Me an Ear") and the neon pink hallway at the end--where Crockett chased Montoya down, was superb! Also, the alternating pink and teal flashing lights in Montoya's club were very MV! 

However, despite the colors I mentioned above, there were many "dark" aspects as well (both figuratively and literally)--and more night scenes than some of the other episodes. There are other "dark" episodes of the series, by all means, but this one just seemed to focus more on the tragic-conflict aspects...which again is very much film noir--there's a conflict or tragedy and some or all of the main character/s do things that we can identify with...but know they're the wrong or bad choices & ultimately the outcome is not going to be roses & candy...all amongst a dark & shadowy background/backdrop.

I know MV was created to be and considered a modern (for its time) neo-noir show, even though it used colors, lighting, and MTV video-type aspects as well. It was superbly done, and in my opinion this episode is one of the superb noir examples! 

Izzy was freakin' hilarious as the whacked-out, still-mannequin/mime thing, in the tidied tights, with the purple punk wig! What the heck??   ‘Love’ the jerk, Internal Affairs Stroh's receding hairline that he tried to compensate with a mullet. That looked stupid even in the 80s!

I also loved the music in this one...as always Jan Hammer's themes were perfect! But, even though most here have gone on about Bryan Adams song (Heat of the Night) used in the episode...my favorite song was Underwater Boys by Shriekback! That was an awesome, “haunting” & captivating song and a perfect one for any episode of MV! Ride Across the River by Dire Straits was pretty cool too.

The only issue (and it’s not that big a deal at all) I sort of still have with this episode is, I felt Elizabeth Ashley looked a little too old for the part she was playing. She sort of looked like she could have been her husband Chuck's mother...and her 8 year old son Brian's grandma.  Also...the lady seriously needed to lay off the cigarettes! She practically had a deeper voice than Crockett's cigarette-induced "gravel".  But, she's an amazing actress & still alive and acting today...so I hope by now Ashley's given up smoking. FYI, she also narrated/voice-hosted a documentary on MV while the show was still on (probably sometime during Season 4).

 I just really like the plot, performances, the noir aspects, the MV lighting & colors, the music, etc... I originally gave this a 6. If I had bothered to really focus and realize the complexity & captivation it offers, and if I was given the opportunity to change it, I would have given it a 9-9.5! 

Gone back to my original thoughts, it's depressing and Linda is an annoying, also her problems are over the top, Dick Wolf might as well have gave her a serious illness. 6/10 at best. 

Another dodgy season 3 episode, like so many over the half way point. 

Edited October 15, 2021 by RedDragon86

[ViceFanMan]

2 hours ago, RedDragon86 said:

Great episode. The plot reminds me of Walter White in BB, going over the edge make end meet.

Definitely an awesome episode! I’ve not seen Breaking Bad before, but I’ve heard about it. 

[Jack Gretsky]

An okay episode.  The cop-going-dirty-to-pay-for-moppet's-medical-bills is hackneyed, but Ashley is good in the performance.  One of my favorite roles of hers is a 1970s TV movie called One of My Wives is Missing - a suspense tale loaded with one plot twist after another.  

All of the corrupt and/or fake cops in this reminds me of a line from Cruising - "There are probably more people out there pretending to be cops out there than there are real cops."

I like the atmospheric ("Stygian," as Miami Vice Wiki describes them) scenes between Linda Colby and the sinister Ian McShane's Montoya.  McShane was also excellent in a Magnum P.I. episode as a paranoid survivor of a Mau Mau attack.  

Nice festive setting for the climax.  (Except for that damned "mew mew mew" song.)  Everybody's having a good time until all hell breaks loose.  Sonny' belly slide is a fun touch.  And that all-pink hallway for Sonny and Montoya's showdown - surreal. 

And just when you thought Izzy couldn't get more ridiculous!....  

Edited September 19, 2021 by Jack Gretsky

[Sebax]

On 7/17/2020 at 6:20 PM, AndrewRemington said:

Pretty good episode here! A bit sad, but many of the good/great episodes of Vice had sad moments... Especially sad endings. This episode felt kind of like a season 2 episode to me, but also fitting with season 3 for the most part.

I love when Crockett says, "Suck eggs, pal!" to Stroh!  If you caught Don's 1985 interview on Letterman, he said he doesn't like eggs. Sad, because I love to have eggs every morning if I wake up early enough!

 

Well in Latin America we call 'eggs' (huevos) to our balls. So it's something like "suck my balls!'

Decent episode. Sad and dark. Young Elizabeth Ashley reminds me of Audrey Hepburn.

7/10

Edited October 15, 2021 by Sebax

[RedDragon86]

I think it's a big flaw that Montoya was at OCB getting questioned because who arrested him?

The DEA were fake and Sonny and Rico were handcuffed also they wouldn't want their cover blown by reporting it.

Edited October 19, 2021 by RedDragon86

[Glades]

I watched this episode again the other day.  I really like it.

But I have a question for the forum members who are personally familiar with the U.S.: Stroh says to Crockett, "Open your palms, Crockett.  I'm nailing you to a cross."

Is that a more common phrase, a saying of some sort? Or is that an unusual, specific phrase?

In the U.S. one also says "amen" as an agreement to a statement, for example. Which is something I've never heard in Germany. In the U.S. it seems to simply have an affirmative meaning (?), in Germany you would think about what the person wants to say in a religious sense.