McMillan & Wife (TV Series) An Elementary Case of Murder (1972) User Reviews

The Disappearing Baby.

[vestutoinglish · 8/10 · 25 June 2022]

We watched "McMillan and Wife", "Columbo", and "McCloud" as a family all the time and never questioned any episode, but one.

In season 1 episode 7(8) -"The Elementary Case of Murder" 1971 - Sally McMillan is pregnant. Entire scenes are devoted to that fact. And then....nothing. POOF!

The baby's GONE!

No birth. No explanation. No nothing! What?

How did this even get by anybody?? How?

Talk about your Television Mysteries....

All Eyes and Fingers Points to Lee!

[Sylviastel · 8/10 · 5 January 2019]

Barbara McNair played Lee Richards, a successful singer who has a terrible marriage to a husband. McNair deserved an Emmy for her performance. Lee's husband and his mistress goes missing. All eyes and fingers point to Lee's involvement. Mac does his best to defend his old friend. McNair also sings beautifully like Diana Ross. The surprise twist comes at the end o the episode.

Until It's Time For You to Go...

[moonspinner55 · 7/10 · 31 March 2024]

S01-E07 has Mac reuniting with an old flame, singer Lee Richards (Barbara McNair); she's in trouble when her estranged husband disappears just after a recording surfaces of the couple having an argument, ending with a gun shot and the sound of a body being dragged. Sally (a pregnant Susan Saint James) is bedbound, but she's quite wonderful here bristling at Mac's involvement with an ex-girlfriend, while the interracial detail is commendably never brought up (Rock Hudson and McNair even share a chaste kiss). One of the better early episodes, although when Mac puts the pieces of the mystery together, the details take a few minutes to sink in (something about a book of matches in the trash and frozen food that was thawed and then re-frozen!). The police commissioner never does find the body of the missing man (how well did the killer hide it?), but the interactions between the principals is well-accomplished. Writer Brad Radnitz ably rewrote a 1968 episode of his from "Ironside", titled "An Obvious Case of Guilt". Good show.

Mac for the defense

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 2 December 2015]

Rock Hudson gets a little too close for this one. An old girl friend, singer Barbara McNair is accused of murdering her husband whose body has not been found. But the District Attorney Martin E. Brooks is hot to trot to indict her. Nevertheless the old criminal attorney now Commissioner of San Francisco's police Stewart McMillan is aroused and the resources of the San Francisco Police Department are turned into use for the defense. Even Sergeant Enright follows orders, but he thinks his boss is putting his job in jeopardy.

A couple of vocals from Barbara McNair is an asset to this episode. I kind of saw where this was going, but it was still an enjoyable ride.

Most ridiculous episode ever!

[kendra-karbowski · 3/10 · 25 February 2023]

Beyond what other reviews have said about the disappearing baby, there's the crime itself. No one asks how a petite woman moved & lifted a body into a trunk & freezer? Don't get me started on the lack of gloves & contamination of the crime scene! Why tack this episode on to a finished season when one of the main stars is pregnant with a baby that'll never be mentioned again? Sally could've taken a trip with her mother or her aunt to excuse her absence. This episode could've been better if it'd been more plausible.

I grew up loving this show & watch it now because of the actors but this script wasn't great.

The Philandering Husband Murder Case

[profh-1 · 5/10 · 19 March 2024]

Sally is pregnant! And just then, an old (and formerly-serious) girlfriend of Mac's calls to ask for help, because her abusive, cheating and embezzling husband wants a divorce. That's when the cops suddenly show up, having found evidence-- including a tape-recording-- that indicate she may have murdered her husband. The problem is, nobody can find a body. Both the D. A. and Sgt. Enright think she's guilty, but Mac believes she isn't, and goes far beyond the call of duty to find evidence that he's right.

McMillan & Wife often had some very unique mysteries in its run, and I'd say this was definitely another one... except for 2 things. One: just 3 WEEKS earlier, COLUMBO had an episode where no one could find the body, so most people didn't believe there even was a murder. Two: it seems writer Brad Ranitz actually REUSED his script for a 1968 episode of IRONSIDE and expanded it here. The nerve of some people!

I also suspect Radnitz may have been at least partially paying tribute to a bit of Chandler's "The Big Sleep", as we never see the murder victim, and, another murder victim's body is found in a lake.

Martin E. Brooks makes his first of 6 appearances as "District Attorney Chapman", who accuses Mac of being too personally involved, and warns him that if the press come looking for him, he'll eagerly point them right at Mac.

Michael Ansara (STAR TREK: "Day Of The Dove") is "Ben Matthews", a nightclub owner who may have had reasons to kill the missing husband.

Selma Diamond (NIGHT COURT) has a cameo as a gas station attendant questioned about 2 missing people.

Barbara McNair (THEY CALL ME MISTER TIBBS!, THE ORGANIZATION), a singer in real life as she was in this story, is Mac's old flame "Lee Richards". Reading her bio, it's shocking just how close to home this episode would prove to be, as her real-life husband was murdered by the mob in late 1976, and the following year her accountant was charged with embezzling.

When this episode was made, Susan St. James was pregnant. Rather than hide it or write her out of the episode, her pregnancy was made a big part of the story. Yet when the show returned the next season, it was never mentioned. We have to assume there was a miscarriage, but it really makes you question the integrity of either the producers or the network, who insisted this episode be made after production for the season had officially ended.