Ironside (TV Series) Contract: Kill Ironside (1971) User Reviews

Profile of a hit man and some impressive direction

[TopekaBob · 9/10 · 25 January 2022]

Season 5 essentially starts with this episode (as the first episode is a special pilot for the new series "Sarge") and it's without Eve Whitfield nor her new replacement. Ironside is good old Ironside, although his hair seems a bit lighter, he's a bit more confrontational, and he gets to fire a gun.

This episode has several interesting aspects: A small one is Marion Ross, "Mrs. Cunningham," appears as the hitman's wife. She shows up in various TV series' before making her name on "Happy Days." Most notably in a standout episode of "Thriller." The main thrust is the semi-tortured soul and psychological profile of the hitman. He's a killer and knows it but in a few scenes seems to acknowledge that he's rather not be and that he knows he's going to hell. The scene where he confesses to his father is excellent, and when Ironside shoots him dead at the end one interpretation is that he's being put out of his misery.

There's also a fantastic scene where the hitman imagines how it's going to play out when he kills Ironside, and this is portrayed in slow motion on film. Where have we seen this done before? In the 2009 Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr! For a 1970's 46 minute episodic TV series, it's impressive! Enjoy!

Hitmen Are People Too

[jtorci · 10/10 · 6 June 2022]

Decades before The Sopranos helped "humanize" stone cold killers, we find this remarkable episode of Ironside blazing that trail.

Marvin Bosner (James Olsen), renowned contract killer with a perfect record dating back nearly twenty years, and with a unique calling card consisting of a small charge of plastic explosive as a warning of the "hit-ee's" inevitable demise, is also examined from the "flip-side" of his double life.

Ostensibly a traveling salesman, with a suburban home, two teenage children, an elderly father whom he reveres, and married to Marion Ross ("America's Other Mom", after June Lockhart), Marvin Bosner is anything but what he appears to be. ...And, to make matters more interesting, he is both extremely proud of what he does, and is internally conflicted by it, increasingly becoming a walking contradiction.

To season that mix all the more is that (as many who have worked at a job for a very long time can attest), his "proper" and planned methods, while still perfect, are now questioned by his employer as being old fashioned and outmoded. Said employer introduces a young turk noted for blasting away with a sawed-off shotgun at close range to be imposed upon Marvin as a "partner". Naturally, Marvin bristles at the very thought of being burdened with such a classless hothead - calling him a "kid" - his pride in his work justifiably injured.

Such depth of character for a one-time role was rare in the age of episodic television, but it is on full display here. Highly recommended!

Above average episode

[searchanddestroy-1 · 11 September 2017]

Nothing exceptional in this episode, but the killer character is rather interesting, although that's not the first time that Ironside is the target of a killer. This is not DAY OF THE JACKAL but, I repeat, very worth watching. You can feel some empathy for the assassin, and that's rather unusual in the show. Don't miss the scene, at the beginning, where he is shown as an ordinary family man. Good stuff that emerges from the average series. Abrupt but delicious ending.

Well-Done Contract Killer

[amorehl · 10/10 · 20 June 2023]

Ironside is scheduled to testify before the Grand Jury, and the object of their scrutiny is desperate to keep that from happening. This was an intriguing show for me because only the day before I had watched a McMillan & Wife episode where James Olson also played a contract killer (and I'm sure these were not the only 2 times he'd done so). His disdain for the back-up, amateurish, blast-anything-that-moves hitman that his boss hired to support him was quite funny. A great character actor, Olson wasn't a bad looking man, but whenever you'd see him, you'd just cringe, because you knew he was a "bad guy." Here, he was a more meticulous hit man, yet he was unsuccessful again. What are the odds?! His denouement was sudden, surprising, and satisfying.