Honey West "Like Visions and Omens... and All That Jazz" #1.21 (1966) (TV)

I never expected to run across Mimsy Farmer in a Honey West episode, 5 February 2010

There are a number of things I could point to that make Like Visions and Omens...and All That Jazz one of my favorite Honey West episodes. First, I really dug the plot. While some people might say it's pretty standard stuff (a rich woman is blackmailed for a gun that she thinks her daughter used to kill an old flame), it's handled so nicely here. The writing is as good as I've seen in a Honey West episode. Second, Like Visions and Omens...and All That Jazz features some of the best imagery of the entire series. I've read comparisons between Honey West and The Avengers, and for the most part, I've only noticed some surface similarities – but that's it. But in this episode, some of the scenes look like they could have come straight out of The Avengers. Two examples – there's one great scene looking up past a skull to the contorted face of Faustini, The Predictor. It's beyond cool! The other example is a scene shot from outside a curtained window with only Faustini's silhouette visible. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but with his cape raised, the outline is very Lugosi-like. I loved it! The third thing I enjoyed about this episode is the cast. Ann Francis and John Ericson as good as ever. Nehemiah Persoff (another of the actors whose name you may not recognize, but I guarantee you'd know the face) is terrific as Faustini. But the highlight for me was the casting of Euro-genre favorite Mimsy Farmer as the girl who's life is in danger. Farmer appeared in a number of wonderful Italian films like Dario Argento's Four Flies on Grey Velvet and Lucio Fulci's The Black Cat. It's a treat to unexpectedly run across her in Honey West.

So overall, Like Visions and Omens...and All That Jazz is a very entertaining Honey West episode. If I have one complaint, it's with the rushed feeling of some of the scenes. If any Honey West episode screamed-out for a longer runtime, it's this one. There just so much here that it could have easily filled an hour.

8/10