Dean Martin plays Frank Howell, owner of the Tropicana. He hires the Angels after one of his employees is run off the road in her car. She ends up dead and now Frank needs help.
Just like Season 2 opened with an on location two-parter (Hawaii), Season 3 follows suit with their own 2 part episode, this one shot partially in Las Vegas. The supporting cast is excellent, starting with Dean Martin as Frank Howell, a suave yet world weary casino boss who's seen it all. Vic Morrow plays a rival casino boss, Mark Haines, who might be up to no good. Dick Sargent, best known as the second Darren in Bewitched, plays a lounge singer with an axe to grind. Hill Street Blues' Michael Conrad plays a tough guy for hire, and Herb Edelman plays contract player Joey January, who wants to be released from his deal to play somewhere else. And Scatman Crothers plays Deano's close friend and longtime confidant Jip Baker.
The Angels go undercover, Kris as a singer to work with Sargent's Marty Cole. Kelly works as a dancer in a cabaret type show, as the murdered girl worked in the same job. Sabrina works as Martin's assistant, and finally Bosley works his typical menial job as a bellman out front.
Dean Martin's Howell has a romance with Sabrina, which quite frankly, was a bit icky and unrealistic. There's an awkward assassination attempt on Frank's life out at Lake Mead, followed by a boat chase. Why an assassin would choose such an open area is beyond me, I can only assume the producers thought it would be cool to have a boat chase instead of the usual car chase.
Cheryl Ladd sings in her audition for Dick Sargent, but sadly we never get to see her lounge act. And Kelly has her moment as a dancer but most of the footage seems like poorly shot stock footage and there's far too much of it for my taste. Just give us closeups of Jaclyn Smith, that's all we need.
There's a subplot involving James Hong as a mathematical genius who uses a calculator to try and bankrupt the Tropicana playing craps, and nearly does it. In real life, any kind of computing device would not be allowed near the casino floor. This episode has its moments, but overall it doesn't reach the same heights of Season 2's Hawaii two parter. And the May/December romance did not work at all. One final note, Robert Urich makes a cameo at the end of the show as Dan Tana, his character from Vegas. And it just reminds me that a Charlie's Angels/Vegas crossover would have been a much more fun show.
