The Monk stars
George Maharis as neither simian nor seminarian. Instead, he plays Gustavus "Gus" Monk, a San Francisco private eye/bodyguard created by
Blake Edwards. The Monk is hired by an underworld lawyer (William Smithers) to deliver an envelope containing damning information about a powerful gangster. Monk isn't interested until he meets the lawyer's sexy wife (
Janet Leigh)--and then he's off on a corpse-laden path of deceit and double-cross, with the man who hired him as Victim Number One. The Monk has a large cast of familiar faces (from
Jack Albertson to
Joe Besser) in its favor; unfortunately, this wasn't enough to secure a series sale for this one-shot TV pilot film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide