"The Rockford Files" Find Me If You Can (1974)

Avaliação/utilizador:

8,3/10   

Diretor:

Lawrence Doheny

Escritores:

Juanita Bartlett (teleplay)
Roy Huggins (story)

Seriado de TV:

"The Rockford Files" (1974)

Data de Estréia Original:

1 Novembro 1974 (Temporada 1,Episódio 9)

Gênero:

Crime | Drama | Suspense

Argumento:

Plot Keywords:

Car Chase | Police | Detective | Answering Machine | Sting Operation

Comentários dos utilizadores:

Rock Solid

Elenco

James Garner	...	Jim Rockford
Noah Beery Jr.	...	Joseph 'Rocky' Rockford #2 (as Noah Beery)
Joan Van Ark	...	Barbara Kelbaker / Florence Baker (as Joan Van Arc)
Paul Michael Glaser	...	Ralph Correll
Joe Santos	...	Police Det. Dennis Becker
Richard Drout Miller	...	Sergeant Doane
Joseph Stern	...	Asst. D. A. Morgan Tallman
Jimmy Lydon	...	Wyatt (as James Lydon)
Adrian Ricard	...	Miss Betty Connor

Rock Solid

*** Este comentário pode conter spoilers ***

It's never good to deceive Jim Rockford. But that's what Joan Van Ark does (and will do in later episodes) at the beginning, middle and end of this episode.

She plays a harried woman who calls on Jim and asks for his services to find a missing person. That missing person is her, or she, or whichever pronoun works in this sentence. As we later find out, this damsel in distress is not who she says she is and is using a private eye in order to see if her small time mobster boyfriend would be able to find her.

James Garner is great in this one - he knows he's being used, but he goes along with it, because he believes that his client is in danger. The common sense / morality struggle in Jim Rockford makes him such an engaging character, on the one hand, he wants to drop this case because it will more than likely get him killed. On the other hand, if he drops it, his client will more than likely take a bullet. There is also a great scene with Rocky that sets up the father / son relationship for the rest of the series.

This one travels a bit too, as he heads to Denver to investigate the mobster (I'm guessing not the first choice for a person interested in organized crime). He runs into some static with the police (shocker) and a lawyer who isn't Beth (again, I'm floored), but ends up getting timely and effective cooperation in the end. So much so, that I wonder why he didn't relocate his business to the Rocky Mountains. I mean, with his name, that would be a perfect fit! Anyway, solid episode, as most of them are. A question I have on the show is how much did Jim have to watch his back for all these mobsters he busted? From the geeky (Paul Michael Glaser) to the goofy (Abe Vigoda) to the awesome (Robert Loggia), he beat them all. Wouldn't you think either they or their goons would be sent to whack this guy who lives in the easiest to find house / office in California? I guess Denver mobsters are easier to put away than those David Chase later created in New Jersey.