"The Rockford Files" Nice Guys Finish Dead (1979)

User Rating:

9.4/10   

Director:

John Patterson

Writers:

Stephen J. Cannell (creator)
Stephen J. Cannell (writer)

TV Series:

"The Rockford Files" (1974)

Original Air Date:

16 November 1979 (Season 6, Episode 7)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

The special guest of a P.I. convention dinner is found murdered in the restroom, and Jim unhappily finds himself once more having to team up with flawless Lance White, while accident prone Freddie Beamer tags along. |

Plot Keywords:

Police | Detective | Answering Machine | Sting Operation | Malibu

Cast

James Garner	...	Jim Rockford
Noah Beery Jr.	...	Joseph 'Rocky' Rockford #2 (credit only) (as Noah Beery)
Joe Santos	...	Police Det. Dennis Becker (credit only)
James Whitmore Jr.	...	Freddie Beamer
Tom Selleck	...	Lance White
Simon Oakland	...	Vern St. Cloud
Larry Manetti	...	Larry St. Cloud
Erica Hagen	...	Hypnotist Brandy Alexander
James Luisi	...	Lt. Doug Chapman
Joseph Bernard	...	Carmine DeAngelo
Fritzi Burr	...	Mrs. DeAngelo
Roscoe Born	...	TV Commentator
Fred Lerner	...	Carl Richman
Steve Jones	...	Newsman
Al Berry	...	Ed Fuller

Runtime:

60 min

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Roy Huggins-Public Arts Productions

Trivia:

Vern St. Cloud acquires a nickname: "the Hawk".

Quotes:

Jim Rockford: A state senator and a bus driver? What's the connection?
Lance White: Some things you just have to accept. You know, this is just a hunch, Jim, but I think the bus driver had something on the senator. Maybe the senator was having an affair with the bus driver's wife?
Jim Rockford: And just where did that come from?
Lance White: Hunches don't come from any place, Jim, they're just hunches. That's how we solve our cases. We get hunches, they turn out to be right, and the case gets solved. Gee, I don't know how you survive as a private investigator, Jim. You don't seem to know any of this stuff.

Character is Everything

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Even though Tom Selleck overplays Lance White a little on this second time around for the character. this is a must see "Rockford" episode.

Jim is a nominee at the Detective's Association convention where he's seated with Lance and the MC is Vern St. Cloud (Simon Oakland, making his third appearance as the character). Freddie Beamer (James Whitmore Jr.) crashes the convention and stumbles on the dead body of a state senator who was going to make a speech at the convention. Panicked, Beamer flees and thus becomes the prime suspect. It's up to Rockford and Lance White to prove him innocent.

Cannell has once again submitted a superior script--funny, loaded with character and yet some mystery as well. This is a good example of why Jim Rockford has been referred to as "the Jack Benny of private eyes". Everyone kind of treats him with disdain while admiring Lance (especially Lt. Chapman). Cannell spoofs the typical private eye show in his discussion about hunches, clues and Lance's "total recall". A real highlight is the scene in which Lance suggests they put Beamer under hypnosis to learn what the man looked like coming out of the room where he discovered the murderer man (a stocky, bald man in a red shirt and green pants, wearing a hat with a feather in it). Whitmore is great as Beamer, and a whole show in herself is the eye popping Erica Hagen as the hypnotist Brandy Alexander. Strangely this was her last role on record. I for one would certainly have loved to see more of her! (You can in "Soylent Green" where she plays one of the girls that comes with the apartment!)

Garner is great in dealing with his frustrations with Lance and Beamer (two extremes if ever there were) and then going back to try and find where he threw away his coveted Goodhew Award (at the time claiming it means nothing). Simon Oakland is just as gruff and boisterous and wrong as ever. Oakland would make one final appearance on the series, but not as St. Cloud in the dreary "Just a Coupla Guys" episode.

"Magnum" fans in particular should love this episode. It not only features Selleck as White but Larry Manetti, who played Rick Wright on "Magnum". Whitmore also appeared with the two on the series as Billy Jo Bob Little (as well as on "Bret Maverick").