The Rockford Files (TV Series) This Case Is Closed (1974) User Reviews

A Different File

[zsenorsock · 7/10 · 23 September 2006]

This episode is particularly interesting because of the differences between it and most episodes of the series. Right from the top, there is a different camera shot across the desk as the phone machine takes the incoming message. The cards and picture of Rocky are there, but the shot is hand held and wider than the one we usually see. After Jim's trailer is trashed, he asks Rocky to clean it up for him. But in a line written more for Robert Donley's characterization of Rocky in the pilot, Jim then asks: "how much is it gonna cost me?" Noah Berry Jr. immediately answers with all the warmth and love he brought to the role saying "Oh go on, I'm still your father, I ain't gonna charge you!" In one little moment we see how much better this show is with the right man playing Rocky. In other small changes, Rockford's trailer is parked in a different lot than the usual Paradise cove location we're used to seeing and its photographed differently on the outside--the trailer door now faces to the north rather than the south. Okay, maybe these differences aren't all that interesting to you, but they were to me!

The episode itself is rather solid with Joseph Cotton making a wonderful arrogant client for Rockford. It's too bad he did not return to the series. It originally aired as a 90 minute movie. The syndication version cuts it up into two episodes.

Combo Jams!

[thmoorer · 9/10 · 28 January 2021]

While watching this episode I found a new vibe in the soundtrack in the front half. Would not be surprised if some later superstars weren't moonlighting on the set. Groovy sound.

No one clues him in

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 8 February 2013]

Joseph Cotten and Sharon Gless are the guest stars in this expanded 90 minute Rockford Files episode where poor James Garner is left in the dark almost to the end in terms of just what is going on. Cotten and Gless are father and daughter, rich father and rich daughter that is.

Gless is about to be married to a man who never has a word of dialog, but who is described in great detail by Cotten and Gless. Of course their assessments are radically different. Cotten wants his prospective son-in-law investigated as a more than concerned father as the episode reveals.

The very minute Rockford starts poking around though he gets totally stonewalled and given lots of persuasion to be discouraged, the Feds, some gangsters, the Newark Police because Cotten suspects the man originated from Newark, all of them don't help a bit. In fact they're downright unfriendly.

At one point though I didn't see why James McEachin representing the FBI should not have just clued Rockford in as to what he was getting involved in. I won't because you might want to see the episode to find out. I think some will guess, still though it's not a bad Rockford Files show.

This Case Is Ruined -- by an excruciatingly padded re-edit

[rudyardk · 3/10 · 7 October 2015]

Originally aired as a ninety minute presentation, the only print of this episode now available seems to be a version prepared for syndication, which re-edits the material into two one-hour episodes. This means that an extra 25 minutes of footage was needed to fill the new running time...and here's (roughly) how it breaks down:

• An extra opening and closing theme eats up 90 seconds.

• There's a brief episode 2 preview at the end of episode 1, lasting maybe a minute.

• There's a seven-minute recap of episode 1 at the beginning of episode 2.

• Even with the recap, the closing scene of episode 1 (with Rocky and Jim) is partially repeated (though edited) in the opening moments of episode 2. Another minute gobbled up.

• Every single time any character goes somewhere by car (which happens a LOT in this episode), we are treated to long, loving stock footage recreations of their journey. Shots are reused and repeated frequently, in order to lengthen the on-screen travel time; it doesn't take too much skill to notice cars going around the same corner again and again. This footage of cars essentially driving in circles takes up a good ten or more minutes of screen time.

• Stock footage of a plane landing is seen twice. Another minute or so.

• Any time someone retrieves information via computer? Long, tedious footage of whirring 1970s computers and/or punch cards are shown. Another precious 30 seconds added.

• When we see the Federal building, we then see pointless stock footage of office workers inside, stretching things for maybe another 15 seconds

• Most egregiously, three short, completely disposable (and poorly-acted) scenes are ineptly added in. All three scenes are shot so that no character is seen on-screen, even though dialogue is spoken. The first of these scenes has a police lieutenant giving orders to a subordinate (heard over an interoffice talk-box). The second "extra" scene features some particularly terrible voice actors talking about the results of a fire, over much stock footage of ambulances at a night-time crime scene. And the third added scene is -- against all odds -- an even bigger waste of time, with characters in The Federal Buliding discussing Rockford's arrival, again over an intercom. All told, maybe another two minutes here.

That's a grand total of 25 minutes of momentum-destroying footage that makes this two-part episode almost unwatchable. Mind you, there's a good story under all this mess, and some scenes with James Garner and Joseph Cotten that really crackle. (Sharon Gless is very good, too.) But the utterly maddening padding just never lets up; a full quarter of this two-part episode is made up of boring, repetitive, inept, and/or redundant footage, and it just kills any momentum dead.

Why Bernard Kowalski agreed to keep his name on this re-edited farce is beyond me. If ever something called out for an Allen Smithee credit? This two-part hatchet job is it.

tediously overlong

[grizzledgeezer · 5/10 · 9 April 2015]

I haven't seen every episode of "The Rockford Files", but it was a consistently high-quality program, with Jim investigating all types of crimes, not just the implausible murders that make most other crime shows generally unbelievable.

Of course, every series has poor episodes, and this one (along with its second part) is a, if not the, series' low point.

The problem isn't the story, which has the Feds trying to keep Jim from learning the truth about a man Joseph Cotton (yes, that Joseph Cotten) doesn't want his daughter to marry. There's only one logical reason why, but Stephen J Cannell's smart dialog effectively distracts the viewer.

A lot of distraction is needed, as this is a five-pound story packed in a ten-pound sack. (Yes, you read that right.) It's spread over two episodes, with plane flights, long car rides, and Jim being repeatedly kidnapped. One suspects this was done for budgetary and/or scheduling problems (not unlike Star Trek's "The Cage").

It's a tedious bore, and the brisk, tight ending suggests that the rest of the original screenplay must have been a lot tighter.

Of course, any "Rockford Files" episode is better than the best episodes from just about any other crime series. But this one is far from the series' best.

Rockford tries his hand at National level Private Investigation!

[AddisonPhillips · 2 October 2010]

Opening scene -- International Airport, big jet coming in for a landing. Nice guitar theme song support, differing from the typical harmonica improvisation.

Jim flying back from somewhere, on a case for Mr. Prentice. Things went weird and he calls in on a pay phone, to his client immediately after getting on the ground. Mr. Rockford always tries to be completely professional with a new client. Right off, someone is tailing him. Someone driving what looks like a stealthy gray 73 Ventura.

Jim Rockford, veteran P. I., uses a slick trick to gain the upper hand of his pursuer. Bumping a triumph TR 6 past the automated ticket server, he hastily gains precious time and ticket-less access to a private parking lot. The guy following him, wastes time getting a parking slip from the machine, searches in vain for Rockford in the parking lot, only to be spooked as he exits the parking lot -- the sleuth effectively scares him into backing up, thereby popping his tires on the security teeth at the parking lot's exit. This way, Rockford sizes up his opponent while losing him and leaving him disabled. Trouble is, when he gets back to his trailer-by-the-sea, he finds it ransacked!

Using his, put on southern suavity, Jim is able to sweet talk the girl at the DMV, over the phone, into giving out the owner's name of the 67 Chevy coupe. A whole room full of 70s computers whir and click while tape drives seek and search and card readers shuffle, producing Martin Fishback, 237 Wilson Drive Los Angeles. This rings a bell in Rockford's real computer and he confirms it: the Fishback Detective agency clearly listed in the 3 inch thick Yellow Pages. "Full surveillance, Electronic Debugging, bonded and licensed!" Blindfolded with Ray Charles style glasses, these thugs take Rockford away in the back of a big Lincoln. Iron gates reluctantly allow Jim's abductors to enter the lavish wooded estate and into the Tudor style home of the bad guy that wants to know who Rockford's client is. He's a swarthy looking foreigner and easily issues a death sentence for Jim's intent to keep his client's name anonymous. Naturally, this seems a little bit to steep a penalty for this private Dick to pay, "is it really that important to you, Mr. Rockford, take a couple minutes to think about it, I would really like to know", rolls around through Jim's head, causing us to consider the value of client confidentiality as we segue to an upscale party at "Marks".

The next thing we know, Jim is "outed" to Susan Jameson -- he's not really a Corporate Profile Analyst after all -- she's definitely mixed up in all this, maybe even owns the place. A tastefully placed white wooden sign proclaims private property -- W. Jameson. Turns out, this is the guy Jim's working for. And old man Jameson just wants to get some dirt on this Mark Charlmers, an apparently "squeaky clean" good-looking war hero and all-around great guy that his daughter is engaged to. Only, something's not quite right. Charlmers high class, ivy-league accent translates to gutter Jersey as soon as he's a couple of points down in handball, claims old man Jameson.

Jim wants out of this babysitting business, but his client threatens to use his influence to foul up his business and possibly get his trailer evicted from the beach. Both of these men play their best game of dirty pool and then wind up seeing eye to eye as old man Jameson talks about his concern over Talmadge street in Newark.

A getting-to-be-familiar and ominously catchy tune repeats in the background as Rockford comes up against the police Lt. in Newark. "Larry Pearson" is oddly familiar to us, looking a lot like one of the goons which gave Jim a hard time in the beginning of the show. Now, if you don't know our hero Jim Rockford I'll just tell you that he's not about to be shaken off a case, simply by some vague threats from the police. Back in his Newark hotel, yet a couple more tie wearing riffraff claiming to be the Chamber of Commerce (Charlmers of Commerce?) are interested in who he is working for. More license plates are revealed and it turns out these goons are more polite -- leaving a note in the ashtray telling Rockford where his distributor rotor is! Can you remember the license plate number as they drive off? Well he can't, so we're back to LA, only, now we realize, this whole bit has all been a daydream in the Tudor style mansion on the wooded estate that Jim has had while waiting for his death sentence.

Not off the property for a long, the big Lincoln, caring Jim Rockford, apparently to his demise is met with the FBI -- the Organized Crime Strike Force -- it's a rare episode where the police seem to be on Rockford's side. The plot thickens. The boys in blue have been tailing him these federal criminals since Jim was taken, "apparently against his wishes", from his trailer this morning. Torrance Beck is the big little guy in the Tudor which the Feds are interested in. They won't tell Jim anything so he refuses to sign the complaint of kidnapping and leaves their offices in a huff. Understandably keyed up, he nearly clocks is dad who shows up at the trailer, suspiciously willing to spruce up Jimmy's trashed trailer. Another call from his benefactor, this time Jim is saying what's what and where they will meet, and this is where we hang on the cliff until the next episode.