James Garner directs this episode that takes Jim Rockford back to Bay City where he's been hired to find a way in to a big stakes card game and find out whether the game is straight or crooked.
The episode begins with director Garner starting on a close up of the Bay City sign and pulling out, instead of pushing in and then dissolving to the interior, as is usually done with an establishing shot. Garner's direction gets fancy when he and Kate Doyle (Blair Brown, at her most comely!) get out of the Firebird, walk up the stairs and in to Angel's house then down a hallway to his door. The camera follows them all the way in one terrific shot.
Garner also gets a good weaselly performance out of his friend Stuart Margolin as Angel, Brown as a deputy D.A. and even bit performer Julio Medina as a gardener. But perhaps the best performance director Garner gets is that of actor Garner. He is really in top form in this episode.
Having a terrific script helps and this one is a crackling mystery that starts off with nobody being who they say they are (including Rockford, who takes the identity of Angel's brother in law Aaron in this episode). There's a very funny scene where Rockford goes through a Jack in the Box restaurant and asks the clown to call the cops to get whoever is tailing him.
Jack Garner plays a cop that stops Blair Brown and Stacy Keach Sr. (Stacy Keach's dad) plays one of the Bay City Boys, Sy Mosher. He worked with Garner years earlier in two episodes of "Maverick" (including "Ghost Rider").
Rocky (Noah Beery Jr.) does not appear in the episode, except for leaving a message on Jim's answering machine during the opening.
The episode begins with director Garner starting on a close up of the Bay City sign and pulling out, instead of pushing in and then dissolving to the interior, as is usually done with an establishing shot. Garner's direction gets fancy when he and Kate Doyle (Blair Brown, at her most comely!) get out of the Firebird, walk up the stairs and in to Angel's house then down a hallway to his door. The camera follows them all the way in one terrific shot.
Garner also gets a good weaselly performance out of his friend Stuart Margolin as Angel, Brown as a deputy D.A. and even bit performer Julio Medina as a gardener. But perhaps the best performance director Garner gets is that of actor Garner. He is really in top form in this episode.
Having a terrific script helps and this one is a crackling mystery that starts off with nobody being who they say they are (including Rockford, who takes the identity of Angel's brother in law Aaron in this episode). There's a very funny scene where Rockford goes through a Jack in the Box restaurant and asks the clown to call the cops to get whoever is tailing him.
Jack Garner plays a cop that stops Blair Brown and Stacy Keach Sr. (Stacy Keach's dad) plays one of the Bay City Boys, Sy Mosher. He worked with Garner years earlier in two episodes of "Maverick" (including "Ghost Rider").
Rocky (Noah Beery Jr.) does not appear in the episode, except for leaving a message on Jim's answering machine during the opening.