Reviews

This is an excellent episode with lots of good screen time for the lovely Gretchen Corbett as Beth, always an asset to any episode!

A couple classic old automotive clunkers show up in this entry, with Weeks driving a hideous AMC Pacer, and he and Jim making a get-away in an equally horrible (and cleverly pinched) Dodge Colt, complete with faux wood paneling AND a roof rack, that Jim describes to the wedding parking valet as a "company car"! The amazing thing is the way the Pacer speeds through scenic residential curves eluding police pursuit. One scene is clearly sped up through camera trickery to make it appear to be going even faster. By the way, the Pacer must have had a Maaco paint job at some time or other, as the blue exterior is revealed to be a re-paint over its original red color when the door is opened!

Rocky and Jim have another precious exchange of dialog around minute 23 (on the TV broadcast, not the DVD) when Jim is preparing lunch "al fresco" for the two of them:

Rocky: (suspicious) "Sayyyyy, these... these potatoes real?"

Jim: (defensively) "Whaddaya MEAN 'real'?"

Rocky: (plaintively) "You know I don't like those ready-made potatoes all cold, and frozen."

Jim: (dripping sarcasm) "The Galloping Gourmet.... Just EAT, will ya?"

Absolutely one of the best of the "Files". An excellent, well-constructed mystery plot, fine directing, almost Hitchcockian at times of peak suspense, well developed characters and, given the cast members, expectedly good acting.

Jim's brief scene with the charming Beth is wonderful, and her whimper as she closes the door when he leaves with Lori, his "old fishing buddy" (the beautiful young Sharon Gless), says more than a fully scripted scene of dialog could do to add to our understanding of her long-suffering and frustrated relationship with Jim.

Angel shows again why is he such a cherished and entertaining character in the series, pulling a fast-talking rent scam on Jim (who is not unaware), and displaying his formidable yellow streak in a crisis ending in a fast-paced shoot-out.

There's genuine violence in this episode too. One dead hit-man, another seriously injured in a fall to a concrete hangar floor from a jetliner door, and Dennis wounded in action between those two events. But Jim gets through the entire outing without taking a licking, or even bruising his knuckles on a bad guy's jaw!

James Garner's brother Jack is the MIA I mention in the title above. The television broadcast I viewed must have cut that scene in favor of an extra ad flogging soap flakes, so I missed seeing his turn as a mailman taking one for the postal service. Have to check out the DVD for that, I guess.

Enjoy this episode. It surely started season three off with a classic!