Rockford Files: I Still Love L.A.
                                     
Director: James Whitmore Jr.
Year:  1994
Rating: 6.5
The 1970's was a great time for cop/detective shows. The 60's belonged to the Western; the 70's to the crime show. There are so many shows that I look back fondly on and still watch from time to time - Kojak, Harry-O, Hawaii Five-O, Mannix, Columbo, McCloud, McMillan and Wife, Banacek, and hell even Barnaby Jones and The Streets of San Francisco were ok - but Rockford was my favorite. Hard to say why - James Garner I guess who was so perfect with his low-key charm and ready smile - he did his share of successful films but he was made for the small intimate box of television. I remember watching him on a talk show saying how he thought he was going to break big after The Great Escape but instead it was that damn guy on the motorcycle! But most of us Boomers think of him as Maverick or Rockford. The show ran for six years from 1974 - 1980 with 122 episodes. I think I have seen most of them!
But I hadn't realized or had forgotten that there were a few TV movies that came long afterwards - eight of them from 1994 to 1999. It must have been a time of nostalgia because they were also making TV movies of Perry Mason, Kojak and Columbo. All of these shows are great though through today's taste very square, predictable and forced into a one hour and done format. I kind of like that sometimes because having to watch a TV show in order all the way through can be a chore at times.



This is the first of the TV movies and it is almost like it never went anywhere. Rockford is still living at the beach though not in that trailer but something a bit nicer, Angel (Stuart Margolin) is still conning people and Becker (Joe Santos) is pissed off that he hasn't gotten a promotion to the big office! It has been a lot of years that he has been waiting! The only one missing is Rocky, Rockford's father, played by Noah Beery Jr. They act like he is there with a few phone calls and mentions of him - but he in fact passed away the same year as this. There is a sentimental moment when near the end Rockford picks up his photo, looks at it and smiles. He had had an amazing career going back to the silent era. He had been pretty much born into Hollywood as his father was a film actor and his uncle was Wallace Beery - a big star in the 1920s and 30's.



The film takes place over a few years in which Rockford noticeably limps through the LA Riots, a huge brush fire and an earthquake. He had been planning to leave LA but in the end announces he will stay - where else can you have that kind of variety. The limp was real. Garner's legs were shot and he was often in pain - caused by all the tumbles and falls he took during his career - it was the main reason the Rockford Files came to an end - he could not take the daily wear. An attorney Kit (Joanna Cassidy) comes to him to help investigate the murder of a friend of hers. Apparently, since the last show in the 1970's Rockford had been married to her! But no longer.




There is nothing particularly gripping about the case but it is nice to just sit back and watch the interplay between Rockford, Becker and Angel. Old TV friends. Looking at future shows I see that Santos was to appear in all of the TV movies as did Stuart Margolin. I always loved Angel in the TV series and was always disappointed when he didn't show up. Margolin is the only one still living of the three - he actually was in an X-File show in 2018.