Lions, Tigers, Monkeys and Dogs

Poor Jim Rockford. As this two part episode begins James Garner has a dinner date and a reservation at a really snooty place. But he's left in line as a bunch of elegant snobs that include movie queens Dana Wynter and Lauren Bacall get fast tracked to a table. But during the course of conversation with the maitre'd it is dropped that Rockford is a well known private detective.

He gets hired by Dana Wynter the next day and for once doesn't have to dog a client about a bill. Garner's mission is to protect Lauren Bacall because someone is trying to kill her.

Someone does, something Garner successfully prevents and then spends the rest of the episode trying to track him down. That only leads to questions answered in the second part.

Wynter and Bacall are an interesting pair. Wynter is a princess, she's got money oozing from every pore and influence that makes even James Luisi cower when dealing with Garner.

As for Bacall she and Garner get sufficiently friendly to let it drop that she's quite the fraud. She's a woman who is schooled in the arts of societal behavior and protocol and as such she's a valuable hanger on with the beautiful people. Lauren is a lot like Florence Bates in Saratoga trunk, broke but with connections that keep her in the societal mix.

As we know two years after this episode Bacall and Garner co-starred in The Fan. A lot of that chemistry is found here and in the second part.