The Rockford Files (TV Series) The Girl in the Bay City Boys Club (1975) User Reviews

Wild Cards

[zsenorsock · 8/10 · 17 November 2006]

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.

Movers and shakers in Bay City

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 19 May 2015]

Star James Garner directs player James Garner in this episode of the Rockford Files where Jim Rockford is investigating a crooked poker game. Wonder of wonders, Rockford's client actually lies to him even as to his own identity.

Some big movers and shakers in the town of Bay City are involved in some heavy poker losses including the client who hires Rockford to investigate the game. But the whole thing doesn't ring true and it starts with Blair Brown tailing Garner. She's not very good at it and Garner catches her at it easily enough.

Rockford Files episodes are always more special when Stuart Margolin is in them. Angel plays only a peripheral role. I'd have loved it had we seen more of him with Margolin trying to fleece the fleecers in the poker game.

There's also quite a bit more to this than just a crooked poker game and Rockford's client Stewart Moss gets murdered. Just who and Brown are I won't reveal because that would tell the whole story. But the best scene is Garner and Moss after Garner has discovered who Moss really is.

Nicely done by director Garner.

One of the better in the series!

[mm-39 · 8/10 · 26 December 2018]

Jim and poker what a great concept. The Girl in the Bay City Boys Club has a game Jim must figure out if the game is rigged!?! There is the double cross, organized crime and a pretty girl all the makings of a good detective episode. The Bay City Boys Club has a bit more than pokers! Jim has great moves for the ending with a fire alarm, medicine ball, door fakes etc, which make for a memorable installment. Well the mix of humor and charm mixed with sarcasm make Jim a great character. 8 stars.

You don't mess around with Jim

[stones78 · 28 September 2012]

This was a decent, but not great, episode which has Rockford going undercover to see if a poker game is rigged, and as we all know, he plays a mean game of poker on the table and in his job. The most notable aspects were that this episode was directed James Garner, and a very young Blair Brown plays a deputy district attorney who's also interested in this illegal card game, where one member is stealing union funds, and bad stuff all around is going on behind the scenes. Rockford was hired by Kate's(Brown)partner, who's also a deputy district attorney, but he's crooked and was involved in the rigged poker game and winds up being murdered. The bad guys eventually learn of Rockford's true identity, and are naturally out to kill him, and somehow, Angel(Stuart Margolin)gets involved in this mess; he and Garner are terrific together with great chemistry. There isn't too much in terms of action, but there's a cool sequence when the baddies chase an obviously limping Rockford(Garner always had bad knees during this show)and Kate in what looks like a school gymnasium, and he makes some nifty choices to keep the hoods at bay, until he wisely pulls a fire alarm which eventually has the fire company and police there to save the day and arrest the bad men. Other nice touches included a few scenes with the Firebird, and some cool shots of the pier near the trailer.