The heir to a family fortune hires Rockford (James Garner) to find his parents' killers. Guest stars: Abe Vigoda, James Woods.

Rockford (James Garner) and a released convict battle for pearls and a woman. Guest star: Mary Frann.

A wealthy Texan's wife hires Rockford (James Garner) to deal with a blackmail problem.

Jim (James Garner) delivers a check to a singer in Las Vegas and finds she is a prisoner.

Rockford (James Garner) trails a young woman in the hopes that she will lead to the recovery of $1 million.

Introduced as a 90-minute TV movie in March of 1974, The Rockford Files began its weekly, hour-long series run in September of that year. The opening episode, The Kirkoff Case, finds ex-con turned private eye Jim Rockford (James Garner) trying to prove that his earnest but obnoxious young client (played by James Woods, Garner's later co-star in the made-for-TV feature My Name is Bill W.) did not murder his parents as claimed. In the first season's second episode, Gretchen Corbett is introduced as Jim's lawyer girlfriend Beth Davenport, who hires our hero to clear her client of a murder charge. Throughout the rest of the season, Jim is aided and abetted by his crusty dad Rocky (Noah Beery Jr.), his likeable (if not entirely honest) former cellmate Angel (Stuart Margolin), and, reluctantly, by his police-department contact Detective Dennis Becker (Joe Santos). Meanwhile, Dennis' superior Lt. Alex Diehl (Tom Atkins) can't shake himself of the conviction that Jim's prison record was somehow deserved -- especially

Yuen Woo-ping returns to direct the final installment in this series. In this go around, the film centers around earnest cop James (Cheung Kwok-leung) who works for the Commercial Crime Bureau and is keeping a sharp eye on slick business man Lee Siu-pong (Wong Kam-kong). When his business endeavors garner the attention of an enterprising extortionist, Lee has the blackmailer killed. Fearing that the incriminating document has fallen into the hands of James, Lee does the only thing that a red-blooded criminal might -- he kidnaps the cop's girlfriend Suki (Sharla Cheung Man). When James gives chase, he finds himself horribly burned in an explosion detonated by Lee. After months of painful recovery, James dons a silver mask and sets out for bloody, gut-wrenching vengeance. Meanwhile, Suki, who has become Lee's unwilling mistress, plots for the thug's gory demise as well. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide.

Skin Game was historically significant as the 2000th film produced by Warner Bros. studios. The film is a comedy western starring James Garner and Louis Gossett Jr. as a pair of clever Antebellum con men. Garner regularly sells the black Gossett into slavery for an exalted price, then liberates Gossett so that they can move on to the next sucker. Unfortunately, they outsmart themselves, and before long Gossett seems doomed to a lifetime of forced servitude. They are rescued by pretty pickpocket Susan Clark, who has a few surprises in store for them. Skin Game was supposed to be spun off into a TV series, but the project never got any farther than the 1974 pilot film Sidekicks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide.

Originally aired on CBS, the made-for-TV holiday romance One Special Night brings together James Garner and Julie Andrews for their third feature together, after The Americanization of Emily and Victor/Victoria. Robert (Garner) visits his wife in the hospital, who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease. There he meets the stern Catherine (Andrews), a widowed pediatrician who spends her downtime visiting the room in the hospital where her husband died a year ago. In the middle of a raging snowstorm on Thanksgiving, Catherine offers Robert a ride and they get stuck in the snow. Taking refuge in an empty cabin, the couple get over their initial personality conflicts to engage in a meaningful dialogue. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide.

One-time movie song-and-dance man James Dunn won an Academy Award for his comeback performance in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Based on the best-selling novel by Betty Smith, the film relates the trials and tribulations of a turn-of-the-century Brooklyn tenement family. The father, Dunn, is a likable but irresponsible alcoholic whose dreams of improving his family's lot are invariably doomed to disappointment. The mother, Dorothy McGuire, is the true head of the household, steadfastly holding the family together no matter what crisis arises. The story is told from the point of view of daughter Peggy Ann Garner, a clear-eyed realist who nonetheless would like to believe in her pie-in-the-sky father, whom she dearly loves. Joan Blondell co-stars as the family's brash, freewheeling aunt, whose means of financial support is a never-ending source of neighborhood gossip. This first film directorial effort of Elia Kazan earned a special Oscar for Most Promising Juvenile Performer Peggy Ann Garner. A Tree Grows From Bro