Mistaken identity by federal agents has Jim being sent to South America to help them contact a heiress, who has been isolated by her possessive husband.Mistaken identity by federal agents has Jim being sent to South America to help them contact a heiress, who has been isolated by her possessive husband.Mistaken identity by federal agents has Jim being sent to South America to help them contact a heiress, who has been isolated by her possessive husband.
- Joseph 'Rocky' Rockford
- (as Noah Beery)
- (credit only)
- Dennis Becker
- (credit only)
- Jorge Sanchez
- (as Isaac Ruiz Jr.)
- Emiliano Rivera
- (as Eric Mason)
- Bodyguard
- (as David Pansari)
- Hotel Operator
- (as Yolanda Marquez)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe episode takes place in 'Tecolote', a word from Nahuatl, in several Central American countries for 'owl'.
- GoofsThe Lear 23 that Rockford flies in shows an agent standing straight up in the cabin. The Lear 23 had an interior dimension of 4' 4", much too narrow to stand up in.
- Quotes
Jim Rockford: This is Jim Rockford. At the tone leave your name and message, I'll get back to you.
Bill Skelly: [Beeep] Bill Skelly with EyeCo. Like to interest you in some new private detection equipment, including the 440-A Telephonic Bug. We'll demonstrate it in a friend's home for one full week - at no charge.
- ConnectionsReferences North by Northwest (1959)
For the second episode in a row, Jim is mistaken for someone else, thereby launching him into a dangerous situation. Unfortunately, the reason behind the mistaken identity is particularly contrived this time around. Even worse, everything that happens to get Jim over the border (in order to get the story running) is clearly the work of a desperate scriptwriter hoping that by keeping things moving, the gargantuan plot holes don't become too obvious. Surprisingly, this is a Juanita Bartlett episode, which makes it particularly shocking -- she's usually pretty solid at plot mechanics.
Of course, Juanita's also good at character and dialogue, and there are some absorbing moments in the episode when Jim deals with a spoiled-but-sympathetic heiress. However, the rest of the cast barely registers, and everyone in this story behaves pretty stupidly pretty much all of the time. In particular, the villain of the piece has an especially dumb and transparent criminal plan he's trying to execute.
Is the end result of all this terrible? No. But "South By Southeast" only gets as far as it does on the appeal of James Garner, and a fairly good performance from Dorrie Kavanaugh. For a lesser P.I. series -- Simon & Simon, say -- this would merely be a mediocre episode. But for The Rockford Files? It's quite frankly a disappointment.
- rudyardk
- May 19, 2019
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