Airdate: September 20, 1974
Written by: Roy Huggins (story), Juanita Bartlett (script)
Directed by: Michael Schultz
A fire breaks out at a modest LA hotel. It appears to claim the life of one guest, poet Kevin Calhoun. But police learn that Calhoun was dead—murdered—before the fire started. The lone suspect is Calhoun’s widow, Ann (Patricia Smith), who was heard fighting with her husband earlier that night.
Ann Calhoun has no money and no property except for a small home back in Arizona, so attorney Beth Davenport (Gretchen Corbett in her first series appearance) steps in to represent her pro bono. She attempts to lure Jim into doing the same, but he can’t afford to work for free. He agrees to meet with Ann and eventually Beth gives in and hires him for his standard $200 per day plus expenses.
The case becomes more personal to Jim when he’s out digging for information out in Arizona and a big rig tries to run him off a mountain. When he gets back to California he checks up on the hosts of a party Kevin Calhoun attended on the night of his death: Clyde Russell (Walter Brooke), Elizabeth Gorman (Nancy Malone), and Elliot Malcolm (Linden Chiles). The three of them have been involved with the production of The Dark and Bloody Ground, a hit movie based on a novel written by Elizabeth’s late husband, and which may hold the key to the case.
Dark and Bloody Tropes:
- Crusading Lawyer: Becker describes Beth as someone who “collects lost causes like they were rare coins.”
- Faking the Dead: Steven Gorman faked his own death in a boating accident before resurfacing as Kevin Calhoun.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: This is what Ann Calhoun is accused of doing, since her husband was killed before the fire started. Whether the actual killer did this or whether it was a straight frame-up is left ambiguous.
- Marry Them All: Gorman/Calhoun was technically a bigamist, not having divorced Elizabeth before his fake death.
- Mistaken for Thief: On returning from his near-fatal Arizona trip, Jim walks into his trailer to find Rocky holding a gun on him. Rocky has taken it upon himself to guard his son’s trailer and thought Jim was a burglar.
- One-Steve Limit: Defied in a subtle way. Beth Davenport and Elizabeth Gorman both appear, although no one has used Beth’s full first name as of yet.
- Police Are Useless: The semi that tried to run Jim off was stolen, but the Arizona police can’t tell him who stole it because the contractor who picked it up wiped off the prints.
- Shout-Out: Jim’s highway confrontation with a disguised Elliot Malcolm and his stolen truck is shot much like Steven Spielberg’s Duel.
- Suspect Existence Failure: Clyde Russell seems to have a strong motive for killing Calhoun and Beth suspects him, but she and Jim find him floating dead in his pool.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: In an attempt to prevent Jim from taking what they have to the police, Beth grabs his keys and drops them down the front of her blouse.Jim: If you think that’s gonna stop me you’ve got a short memory.
