Foul on the First Play - Recap

In a dark alley two men have another pinned to the ground. One “massages” the victim’s hand painfully while the other asks questions. They want to know who the man works for. One of them has a habit of laughing; when his laughter collapses into wheezing he pulls an inhaler from his pocket to calm his lungs. At first Mark spins a story but soon enough gives them the truth. He is parole officer Mark O’Brien and one of his parolees is Terry Schider. Unknown men approached Schider, a potential star for a new basketball franchise, and demanded he shave points for them. As a parolee Schider faces serious trouble if he does this. When they find O’Brien ’s identification in his shoe the men are convinced and leave him in a heap on the ground.

The next day finds Jim Rockford is his trailer when someone hammers on the door. Answering, Rockford sees his old parole officer Marcus Hayes – the man now calling himself Mark O’Brien . Rockford dislikes the man and wants nothing to do with him, even suggesting that if O’Brien fails to remove his foot from the door he’ll get it back by mail. O’Brien resorts to tactics learned as a vacuum cleaner salesman in the ghetto years ago and eventually Rockford lets him in the trailer.

O’Brien tells Rockford about Terry Schider and the point shaving threats. He wants Rockford to help him figure out who’s threatening the future star of the NBA’s new Santa Monica franchise. He knows Jim is a private detective now and needs him. He got the license plate of the car the previous night but it is registered to a Greg Smith. That name means nothing. So he wants Jim to place a beeper on the car so he can follow it and find out who these men work for. He’s afraid because his own investigation tipped them and if they see him again he’s afraid they’ll do worse than rough him up.

At the garage Hayes gives Jim the device. As Jim approaches the car Hayes calls the owners and uses a false voice to tell them someone is eyeing their car. They come downstairs and catch Jim. His cover story as a smog inspector doesn’t impress them and they force him into their car at gunpoint and take him to a quiet alley for questions. Jim sticks to his story despite having his hand worked over. Before the men can get too far someone enters the alley and they flee, warning Jim to “stay out of it!” Jim is left to find his own way home.

Next morning Jim visits the headquarters of the parole board to find Marcus Hayes. There he learns Hayes got fired some time back; the supervisor would rather not say why. He does eventually admit the firing was a result of irregularities in Hayes’ conduct, and offers another tidbit: Hayes is a “sleeze” now. Jim asks what a sleeze might be and learns it’s a private detective...

With that information it doesn’t take Jim long to track down his old buddy at the office. Using the name “Jim Taggart” Jim gets in to see him without warning him. O’Brien is on the phone with a client discussing security arrangements. When Jim pushes the handset hook down to disconnect the call O’Brien goes right on talking – clearly he’s faking the call. He turns to see Jim and halfway apologizes, explaining that the phone trick impresses potential new clients. Jim’s not pleased O’Brien set him up to take a beating and punches him hard enough to knock him over the desk. O’Brien offers him money and Jim agrees.

They leave O’Brien’s office and get into his limo. O’Brien tells Arthur (the driver) to start driving. Across the street the two musclemen watch from inside a parked sedan. When the limo pulls out they follow. Jim wants out of O’Brien’s scheme but first he wants to know what he was into. O’Brien tells him three men – Tom Corell, Martin Eastman and David Menier – all wish to be awarded the new NBA franchise. O’Brien works for Eastman, who hired him to find out who put pressure on the commissioner to award the franchise to someone else. O’Brien also reveals he followed the men after they worked Jim over and learned they work for Tom Corell. Jim says he wants half of O’Brien ’s fee.

At this point Jim notes the pair following the limo. He offers to lose them and O’Brien accepts. The limo returns Jim to his car and continues to Griffith Park. The musclemen follow the limo and Jim follows them. At the park O’Brien leaves the limo and takes off on foot; the two musclemen follow. Racing through the park, the asthmatic falling farther behind, O’Brien meets Jim who has entered another way. He hopes into Jim’s car and the pair race back to the limo, the musclemen falling hopelessly behind. Jim stops long enough to grab their keys and pitch them far away so they can’t follow by auto before racing past the limo and telling Arthur to follow them out.

Now it’s time for Jim’s payoff and that’s when he learns a bitter truth. O’Brien has no money. His company is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and his limo is leased. Jim even talks to the bank president. Disgusted, Jim drives off from the bank and leaves O’Brien to this own devices.

When he returns to the trailer a man named Steve Sorenson is waiting. Sorenson, with careful Harvard Law School diction and neatly pressed suit, is an errand boy for Martin Eastman. Eastman wants Jim to come see him about a pressing matter that demands immediate attention. Jim agrees to follow is his own car.

Martin Eastman perches in elegant splendor, an older and white-haired man. He asks Jim whether he likes basketball and comes around to a recap of the bidding process for the new franchise. Eastman tells Jim that he didn’t hire Mark O’Brien and that be believes O’Brien is the man pressuring the league commissioner to award the franchise to a specific bidder! Eastman also checked Jims bona fides and decided that as private detectives go, Jim is reasonably worthwhile. He offers Jim a twenty thousand dollar bonus on top of his usual rate to find some proof that the bidding has been rigged – something he can take to the authorities. Jim agrees, but demands a check. Eastman is incredulous, claiming a net worth between fifty and sixty million dollars. Jim insists and Eastman has Steve Sorenson cut him a check.

As Jim drives away from the meeting he hears a news report. The basketball commissioner has selected the winning bidder and will reveal the news the following day.

Later O’Brien enters a house and almost immediately leaves. As he walks down its front path Jim’s hand snakes over the wall and hauls him off his feet and into the grass. Jim wants to know why O’Brien is leaving Commissioner Tremayne’s home in such a hurry. Jim all but frog marches O’Brien back up the path and into the house. Inside they discover the body of the commissioner; O’Brien is quick to assert that the man was dead when he entered moments ago. With the death of Tremayne nobody gets the franchise. And that might be exactly what someone wants. The question is who. Jim takes O’Brien with him to figure that out. Jim also knows O’Brien wasn’t working for Eastman; O’Brien finally gives up the truth.

O’Brien recounts a sad tale. His business boomed on divorce cases until a change in the law made it impossible to sell his services as a snoop. Hard times followed. When Commissioner Tremayne called him he jumped at the opportunity. Tremayne had received two threatening phone calls telling him who he would award the franchise to. He offered Mark ten thousand dollars to find out who made the calls. Desperate for the work, he never really looked into how a man making forty thouand a year and in debt could come up with such a large fee. Jim suspects the commissioner may have been on the take, and someone found out about it and tried their own high pressure tactic. And now the commissioner is dead because someone didn’t like the choice he made.

About then one of O’Brien’s parolees recognizes him from his days as Marcus Hayes. Sherm Addison is a giant of a man who doesn’t have happy memories of Hayes. Jim realizes this is why the Mark O’Brien identity was born and quickly gives up O’Brien as Hayes so he can scuttle away. O’Brien and Addison dance in the alley a little big – payback for Jim taking a beating for O’Brien days earlier – before Jim rockets by in his car and the pair of them race off, Addison running futilely after.

Jim knows the cops will find Tremayne’s body before long and they’ll soon after learn he was nosing around the matter. Jim doesn’t relish several hours in a room with Lieutenant Diehl so he needs someone to bait a rat trap, and that person is O’Brien. His plan is to set O’Brien up and see who tries to kill him.

Under duress, O’Brien calls Corell and claims he has evidence that Corell killed Tremayne over the outcome of the bidding. For a hundred thousand dollars he’ll sell that evidence to Corell, or he’ll give it to the police. He repeats this process with minor variations with Eastman and then Mentier. All of the men are instructed to appear at Fifth and Madison with the money.

Soon enough someone shows up and sure enough they try to kill O’Brien. Unfortunately for Jim the culprit is Eastman. There’s another paycheck down the drain!

Later O’Brien argues with his bank but they are adamant. They’re going to liquidate the company. O’Brien tells his employees to pack everything, just like last time. Even the limo will soon be gone, as the leasing agent has found it after two weeks of searching. Jim takes pity on the man and, pretending to be a police detective, “arrests” him and confiscates the car as evidence. The two of them drive off, perhaps wiser but certainly no wealthier...

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