I know about the painting now, and I don't really care.
A painting worth $3,000,000?
Why do these two so-called Germans
put a bullet in a has-been horror movie director?
You want to hear about Alvah Korper?
Talk to the ghost of Olivia Duran.
Korper wasn't the only one of his time who was pro-Nazi.
You're talking about Hermann Goering?
Stand over there, please. This is official department memoranda.
Boy, you talk about the Nazis around you, and it rubs off.
ROCKFORD ON ANSWERING MACHINE: This is Jim Rockford.
At the tone, leave your name and message.
I'll get back to you.
WOMAN: Hey, am I too late for those African goats?
Haven't got the whole $300 cash,
but, like, I got a lot of homemade cheese.
Maybe we could work something out.
KAREN ON TAPE: Mr. Rockford? I'm Karen Hall.
I'm so sorry I've kept you waiting.
ROCKFORD ON TAPE: Hello, Miss Hall.
You really didn't explain too much on your phone message.
You mentioned a job?
KAREN: I'm a freelance writer based in Boston.
I'm about to start my first book,
a biography of Alvah Korper.
Why don't you pour us some wine? I'll be right out.
Sure.
He was a film director back in the '30s and '40s.
His most famous picture was a drama about aviation racing
called The Bloody Sky.
Yeah, it doesn't ring any bells.
Well, there was Wings of Deceit
and Hell on Wilshire Boulevard and Erie Canal.
Well, I think I might have seen The Wings of Deceit on late-night television.
It's about the first airmail guys,
the girl who was playing one against the other...
That's right. And she went blind in the end.
Yeah. Boy, that was a long time ago.
True. But in his time, Korper was considered the man to get
if Howard Hawks wasn't available.
You see, most critics and film buffs overlook him
because his politics weren't correct.
Correct?
Well, he was an isolationist in the '30s and '40s
and sort of right-wing.
He saw Nazism as a good thing for Europe.
Oh, listen, Korper wasn't the only one of his time
who was pro-Nazi for a while.
Oh, yeah. There was Mussolini.
Well, you see, Korper was a fascinating, eccentric character.
In 1946, they say he burned the negatives to all his films
except Wings of Deceit.
He became disgusted with his work.
KAREN: But he's still got quite a cult following in France.
I don't see where a private detective fits into the project.
In 1946, Korper died in a car crash.
So, in order to do the proper research,
I have to ferret out his old Hollywood circle,
the people who actually knew him in the '30s and '40s.
But I do want to interview Buddy Richards.
He was Korper's first assistant director and best friend.
And there's also Irving Patrick.
He was an art dealer and gambling crony.
Of course, some of them may be dead by now.
It all happened so long ago.
Does this kind of investigation
present a lot of problems?
No. No, for a professional investigator,
this sort of thing is a piece of cake.
Really? The reason I ask is because so much time has passed.
I mean, I tried finding Buddy Richards myself,
but he wasn't in the phone book.
Did you try to locate him at the Directors' Guild?
You know, it didn't even occur to me.
Look at it this way.
Jobs in movies are few and far between.
So the Directors' Guild can't afford
to keep their members from being available to inquiries.
Yes.
WOMAN: Sir, the last address we have for Julius Richards
is his own production company, El Cid Productions,
34 Ivar Street, Hollywood.
Well, thank you.
34 Ivar Street.
ROCKFORD: Miss, is there an Irving Patrick
associated with this gallery?
Yes, he's associated with this gallery. He's the owner.
Oh! I knew it wasn't gonna be too difficult.
'Course, I thought you'd be located in L.A.
It never occurred to me that I'd have to come
all the way down to Orange County.
Mr. Patrick moved the gallery down here back in...
Right after the Korean War.
You must have trudged through a lot of art galleries
between here and L.A.
That's all right. I like art.
And I don't mind driving, either.
Is Mr. Patrick around?
I hate to tell you this, but he's just left for England.
He'll be there the entire fall. This is the buying season.
Oh. Look, if he should call, would you tell him I came by?
I represent a writer who's doing a biography on Alvah Korper,
the movie director.
And Mr. Patrick was a friend of his,
and my client would like to set up an interview.
He can reach me at this number
or he can call the Château Sévrine Hotel and ask for Miss Karen Hall.
It's strange. Mr. Patrick is so conservative.
It's hard to picture him hanging around with show-business types.
Must have been a long time ago.
MAN ON TAPE: Was Loch Ness, at one time,
an awesome, intergalactic watering hole?
Were the fabled Robin Hood and his merry band
actually visitors from some faraway star system?
See Commuters of the Universe.
Excuse me. Mr. Richards? Soon at a theater near you.
Right. Yeah.
What can I do for you?
My name is Jim Rockford. I'm a private investigator.
I'm working for a writer who would like to interview you
for a story she's doing.
No kidding? How about that!
You were a little hard to find.
Yeah. I came down here, the "out of order" sign was on the door,
that machine was making all the noise.
Look, what my client is interested in is
the years you worked with Alvah Korper.
She's doing his biography.
You tell your friend
that I wouldn't give an interview about that monster
for all the tea in China. Now get out.
Mr. Richards, it took a lot of legwork just to get here.
You want to hear about Alvah Korper?
Tell her to talk to the ghost of Olivia Duran, whom he murdered.
She'll get an earful.
Korper murdered who?
He might as well have. His poor wife.
Despondent and desperate.
No wonder they found her in that tub full of her own blood.
Tell her to talk to Julio Sanchez,
whose brother Raoul was gunned down in the street.
Look, Mr. Richards, maybe you better tell all this to my client.
It's her problem.
No, you tell her. You tell her that he was a devil,
he was a thing
who drained human beings who tried to love him.
His best ideas, whose do you think they were?
Yours, I bet.
Who do you think thought of the blindness gag
for the end of Wings of Deceit?
Who do you think thought of the flaming crash into the oil well
for The Bloody Sky?
In fact, who do you think shot the whole sequence
while Korper was off seducing teenage girls?
She said he was a little weird,
burning his film like that.
Burning his film? Why don't you grow up?
His ego was too monstrous to do a thing like that.
Probably he's hidden them somewhere for posterity to find them.
I say let them all stay buried!
Why don't you get back to work?
Let it stay dead and buried.
Goering, him, and all his Nazi pals!
Wait a minute. Wait. Do you mean Goering?
You're talking about Hermann Goering,
the Reichsmarschall of Germany Goering?
Hermann Goering and Korper were friends all through the '30s,
and when Alvah had time in the summer,
he'd spend some weeks there at Karinhall.
Karinhall... Oh! He spent time where?
Karinhall, Karinhall.
Hermann Goering's place in the Black Forest.
Hey, now... Mr. Richards? Buddy?
Will you go away, please?
Or I'll have the kid call the police!
Miss Hall?
Karen?
I didn't feel that hotel room
would allow us to talk business.
Please sit down.
Look, why don't you guys just cut this out, huh, and let's...
Sit! There.
You know, I'll bet you are a very good private detective,
Mr. Rockford.
Tell me, now,
in what capacity are you working for this young lady?
Well, she...
She just wanted me to dig up some old friends
of Alvah Korper, the movie director.
Hey, that's all she said. That's all I know.
She said her name was Karen Hall.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, since then I found out that
that's the name of Hermann Goering's A-frame in the Black Forest. Right?
Why ask me?
Why should I know about a thing like that?
I just figured since you're German...
Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
Now, then.
What did the young lady... What did Karen Hall
tell you about the Watteau?
The what? The Watteau.
All right, now I'm going to ask you once again.
What did she tell you about the Watteau?
I don't even know what that means, Fritz.
Do you know what quadriplegic means?
Yeah.
Believe this, Mr. Rockford,
from someone who once practiced neurosurgery.
The man behind you was an Olympic wrestler.
He can break your vertebrae,
and you'll be nothing but a talking head
for the rest of your life.
Ow!
You are in business with her, yes?
No! Now, come, come.
Tell me the truth now.
You are in business with her. Yes?
Miss Hall has checked out.
And when was that?
Some 45 minutes ago.
Let me guess. She left squat for a forwarding address.
If by "squat" you mean she left none,
you're correct.
Mr. Richards?
I've got a stomach ache.
Oh, all right. I'll get an ambulance. I'll get one.
Gun didn't even make any noise.
I didn't feel nothing.
I never thought it would be like this.
Yeah. It's an answering machine. They'll be right with us.
You keep quiet. Okay?
No, I gotta keep talking. I don't wanna doze off.
Or it'll be a wrap.
Did two men with German accents do that?
Yeah.
They wanted to know about a Watteau that Alvah had.
Told them I didn't know.
I remember them talking about it way back,
but in the old days.
Watteau was a French painter, right?
Oh, yeah?
I don't know anything about art,
but I know what I like.
You know... You know what Alvah liked?
Alvah liked to destroy people.
Guy liked to dig at them, like his poor little wife.
Operator! Operator, I need an ambulance and a police car right away.
A man's been shot.
414 Dunsmuir, at Studio City.
That's right. Quick.
Olivia.
Poor Olivia.
I loved Olivia... No, I don't want a blanket.
Understand?
Lord, everybody loved Olivia.
Alvah came home one night, drunk,
and he found her in the bathtub all cut up.
And the police went after Raoul Sanchez and killed him.
The gardener murdered Mrs. Korper?
Well, he died without confessing,
and Alvah said that the police were Jew Bolshevik liars
who went after the wrong guy.
He swore that Patrick killed Olivia.
Oh, right. Irving Patrick, the art dealer.
No. No, you lummox.
Patrick Parnell. Huh?
Yeah. He was a young contract player at Paramount.
Mr. Richards, now, why don't you just stay quiet
until the ambulance gets here, okay?
No, no. Pat and Olivia had an affair and it went bad.
It was Alvah's fault.
He ruined everything.
Is that Patrick Parnell?
No one ever knew if Pat really killed her
because he disappeared in '46.
I remember my first wife...
Mr. Richards, please.
Please, now I think you ought to conserve your strength.
You know...
You know, it's funny you bring up Irving Patrick.
I haven't thought about him in years.
Well, he is an art dealer, and these...
These two German bloodsuckers
are running around asking questions about the Watteau painting.
I'll tell you one thing. Raoul Sanchez didn't kill Olivia.
Of course, he was a little steamed up
about Julio and Olivia, but...
Julio? Who's Julio?
There's something funny about this Julio?
Nah. Nah.
All of a sudden you come here today, and it all comes back.
Like his...
Like his old friend, Hermann Goering.
Old Hermann gave him a car for a birthday present. A...
A Union...
Auto Union? Auto Union.
Auto Union. Yeah. A '34 racing car, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that was the car that went over Benedict Canyon
with Alvah in it.
You see, when Germany fell,
you couldn't get parts,
and the brakes were shot,
and then he went over the canyon.
Do you understand?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Julio...
Where is that ambulance?
All right, the ambulance is gonna be here in just a minute.
Hey, hey, pal. Yeah, yeah?
Hey, pal,
you tell them to be careful how they handle the Moviola.
It's a rental.
BECKER: Here we go. "Korper, Olivia D."
Stand over there, please. This is official department memoranda
open only to department personnel.
Boy, you talk about the Nazis around you, and it rubs off.
"Let's see, female Caucasian, age 28, multiple stab wounds,
"body unclad."
Do you see anything there on a Raoul Sanchez?
I'm looking.
Okay. "Suspect Raoul Sanchez had been heard
"making threats against the life of Mrs. Korper,
"alleged she had repeatedly seduced
"his younger brother, Julio, age 16.
"Got the boy to drink hard liquor,
"taught him techniques from The Perfumed Garden, an Arabic love manual."
So that's Julio Sanchez, huh?
Raoul's kid brother. I'm gonna have to write that down.
"When approached by officers at the corner of Third and Alvarado,
"suspect Raoul Sanchez fled, was struck by police gunfire, died at the scene."
Looks like that closed the case.
Hey, have you got anything on Irving Patrick?
Let's see. Yeah, here we go.
"Victim's husband, Alvah Korper,
"demanded Patrick be picked up for questioning.
"He was grilled about his whereabouts at the time of the murder,
"but was then released."
No. No, I think that's Patrick Parnell.
Oh, you're right.
Who the hell is Patrick Parnell?
He's an actor. Olivia Korper's lover. He disappeared.
No, I'm talking about Irving Patrick. An art dealer.
None of this ties into Buddy Richards.
All of this is a mass of confusion that happened ages ago.
Besides, it's a waste of my time.
To understand one, you gotta understand the other, Dennis.
Now, really, I mean, when you think about it, the '40s were only yesterday.
Well, let me see if I can nail this.
Now, you have a client who's got the same name as Hermann Goering's house.
Right. The Hermann Goering
who was the head of the Luftwaffe. Right.
That's too much data. I can't even keep it straight.
Hey, come on, Dennis. Bear with me, will you, huh?
I've been keeping notes on this thing.
Now this is theory time. Right? Just theory.
Okay. Buddy Richards,
was the actual murderer of Olivia Korper. Why?
He was in love with her. He told me that himself.
So we'll say jealousy.
What Buddy Richards didn't know was that her lover, Patrick Parnell,
has been alive all this time,
and just waiting for vengeance, you know, and the painting.
Who are these two German creeps?
They're working for Patrick Parnell, who's trying to...
Boy, it's a mess, isn't it?
I tell you, Dennis, I think my head's gonna bust open.
Huh?
Oh.
All right.
You boys have a lot to answer for.
Why were you following me?
We are not boys.
And it is you who has a lot to answer for, Mr. James Rockford.
I am Deputy Chief Inspector Jean-Marc Giono,
of the Sûreté Nationale Française.
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, sir.
I believe this is yours. Thank you.
Let me help you. Thank you.
You all right?
Yes. Yes, thank you.
So, Chief Inspecteur, Inspector Mage,
how can we help you?
What the Chief Inspector would expect, Mr. Rockford,
is that you tell us everything about yourself,
Miss Karen Hall, and the Watteau.
I'll do it.
But first I'd like some background on this mess.
I feel like a newcomer.
What exactly would you want to know?
Oh, the whole magilla.
The painting, Karen, Alvah Korper, Hermann Goering.
But don't just jump in in the last couple of days, all right?
I'm confused. Just begin at the beginning.
Very well. France, 1789.
Queen Marie Antoinette, on her 30th birthday,
is gifted by the King of a painting by Antoine Watteau.
It is titled Pilgrimage to Avignon.
Coveted by all the nobles of France,
the painting has a dark past
and already carries with it
a legacy of bloodshed and deceit.
CHAPMAN: Getting all this, Becker?
And so, when the painting disappeared from the Louvre in 1940,
the Nazis of course wanted to shift blame from themselves.
For political reasons, they tried to tie the theft
to a family of Jewish art thieves
who trace their roots to the time of Louis Quatorze.
This guy, Louis Quatorze, you got the spelling on that last name?
Quatorze is not a last name.
Louis Quatorze means Louis XIV.
When do we get to Los Angeles and Alvah Korper?
June 14, 1941.
Feeling cocky, the Nazis finally admit there was no theft.
The Watteau had been impounded by the Luftwaffe
and went to hang in Goering's estate, Karinhall.
Not now, Lieutenant.
At the end of the war, informants told our agents
that Goering had sent the Watteau by courier to Brazil.
Where he was planning to retire, right?
Oui. The recipient of the painting, they tell us, is...
Alvah Korper, who was down there shooting The Bloody Sky at the time.
That's why Karen Hall was so interested in that production.
In 1945, La Sûreté conducted an investigation in Brazil
and here in Los Angeles.
The painting, they did not find it.
And Korper says he does not have it. But we know he does.
He tried to give our agents the slips.
Frieda Hauptmann, suddenly...
...she disappeared.
Oh, no. Who?
Frieda Hauptmann, Alvah Korper's housekeeper.
You got a spelling on that last name?
We never could find Frieda Hauptmann,
but our chiefs felt she had taken the painting for Korper.
The case has remained open for 30 years.
But two weeks ago, a lucky broke.
A tour bus crashed near the Porte d'Clichy.
On the injured list is Frieda Hauptmann.
Unfortunately, by the time we get to the hospital,
Frieda Hauptmann had died.
But into our hands falls the young woman Hauptmann is traveling with,
a young woman who claims to be her daughter.
And this young woman is known to you as Miss Karen Hall.
Oh, now I get it.
Karen Hall is tied in with those two Germans I met.
And she's trying to help them
squeeze the Watteau out of Frieda Hauptmann!
No. Karen Hall is actually Katherine Korper, only child of Alvah Korper.
Oh, well, of course. How stupid of me.
I mean, it was so obvious.
For three days we question Mademoiselle Hall.
She claims to know nothing of the painting.
But witnesses at the hospital, they tell us different.
The old woman told her everything.
Now I do get it.
The two Germans are old confederates of Alvah Korper,
somebody he double-dealt,
and they've been waiting for 30 years for this egg to hatch, right?
No, no, no, Rockford!
They're probably East German agents provocateurs, hmm?
Trying to claim the painting for the Communist government.
Now I recall a similar circumstance when I was part of the
Interpol Officers' Exchange Program. Hey, don't tell me, Chapman. Okay?
Now, I've been working on this Alvah Korper thing,
and I'm beginning to get a feel for this guy.
I would say you're both wrong.
More likely the Germans are former members of the Abwehr,
Nazi intelligence.
They have a worldwide syndicate
that deals illegally in German war plunder.
Are you sure about that?
Well, not absolutely sure, but...
Yeah. Well, then I stick with what I said.
I'm beginning to know this Alvah Korper,
the way he thought, the way he operated.
All of a sudden, you are the expert?
You did not even know he had a daughter.
Well, no, I didn't, but...
Any of this tie in to Buddy Richards?
Who is Buddy Richards?
Will you hold off with Buddy Richards?
We have enough of a problem here.
I think we have something on this Buddy Richards, Chief Inspector.
Uh-huh. He was questioned in our 1945 investigation.
Anything there on Korper, Olivia D?
A homicide that took place about the same time?
Wait a minute. Wait a minute, now.
You think the homicide ties in with the painting?
Hey, hey. Yeah.
I think that Raoul Sanchez or Irving Patrick
has the answer to that question!
Hmm?
A $100,000 reward?
Did they really say that?
Yeah, that's what they said.
They didn't like admitting that there was one.
You know, if the Sûreté can recover the Watteau on their own,
they'll save the French taxpayers a bundle of money.
Oh, hey, Dad, I'm sorry. I forgot to tell you.
This is Daphne Ishawahara.
She's gonna help me out on this case.
Daphne, this is my father, Joseph Rockford.
Nice to meet you, Mr. Rockford. Hi.
Don't worry about this clutter.
I'll pack it away each night.
You know, I've been going tapioca.
I was trying to sift through the mass of facts in this case.
Remember Paul McEvoy at UCLA?
Thought maybe Daphne might help.
You know, she's getting a doctorate in logic.
Frankly, Jim, I don't think we're facing a critical problem here.
What we have to do is continue to isolate the extraneous factors,
go back to the fundamentals of a good investigation and apply Ockham's razor.
What's that? That's an empirical dictum.
The dictum was postulated by William of Ockham, the British philosopher.
You know, you're as good as those folks on those educational TV programs.
Course, I never get to watch them, but I would like to.
Oh, my antenna's down.
Hey, Daphne. Daphne, look. Yeah.
I tracked down all of Korper's real estate holdings.
Now, he had a mansion of 18 rooms up in the hills
and he had a burial plot for Olivia Korper
in Rose Glade Memorial Park.
Why you gotta know about that guy's real estate?
Dad, if the painting is here in L.A.,
it has to be actually some place.
So I'll check all of Korper's property.
And the mansion's the first place on the list.
Them German guys is on the prowl.
Yeah. Now, don't worry. I don't like it either. But I'll be careful.
And let's just hope they haven't tumbled onto that mansion themselves.
Oh, sonny, now...
I know all about that big reward and all, but...
Well, him putting his life on the line like that,
it just don't seem...
Logical?
Oh, well, well! Oh!
If it isn't my favorite authoress.
Oh, Mr. Rockford!
I thought I heard someone up there, but I wasn't sure.
You remember me?
The guy you left with his head in the beehive, Kathy.
You know that that's my name?
Sounds like I do, doesn't it?
You've met up with the Sûreté.
They actually followed me?
That's why I had that horrible feeling I was being watched.
And they're the ones who ransacked my room.
Oh, no, not nearly so simple.
Your room was ransacked by an Olympic wrestling champ
and a German ex-neurosurgeon.
What? Who are they?
Well, that's multiple choice.
They were either two former members of Wehrmacht intelligence,
two old friends of your father,
or two cops from East Berlin.
Oh, you're angry.
Look, I'm sorry I ran out like that.
But when I saw what they did to my room, I got frightened.
I've been trying to call you.
Look, you see, my stepmother,
her name was Frieda Hauptmann,
told me I should trust no one.
No one. That's why I lied.
Greed had nothing to do with it.
Greed had everything to do with it.
I didn't want you to know about the painting.
You do know about the painting, don't you?
No, no, no. I just came up here to catch poison ivy.
Hey.
Hmm?
Oh, are you Gertler from the real estate office?
Yes, I am. You must be Mr. Jarrell.
I'm sorry I'm late.
Why, this is my wife, Betty.
How do you do?
Bathrooms upstairs are fantastic.
Now, I want you to pay strict attention to the ceilings in this house.
There are no two the same.
They're all Baroque.
What I wanna know is where did you come up with that ridiculous alias?
I mean, are you nuts?
You're running around with a name
that one of the biggest Nazis dreamed up for his summer home.
My father named me that.
Up until a week ago in Paris,
I thought Karen Hall was my real name.
I thought Frieda was my real mother
who'd been widowed by a man named Hall.
I love it.
Look, Frieda explained it to me just before she died.
In 1945, when I was three years old,
my father thought some dangerous people might hurt me
in order to force the painting out of him.
There'd already been one murder, my real mother.
So he changed my name and he sent me off with Frieda.
The name Karinhall served some kind of dramatic unity in his mind,
a weird joke on his enemies. What a card.
I didn't even know until a week ago in Paris
that there was a painting to be had.
Frieda and I were living on what I earned writing advertising copy.
Do you think you could reduce this story to one catchy line?
It's true!
At this point, who cares, Kathy?
Oh, there you are!
You folks do want to see the upstairs, don't you?
Sure. Sure.
Do you mind following me?
This was once used as a solarium.
Why are you so hostile? I said I was sorry.
I am 34 years old, and I'm just beginning to find out who I am.
I have been so scared and confused this past week,
I haven't even been able to visit my real mother's grave in Parkvale Cemetery.
And I would like to.
Look, you're getting yourself worked up over nothing.
Nobody is gonna hit Fat City now.
That painting is going back to France one way or another.
The Sûreté is gonna see to that.
There is a reward, though. I found that out in Paris.
That's why you're here. Right?
We might as well split it now.
I mean, we're both here.
Unless you intend to fight over it.
Why do I need to split with you?
You wanna search this house yourself? Go right ahead.
I spent my early childhood here,
and all I can tell you is good luck.
GERTLER: I didn't know that was there.
Yeah, well, isn't that something?
Betty just...
She just put her hand on it, and presto!
Yeah.
Well, do you folks want to look at the bathrooms, or what?
I have another appointment.
Sure. Sure. Go right ahead.
Well, would you follow me?
Here I go, being left alone again.
There are plenty more of these hidden panels, believe me.
Well, honey, shall we?
I can smell that painting.
No, it wasn't just not finding the painting. It was being there again.
That house is full of heartbreak.
I think I'll just forget about Parkvale Cemetery and my mother's grave.
Just let the whole chapter stay closed.
Parkvale.
Parkvale Cemetery? Now, you said that before, didn't you?
Hmm.
Your father's old law firm told me
that he owned a crypt for your mother
in Rose Glade Memorial Park.
No. Frieda told me Parkvale.
I don't think she'd get something like that wrong.
Probably not.
And neither would the law firm.
You see what I'm saying?
One of the graves is phony?
There... There's no body in it?
A perfect place to hide a painting!
The crypt. It has to be.
How do we get in? Wait for nightfall?
Now maybe we could go out... Karen, Karen.
Hey, hey.
We thought it had to be in the house, too.
Yeah. Your father was a strange duck.
Now, if it's not in the crypt, then what?
Well, we'll see.
You don't understand. We still got those two Germans to worry about
in case we strike out.
Then we'll get the protection of the police.
You don't exactly rent the Police Department.
We have to work it out so the Sûreté is led to the painting
and we still claim the reward,
and at the same time the cops throw the net over the Germans
in case we don't find the painting.
And then the whole thing has to be worked out to the last second.
Right. That sounds simple.
Simple? You haven't been listening!
You are such a defeatist.
I cannot believe you won't even try it.
All right. I'll go do it myself.
I'm sure of it now. It's her.
She has his hair, his face. It's like seeing him.
I don't know,
but something's gonna have to be done.
Shall we unlock the front door, please?
Well, well!
Isn't that nice!
Going on some sort of junket, huh?
Well... Hey, now, look, pal,
I have been through the shredder the past couple of days.
I know about the painting now,
and I don't really care, you know?
I mean, it's not worth the aggravation.
Oh, now, really!
Running out on a painting worth $3,000,000?
Look... Hey, look around you.
You know, it's gotta look better on your wall than mine.
Mr. Rockford, I think you have more appreciation for Watteau's work
than you'd care to admit.
I think you would love to have it, you and Miss Hall.
All right. All right. She and I were a team for a while.
But I'm out.
I tried to explain to her how difficult the whole thing would be,
but, you know, she's still dreaming about claiming the reward.
You know, she won't listen to reason.
Her father's daughter indeed.
From what I've heard of him.
Then you didn't really know Alvah Korper?
Only from his dossier at the Abwehr.
We had to run background checks
on all Reichsmarschall Goering's drinking cronies.
You see, the Reichsmarschall could sometimes be an embarrassment.
But that's another story.
It's my contention you know of the painting's whereabouts.
That you and Miss Hall intend to appropriate it,
then leave town after delivering it to the Sûreté.
You're wrong.
Hey, Willy, we know you're tough.
All right, all right.
I figured out that Alvah Korper had
duplicate burial plots for his wife,
but one of them is a dud.
I figure it's gotta be the crypt at Rose Glade Memorial Park
and I think maybe Karen's already gotten to it.
Well, then, let's all go to Rose Glade, shall we?
Let him go.
Hey, now look, if we find this thing,
there's no reason for you guys to be
climbing on my back anymore, you know?
We part friends, right?
Give Mr. Schindler a hand, please.
Yeah. Sure. Sure.
The Bloody Sky, Reel Two.
Hell on Wilshire Boulevard, Reel Two.
Hell on Wilshire Boulevard, Reel One.
He didn't hide the painting here!
This insane idiot!
He hid some stupid motion picture negatives!
What a card.
Nothing but garbage here!
Dennis!
Tell me, how do you like it?
You swine!
Jimbo?
Dennis!
Well, you sure took your time, Dennis.
A little more and I might've had to get rough.
You and Hiss Hall were so worried that
the Sûreté was gonna ace you out of your reward,
that she wouldn't give me the exact location
till we were at the cemetery gate.
Jim, are you all right?
Oh, yeah. Sure.
Did you find the picture?
Yeah, four of them.
Well, that's that. It's 1:00.
Sûreté are probably digging up the painting at Parkvale right now.
Thank you. Yeah, yeah.
Pardon me, sonny? Oh, yeah.
Did you say something?
I just figured it out. I just figured out who murdered Olivia Korper.
Julio Sanchez. Julio Sanchez!
Which one was he?
Raoul Sanchez's younger brother.
I don't remember Raoul Sanchez neither.
The reason nobody's ever been able to solve this crime is,
myself included,
because they keep thinking the murder and the painting are related.
Wrong! Forget you ever heard that!
Okay.
The key to the homicide lies in the crime itself.
So, we have to go back to first causes.
Now, the victim was found nude in her tub and mutilated.
What does that say?
It says it's a crime of sexual passion, probably.
Which has absolutely nothing to do with the painting.
You don't have one Ockham's razor here, Daphne!
You have two!
Julio Sanchez, the young groom she repeatedly seduced.
Right. Now the clincher is, if we say that Raoul Sanchez didn't kill Olivia,
why did he run from the police?
To avoid answering questions.
Because he knew that his younger brother has committed the crime.
Now that's a hypothesis I can support.
Boy, it never stops happening.
You never stop making me proud of you, sonny.
Oh, well, I don't know. Maybe the key is patience.
And the ability to juggle more than one concept at the same time.
Hey, you wanna know something?
I think I got rid of my headache.
I'm having a heart attack, I think.
Hey, Dad! Somebody call an ambulance!
All right. All right. Just take it easy. Take it easy.
Pills. All right, I'll get the pills.
You just take it easy.
ROCKFORD: Hey, mister. Huh?
What's with the peashooter, huh?
Go ahead.
Call the police and get it over with.
I beg your pardon? You heard me.
You know what I'm talking about.
You saw me kill her.
You killed who?
Olivia Korper.
Just who are you, pal?
Patrick.
Parnell or Irving?
Irving.
You killer her? Whatever for?
You see,
if I could have handled the sale of the Watteau, it would have made me.
But I knew that Olivia and Pat Parnell
were planning on running away together,
using the painting to bankroll their stupid pipe dream.
Everyone thought that it was over between them,
but I knew that Pat had a trick up his sleeve.
He knew that Alvah wasn't home that night.
Come on, pal, you're gonna have to do better than that.
What are you talking about?
It makes sense in terms of motivation.
Oh, yeah? Yeah, well, it was a sex crime.
Now, I suppose now you're gonna tell me
you had something going with Olivia, too, huh?
No, I made it look like a sex crime
just to throw suspicion off myself.
IRVING: But the kid saw me kill her.
I did? Of course you did.
It was just a matter of time
before you'd squeal to the police
or try to blackmail me.
Maybe you just don't remember,
but as I ran from the house, I saw you in the playroom
next to your mother's room, and you saw me.
Seconds later I heard you screaming, crying.
Don't you remember that?
No.
The ambulance is on its way, Jim.
Now, look, mister, I don't know
what's making you cop out to a crime you didn't commit,
but I'm sure gonna find out.
You know, I know who killed Olivia.
Julio Sanchez! And if Alvah Korper had thought before
he drove his car off of Benedict Canyon,
well, he would have realized the same thing.
What are you trying to prove?
I'm confessing. I murdered her.
Also, Alvah was not in that car.
What? It was Pat Parnell.
Alvah rigged the crash.
Because he thought that Pat had killed Olivia.
He burned Pat Parnell's body beyond recognition
before it ever went over the cliff.
Alvah wanted to profit from the confusion.
Confusion? What confusion?
I'm really confused, Mr. Patrick.
How did you know all this?
Alvah phoned me a year ago,
out of the blue.
2:00 in the morning. Shocked?
I suffered my first heart attack the next day.
A year ago? Is my father still alive?
No, no. He was terminally ill when he phoned me.
You see, he'd been in this sanitarium for alcoholics
in Passaic, New Jersey since 1958.
He told me what he'd done to Pat.
And how he intentionally disappeared
because he was tired of life.
If you could have heard him laughing on the phone
as he was telling about it... It was awful.
A little laugh on the Sûreté.
He probably never buried the paintings at all.
ROCKFORD: He probably sold them himself a long time ago.
Alvah never had the painting.
What? Well, I thought that... Dad...
Dad, just don't ask. All right?
The man didn't have the painting.
The man didn't have the painting, period.
That's just good enough for me at this point in time.
You see, Goering's courier,
a party gauleiter from Dresden,
apparently got wise to what he was delivering
and kept the Watteau.
What did you have to come here for?
I killed a woman for nothing.
Pat Parnell died a horrible death for nothing.
I was about to kill again to protect myself.
Call the police.
I wanna make a complete statement.
Oh, look, Irving, you know, I mean, it's...
It's not for me to say.
It was Karen's mother who was murdered,
and, I don't know, I just feel that...
Boy, that was a long time ago.
It was. It was a hell of a long time ago.
But I can't live with it anymore.
All right. I'll call Dennis Becker,
police sergeant friend of mine.
But Irving,
you're gonna have to do the explaining.
Irving?