REMINGTON STEELE: NOW YOU STEELE IT, NOW YOU DON'T (TV)
Summary
One in this detective series about private investigator Laura Holt, whose Remington Steele Detective Agency fails until she pairs up with a suave stranger claims to be the fictitious Remington Steele. In this episode, Laura is hired by an antiques dealer, Majak, to catch a kleptomaniac, Grace Kelton. When she follows her home, she discovers many stolen items and says she must inform Whit Sterling, a wealthy man with whom Grace is having an affair. When she tells him, however, he denies knowing Grace, but he becomes anxious at the sight of a certain artifact and says that Majak is blackmailing him. Majak, however, confirms nothing and merely pays Laura in cash. Later that night, Laura receives a phone call that Sterling has committed suicide, and his wife, Claudia, holds Laura responsible. She returns to the Sterling home, and his business partner, Bigelow, reassures her and denies the affair, adding that Claudia is pregnant. Laura calls Remington and they head for the antiques store, where they find a completely different Majak, who tells them that they were not open the previous day, and they realize it was an imposter. When they travel to Grace’s apartment, they learn that she never lived there. While Mildred searches for Grace, Laura and Remington break into the Sterlings’ home again and Laura theorizes that he was murdered, even though he was found dead in a room locked from the inside. They find a safe with a figure like the one Laura showed Sterling, and also a paper bearing the name “Marla Rakubian.” Laura shows the real Majak the figure, and he says it is highly illegal contraband stolen from China. Bigelow claims he had no idea Sterling was involved in any theft and expounds upon their business partnership. Remington discovers that Marla Rakubian is a cargo ship and he sneaks aboard to check out the cargo, but is soon caught and placed in a trunk by thugs. When he awakens, he is being violently interrogated by Grace, although in his haze he imagines Laura demanding to know if he loves her, and he says he does. He is imprisoned in a small room, but manages to escape through a hatch in the ceiling. Elsewhere, Laura concludes that the phony Majak knew about Sterling’s smuggling habit and was blackmailing him over it, but cannot understand why he murdered him. Mildred pursues the autopsy report on Sterling, and Remington soon arrives, badly beaten. They quickly return to the ship to examine the cargo again, and they take a moment to flirt as they debate leaving the case behind for a vacation. Suddenly, Remington realizes that the stolen artifacts are wrapped in paper used for counterfeit money, and works out that the fake Majak and Sterling were blackmailing one another for their individual crimes. They recruit Mildred to go undercover as a homeless gambler, using the fake money, and when she is discovered, she is taken to see Chester, one of the men who beat up Remington. Remington and Laura burst in and catch them, and the fake Majak says he did not kill Sterling. He, Grace and the others are arrested by the treasury department, but they are still unsure about Sterling’s fate, and Laura maintains that he did not kill himself. As Remington makes plans to take her on a tropical vacation, Laura reads the medical report and discovers that Sterling was sterile. She returns to Claudia’s home and states that she and Bigelow were having an affair and murdered her husband. Remington observes a tiny hole drilled in the window, and Laura explains how they staged the suicide by locking the door from the inside using a string outside the window. Once Bigelow learns that they have his footprints at the scene, he confesses. Later, Laura and Remington enjoy a “staycation” and he admits that he hallucinated her while being questioned, but they agree to save those questions and answers for another time. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: March 5, 1985 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:50:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:67664
- GENRE: Drama, police/private detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police/private detective
- SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1982-1987
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Michael Gleason … Executive Producer, Created by
- Gareth Davies … Co-Executive Producer
- Kevin Inch … Producer
- Jack Mongan … Associate Producer
- Robert Butler … Created by
- John Wirth … Writer
- John Tracy … Director
- Richard Lewis Warren … Music by
- Henry Mancini … Theme Music by
- Pierce Brosnan … Cast, Remington Steele
- Stephanie Zimbalist … Cast, Laura Holt
- Doris Roberts … Cast, Mildred Krebs
- Savannah Smith Bouchér … Cast, Kathryn Sterling
- Philip Abbott … Cast, Whit Sterling
- Michael Shannon … Cast, Frank Bigelow
- Claudia Cron … Cast, Grace Kelton
- Byron Webster … Cast, Fake Majak
- Robert Pastorelli … Cast, Weasel
- Bernard Behrens … Cast, Dr. Romsen
- Robert Moberly … Cast, Leopold Majak
- J.E. Freeman … Cast, Chester
- Darwin Joston … Cast, Dock Worker #1
- Logan Clarke … Cast, Assistant
- Al Berry … Cast, Dock Worker #2