User Reviews

Robert Webber is back and this time he plays a fake psychic who works with police to solve crimes (and sell his books). He uses Jim to get information on a case, which of course gets Jim beat up, arrested (twice) and involved in a murder investigation and $80,000 in missing drug money.

Webber is again terrific as Roman Clemente, the psychic. His arrogance plays so very well against Garner its no wonder they had him back on the show so many times as different characters each time. James Luisi makes his first appearance as Lt. Chapman (although he had appeared on the show before in another role) and presents a more intelligent, formidable foe than Lt. Diehl. Beth Davenport (Gretchen Corbett) shows up to get Jim out of jail not once, but twice. Interestingly, she does not receive "special appearance by" billing this time. Perhaps she only got that when she was the main focus in an episode. Rocky and Dennis are also in this episode as is "Lou Grant" star Robert Walden as a sleazy record executive.

While the mystery here is okay, this episode is all about character and both Chase as the writer and the entire cast come through to give us some very interesting people.

Over the years, many similarities between The Rockford Files and Magnum, P.I. have been pointed out. The similar ''flawed'' character, who could easily lose its temper and wasn't always right, and the constant barrage of trouble they never really expected and sofort. This episode however, displays a clear difference between the two. Where the Psychic in the Magnum episode ''Fragments'' really had visions and used her gift to save lives, the Psychic in ''The Oracle wore a cashmere suit'' is obviously a self-serving fraud. Rockford is the more down-to-earth show of the two, where Magnum episodes often didn't shy away from the supernattural and somewhat flaky storylines.

I don't know If calling Clemente a fraud can even be classified as a spoiler (I did it anyway just to be on the safe side), because it's so obvious right from the get-go. Roman Clementi is brilliantly played by recurring Rockford-actor Robbert webber and the scenes between him and garner are just superb. In contrast with the rest of the episode, the last scene is something that could have appeared in Magnum. Rockford acts a bit childisch, frustrated by all the times the Swami got away with his nonsense. Seeing Clemente finally get his comeuppance in the end, fantasticly wraps up a near perfect episode.

The excellent Robert Webber lands another Rockford role as the famous Roman Clementi, a TV psychic who "helps the police with their enquiries". Clementi gets his "insights" by using an informant in the police department, and hiring another PI to bug Rockford's home and car. By revealing details about a missing person case, Clementi lands Jim in trouble with both Chapman (who seems to have taken over from Diehl as Jim's least favourite cop) and a drugs gang who think he knows where a stash of 80 grand of drugs money is. The scenes where Jim looks on with incredulity as the police buy into the psychic hokum are priceless - particularly when Clementi predicts that the corpse will be found "near a body of water" which is by turns a water tank, and the pacific ocean.

This is a wry but extremely funny and honest look at the phenomenon of tv psychics 'helping' the police solve crimes,and the strange situations and ethical quagmires that can result from placing public trust in people that claim to be psychic.

This is a memorable and interesting episode,and rather entertaining to boot!

I really liked this episode! The Oracle Wore a Cashmere Suit works well. What worked: The fake psychic is such a heel. Manipulative, a liar, and slimy. Jim has a new partner with Mr Slime buck, which causes Jim much trouble. The interviews and and detective work turns into a good mystery. I love the ending with the crime of passion story line. The ending was great where Jim and Beecker almost got the slime bag who weaseled out this one. Memorable episode. I just hate that fake!

The episode begins on a very good note, as we get a great shot of Jim's trailer on the beach on a beautiful sunny California morning. Right away we witness a supposed psychic expert who's helping police look for clues in the sand for a recent murder, and naturally a grounded Rockford thinks this guy's a fraud. Throughout much of this segment, Jim basically mocks this guy named Roman Clementi, and rolls his eyes and makes funny facial gestures, even though Becker and Chapman seem to think the guy is pretty good at finding clues anyway. Without divulging too much detail(too lazy)about the plot, there's $80,000 on the loose, druggies abound, Jim getting beat up again, and nice scenes with Rocky. A funny moment is when Rocky confuses ESP with SEP when referring to Clementi helping him locate his plumb bob(whatever that is); another funny moment is Jim sitting on his sunglasses accidentally in his Firebird. Rockford and Clementi seemed to have good chemistry together, and apparently the actor who played the latter has appeared in many other episodes.

Perhaps the only moment I wasn't thrilled with was how easy Barry, the record producer, admits to the killings because of jealousy. Seemed to rush things with an easy ending, which I don't always prefer.