Our Columbo rewatch continues with…
“Death Lends a Hand”
This episode first aired October 6, 1971.
Even though this was the first episode produced following the two pilots, it was the second episode to air as “Murder By the Book” was deemed superior. I disagree.
This episode earned show creators Richard Levinson and William Link an Emmy for Outstanding Writing. It also won for Film Editing.
“Death Lends a Hand” marks the first time we hear the Columbo theme, first introduced in the scene that sees Columbo driving.
This episode features one of the few instances where Columbo actually removes his trademark raincoat.
Brimmer’s office is a re-use of the office used by Lee Grant’s character in “Ransom for a Dead Man”. The walls, windows, and even the view out the window are identical. And, in both episodes, Columbo inquires if the lighter on the desk works.
My thoughts in chronological viewing order…
Robert Culp absolutely kills it in this episode, delivering a standout performance as the slick Investigator Brimmer. This would mark his first of three murderous guest appearances on the show.
I initially mistook Ray Milland for Carl Reiner in his introductory scene. Separated at birth!
Lenore Kennicutt falls into the Lily La Sanka school of “too stupid to live” murder victims. Maybe she should have saved the “I’m going to ruin your life” threats for a phone call instead of a clandestine face-to-face meeting.
My favorite sequence in this episode is the whole post-murder clean-up that plays in the reflection of Brimmer’s blue-tinted sunglasses. Brilliant.
This is the first time we see Columbo’s 1959 Peugeot 403 Cabriolet in action. It was one of only 500 produced. Apparently, Peter Falk wanted a car more in keeping with Columbo’s character that would be in marked contrast to the flashy cars featured in most detective shows of the time. He personally chose it from among the vehicles parked at the Universal Studios lot. In an interview, Falk said he liked the idea of Columbo driving a car “nobody else would want”.
Falk argued with Levinson and Link over the scene in which Columbo is pulled over for having a broken tail light. They went back and forth over lunch, with Falk claiming his character wouldn’t be so sloppy and then, when they returned to the studio, they noticed that Falk’s own car had a broken tail light. So Falk relented.
When the officer points out that Columbo’s license expires next, I thought “Hmmm, maybe the Columbo persona is NOT all an act for the benefit of the potential suspects”. This is a great scene that does a wonderful job of introducing our rumpled detective but also serves to set up that later visit to the DMV that gives him the clue to the contact lenses. That’s smart writing.
At first I wondered why the hell Brimmer would contact the victim’s husband and offer to help in the investigation of his wife’s murder – but, upon further reflection, I can see how it would allow him to keep closer tabs on the official police investigation. Still, a risky move – but Brimmer seems like a risk-taker.
In retrospect, the only moment that didn’t ring true to me in this episode was the palmistry beat. Columbo doesn’t seem like a guy who would be into palmistry and the fact that he later reveals he used the palm-reading to confirm the rings on Brimmer’s left hand would suggest he suspected the detective at this point. But why? It seems a huge leap.
Columbo at his unorthodox best throughout this episode, from his warrantless perusal of the golf instructor’s appointment book to likely stuffing a potato into a car’s exhaust to disable it.
What’s with Columbo’s green cigar?
A weird conversation here on the proper way to strike a woman. Also, by this point, it’s clear Columbo suspects Brimmer…but, again, on what basis? The ring, the fact Brimmer isn’t right-handed and…the salt on Brimmer’s car?
As the episode ends, it’s clear that Brimmer is unnerved. I thought “Bet you regret offering your services now!”
I like this nice little moment that demonstrates Columbo’s cleverness, dismissing the golf instructor as a suspect because he doesn’t wear a ring – and he knows he doesn’t wear a ring because there is no tan line on his finger.
I quite liked the sequence where Brimmer offers Columbo a job with him. It’s all very obvious what he’s doing. By the way, a salary of 30k/year back then would be a little over 200k/year today.
Columbo presents his working theory that someone may have been spying on the cheating Mrs. Kennicutt and attempted to blackmail her. At this point, it would be a simple matter of Columbo asking Arthur if he hired Brimmer to spy on his wife. Who knows? Maybe he did in a later offscreen moment.
I laughed at Columbo quizzing the loose-lipped underling.
Who is the weirdo playing with the kid at the park. Oh, it’s Columbo!
I’m sure I missed something, but what was the purpose of this scene and how did this woman’s husband fit into anything? I remain confused.
At the point where Columbo says “I wish the murderer knew” directly to Brimmer, he is telegraphing so hard that, were I Brimmer, I would seriously consider offing him at this point.
Best line of the episode is Columbo assuring Brimmer he will keep him updated on any major break in the case: “Oh, don’t worry. You’ll be the first to know.” Lol
The set-up leading to the gotcha is pretty damn brilliant.
Many fans feel otherwise, but I think “Death Lends a Hand” is superior to “Murder by the Book” with its out-of-left-field ending. This script is tight, well-constructed, and pays off in dramatically satisfying fashion. And Culp is stellar as our guest villain. Thus, my rankings to date: #1. Death Lends a Hand, #2. Prescription: Murder, #3. Murder by the Book and #4. Ransom for a Dead Man (although increasingly, I’m feeling the last two could be tied).
Finally, it’s time to ask: Does Columbo have enough evidence to get a conviction here? Or is the evidence circumstantial and we are looking at an acquittal? Well, I think Columbo has constructed a pretty solid case against Brimmer – who no doubt realized as much and confessed to the murder in front of about a dozen people. So, yes, in this case I believe Columbo gets a CONVICTION
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I will have to get back to you on this episode but, for now, I would like to update you on Columbo’s omelette from Murder by the Book.
I tried it today. It was very good. I used 2 eggs, about 2 tbsp of onion, and maybe 1/4 cup-ish of cheese (pepperjack, to be exact). I have an electric stove and after heating the oil on medium heat and adding the egg mixture, I immediately turned the temperature down by about half, covered (partially) and flipped. Thoughts:
I will definitely be adding onion to the again egg before cooking. It seasoned the egg throughout so no need for any additional flavors, and the onion was cooked but still a bit firm – a perfect texture, imho. Next time I will add some diced jalapeno, I think it will give it a nice bite. The egg itself was a bit on the dry side, but maybe because I left it on the heat longer to ensure the onion was cooked. Or it was the cheese itself. An oily cheddar may have worked better, or even feta or a soft goat cheese. Or just more cheese in general.
Experiment time! I did not miss the milk…I don’t think. I usually add a dash of milk to scrambled eggs and omelettes, so its absence may also account for the drier eggs.
Bottom line: Definitely doable, needs some tweaking, and it comes out more like a frittata (without the oven finish) than an omelette. But seeing as how Columbo is Italian, perhaps he calls a frittata an omelette for the sake of the audience.
das
Interesting experiment. Next up, do his chili recipe: serve up a bowl of chili and then crumble a bunch of crackers into he bowl and mix.
Well, seeing as how they would have to be gluten-free crackers, they would turn to mush. I have, however, crumbled tortilla chips into my chili, and it adds a nice crunch. 🙂
das
I only know Robert Culp from “The Greatest American Hero” so it was cool to see him in something else. He was great!
I was only a few days old when this episode first aired!
I didn’t notice the reuse of the office set. I guess it makes sense. They probably had it standing in the studio and was used by lots of shows and movies at the time.
The murder cleanup in the reflection of the glasses was inspired! It showed multiple things happening simultaneously which sped up the narrative. Very clever.
I think Columbo is brilliant at catching criminals but is not so brilliant at running his own life so the broken tail light and expiring license made perfect sense to me. He’s a modern day Sherlock Holmes who is laser focused on what other people are doing at the expense of his own personal life.
I did forget about the expiring license, though, so the trip to the DMV confused me.
Columbo made special note of the cut on the victim’s face when he examined the body. I suspect from that point he was looking for a ring wearer and that’s why he immediately homed in on Brimmer and did the whole palmistry thing to get a closer look at the ring which sealed his suspicions. At that point he just needed to figure out why Brimmer and Lenore would be interacting. The corrosion on Brimmer’s car puts him near the beach a few miles from the Kennicutt beach house so it all started to come together.
Columbo knows how to hit a golf ball! I wonder if Peter Falk was a keen golfer in real life?
Yet again we get a scene where Columbo theorises about the murder with the murderer. I enjoy it but it’s getting a bit repetitive.
I, too, was confused about Columbo talking to the crew-cut heavy’s wife. When Brimmer called Crew-Cut I thought he was putting a hit on Columbo because he was getting too close. They’d just set up that Columbo didn’t carry a gun. It would have been an easy hit. But perhaps Brimmer was just wanted Crew-Cut out of town so Columbo couldn’t talk to him as that would connect Brimmer to following Lenore and her infidelities. But, as you say, Columbo could have just pressed Arthur a little harder and he would have revealed that he’d had Brimmer investigating his wife.
The biggest problem I had with the episode was the whole contact lens thing. I was on board with Lenore losing a contact lens and then it implicated Brimmer when he finds it in the trunk of his car. Perfect! It wrapped everything up nicely and he was caught bang to rights. And then Columbo totally ruins it for me by saying that Lenore still had both contact lenses and that the lens Brimmer found in his trunk was just a random coincidence and that him searching for a lens was proof enough. What?!?! Why would the writers do that? Was it supposed to be a twist? If so then it totally broke my suspension of disbelief.
Anyway, best episode yet. I liked that it wasn’t a pre-meditated murder so there wasn’t a convoluted plan to hide evidence. Just a murderer who know how the cops worked and did the bare minimum to avoid suspicion. Even with the bogus contact lens thing Brimmer totally went down for this! CONVICTION!
Also, was Arthur’s mansion the same one owned by horse head guy in “The Godfather”? It looked familiar.
I think having her actually lose her contact in that trunk would have been a huge coincidence. Brimmer looking for and finding the contact – which he subsequently attempts to get rid of, thus implicating himself – was part of the set-up. Columbo planted the contact lens in the trunk.
Okie dokie, my thoughts…
This episode happened to be on TV tonight, so I didn’t have to look hard for it!
This isn’t my favorite episode. Yes, it’s good, but there are others that I prefer. Still, the gotcha with a contact part was quite satisfying.
However, this rewatch made me appreciate it more than before. I liked that the victim, a young wife, was named Lenore (A line from Poe’s poem, ‘Lenore’: “An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young–” ). Fitting. On the other hand, I could only hear Vincent Price’s voice every time someone mentioned her name (his voice from The Raven, 1963 – I’ve watched it too many times, I suppose).
Of the three Culp villainous appearances, this is my least favorite. I think it’s because his character seems dull to me in this one (compared to his other 2 appearances). Perhaps that’s why It doesn’t rank in my top ten Columbo episodes.
I could never warm to Ray Milland after he tried to have his wife killed (and when that failed, framed for murder) in Dial M For Murder. 😀 And he was also quite slippery in So Evil My Love (1948…love that film!). It’s hard for me to see him as a ‘good guy’. Not that I hold what a character does against the actor who portrays him, it’s just that his voice is so distinctive that I think of his bad guy roles every time I hear it. So, I guess he’s good at portraying bad guys who I love to hate. 🙂 (I think the first thing I ever saw him in was Charlie Chan in London (spoiler: he wasn’t the killer).
Green cigars (known as Candela cigars) were the popular before the 1980s. The leaves were picked while still green and dried quickly in order to keep their chlorophyll content.
They were known as American Market Selection (AMS), while brown cigars were known as ‘natural’, or English Market Selection (EMS). After 1980, brown cigars became more popular and the green ones much less so, but they can still be found if you want them. I did not gain this knowledge from my cigar-smoking grandfather, but from Google…because Google knows everything. 😛
“I initially mistook Ray Milland for Carl Reiner…” Yup, I can see it!
Did I miss something? I swore that there was a scene where Columbo asks if he takes the job, would he be taken off the murder case. (Of course!) I was helping my mom for a couple of minutes, so I might have missed it, or it was cut to fit into the time slot. But whatever the case is, it’s obvious that Brimmer wanted to squash Columbo’s involvement in the case.
Columbo was looking for the crew-cut guy because he was described by the golf-guy as the one following him and Mrs. Cheaterpants. Columbo probably wanted to verify that crew-cut guy reported Lenore’s infidelities to Brimmer, which would mean he lied to Mr. Cuckold, which would suggest that Brimmer was either in cahoots with Lenore, or holding something over her head to his advantage.
It’s late, and I may not be expressing myself as clearly as I could. I also loved Columbo’s quizzing the loose-lipped employee, and how he stalked (?) crew-cut’s wife and kid, and golf-guy. He would scare the bejeebies outta me, just popping up in my car like that! He’s always very sincere and kind with the non-suspects, though, even when he has to be a bit insistent with them when he knows they’re holding back. (You should’ve seen how I just spelled insistent – it wasn’t even English, I don’t think. Time for bedsies! 😀 )
das
You loved him stalking the guy’s wife and kid?
Ah, okay, the crew cut angle makes more sense.
You’ll be pleased to know Ray Milland returns as a murderer in a later season (but I’m assuming you already knew that).
“Not that I hold what a character does against the actor who portrays him” Sure sounds like it!
Yeah…Columbo in a trench coat, interacting with a kid on a playground. Stranger Danger! Classic Columbo – drawing attention to himself for all the wrong reasons. All I could think of was “Sitting on a park bench…eyeing little girls with bad intent…”
You either sung that line in your head, or have no idea what on earth I’m going on about. 🙂
Yes, I am aware of Milland’s next murderous appearance. Some people just make great bad guys. Cassidy and Culp are also among those actors who seem to make very believable killers. Perhaps it’s their mastery of having an arrogant air about themselves… or is that their natural personalities?
And you’re right. I do hold what a character does against the actor who portrays him. Case in point? My dislike for all things Will Ferrell…except this:
https://youtu.be/cVL0E2xtgyU?si=XzsBCEY860tA1YWu
He redeemed himself in my eyes with that one. 🙂
das
Oh, and thanks for the information about the green cigars. Another mystery put to rest.