This episode aired February 19, 1972
This is one of the rare Columbo episodes where the murder is committed off-screen.
The secretary’s desk is the same desk used by Investigator Brimmer in “Death Lends a Hand” and lawyer Frank Simpson in “Suitable for Framing”.
The blue convertible Elliot Markham uses to transport the body of his victim was the same blue convertible Ken Franklin used to transport the body of his victim in “Murder by the Book”.
The scene in which Markham blows a tire and is offered help by a passing patrol officer was originally written for “Murder by the Book” but moved to this episode. Steven Boccho wrote both.
Series creators William Link and Richard Levinson elected to finally honor their contractual obligation to Falk by allowing him to direct this episode – which happened to be the most challenging of the first season scripts, saddling Falk with scenes at a construction site that proved as tricky as they were frustrating. Levinson admitted: “From the standpoint of difficulties, we gave him the worst one to direct.”
According to Mark Dawidziak in his book The Columbo Phile: “Levinson and Link would drive over to Century City so they could smile down on the harried director. Falk would pause long enough to shake his fist at them.”
To prepare himself for his first directing gig, Falk consulted former Columbo director Steven Spielberg as well as his good friend John Cassavetes (with whom he would co-direct “Etude in Black”, the season 2 premiere).
During the sequence in which the construction crew dig up the site, Falk requested more extras to make the scene more dynamic, but the studio refused, so he ended up hiring 25 actors and paying for them out of his own pocket.
“Our feeling was that he did a good job directing, but not so good playing the character,”said Levinson, citing Falk’s more harried portrayal in contrast to past low key performances.
Falk, either turned off by the experience or displeased by the results would never take the director’s reins again.
My thoughts on this episode in chronological viewing order:
“You were in Europe. There was no way to get in touch with you.” Wut?!
Man, that was a lame smack. The sort of glancing blow you would give someone to humiliate and provoke them.
Great reveal of Markham sitting in the back seat of Bo’s car.
Interesting that we don’t see the murder. I suppose that, at that points, it’s just superfluous.
Columbo asking about how Jennifer and Elliot met – he’s suspicious of them!
Love the segue from the second wife’s “He’s very much alive” to the first wife’s: “He’s dead.”
Why is the masseuse dubbed by someone whose first language is clearly not Japanese?
I like shy Columbo echoing the nude model scene in “Suitable for Framing”.
Can I say how much I love Janis Paige’s performance as Goldie Williamson. The highlight of this episode.
The cassette deck in the car sequence goes on for a while.
Presumably witnesses can place Bo at the race track prior to his death. Why aren’t Columbo and the police pursuing that line of questioning? If they did, they could find the body and wrap this up at the 45 minute mark, saving themselves so much time and trouble.
“Do you want a half a candy bar?” – Probably my favorite line in the episode.
Love the fact he goes to interview Bo’s doctor who insists on giving him a check-up.
Man, Markham really DOES love his classical music, listening to it full blast as he broods in his office. Subtle, this aint.
Columbo’s sudden entrance here just comes off as weird and stagey.
He likens Columbo to a tick. Perfect.
Strange that Columbo needs to shout to be heard at the construction site but Markham speaks at normal levels.
Love this double sequence where Columbo is forced to deal with government bureaucracy and must waste time standing in line only to get nowhere. He really needs an assistant. Overall, the extended sequence is a bit of a stage weight, but it’s a lot of fun so I’ll excuse it.
Goldie is pretty touchy-affectionate with Columbo. Does she have a crush on our diminutive detective?
The beat where the patrol cop asks him to pop the trunk so he can help his change the tire is a brilliant bit of suspense.
Pretty clever set-up on Columbo’s part. In the end, Markham did not possess the genius of those early murderers.
“Carnegie Hall and Nashville. They don’t mix.” My second favorite line of the episode.
Love the final shot of Columbo thinking twice about the cigar and then stubbing it out. At this point, Levinson and Link had no idea whether or not the show would be back and felt the moment offered a nice little button on the character.
Overall, a pretty good episode. Solid script and direction with some wonderful moments of humor and a delightfully kooky performance by Janis Paige. I felt the only real drawbacks were the rather obvious failure to check the racetrack and Patrick O’Neal’s somewhat lackluster performance as our main baddie. In the previous episode, Roddy McDowall was pretty OTT but, in this episode, O’Neal plays it so sedate that his performance sucks a lot of the fun out of his scenes with Falk.
As a result, my current episode rankings would be: #1 Death Lends a Hand, #2 Suitable for Framing, #3 Prescription: Murder, #4 Murder by the Book/Ransom for a Dead Man (tie), #5 Lady in Waiting, #6 Blueprint for Murder, #7 Dead Weight, #8 Short Fuse
Finally, we come to the point in our review when we ask ourselves whether Columbo has enough for a GUILTY verdict, or is our murderer looking at an ACQUITTAL. Alas, having been caught red-headed with a body in the trunk of his car, it’s lights out for Markham. GUILTY!
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