Our Columbo rewatch continues with…
“Publish or Perish”
This episode aired January 18, 1974.
Columbo joins Eileen and Neal for lunch at the famed Chasen’s Restaurant. The restaurant, that closed in 1995, was, ironically, well known for its chili.
The $6 chili would be equivalent to about $40 today.
This is the second of three episodes featuring Jack Cassidy as a murderer.
His character, Riley Greenleaf, wishes Columbo “all the luck” in solving this mystery, echoing the words of Ken Franklin, the character he played in “Murder by the Book”.
Writer Peter S. Fischer would go on to co-create the series Murder She Wrote with Columbo co-creator’s William Link and Richard Levinson. He wrote the part of Riley Greenleaf with actor Jack Klugman in mind: “I had written that character for Jack Krugman. I wanted the publisher to be much seedier, not the typical elegant Columbo villain. Dick (Levinson) said it works best when you take the scruffy little guy with the blue collar and put him up against diamond studs.” Apparently, Jack Klugman was an actor who Levinson had said should never be a Columbo murderer.
Jake Bender, who played the young messenger Wolpert, would go on to establish himself as a successful director, working on shows like The Sopranos, Lost, and From.
Actress Mariette Hartley, who played Eileen McRae, reflected on her guest appearance: “I didn’t have a great part, but it was great fun working with Peter and Jack Cassidy. They worked very hard, but it was loose. Jack Cassidy would chase me around the set. He was just terrible in a wonderful sort of way.”
Eileen and Jeffrey Neal inform Columbo that Rock Hudson was attached to star in an adaptation of one of Alan Mallory’s books. This was some not-so-subtle cross-promotion for Hudson’s series MacMillan and Wife, another Universal production.
My thoughts on this episode in chronological viewing order…
Loving the mid-explosion credits.
Eddie seems…how should I put it?…a tad on the psychotic side.
Oh, and he’s also a writer. Not surprising.
Is that…Mickey Spillane?
Clearly, no one likes the slick and seedy Greenleaf.
“My dear friend, if you do you will die.” – That sounds like a threat!
“He’ll never write for you or anyone else. And I shall see to it.” – Okay, confirming we’re in threat territory here.
The picture-in-picture and overlap of the conversation with the shot of Eddie pulling up to the place is pretty clever. Apparently, the episode was running long so director Robert Butler and editor Robert L. Kimble came up with some innovative ways to hit the desired runtime.
Love this split screen action. Very dynamic. This is a first for Columbo.
Clearly causing trouble so that he can establish an alibi, but why not just be loud and stay the night? The entire bar would be able to attest to his whereabouts.
“Sir, in your condition I should call the police.” “Ma’am, in your condition, I should call a plastic surgeon.” A variation on a Winston Churchill classic:
Lady Nancy Astor: “Sir, if you were my husband, I would poison your tea.”
Churchill: “Madam, if I were your husband, I would drink it.”
Columbo was up late watching a Bette Davis movie with his wife. He’s a big fan!
Columbo seems to be the only one interested in that recording.
He’s just going to carry the gun out like that? When were evidence bags invented?
Aha! Motive. Mallory was going to leave him for another publisher.
He also made threats. This is either a very sloppy murder or he wants everyone to assume he’s been set up.
His gun has been tied to the crime scene. So, yes, he’s going for set-up.
He claims he doesn’t even remember what he did the previous night – but the insurance company can provide an alibi. How fortuitous.
Columbo seems genuinely relieved for Greeleaf, even giving him a comradely pat on the back. I found that kinda delightful.
Lawyer David Chase (presumably named after Sopranos creator David Chase who was a writer working for Universal at the time) admonishes Columbo: “Find the evidence, lieutenant. Quit jumping to conclusions and quit trying to take the easy way.”
A chastened Columbo goes to leave…and then: “One more thing…”
“And when you said you were relieved that those people – more than one – when you were relieved that those people called your insurance man, I thought maybe the blackout was starting to clear up and you were beginning to remember what happened.” His first mistake is a big one. Now Columbo is never going to let this go.
“There’s a strange man wandering around the editorioal section.”
“Call the police.
“He says he IS the police.”
“But you know you were very lucky. I mean with that accident. I mean the time it happened and the witnesses. Count your blessings, sir.”
“If it hadn’t been for that accident, things would’ve looked very bad for you.”
Columbo is so on to him and Greenleaf knows it.
Love the posters of the book covers adorning the wall: “My Home Was a House” and “Modern Aztec Courtship Practices”.
Columbo floats the idea of trying his hand at writing. “Maybe a short book, just to get the hang of it…” Reminds me of someone who once informed me: “You have the best job in the world. You just sit around all day, making stuff up.”
But Columbo is under no allusions as to how tough it is: “It’s hard at home with the family.” Especially with the demands of a blind puggle!
Hmmm. Greenleaf took out a million dollar insurance policy on Mallory’s life. Not sure this whole “make everyone think you’ve been framed” plan was such a good idea after all. I mean, maybe this could fly on McCloud or even MacMillan and Wife, but certainly not on Columbo.
This whole lock and key thing is confusing.
Uh, I’d be highly suspicious of anyone wearing black leather gloves indoors as he pours me a drink.
Eddie kinda reminds me of Steve Buscemi.
“How To Blow Up Anything in Ten Easy Lessons”. Sadly, I am unable to find a copy of this book on Amazon.
“Don’t I need a parking check?”asks Columbo. “Listen mister, I’ll remember your car,” the valet assures him.
“Sweetbreads Financier. I can’t pronounce that, uh.” I’d actually order that over the chili.
Classic Columbo, asking for catsup and crackers at the high-end restaurant: “I wanted to get those saltines…”
Love the little exchange with the waiter where a shocked Columbo has the iced tea added to his bill. Actor Maurice Marsac, who played the waiter, was a Captain in the French Army reserves during WWII. He was a nationally ranked croquet player and actually came to the U.S. as a wine salesman.
Columbo says they found a letter addressed to Greenleaf from months ago – but if that’s the case, shouldn’t the letter have been sent? Assume this is a carbon copy?
Greenleaf blames Eddie for not accepting the five thousand dollar offer for his book idea.
“I guess he killed Alan and he tried to frame me. You know, in many ways I’m really to blame.” Yes, Riley. You certainly are.
That cop standing in the hallway looks like a young Lee Majors.
“This writing is not as easy as it looks.” The writers must have loved putting these words in Falk’s mouth.
He mentions the Hayward case again from two episodes back!
“I got it all up here. I can’t put it down here.” Oh, I know how you feel, Columbo. I know how you feel.
“That lock wasn’t on the door that night.” Uh, why did Columbo ask to have the lock changed? I mean, it worked out for him, but what was he thinking at the time?
Another great Gotcha! How could Eddie have come up with an ending that wouldn’t be written for another nine months?!
This one was another very enjoyable episode, but it’s an episode that demands your full attention given its complexities (like that lock-and-key clue-line that, strangely, never fully pays off in the end). Still, “Publish or Perish” is incredibly well-paced and chock full of great Columbo moments, my favorite being the elevator sequence where Columbo not-so-subtly lets Greenleaf know he aint buying his alibis. And the entire sequence in which Greenleaf attempts to establish an alibi is fantastic. Falk is terrific as always and Jack Cassidy delivers yet another brilliant performance. I look forward to his third and final appearance as a diabolical magician. Kudos to the supporting cast, from the underutilized Mariette Hartley and Jacques Aubuchon to the maniacal John Davis Chandler as Eddie Kane. And, of course, Maurice Marsac as the snooty waiter.
So, where does this episode place in my ongoing rankings? Well, overall, I really liked this episode – but would dock it a few points for crossing the line from complex to confusing in some of its third act beats. Thus, my revised rankings would look like this: 1. Any Old Port in a Storm, 2. Double Exposure, 3. Double Shock, 4. A Stitch in Crime, 5. Death Lends a Hand, 6. Suitable for Framing, 7. Publish or Perish, 8. Dagger of the Mind, 9 Requiem for a Falling Star, 10. Prescription: Murder, 12. Murder by the Book/Ransom for a Dead Man (tie), 12. Lady in Waiting, 13. Etude in Black, 14. The Most Crucial Game, 15. Blueprint for Murder, 16. Lovely But Lethal, 17. The Most Dangerous Match, 18. The Greenhouse Jungle 19. Dead Weight, 0. Short Fuse, 21. Candidate for Crime.
Finally, time consider whether our murderer, Riley Greenleaf in this case, would be found GUILTY or win an ACQUITTAL based on the evidence. As in most Columbo cases, this one comes down to circumstantial evidence, but I think there’s enough of it here to convict…provided the prosecutor can lay it all out for the jury. So I say GUILTY!
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Thanks for the background! Jack Cassidy’s actress chasing antics would get him in trouble now.
Very good points, too.
I know Jack’s character was setting up the alibi but I thought it odd that couple would be getting into hippy van. They look for like a Buick or a Cadillac couple.
Forty dollar chili did make a lot more sense with his reaction. What would make chili that expensive? Truffles, Wagyu beef?
The “gotchas” were good and I’d vote guilty.
I suspect the hippy van was readily available for bashing.
I start off writing these things expecting to be brief and concise and end up with a novel by the end of it. Apologies!
I can see Jack Klugman in the role of Greenleaf. I’m sure Jack can play rich douchebag.
While $40 for a chilli might be a bit extreme, I bet it was a really good chilli! I was impressed with how quickly they brought it out. Maybe the chef just chucked some chilli powder into the Beef Bourguignon?
Mariette Hartley might not have done very much in this episode, but she was very pretty while she was doing it! I get why Cassidy was chasing her around. Would totally get cancelled if he tried it these days, though.
The opening credits were great! They blew the season’s special effects budget in one scene!
I think Mickey Spillane should have stuck to writing. His acting was . . . not great.
The split screen stuff was excellent. Reminded me of the glasses reflection shot in . . . was it “Death Lends A Hand”?
The alibi setup of causing a scene in the bar was perfect. Causing an accident took it too far. The couple in the Combi-van definitely didn’t match their car. That van was in such bad shape I’m surprised they even bothered contacting Greenleaf’s insurance! If anything, the scraped off pain from Greenleaf’s car probably improved the value of the van!
The whole “fake framing” thing confused me. If you’ve already established an alibi for yourself, why attract extra scrutiny by supposedly being framed for the murder? No wonder Columbo’s spidey senses were tingling! Greenleaf should have just hired the hitman, caused a scene in the bar to establish an alibi, feigned shock at Mallory’s death, and got on with life.
Although, I think Columbo was onto Greenleaf from almost the very beginning. If you watch closely you can see Columbo intently observing people whenever he tells them of the murder. He’s an astute study of human behaviour and can spot when someone doesn’t react the way they should upon hearing that someone they know has been murdered. You see it time and time again. When he tells an innocent person (even if they are the obvious suspect) he immediately lets them know that he doesn’t think they did it. However, when he tells the murderer he lets them stew. He spots that they didn’t react in a normal way. They might have a legitimate reason for their reaction but it raises Columbo’s suspicions and gives him a direction for his investigation. It’s great acting and direction.
Eddie’s craziness is a loose end that Greenleaf needed to tug on before Columbo did. So I get why Greenleaf killed him. It’s almost certain that Eddie would have ended up on police radar at some point for his bomb making and then the murder would have eventually come to light. But Greenleaf found Eddie’s pocket book with his name in it. Just take it before blowing the place up. Given the paraphernalia in Eddie’s apartment it’s unlikely the police would have run a full tox workup on his body. Accidentally blowing yourself up is an occupational hazard for those sorts of people. But planting evidence that links Eddie back to yourself is just dumb, dumb, dumb.
Columbo changing the lock was a great, yet inexplicable gotcha. The police find a key at the crime scene. It doesn’t fit any lock. They find out that Mallory had changed the lock recently so Columbo makes the assumption that the key is for the old lock. Greenleaf confirms he has a key for the lock but it was stolen from his car along with his gun. Columbo then has a locksmith change the lock and plants the seed in Greenleaf’s mind (no pun intended) that if they can find the person with a key that fits, they’ll find the murderer. This encourages Greenleaf into getting a locksmith to make a key for the new new lock and planting it at Eddie’s place which then neatly indicates a connection between Eddie and Greenleaf post-murder of Mallory.
But Greenleaf could have simply shrugged at Columbo’s questions about how the murderer got into the office to kill Mallory and just said, “Who knows, Lieutenant? Maybe Mallory left his office door open?” Columbo’s trap needed a lot of things to go right in order to be sprung.
Yes, you can see when Greenleaf loads the paper into Eddie’s typewriter that there is a carbon sheet in between two pieces of paper. I assume he put the carbon copy into Eddie’s filing cabinet and took the original “posted” version to show Columbo when he inevitably came calling about it.
This was a good episode let down by the overly convoluted coverup, the subsequent stupid actions by Greenleaf, and a lot of luck for Columbo during the investigation. I felt the writer was just trying to be too clever. He had a neat idea for the gotcha moment and then worked backwards to make the plot fit and it didn’t quite work.
Greenleaf will be found GUILTY . . . but mostly guilty of being too stupid to just shut his mouth and stick to his alibi rather than making things worse.
“I think Mickey Spillane should have stuck to writing. His acting was . . . not great.” lol
“The split screen stuff was excellent. Reminded me of the glasses reflection shot in . . . was it “Death Lends A Hand”?” Yes! Me too.
“If you’ve already established an alibi for yourself, why attract extra scrutiny by supposedly being framed for the murder?” Exactly. Some of these murderers unnecessarily complicate things for themselves. And that leads to their downfall.
“Columbo changing the lock was a great, yet inexplicable gotcha.” And this is a case where the writer unnecessarily complicates the script.
Well, this is what happens when I’m late to the party – all the good points have been covered, and covered again!
I have so little to add, except I haven’t watched this one in a while and have renewed appreciation for it now. I don’t mind the complications that y’all find annoying…it just makes it more interesting to watch. I guess it’s how I approach most films and shows. Do they entertain me? Then I am very forgiving. Do they bore me or annoy me? Then I’ll nitpick them to death! So, this one I find very entertaining, therefore I don’t scrutinize it too much.
I’m also tired, so I may not make much sense…it’s been a long, but nice, day. Some quick thoughts:
I thought the Hippie Van would make a great second car for the Columbo family.
“Eddie kinda reminds me of Steve Buscemi.” YES! He was so deliciously creepy in this episode, too.
Mr. Spillane’s early novels featured more sex and violence than similar works at that time, and the cover art was often risqué. This brought him both criticism and praise. And his books sold. Sold big. I wonder if his character in this episode was a bit of art imitating life?
I just had a thought…Columbo and all that chili? He must’ve been a very gassy fella.
I really enjoyed this rewatch, and I’m sorry I couldn’t bring more to the table. I will rank it later.
das
I understand you have your hands full, Das. No rush on weighing on.
Thanks, Joe…y. 😀
It’s just that I’m so used to having TOO much to say, I feel like I’m failing as “Overly-opinionated blog follower”. I mean, I have a reputation to uphold!
The thing is, I am so enjoying actually watching Columbo episodes instead of just sleeping to them, so I want to be involved. The last time I watched episodes on a regular basis was back when I worked for dad. They kept me company in my otherwise quiet office. So, 8-10 years ago I would have really been on the Columbo ball, with everything fresh in my mind. I could have Wraith-ized every villain, defending their actions as if in a court of law! But now? Now I’m an old curmudgeon who’s had enough of everyone’s shenanigans, so no passes given. Unless, of course, they have a pale, olive complexion and long, fair locks. 😉
Gosh, I do so miss those guys.
das
Oh, I’m definitely in the curmudgeon camp.
Oh, sorry…hit the comment button before asking about your mom? Mine is doing better the last couple days – better hydration and finally getting that UTI knocked out has really helped. She still has her moments, but the improvement is noticeable. I hope your mom is doing better, too.
das