The milieu here is the family and friends of the Commodore (John Dehner), very rich folks. The Commodore is murdered and just as we think Columbo has the killer (Robert Vaughan) cornered, he's murdered too. Columbo assembles all the possible suspects in a room at the end and goes through a Charlie Chan or Hercule Poirot routine to expose the real killer, whose motive turns out to be greed.
This is thin stuff although the director (Patrick McGoohan, a talented actor) tries to lay it on with a trowel. I would guess the script started off as an hour-long show for "Mannix" or "Dan August" or something. There are many attempts to pad it out with humor and none of them are funny. (See Lieutenant Columbo try to wrestle himself into a FULL LOTUS POSITION! That'll be ten cents.) Characters get rather elaborate introductions and then play no more than the usual minor roles. Worse, this is a somewhat different Columbo than the character his fans have come to know. He's bumbling, of course, and has to cope with the difference between a mainmast and a mizzenmast, but on top of that he's CUTE. He winks. He smiles. His comments are coy. And what does it all boil down to? A two-minute experiment at the end in which the killer reveals his guilt. The rest were all red herrings.
There would be worse episodes after the series was revived and wrung out, but this is certainly one of the weakest of the original series, despite the talent in front of, and behind, the camera.
This is thin stuff although the director (Patrick McGoohan, a talented actor) tries to lay it on with a trowel. I would guess the script started off as an hour-long show for "Mannix" or "Dan August" or something. There are many attempts to pad it out with humor and none of them are funny. (See Lieutenant Columbo try to wrestle himself into a FULL LOTUS POSITION! That'll be ten cents.) Characters get rather elaborate introductions and then play no more than the usual minor roles. Worse, this is a somewhat different Columbo than the character his fans have come to know. He's bumbling, of course, and has to cope with the difference between a mainmast and a mizzenmast, but on top of that he's CUTE. He winks. He smiles. His comments are coy. And what does it all boil down to? A two-minute experiment at the end in which the killer reveals his guilt. The rest were all red herrings.
There would be worse episodes after the series was revived and wrung out, but this is certainly one of the weakest of the original series, despite the talent in front of, and behind, the camera.