Bad Bobby Culp is back and – joy of joys – he’s badder than ever! In the guise of Paul Hanlon – the bad-ass General Manager of the LA Rockets American football team – he’s as impatient, irascible and irate as we ever see him. Plus he’s even sporting an EVIL MOUSTACHE to accentuate his badness. Have I mentioned yet that he’s BAD?
First airing on 5 November 1972, Culp’s Columbo comeback marked the first time an actor had returned in the role of a killer. Following on from his star turn in Death Lends a Hand in Season 1, this episode was, therefore, hotly anticipated.
But is The Most Crucial Game a Superbowl of an episode, or a tepid mid-table tussle? Let’s don our mauve suits, smooth out our handlebar ‘stashes and send out for Ding-a-Ling ice cream as we find out…
Dramatis personae
Lieutenant Columbo: Peter Falk
Paul Hanlon: Robert Culp
Eric Wagner: Dean Stockwell
Walter Cunnell: Dean Jagger
Shirley Wagner: Susan Howard
Eve Babcock: Valerie Harper
Coach Rizzo: James Gregory
Ralph Dobbs: Val Avery
Directed by: Jeremy Kagan
Written by: John T. Dugan
Score: Dick De Benedictis
Episode synopsis – Columbo The Most Crucial Game
Paul Hanlon is General Manager of the LA Rockets American Football team, as well as the powerhouse behind a number of sporting franchises owned by the Wagner family, now headed up by playboy Eric (Dean Stockwell) following the death of his father.
For reasons known only to him, Hanlon has it in for young Wagner. And, quelle surprise, he has a fiendish plan to rid himself of the whelp, ostensibly so he can rule the sporting empire all by himself.
It’s game day and calling a hungover Wagner from his private box at the Los Angeles Coliseum, the abrasive Hanlon orders him into the pool to get ready for a flight to Montreal that evening. Wagner reluctantly agrees, but we can see he’s fed up of Hanlon’s bully-boy tactics.
Springing into action, Hanlon dons one of the most memorable disguises we ever see in Columbo: a Ding-a-Ling ice-cream man costume, comprising white suit, bow tie and charming hat. He slips unnoticed through the stadium crowds and, commandeering a Ding-a-Ling van, heads off into the leafy suburbs, destination: Wagner HQ.
Who wouldn’t want to buy an ice cream from this friendly-looking chap?
Stopping midway to call Wagner from a phone box, Hanlon does some more bellowing and establishes his alibi through clever use of a portable radio to give his soon-to-be victim the impression he’s still in his box at the stadium. Leaping back into the van, Hanlon leaves a disappointed young girl in his wake, her baleful cries of “Hey Mister!” falling on deaf ears as he tucks gleefully into a fudgsicle.
Wagner, meanwhile, is clearing his dizzy head with laps in the pool as Hanlon arrives. Ding-a-Ling’s finest grabs a hunk of ice from the van’s freezer and sneaks through the bushes before emerging poolside. A surprised Wagner swims over – only to be brained by the lump of ice. Hanlon leaves him floating face-down in the pool, tosses the ice into the water and beats it. His final act is to wash away traces of his footsteps with the hose before he races back to the stadium and his half-time alibi appointment with the Rockets’ beleaguered Coach Rizzo.
“Wagner swims over – only to be brained by the lump of ice. Hanlon leaves him floating face-down in the pool, tosses the ice into the water and beats it.”
Disappointed to be called into action with the big game unfolding, the police force don’t appear to be giving the Wagner death their full attention: all except for Lieutenant Columbo – once his mind is off the game and on the case. Little things bother him right away and he’s instantly leaping, gazelle-like, to conclusions.
Where are the servants? Why is there so much water around the pool? It’s freshwater, too, not chlorinated, so from a hose not the pool itself. Was an assailant trying to wash away some evidence? He also gets a wet shoe for his troubles after blundering into the pool, silly boy…
You really are a bungling one, Lieutenant…
The doughty Lieutenant heads to the Coliseum to break the bad news to Hanlon in his box. His believable reaction wouldn’t appear to give Columbo much grounds for suspicion, and a subsequent interview with Coach Rizzo suggests a close knit relationship between Hanlon and Wagner.
Yet his suspicions continue to rise. As he visits Wagner HQ, Hanlon is evasive, refusing calls that come in for him, and skedaddling away on a secret errand. Columbo also encounters long-time Wagner family lawyer, Walter Cunnell, and detects a certain frisson between him and Hanlon (i.e. they hate each other’s guts). The wily Lieutenant even notices a distinctive hum coming from the radio. It’s the trigger he needs to conclude the house phones have been bugged. The plot genuinely thickens…
NOTE: This scene also features one of the series’ iconic moments, as WET-SHOED Columbo’s first exchange with Cunnell is to ask him how much he paid for his shoes. An ad lib by Falk, who loved to keep his fellow actors on their toes, this moment never fails to raise a smile.
“What did you pay for those shoes?” A simple line that has achieved LEGENDARY STATUS
Columbo doesn’t just let Hanlon dash off on his secret errand unhindered, though. He tails him to Los Angeles airport, catching Hanlon in a phone booth returning the mystery call he received at the house earlier. Yet more suspicious activity is filed away in the Columbo memory banks.
Swiftly enraged at being tracked, it’s not long before Hanlon looks like getting punchy – especially when Columbo grills him about his alibi. A Ding-a-Ling truck was spotted near the Wagner house, yet they don’t usually service that area. They do operate out of the Rockets stadium, though, so it’s extra important that Hanlon’s alibi be corroborated.
You see, even though Hanlon claims to have called Wagner from his box at the Coliseum, the phone records can’t prove it. Curse the unreliability of phone record-keeping in the early 70s, eh?
Hanlon’s rage level is creeping up towards 11 out of 10. Fortunately his imminent combustion is put on hold by the arrival of Shirley, Eric’s wife who has been in Acapulco at some charity bash. Her grief brings out the softer side in Hanlon, who’s soon cuddling her and cooing as the Lieutenant looks awkwardly on. By now the plot is so thick that it’s resembling a swamp of treacle that has already dragged scores of strong men and luckless ponies to their deaths…
Hitman Hanlon becomes Perfect Paul in the presence of the weepy Mrs Wagner
Next up we’re back at the Wagner residence in the dead of night. A shadowy figure breaks and enters and starts monkeying with one of the phones, when Columbo spins around on a chair like a boss and startles the intruder.
It’s Ralph Dobbs, a private investigator who has been hired to remove the phone bugs. Columbo tough-talks the shaken PI and confiscates his licence until he gets the info he needs. He suspects Hanlon was behind it, but it’s Columbo himself who’s surprised when he learns that Walter ‘Cue Ball’ Cunnell was instead responsible.
In a parlour gathering, Columbo, Hanlon, Cunnell and Mrs Wagner listen through the hours of taped phone conversations. A cringing Cunnell tells Shirley that he did it for her sake, suspecting Eric of philandering and of Hanlon egging him on. There’s some evidence of this, but Hanlon manages to talk his way out of it, suggesting that the sister of a “chick” Wagner thanked him for lining up for him was merely a new HOUSE MAID. Sounds plausible…
At any rate, Hanlon is still Shirley’s blue-eyed boy while Cunnell is dead to her. And with his alibi substantiated by the taped recordings, it looks like the wicked general manager is going to get away with murder – until Dobbs comes up with new information for Columbo.
Dobbs reveals that the phone bugs were actually first planted by his operative, Eve Babcock, who worked at Wagner HQ for 3 days before being fired by Hanlon. Turns out she’s actually a high-class call girl, who Columbo drops in on and disrupts her evening plans. In a roundabout way she helps Columbo discern that Hanlon knew the phones were being recorded; and therefore knew he could use them to his advantage in establishing alibi.
Finding this all hard to follow? You’re not alone. By now the plot is SO THICK that it’s akin to charging through the mud of Passchendaele in a pea-souper fog with a 30-tonne elephant on your back. And the evidence that Columbo needs still continues to elude him.
He finds it in the strangest place: the travel agency where he’s trying to trip Hanlon up once again by checking to see if he’d really booked flights to Montreal on the day of the murder. He had. But when a cuckoo clock cheeps in the shop, a light bulb goes on in Columbo’s head.
Columbo clears up his headaches with the case at the travel agency of all places
Confronting Hanlon in his box once more, the Lieutenant sets out his stall to the fiery moustachio, whose mood goes from livid to worse in a flash. “Columbo, I’m going to throw you out of here on your ear,” he brays, only to be zapped back brilliantly by the detective. “I wouldn’t so that sir. I mean, you’ll miss the best part,” he retorts. “You see, I’m not finished.”
Instead of trying to find something on the tapes that’s out of place, Columbo took an about turn and started listening for things that weren’t there but should have been. Such as the chiming carriage clock in Hanlon’s box.
He plays back the recording of Hanlon’s final call to Wagner – starting it at the exact same time the call was made a week earlier. Right on cue, the clock in the box starts to chime to mark the half-hour. But it’s not on the tape. For once lost for words, the caught-out Hanlon is stunned into silence as credits roll…
Most Crucial Game‘s best moment
The “What did you pay for those shoes?” line is a timeless moment, but the beautifully constructed murder scene manages to eclipse it.
As Hanlon slinks menacingly towards his quarry, we’re treated to Jaws-esque underwater shots of the unsuspecting victim awaiting his grisly fate. Music and picture work in perfect harmony to ramp up the tension ahead of the fatal blow. It’s so well done. Don’t take my word for it, though. View it yourself below.
My thoughts on The Most Crucial Game
I’m in two minds about Most Crucial Game. It has one of the best ensemble casts of the entire series, Robert Culp at his very best, and some gorgeous location shooting at the Wagner residence and at the LA Coliseum.
Watch it as a piece of escapism and it’s a hoot. But my goal is to give a (reasonably) serious critique. Looking at it from that perspective, there are plot holes that take the edge off some terrific entertainment.
It’s a much easier episode to watch than to review. There are so many twists and turns, many of which are seemingly dead ends, that watching it can be a breathless experience. It’s easy to miss supposedly crucial plot points, and so much is packed in that an initial draft of this review ran to more than 5000 words in trying to cover it all!
“Watch it as a piece of escapism and it’s a hoot. But there are plot holes that take the edge off some terrific entertainment.”
However, on to the good stuff: and there’s plenty of it. Central to that is Culp’s antagonistic performance as Paul Hanlon. He’s brilliant! And he seems to be having a ball playing a truly nasty baddie. It’s a different role than Brimmer in Death Lends a Hand – a role in which the character was cool and calm on the surface, but the rage was always just under the surface, ready to rush forth.
In Most Crucial Game, the rage is there all the time. Hanlon’s a brash bully who doesn’t pull any punches. But that’s what’s got him ahead in the ultra-competitive sporting franchise world, so it’s a believable portrayal of a man who’s as cut-throat and ruthless in business as he is in other aspects of his life.
Evil much, Robert?
I’m going to go out on a limb and say this could be Culp’s single best Columbo performance – a high accolade given how good his other outings are. I might revise that opinion when I get round to Double Exposure, but my enduring take-out from this episode is how much I enjoy watching Culp sneer.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say this could be Culp’s single best Columbo performance – a high accolade given how good his other outings are.”
It’s just a great cast from top to bottom. Oscar winner Dean Jagger pops up as Walter Cunnell. Dean Stockwell, Susan Howard, James Gregory, Valerie Harper and Columbo regular Val Avery all add value to the episode.
There are plenty of other memorable scenes, too. Chief among them is the legendary ‘what did you pay for those shoes?’ exchange between Columbo and Cunnell, but the Lieutenant’s confrontation with Eve Babcock is also rib-tickling viewing. Seeing Columbo being embarrassed by female co-stars is always rewarding!
Don’t be so Cincinnati…
Under the radar, but no less enjoyable, are the scenes where Columbo is interacting mano a mano with private investigator Ralph Dobbs. Such scenes are fascinating as they give us insight into the real Columbo. Set against his usual veneer of confusion, obsequiousness and forgetfulness when confronting the killers, it’s a delicious contrast. Here we witness the man of action, the man in control, the man who bosses situations to get the information he needs. We rarely see this, but it’s always to be treasured.
In terms of cinematography, this episode ranks up with the best. The long-shots of Columbo seeking inspiration at the Coliseum are a joy to behold, and the stunning Wagner residence has the capacity to drop jaws. Like Etude in Black, this wealth of location shooting adds a sense of perspective to the episode. It feels like TV on a grand scale.
Yet despite this, Crucial Game is let down where it matters most: namely the plot holes surrounding the crime itself, and a total lack of Columbo proving anything tangible against Hanlon at episode’s end.
“Columbo, by his own admission, is big on motive. He never gets close to establishing motive for Hanlon.”
Let’s start with the murder. As described above, it’s beautifully shot and a fiendishly clever concept, but it’s nevertheless bungled by the writers. Why? It’s inconceivable that water from the hose would still be around the pool while the ice in the pool has melted.
It appears to have been a red-hot day, with the pool in full sunshine. A spray of water around the pool would surely have evaporated. If it’s too cool for the water to have evaporated, then the ice wouldn’t have melted. It was a big block. So the clue that turns Columbo’s mind to murder is poorly executed and pretty contrived. Plus it leaves us with only a policeman’s hunch that a murder has been committed at all.
But that’s not the biggest problem. Columbo, by his own admission, is big on motive. He never gets close to establishing motive for Hanlon. Indeed the viewer never finds out why Wagner was murdered. That’s poor writing.
Sure, we can theorise. Maybe Hanlon wanted the sports empire for himself. Maybe he had the hots for Mrs Wagner. Maybe Eric criticised his ‘stash at a board meeting. Any and all could be a plausible motive. But never knowing, and never proving anything, really harms the episode.
Ultimately all Columbo proves – after a helluva lot of to-ing and fro-ing – is that Hanlon might not have been in the box during his second phone call to Wagner. It casts doubt over his alibi, certainly, but is nowhere near being conclusive. And Hanlon doesn’t seem to be the confessing sort, not on trivia like that. In deed here’s what happened when it went to trial:-
Prosecution lawyer: Mr Hanlon, what possible explanation do you have for the lack of an audibly chiming clock in the background of this conversation with the deceased? (smirks smugly at jury)
Paul Hanlon: (adopts a face like thunder) Well, let me think. I suppose it could have been that the radio was too loud. Or that the clock had stopped. Or that the clock was too far away. Or that police doctored the evidence. Or… (continues listing, ever more impatiently, for approximately 35 minutes)… OR EVEN THAT THE SOUND OF MY BRAYING VOICE DROWNED OUT THE CLOCK? DID YOU EVER STOP TO THINK ABOUT THAT? (gnashes teeth at now-whimpering lawyer)
Prosecution lawyer: (openly crying) No… sob… further questions….blub…your Honour… (is helped back to chair by muscular court attendant).
Judge: Why was my time wasted on this case? Mr Hanlon, you’re free to go. Prosecutor, I’ll see you in my office right away…
Anyway, you get the picture. In terms of establishing Hanlon’s guilt, what we’re left with is possible opportunity, but no motive and no weapon. There’s no case to answer here. It’s a hollow ending – especially given how much was shoe-horned in across the whole episode. Arguably they tried to cram too much into this, and that’s a great shame.
Much ado about nothing? Columbo has proved knack-all by the end of the episode
Ultimately, The Most Crucial Game is a more of a half-hearted recommendation than I’d like. Watch this episode purely for entertainment value and it’s a blast, and it’s no surprise to me that it’s highly rated by many. Concentrate too hard on the convoluted plot and the non-existent evidence, though, and it’s easy to find fault.
Still, when Crucial Game hits the heights, they’re very high. And if the key take-out is a Tour de Force performance by Robert Culp, that’s not such a bad thing, is it?
Did you know?
Six legendary members of the LA Lakers basketball team appear in this episode having a practice session watched by Columbo and Hanlon. The Super Six of Jim McMillan, Flynn Robinson, Pat Riley, Harold ‘Happy’ Hairston, LeRoy Ellis and Keith Erickson were members of the Lakers team who won the World Championship for the first time earlier that year. Outstanding!
Clockwise from top left: Flynn Robinson; LeRoy Ellis; Keith Erickson; Jim McMillan; ‘Happy’ Hairston; Pat Riley
How I rate them so far
Out of all the episodes reviewed so far, Crucial Game is the one I’ve found it most difficult to assess. It will never be among my very favourite episodes, but where it ranks amongst the mid-tier outings is a very tough call.
I enjoy it more than classics including Etude in Black, yet it’s strangely less satisfying at the same time. It’s the thrill of Culp’s performance that sees this take 6th place in the current table, but there’s really little to choose between numbers 6-10 at this stage.
If you’ve missed any previous reviews, check out the links below.
- Suitable for Framing
- Murder by the Book
- Death Lends a Hand
- Lady in Waiting
- Prescription: Murder
- The Most Crucial Game
- Etude in Black
- Greenhouse Jungle
- Blueprint for Murder
- Ransom for a Dead Man
- Dead Weight
- Short Fuse
Thanks, as always, for reading. And I’d love to hear your views on Crucial Game – many of which I’d expect to be very positive. Look out for the next review – the London-based Dagger of the Mind – in a few weeks’ time.
Read my views on the top 5 scenes from Most Crucial Game here.
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Don’t dare miss the next review!
Rewatched it again the other day. Still agree with CP’s assessment. It’s a great episode, one of my favorites largely because Robert Culp is so good at being bad, but, like CP, I think Hanlon walks in the end.
While I can certainly concede that the body could have been discovered soon enough that the water hadn’t evaporated….It’s still pretty weak and Columbo takes a pretty big leap. Yes, the tiles could have been sprayed by someone covering up footprints, and while we, the audience, know that Culp used the hose, Hanlon’s attorneys could easily argue that Eric sprayed the hose himself. Maybe there was a bug he wanted gone. Maybe he spilled a drink and wanted to clean it up so he sprayed the spill into the grass. All the water really does is suggest someone else might have sprayed the tiles. It doesn’t prove someone else did. There’s virtually no other evidence at the scene that suggests someone was there, and there’s no way the prosecution could conclusively .
And that dastardly chime. It’s a little better than I remember after the latest viewing, but I think with some time to decompress, Hanlon would have an explanation that’s feasible that would save him at trial. His murder plot itself is pretty brilliant.
Except for one thing: the killing is almost impossible! Just try to kill even a dog with a pointy bit of ice, in a single, ultra-precise stroke. This is Hollywood at its most cheating!
Although I don’t disagree per se with most of the criticisms (except for motive), Columbophile is weirdly harsh on this episode compared to others.
Start with motive: yes, it’s true that we don’t get it spelled out and spoon-fed to us, but it seems *really* obvious. The Eric was a hedonistic jerk who didn’t care about sports, it was getting harder and harder to get him to make even minimal efforts to expand and manage his sports empire (which Hanlon obviously felt passionate about), and he even THREATENED TO FIRE Hanlon. And then we meet the wife–whom we can assume would inherit everything–and she appears to like and trust Hanlon quite a bit. The way she grips his hand, it’s even conceivable that Hanlon might try to woo her himself some day, but just getting the annoying brat out of picture so he can get on with doing the job he appears to love doing seems to be more than motive enough. And then, suddenly, a seemingly perfect method for alibi creation falls into Hanlon’s lap! That is the impetus for the whole thing; he might not have even considered murdering the kid if he didn’t get the clever idea of exploiting bugs planted by someone else for his own gain. Hanlon’s ruthlessness and pragmatism put the idea in his head; when he discovered the bugs he immediately thought about trying to turn it to his advantage. It was a solution in search of a problem.
The motive isn’t fully spelled out by the episode, but it seems a very small leap to ask the viewers to take (especially if you compare it alongside the abyss-like plot holes in episodes like Any Old Port in a Storm or Murder with Too Many Notes.) Columbo didn’t establish it, it’s true, but I don’t have an issue imagining that he sniffed it out intuitively and with further investigation, a DA could surely establish the friction between Hanlon and the kid and the fact that Hanlon got along with the wife pretty well.
Missing ice and the non-evaporated water: This is an entirely reasonable nitpick, but it is still conceivable–albeit just barely–that they got there quickly and the ice was caught in the pool filter or floating but overlooked by the police (who–other than Columbo–weren’t thinking “murder” and could’ve written it off as a hunk of fused ice cubes from the party the night before that Eric took out for whatever reason (soothe a headache, or whatever.) I don’t fault CP for making this nitpick, but it IS something that you can possibly fix with a little squinting and head-canon…. now, set that nitpick alongside the massive laundry-list of anti-scientific claptrap in Any Old Port in a Storm that Columbophile *didn’t* bother to complain about at all! I’d rattle off the list but I think I’ve done it about eleven times on this site already and I’m going to start to feel like a crank or spammer if I keep doing it. Well, what the hell: Suffocation cannot ever be proven by autopsy, the idea that turning off A/C would suffocate someone in that room represents a kindergarten understanding of science and technology, wine rooms do not ever, *ever* magnify heat to an incredible 40+ degrees higher than ambient (it should *always* be cooler, never hotter), etc. And that’s just the scientific nonsense; I’m not mentioning the other weird plot holes and weird actions by the perpetrator in that episode.
The chime is fairly weak, but I read elsewhere that CP actually thinks this is possibly the weakest gotcha in the whole series? REALLY? Weaker than ’tisn’t? Weaker than Adrian’s wine spoiling? Weaker than Murder with Too Many Notes, which had ZERO evidence tying him to the crime, almost no discovered evidence for a motive (the gf knew about the creative imbalance, but she didn’t seem to understand how annoyed he was or that he was planning on breaking off the partnership that week), and also almost no evidence that a crime had even been committed?! (The barbiturate could’ve easily been taken for anxiety given that it was to be his first time ever conducting–and barbiturates are notoriously easy to overdose on. And the baton was suspicious, but hardly conclusive.) There was also more scientific nonsense in that episode in that it implied he would’ve remained knocked out cold even after the drug had been entirely metabolized by his body.
Is the missing chime enough for a conviction on its own? Of course not. But fully two thirds of the gotchas in Columbo aren’t actually enough for a conviction. The missing chime at least requires some sort of explanation; Columbo was there the day of the murder and he presumably saw the clock was there and functional. The clock could at least be set up and tested in various scenarios to see if it’s plausible that it could’ve malfunctioned or that the chime could be drowned out. I feel like this is really a middle of the pack gotcha, nowhere near the worst one.
I feel like CP grades on a curve a lot of the time, but for some reason he did not grade on a curve for this episode.
You’re wrong that I rate this gotcha as a weaker one than Salute. Indeed, I have referenced Salute as having the worst gotcha of the 70s run in two articles on the site. I haven’t compared the gotchas of the new era with the classic era.
I stand corrected. I was keying off of a comment someone made and hadn’t read (or recently read) the article in question.
(Though I must maintain that Salute’s gotcha is nowhere near as bad as Any Old Port.)
It was not Columbos job to convict though the show sometimes intimated it was. No, his job was to find probable cause for an arrest, meaning he needed to feel there was a better chance than not of the person being convicted. That’s a lighter burden than conviction, Where the burden is proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The investigation will continue after the arrest, thereby possibly filling in cracks columbo left
Therefore it is not clear he did a bad job in this one, though if you press me. I think he did. Police are infamous for making arrests based on little to no evidence, lying. And manufacturing evidence. It’s why oj walked…the police hadn’t cred.
Your post made sense until your sentences starting with “Therefore”. Although there are crooked cops, police seldom make arrests based on little to no evidence. Nor do they typically manufacture evidence.
And your suggestion that OJ Simpson walked because of police malfeasance is completely baseless. The jurors in the infamous Simpson case later admitted that the primary factor in reaching a decision of “not guilty” was that it was a “payback” for the Simi Valley jury’s “not guilty” verdict for the police officers in the earlier Rodney King case. In other words, the LA jury’s verdict in the OJ Simpson case for his murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and friend Ron Goldman was a complete travesty of justice.
I think you have bee watching to many movies Vinnie.
The notion that a police detective’s only job is to collect the minimal amount of evidence necessary to support an arrest — and that gathering sufficient evidence to support (or indeed ensure) a conviction is some other person’s job — simply isn’t true. First of all, who do you think conducts this investigation that “will continue after the arrest”? When the police make an arrest, bring their case to a D.A., and the D.A. recognizes that the evidence collected is woefully short of what will be necessary to convict, the D.A. will send those same police detectives back out to do more work. Work they should have done initially.
Responsible detectives know that an arrest without a conviction is the mark of shoddy police work. It is true that many cases are proven post-arrest when the arrestee is questioned and makes key admissions or gives a full-blown confession. We don’t see post-arrest interrogations much in Columbo, and where we do, it’s usually someone else being interrogated (e.g., “Prescription: Murder”; “It’s All in the Game”). But these interrogations are still the job of the original detectives — even though it’s after the arrest. They are trying to build a solid case that will result in a conviction.
Sure, the D.A. can call new witnesses before a grand jury, but that is rare (and usually limited to long-term investigations of major criminal enterprises or complex financial crimes). For ordinary street crimes, including homicides, if indictment by a grand jury is required, the grand jury hears evidence the police previously compiled.
Columbo’s job is to hand over a case to the D.A. that the D.A. can prosecute successfully. Of course, as this is television and not real life, it’s not a D.A. whom Columbo must convince that he’s proven his case — it’s the audience.
I have to rank this episode at the bottom of my list so far. I am watching Columbo for the first time. I just finished Requiem for a Falling Star. Of the Columbos I’ve seen so far, this is the most disappointing. I don’t feel like this case was truly solved.
In most of the cases I’ve seen so far, Columbo solves the cases once he finds out why the victim was killed. In this episode, we have no idea why Culp killed the team owner. I’d actually argue that a GM killing a team owner is actually bad for their career as a new owner would likely put their own people in charge.
Why did he do it? Did he just not like Eric? Did he think that a GM automatically becomes a team owner? Did he have the hots for Eric’s wife despite the show only showing us what appears to be a cordial friendship among the two? Did he think Eric Wagner was going to say no to buying the Montreal Canadiens? Was he just a serial killer trying out a new method on somebody who pissed him off? Why, why, why?
There is also no confession at the end, just a bothered look from Culp. I don’t think Culp looking nervous in front of a detective and the lack of an audible clock sound are going to send him to prison. As far as I’m concerned, this is the case Columbo blew.
I know there’s a lot of mixed feelings about the longer episodes, but I feel this is one of the normal length episodes that should have been extended to answer those questions.
Although the lack of clearly explained motive is annoying, I feel like it’s something that’s reasonably easy to imagine (I mean the kid was obnoxious and threatening to fire the guy, and the perfect opportunity fell in his lap for a coverup with the phone bugs.) There were WAY weaker gotchas than this… Murder with too Many Notes, Any Old Port in a Storm, and Last Salute to the Commodore immediately spring to mind, and I’m sure there were others (it’s really weird how the series that practically invented the Howcatchem managed to have so many incredibly weak gotchas.) The lack of clock chime, while certainly not enough for a slam dunk conviction, is at the very least a question that needs answering, whereas in the 3 aforementioned episodes there was no evidence whatsoever tying the killer to the supposed crime.
Expanding a little more: they have more than a “cordial friendship” given how they hug and later she grips his hand and she seems to trust him more than anyone else around. Regardless about whether or not he planned on trying to woo her later, it seems clear enough that–assuming she inherits everything–he’ll have an easier time running the business like he wants to run it without Eric in the picture. Eric was obviously on the verge of giving it all up and/or firing Hanlon, and regardless of his own personal financial stake in the matter (and regardless of whether or not he could strike up a relationship with the widow), it’s obvious that Hanlon was passionate about his job.
Columbo is at his pestering best in this episode, especially the airport scene where he scrambles to tip tow again and again up to Robert Culp, who appears to be sneering the entire show. Clever police work is at play here as the Lt. works his way thru a gauntlet of intricate clues. As usual, im not crazy about the ever annoying hassling, which leaves you tethering on the verge of utter exasperation, begging for the killers attorney, but Culps snide criminal styling deserves it and saves this one for me
I love how Columbo literally drives Culp crazy during this episode. The golf course scene alone is classic pestering at it’s finest!
Dammit, I got the wrong episode! I meant the golf scene in Double Exposure. Leave it to the Culpster to mess me up!
One of Robert Culp’s other good lines in that scene is “Wait a second. You don’t seriously expect me to say anything more to you NOW, do you?”
Whether you like them or not, it’s easy to want countless murderers (including Columbo ones) to do the smart thing and say that to the detective.
if the Hanlon’s office phone was also bugged (in addition to Eric’s home phone) shouldn’t it have been obvious that there wasn’t a corresponding recording of the last call Hanlon made to Eric by the pool from the roadside payphone?
as it was described, there are two sets of tapes, one for each bug the PI put on the two phones — the other cop refers to “still a big pile of tapes from Hanlon’s office phone.” but the payphone recording would never have been in that pile, even before you get to the missing clock chimes on the recording from Eric’s bug
There’s your answer. Hanlon’s *office* phone. He was in the manager’s/observation box when he made the first phone call to Eric. Since that’s likely only occupied by Hanlon when a home game is on, it wouldn’t be bugged, there’s be far more activity on the phone Hanlon uses in his office. Hanlon’s unseen office is where the bugs have been planted. Therefore, both of Hanlon’s calls to Eric would have only been recorded by the bug on Eric’s home phone.
I think it’s theoretically possible that if the temperature was just a little cool so that size of ice would have melted before the water all evaporated. But it did look quite sunny.
The motive seemed to be implied that he worried about his job security especially if the team was not doing well. If the son died then his wife would likely inherit things and Hanlon had a better relationship with her.
Finally, it’s possible that once the clock that didn’t ring would unravel other things such as the wife’s faith in Hanlon. At that point she might look at a lot of events from a different perspective and become witness for the prosecution. Ditto many other players. It would have been good if others were in the room to witness Hanlon’s demeanor when hearing this news.
This show is overall not very concerned with protocol and due process. And the murderers too often seem to be too willing to give themselves up rather than, say, calling their lawyers.
But this episode was particularly egregious by not even showing a clear motive. Now that I think of it, Hanlon might have wanted The mere lack of that would be enough to establish reasonable doubt, which is maybe all that’s needed for a jury to turn in a not guilty verdict. Add to that there is no evidence of a murder weapon and the prosecution has a very shaky case.
The episode had its moments but there wasn’t much to sink one’s teeth into as far as clues for Columbo to sniff out. The fresh water in the pool seemed odd to me. Would there have been that much of it? And wouldn’t it have mingled with the chlorinated water? Conceptually, a rather weak episode.
I noticed the lack of a motive too. I thought maybe it was because I missed something but it seems not. The episode just never bothered to explain what it was. And given all the phone-bugging stuff, it seems Hanlon had set it up before the episode even begins. So, yeah, kind of weak.
One of my favorite episodes. Culp was fantastic in his snarling nastiness. My favorite line by him? Final scene, he’s frustrated by Columbo (who’s droning on about his wife complaining that the ice cream man comes just before dinner time): ‘’Your wife has my sympathy!’’ A great put-down line; not sympathy regarding the ice cream man, but Culp’s sympathy for her being married to Columbo! Makes me laugh every time. Also loved Valerie Harper in her brief scene: ‘Who knows, Lieutenant. Perhaps my typing wasn’t good enough.’ And Cincinnati Smith high-tailing it out of Harper’s pad when Columbo introduces himself as Lt. Columbo from the LAPD! ‘Ms. Babcock, about those stock tips, I’ll call you.’ Fantastic episode!