Plot

An egocentric young director murders a childhood friend who threatened to expose his complicity in the negligent death of the friend's sister years before he found fame and success. Lt. Columbo is investigating.

This time Columbo pits his wits against a movie director who murders an old friend on a set, because this friend is in possession of a damaging piece of film, on which the actress died and isn't helped by the movie director.—Maarten Hofman <jen@cistron.nl>

Egocentric wunderkind film director Alex Bradey is the king of the Universal lot until he is visited by a childhood friend, Leonard Fisher, with an old reel of film graphically showing his negligent complicity in the death of Fisher's sister, Jenny, years earlier. When the friend threatens to expose him and ruin his career, he lures him onto the "Brownstone Street" standing set on the back lot and electrocutes him. He then dumps the body on a deserted beach and pummels the face with a hammer to prevent identification. Unfortunately for Bradey, a book with Bradey's phone number in it inadvertently fell into the sand, which brings the inquisitive Columbo to the studio, always a bad thing for killers in the more rarified precincts of Los Angeles.—Gabe Taverney (duke1029@aol.com)/Rms125a@hotmail.com

Boyish-looking film director Alex Bradey gets a nasty surprise when he is paid a visit by a childhood (and now clearly estranged) friend, Leonard, who tells him he has just received video proof from a now deceased third party of Bradey's involvement in the death of Leonard's sister years ago in a motorcycle stunt gone awry and plans to expose this information to the film studio, the media, the police, etc. To avoid this, the director gets rid of the former friend.—Rms125a@hotmail.com

Arrogant and egocentric movie director Alex Bradey is on top of the world at the Universal Studio lot until a visit from childhood friend Leonard Fisher threatens to derail his career. Fisher has come into possession of an old movie reel which proves Bradey was responsible for the death of Fisher's sister, Jenny, many years ago doing a movie stunt for the young auteur. When Fisher threatens to expose him, Bradey murders him to save himself from exposure, disgrace, and probably prison.—charmardee-smith (updated by Rms125a@hotmail.com)