Swan Song

Impressively directed by pre-"Cheers" "Coach" Nicholas Colasanto, good old gospel-singer Johnny only gets better after the initial Mann Act scene. You also witness a rare good-guy performance by the pig-squealing "Deliverance" mountain man Bill McKinney as Ida's ("Edna's") brother "Luke." It's quite sadly nostalgic that all of the main characters in this episode are long gone. John Dehner as usual added another fine character actor performance as the aeronautics post-crash investigator, who collaborated with Columbo and stated what a talented person the detective would be as a member of his investigation team. This episode also included some wonderful songs by the "Man in Black."Rest in peace, all, and God bless.

I'm watching this episode as I write this. I'm a Johnny Cash fan but have never really seen him act. Holy crap! The man had chops! He way holds his own here. Usually when there are, "Special Guest Stars" on shows like this, their abilities are generally lacking. Not the case with Cash. I'm going to now actively seek more of the films that he appeared in.

When Academy Award nominee Joaquim Phoenix was researching Johnny Cash, he mentioned this Columbo episode in particular. Johnny Cash plays a man who is very similar in some respects to his real personality. They're both musicians and singers but that's it. Johnny's character is a recovering criminal who married Ida Lupino's character who is overly zealous about God and religion. When her character learns of her husband's straying with younger girls, he decides to off them on the plane but survives. Anyway, I love watching Johnny Cash and Peter Falk together. I love the scene where Columbo researches parachutes and goes into the sewing room where the woman thinks she is losing her mind. Anyway, I remember that scene in particular as he tries to figure out how he did it. In the end, it's just worth watching. It's for Johnny Cash fans especially. He would have been a wonderful actor as well as singer.

While not one of my favourite episodes, it is one of the more interesting ones for me. It is strikingly filmed, with a score that is atmospheric, clever dialogue and a compelling story that benefits from one of the most ingenious murder scenes of any Columbo episode. It has some great songs, footage of Cash's in concert and Cash himself in tremendous voice. I liked the comic scenes, the undertaker scene was priceless, and the ending was overall satisfying. Peter Falk once again embodies the character of Columbo, and I think Johnny Cash deserves credit for trying his best in a large and complex role. He may be inexperienced, but there are a number of scenes especially in the fantastic rapport between him and Columbo where he is at ease. John Randolph's small part is as juicy as the juiciest orange. The episode is a little slow moving at times with a couple of scenes that felt padded and although the murder was ingenious the scene was almost cheapened by special effects that are pretty lame even for the 70s. Overall though, it is a very good episode and an interesting one too. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Johnny Cash puts on a good acting performance in this show where he is an ex-con evangelist singer who is being blackmailed for his services to build an expensive chapel. The bad person is a woman who has also railroaded him into a sham of a marriage and keeps him under her thumb by threatening to expose him and an affair he had in some hotel rooms with her underage daughter.

He sets up a plane crash where he drugs the wife & daughter, parachutes out of the plane and breaks his leg on landing. Then he puts himself near the plane for the rescuers to find while he claims it is all a horrible accident.

Columbo (Falk) proves himself to be a pretty agile investigator of the crash impressing the folks who are from the FAA in charge of investigating the crash. His dogged pursuit of the truth is much in evidence here. The entertainment in any Columbo is watching him annoy a person into confession and in this case, an evangelist confessing is good for the soul.