Now You See Him

Of all of the repeat offenders who appeared on Columbo, I admit to liking Jack Cassidy the best. Handsome, charming, exuding great self-confidence, always immaculately dressed, he's one you just love to see Columbo drag off to prison, no matter what character he's playing.

Here's he's a well-known magician with a secret. Calling himself The Great Santini, he's known by the blackmailing club owner Jesse Jerome (Nehemiah Persoff) of the Magic nightclub where he performs as Stefan Mueller, former SS officer.

Jerome collects 50% of The Great Santini's earnings - he's a regular Tom Parker. Elvis may not have known any better, but Santini does, and he's sick of paying up. When he tries to pay just 10%, Jerome informs him that if he doesn't have the rest of the money by performance time, he'll be writing to the Israeli government and turning him in.

Santini doesn't appear with the rest of the money - he has other plans, which include shooting Jerome during the time when he has an excellent alibi, stuck on stage in a locked case submerged in a tank of water.

I always try to find the moment where Columbo knows the identity of the killer - this one didn't take him long. Bob Dishy is a riot as the officer assisting Columbo, constantly returning the new raincoat Mrs. Columbo gave her husband, which he is desperate to lose.

Fantastic episode, with the lovely Cynthia Sikes as The Great Santini's daughter. Sadly, it was Cassidy's last appearance - he died in a fire in December 1976, the year of this episode.

Jack Cassidy dazzles as The Great Santini, a magician with a hatful of tricks but not enough to pull the wool over Columbo's eyes.

The Great Santini has had enough with sharing half his earnings with club owner Jesse Jerome (Nehemiah Persoff.) Jerome found out that Santini was a Nazi and a member of the SS and has been blackmailing him.

Santini conjures up an elaborate plan to have Jerome killed while he is supposedly performing a death defying escape act.

Columbo hooks up again with Sergeant Wilson who is always finding the new raincoat that Columbo wants to lose. Thayer David who was memorable in Rocky turns up as a magic shop clerk who gives Columbo an important clue.

This is Cassidy's episode, he died a few months after this was broadcast. He leaves a performance that shows just what a talent he was. There is some really nifty tricks on show here and Cassidy pulls it off with great aplomb.

The Great Santini (Jack Cassidy) is a brilliant stage magician with a hidden past. His real name is Stefan Mueller and he was an SS officer assigned to the concentration camps. Jesse Jerome (Nehemiah Persoff), his current employer, has learned of the illusionist's Nazi career and is using the information to blackmail him. One night, while ostensibly performing his celebrated trick of being locked in a steel cabinet and dowsed in a tank of water, Santini is really disguising himself as a waiter and walking unseen to Jerome's office. When Jerome turns up dead, it looks like a contract killing. But our rumpled, redoubtable Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk), assisted by the overeager Sgt. Wilson (Bob Dishy), has a few tricks of his own.

If Columbo can outmaneuver a chess champion ("The Most Dangerous Match"), out-think a scientific genius ("Mind Over Mayhem") and outwit a master spy ("Identity Crisis"), what made a master illusionist think he could do any better?

This is a splendid "Columbo" episode, with all the tricky plotting, delightful comedy and tense cat-and-mouse play that fans love. Did I mention the comedy? In the weak "Greenhouse Jungle," Bob Dishy is clearly a good actor playing a tedious character. Here he returns as Sgt. Wilson but the script by Michael Sloan is much better. Wilson's comic business, this time involving Columbo's new raincoat, is much better integrated into the plot than in "Greenhouse"—and it's much funnier.

Harvey Hart does a very nice directing job. Somebody in his crew had an excellent eye for detail. I especially like how a little water trickles out of the trap door after Santini's daughter (Cynthia Sikes) opens it.

The ending is ordinary, without one of those great thunderclap surprises, as in "A Stitch in Crime" and "Suitable for Framing." I love the final scene anyway, with Columbo's funny yet unnerving imitation of a magician's stage technique. This "Columbo" will work like magic on any fan.

The story in "Now You See Him" is one of the best of all the "Columbo" episodes. It is quite enjoyable to watch...and extremely well thought out and intelligently written.

When the story begins, you learn that the great illusionist, The Great Santini* (Jack Cassidy), has something to hide...and he's being blackmailed because of it. His boss (Nehemiah Persoff) knows that Santini was actually an SS soldier who worked in a death camp during WWII. To rid himself of this threat, Santini uses his knowledge of magic and deception to make it appear as if he could never have done the murder as he was in a different part of the nightclub at the time of the killing. It's up to Columbo to match wits with Santini and best him at his own game.

The writing was just exquisite in this one and the story very exciting. It's a shame that Cassidy died later the same year he made this guest appearance, as he was always wonderful on the show. Also interesting is seeing Sgt. Wilson on the show, as he played Wilson in an earlier episode ("Greenhouse Jungle")...though his first name, oddly, changed.

*Not to be confused with the character played by Robert Duvall so expertly in 1979.

Peter Falk's Columbo matches wits with Jack Cassidy for the third and final time in this entertaining episode from the show's fifth season. Cassidy is perfect as the Great Santini, a magician who learns a few tricks from the master detective, and Bob Dishy adds to the fun as Columbo's partner, a role he first played in 1972's "Greenhouse Jungle."