TheWelshRagingBull
Joined Jun 2009
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TheWelshRagingBull's rating
Eddie Albert is the guest murderer in this early Season 1 episode in the long-running series. He plays a renowned (retired) General who receives a visit from a Colonel Dutton, informing him that a mass arms contract investigation is imminent and this will uncover their dodgy dealings with the General's construction company. With the General fearing exposure and Dutton confirming that he is fleeing to Geneva, he decides to "bump off" his business associate. Unfortunately for him, the murder is witnessed by a woman out on her sailing boat with her mother....
John T. Dugan penned the script for this episode (he also undertook the same responsibility for the Season 2 instalment 'The Most Crucial Game'), but the overall impact is a disappointingly modest one.
The platform for the whole story has great potential because Columbo never has an eye witness to any crime, but the development of the story has distinct frailties which are compounded further along the line; this is a shame because Eddie Albert conveys the esteemed military aura and unruffled nature of his character particularly well. Furthermore, his scenes with Columbo have a quietly antagonistic feel to them.
The negative issues really lie in areas such as Columbo's uncharacteristic seeming scepticism at the eye witness's account, when in other episodes he galvanises a murder investigation with very little to go on. Then there is the murder set-up which takes place in front of a window - Albert's character is portrayed as battle-hardened and decisive, yet he is slipshod in the execution of his crime.
However, the love-interest which develops between Albert's character and the 'eye witness' played by Suzanne Pleshette - which the murderer carves in order to slowly undermine her account of the 'murder' - is a gross miscalculation by the script-writer in trying to inject the cleverness which normally saturates the concepts and associated writing in the series. Surely, an esteemed war hero, full of pride, would stand his ground against a shaky eye-witness account, but instead he seems to imply his own guilt by trying to 'win over' her affections and erode her dubious self-confidence about she saw.
Overall, the premise has big question marks hanging over it and the story's development seems to labour as a result. The performances are one of the major positives on show here - Albert and Falk excel in their scenes together but ultimately, too many holes in this episode very nearly sink it without a trace.
John T. Dugan penned the script for this episode (he also undertook the same responsibility for the Season 2 instalment 'The Most Crucial Game'), but the overall impact is a disappointingly modest one.
The platform for the whole story has great potential because Columbo never has an eye witness to any crime, but the development of the story has distinct frailties which are compounded further along the line; this is a shame because Eddie Albert conveys the esteemed military aura and unruffled nature of his character particularly well. Furthermore, his scenes with Columbo have a quietly antagonistic feel to them.
The negative issues really lie in areas such as Columbo's uncharacteristic seeming scepticism at the eye witness's account, when in other episodes he galvanises a murder investigation with very little to go on. Then there is the murder set-up which takes place in front of a window - Albert's character is portrayed as battle-hardened and decisive, yet he is slipshod in the execution of his crime.
However, the love-interest which develops between Albert's character and the 'eye witness' played by Suzanne Pleshette - which the murderer carves in order to slowly undermine her account of the 'murder' - is a gross miscalculation by the script-writer in trying to inject the cleverness which normally saturates the concepts and associated writing in the series. Surely, an esteemed war hero, full of pride, would stand his ground against a shaky eye-witness account, but instead he seems to imply his own guilt by trying to 'win over' her affections and erode her dubious self-confidence about she saw.
Overall, the premise has big question marks hanging over it and the story's development seems to labour as a result. The performances are one of the major positives on show here - Albert and Falk excel in their scenes together but ultimately, too many holes in this episode very nearly sink it without a trace.
