PLOT:
Patrick McGoohan is Oscar Finch, a brilliant attorney. Finch receives a phone call from an old acquaintance, Frank Staplin, who wants Finch to do him a favour. Finch agrees to meet him at his house to discuss it. Finch drives to his office and breaks up a cigar and puts it in the ashtray. He then lights the cigar, leaves the office and walks to Staplin's house. Staplin has some dirt on Finch and threatens to expose him if he doesn't get what he wants. Then Finch pulls out a gun and shoots Staplin. He places the gun in Staplin's hand and makes it look like suicide. He stages it perfectly, but for a couple of mistakes. When the bullet enters Staplin's body a drop of blood fell to the ground. By the time Finch has placed the gun in Staplin's hands and made it fall to the floor on top of the blood, the blood has dried. Also, Staplin had sent one page of a fax with jokes on to his wife, who is on vacation in Hawaii. When Columbo shows up he is puzzled that a man should 'shoot himself between jokes'. He also can't understand why there was no blood on the gun and realises that the blood must have dried before the gun fell, thus leading him to the idea that Staplin was murdered. He checks Staplin's phone and finds that the last number he dialed was Oscar Finch's. Columbo shows up at Finch's office and Finch had been expecting him. Finch's secretary is annoyed that the office smelt of stinking cigar smoke and says that someone had been smoking in there last night when the air conditioning was switched off. Finch says he heard on the radio that Staplin was dead and that it is typical in a murder for the Police to check the phone records. Since he had been one of the last people to speak to the victim, he would naturally be interviewed on what the victim's state of mind was. Columbo is very impressed by Finch's intelligence. Finch tells Columbo that he never met Staplin. He says he sounded desperate on the phone, had fired his attorneys and wanted him to take over from them. Columbo asks Finch where he was the previous evening and he replied that he had a late meeting in his office with a client. Columbo begins to suspect Finch is not telling the truth. When Columbo had parked his car in the car park he had noticed only one space had a dry patch where a car had been (there had been a heavy rain shower while Finch's car was parked the previous evening.) Columbo keeps pestering Finch, though he has very little evidence to suggest Finch is the killer, other than his famous instincts. Finch is good friends with Senator Paul Mackey, who is running for the Vice Presidentship of the United States. Finch admits to Mackey that he killed Staplin but insists Columbo has nothing on him and persuades Mackey to give him an alibi. Mackey tells Columbo it was he who had had the late meeting with Finch that night and he who had smoked the cigar. Columbo looks unhappy and realises it is becoming increasingly difficult to find any evidence. He digs into Finch's past and discovers a link to Staplin, back when the two had had their previous dealings twenty years earlier. However, there is no proof that Staplin and Finch knew each other, just that Finch worked for a company that Staplin was a client for. Finch and Mackey are becoming tired of Columbo's pestering, and on the night of the election, he shows up again. He tries to persuade Mackey to admit he was lying to give Finch an alibi but to no avail. Then he tells Finch he has a warrant for his arrest. Finch is not worried as he thinks Columbo has no evidence. However, then Columbo shows Finch a small piece of cheese, found at the scene of the crime, and also a piece of chewing gum that was found in Finch's bin. He says that the bite marks in the piece of cheese matches the bite marks in the gum, and along with Finch's dental records, prove that Finch was at the scene of the crime on the night of the murder.
VERDICT: Patrick McGoohan is magnificent as the brilliant Oscar Finch. The repartee between him and Columbo is excellent and Columbo looks second rate compared to Finch. McGoohan also directed this episode. As the episode develops the tension builds until the grand finale. Finch has left very little evidence and in the end the only thing Columbo can come up with is a bite mark on a piece of cheese! This is a true gem and ranks alongside the best of the 70s episodes.
Written by Mark Wilson
(C) Copyright Wilson/Young Enterprises 2006.
CAST:
Oscar Finch.......Patrick McGoohan
Paul Mackey............Denis Arndt
Louise..................Anne Haney
Frank Staplin.........Louis Zorich
Governor Montgomery....Arthur Hill
Mrs Finch.............Penny Fuller
Sergeant...............Bruce Kirby
Mrs Staplin...........Rita Taggart
Tim Haines...........Stanley Kamel
Toby Ritt..............Steven Ford
