PLOT: Lieutenant Columbo is on holiday in Mexico when he becomes involved in a murder case. Local policeman Detective Sanchez has heard about one of Columbo's recent cases and persuades the Lieutenant to help him solve a baffling case. A man who worked at a ranch was killed in a bullring by a bull. However, the bull was let loose by the owner of the ranch Luis Montoya, who had shot the victim with a tranquilliser dart so as to make him woozy before the bull attacked him. Columbo begins to sense it is not an accident when he finds that the victim's bags were packed (he was leaving). Columbo begins hounding Montoya and Montoya's patience soon begins to wear thin. He tells Columbo that "I am Luis Montoya and this is my country" and asks the Lieutenant to leave. However, he returns with Detective Sanchez when he stages the final scene. Montoya is alone in the ring and someone lets loose the bull. Montoya freezes so as not to antagonise the bull. Eventually the man who released the bull goads him back inside his pen again. Somehow this final scene proved that Montoya was the killer. There is also something about the red cloth used to entice the bull being wet, proving that Montoya was in the ring earlier when it had been windy, not earlier when the wind had died down as he had claimed. Montoya is taken away.
VERDICT: This episode has one of the worst plots in the history of the series. The fact that Columbo is poking his nose into a case when he has absolutely no jurisdiction is strange from the start. The way Columbo catches the villain is puzzling also, as it's difficult to understand exactly what proof he has. However, Ricardo Montalban is a decent villain and his scenes with Columbo are good, though the episode as a whole is a flop.
Written by Mark Wilson
(C) Copyright Wilson/Young Enterprises 2006.
CAST:
Luis Montoya........Ricardo Montalban
Detective Sanchez.Pedro Armendariz jr
Hector Rangel........Robert Carricant
Nina Montoya..............Maria Grimm
Curro Rangel..............A. Martinez
?........................Jorge Rivero
