PLOT: Donald Pleasence is Adrian Carsini, who runs a winery. Carsini's half brother Ric, who inherited the company on their father's death, decides to sell it. Adrian is furious and Ric is smug, saying that Adrian will be out on the streets. Then Adrian knocks him out and ties him up in the wine cellar. Then he leaves on a plane that evening on a business trip with his secretary Karen Fielding. When he returns a few days later Adrian unties his brother's by now dead body and drives to a cliff. He has dressed Ric up in diving equipment and throws him into the sea. He leaves Ric's car nearby and cycles away from the scene of the crime. When Columbo shows up at the scene he begins to suspect that all is not as it seems. It appears Ric suffocated while snorkelling. However, on the day of the death it was wet, so Columbo thinks it would be unlikely he would have gone into the sea. Also Ric's car looks like it's just come out of a showroom. During the six day period it would have been there there was a heatwave and yet there were no signs of wear on the car. He finds out Adrian and Ric were not best of friends and sees that Ric owned the company. However, Adrian had an alibi on the day of Ric's death. He was hundreds of miles away on a business trip. Although Columbo establishes that Ric was at the winery on the afternoon before Adrian left on the trip, he can not find any witness that saw him leave the premises. Then Karen tells him that she saw him leave that day and Columbo is surprised, and begins to suspect she is lying to protect her employer. It transpires she has harboured a crush for Adrian for years and blackmails him into marrying him. Columbo is on to Adrian by now, and he stages a scene at a restaurant. The wine used at the meal is one of Adrian's own wines from his cellar but he doesn't know this. Adrian throws a fit when the wine is served, saying that it had been overheated and lost its flavour. Then Columbo knows that Adrian must have turned the air conditioning off purposefully so it would cause Ric to die by lack of oxygen. Little did he know there would be a heat wave that would spoil the wine. Then Adrian drives to the cliff and throws several bottles of spoilt wine into the sea. Columbo is there and tells him about his charade in the restaurant. Adrian gives a confession and is not too bothered. He says that he would have been imprisoned by Karen's blackmail anyway.
VERDICT:
Donald Pleasence is in excellent form as Adrian Carsini. He and Columbo get on well but there is an undercurrent of evasion. Columbo even finds out a bit about wines and impresses Carsini with his knowledge, though as usual Columbo relies on a fair degree of bluffing. However the ending is a bit strange. How did Columbo know that Carsini would dispose of the bottles at that particular spot on the clifftop? Surely it would have been simpler if he'd tipped the contents of the bottles away into a sink at his winery. It remains a classic episode though, one of the very best.
Written by Mark Wilson
(C) Copyright Wilson/Young Enterprises 2006.
CAST:
Adrian Carsini....Donald Pleasence
Karen Fielding........Julie Harris
Enrico Carsini.........Gary Conway
Joan Stacey..........Joyce Jillson
Falcon..................Dana Elcar
Maitre'd...............Vito Scotti
Stein............Robert Ellenstein
Billy Fine...........Robert Walden
