PLOT: This is sometimes titled the 25th Anniversary special but was broadcast 26 years after the Columbo series began and 29 years after the first pilot Prescription Murder. This time the villain is a pathologist, Patrick Kinsley, who turns up to examine the body just hours after he had committed the murder. Columbo does not recognise him and Patrick explains that he is new on the job. Patrick and his girlfriend Cathleen Calvert (Shera Danese Falk) have staged the murder to make it look like Calvert's husband Clifford (Barry Corbin) is the villainby plating a cigar stub (Clifford is a cigar smoker) at the scene of the crime. However, Columbo is less than convinced, and begins to suspect Cathleen of involvement in the murder. Then Columbo realises that she and Patrick were in it together when he and Patrick meet Cathleen in Barney's restaurant. Though they are pretending not to have met each other before, they make a couple of mistakes. When they are leaving, Patrick opens the rear door of the cab for Cathleen. This puzzles Columbo, as passengers usually sat in the passenger seat of a cab. Then Columbo thinks that perhaps the lady liked to sit in the back because she got carsick. But how would Patrick know that unless the two knew each other already? Then Columbo meets them separately and tricks the pair of them into incriminating each other in the murder.
VERDICT: This is a poor episode. The plot is weak and Falk looks ever more old and tired in the role of Columbo. The supporting cast put in decent performances but the episode fails to impress.
Written by Mark Wilson
(C) Copyright Wilson/Young Enterprises 2006.
CAST:
Patrick Kinsley.......David Rasche
Cathleen Calvert.Shera Danese Falk
Clifford Calvert......Barry Corbin
Barney...............John Finnegan
Howard Seltzer...........Raye Birk
Officer Will..............Will Nye
Harry Jenkins.......Franklin Cover
Harriet Jenkins.......Alice Backes
Stuart March.........Dion Anderson
