PLOT:
This is the one case where Columbo got it wrong! Sean Brantley owns magazine Batchelors World with Dian Hunter. Dian (who owns 51% of the company) threatens to sell her share to a wealthy businessman Sir Harry Matthews, thus putting Matthews in overall control of the company. A row ensues, which is heard by Dian's secretary and Diane leaves the chateaux later that evening. On hre way to the airport Dian stages her own disappearance and makes it look as if she has been murdered. When Dian doesn't show up at her important meeting with Matthews in London, the ever suspicious Lieutenant Columbo is on the case. Brantley has an alibi but Columbo suspects him of being the accomplice, as the murderer was a woman. He believes all the evidence and digs up Brantley's mansion looking for the body. Meanwhile Brantely contacts the press and they converge on Brantley's chateaux in droves. Columbo is unsuccessful in his search for the body. He suspects Brantley's fiance Tina of being the murderer and is about to take her down to the station for questioning, when who should draw up outside but Dian Hunter! Columbo looks dumbfounded and can not believe Ms. Hunter is still alive. Brantley explains the whole thing was a set-up and he used the situation to gain publicity for the magazine. Columbo looks very disgruntled and tells Brantley he made a fool out of him. However, then Dian reveals that she will be selling to Matthews after all, at a much increased price, because the company is worth a lot more after all the publicity it has gained. Brantley looks disgruntled, but Dian doesn't realise that he too has a plan. While she is in her room combing her hair, Brantley strangles her to death. The following morning at Police headquarters the press are having a field day. The Los Angeles Police department has become a laughing stock. Then a call comes through that Dian has disappeared again. The Police commissioner says 'whatever happens keep Columbo away from there'. Luckily Columbo is already on his way to the chateaux. Workmen are patching up the house after Columbo's previous search as he walks in. Brantley sees Columbo and implies he and Dian have staged another disappearance. Columbo says that Brantley's plan was brilliant because it made him look like the boy who cried wolf. He says that he couldn't possibly search the grounds again, after the previous debacle. It seems like Columbo is beaten, and as he prepares to leave the chateaux he asks Brantley if he minds if he make a phone call. Brantley agrees and Columbo presses a few numbers on the phone and then puts the phone down. Then, as he is leaving he hears a beeping sound. He follows the noise, which is coming from a wall in the building that has recently been sealed. Columbo takes down the partition in the wall to reveal the body of Dian Hunter sealed in a large platic bag. The watch on her arm, which is her bleeper, is bleeping. Columbo opens the bag to reveal the message he sent. It says 'Gotcha'!
VERDICT: This is a brilliant episode because Columbo gets everything wrong! It is understandable why he comes to the conclusions he does, they just happen to be wrong. Brantley's plot is very clever and Columbo finds all the clues he has staged. The look on Columbo's face when Dian turns up is priceless! His suspicious mind has solved the murder that was never committed. However, then the murder does finally take place in the 77th minute. Brantley has the perfect alibi, and if he had removed Dian's bleeper from her wrist when he hid the body he would have got away with it. Columbo had one chance to find the body and it paid off (lucky for him that it did.) All in all a brilliant intricate storyline and a good performance by Scottish actor Ian Buchanan as Brantley means that this episode was one of the best of the 'new' Columbos and even rivalled some of the best episodes of the 70s series.
Written by Mark Wilson
(C) Copyright Wilson/Young Enterprises 2006.
CAST:
Sean Brantley.........Ian Buchanan
Tina.................Rebecca Staab
Dian Hunter............Deidre Hall
Sir Harry Matthews.....Alan Scarfe
Cosner...............Mark Margolis
Police Chief.........John Finnegan
Dian's Secretary.........Gigi Rice
Mayor.............David Huddleston
