PLOT: Grace Wheeler Willis is an ageing dancer who is desperate to revitalise her career. Her husband is wealthy and they live in a large house with a butler and maid. However, Dr. Willis refuses to put up the half a million dollars needed to finance Grace's comeback. She decides the only way she is going to get it is if she murders him. She gives him an extra sleeping tablet to ensure he is fast asleep. She is watching one of her old movies in the projection room and sneaks out of the room to the car, where Dr. Willis' gun is kept. She then sneaks back inside and up to her husband's bedroom, where he is fast asleep. She takes the book from his lap and replaces it with a doctor's report. She then puts the gun in her husband's hand and pulls the trigger. The house is big and the sound of the shot can't be heard in the servant's quarters or the screening room. She then locks the door from the inside and jumps onto a tree that is outside the window. She negotiates her way to the ground and returns to the screening room. When she returns she notices that the film has come apart so she changes the reel. When Raymond the butler finishes watching the Johnny Carson show he looks in on Grace, whose film is just ending, before looking in on her husband. He can't get into his room so he and Grace break down the door. Columbo arrives on the scene fresh from bed and is in a pretty untidy state. He examines the scene of the crime and sees the doctor's report said that Dr. Willis needed an operation. Columbo thinks it's odd that he took sleeping pills before shooting himself. The other alternative is that he only decided to kill himself when he was looking at the report so he went to the car to get his gun and then shot himself. Columbo examines Willis' slippers and finds no trace of dirt on them. He questions Grace the next day and notices she is very keen to carry on with the comeback tour. She doesn't seem to show any genuine emotion at her husband's death and he begins to suspect her of the crime. Columbo finds that, though Dr. Willis was unwell and needed an operation, he didn't have anything life threatening. Columbo also sees that, whilst someone couldn't have entered the victim's room by the tree, they could have exited it that way. He even takes the tree exist himself and is on the ground under the tree when Grace comes out to see what he is doing! Columbo and his wife are big fans of Grace's films and she invites he and his wife round to watch the film of their choice at her screening room. Mrs. Columbo is feeling unwell (surprise surprise!) but Columbo and Grace's former dance partner Ned Diamond show up. Columbo explains to Diamond that Grace is the culprit and he is shocked. He has loved Grace for many years. Columbo explains that the film shown on the night of the murder's duration was 1 hour and forty five minutes, yet that night it took two hours. He had examined the reel and noticed there was a splice, leading Columbo to believe Grace must have changed the reel. They sit down and prepare to watch the film. Columbo has tampered with the tape on that night's screening and the film has only been going a couple of minutes when it splices. Grace goes to put the problem right and it takes her three minutes. Columbo explains that there must have been a fifteen minute delay on the night of the murder and the only reason it took that long was because Grace can't have been in the room at the time it broke. While she is changing the tape Columbo also explains that Dr. Willis had obtained his wife's medical files and they show Grace is dying from an aneurysm on the brain that affects the memory. She has two months to live at best, though she doesn't know. In fact Columbo thinks she may not even remember committing the murder. Then when Grace returns to the room having changed the reel Ned confesses to the murder and Grace is irate. As he and Columbo leave Columbo tells him it won't take long before he will prove that Ned can't have been the killer but Ned says "it will take two months though". Columbo thinks for a moment and says "yes". In doing this he accepts that the case won't go any further and Grace won't go to trial.
VERDICT: Janet Leigh's character Grace Wheeler Willis may seem a more sympathetic killer than most because she is dying (though she doesn't know it). Actually the reason she murdered her husband was extremely selfish. Throughout the episode she gives out the impression of being a rather spoilt egotistical person who seems to have one thing on her mind- her career. The plot is not the best, with Columbo even looking into why the book Dr. Willis was reading didn't have a turned down corner for that day! There are also several other things that he latches onto which aren't really plausible such as the delay in changing the reel. How he thinks the fact Grace delayed changing the reel of the film for ten minutes constitutes grounds for a conviction is beyond me. All in all this episode is OK but not one of the best.
Written by Mark Wilson
(C) Copyright Wilson/Young Enterprises 2006.
CAST:
Grace Wheeler Willis...Janet Leigh
Raymond..............Maurice Evans
Ned Diamond.............John Payne
Dr Henry Willis..........Sam Jaffe
Dr Landberg...........Ross Elliott
Alma..............Linda Gaye Scott
Sgt. Leftkowitz......Francine York
