PLOT:
Colonel Frank Braillie works at a military academy. He plans to murder Sergeant Major Lester Keegan because he is blackmailing him. While Keegan is on a night exercise Braillie plants a bomb. Keegan is knocked unconscious and Braillie drags his body into the area where the bomb is, before setting it off, blowing Keegan up. He then returns to his quarters, unseen. Columbo shows up next day and is immediately puzzled by the position the body is in. He fears it may have been murder, not suicide, though at first it is only a theory. He gets to know Frank Braillie and begins to suspect him of the murder. He also gets to know highly decorated Military General Jack Padget, 'THE General Jack Padget' as he refers to him! It seems Padget was one of Columbo's war heroes. Columbo investigates further into Braillie's past and digs a few things up. Braillie's alibi is that on the evening of the murder he was setting up hundreds of miniature soldiers. A box saying soldiers was delivered that evening, meaning that Braillie must have set them up then. However, Columbo nails Braillie when he shows him that the box saying soldiers did in fact not contain soldiers at all. The soldiers had been delivered earlier in another box. He then demonstrates that the soldiers fit in one box but not the other. Columbo has his man.
VERDICT: Braillie is rather stupid and doesn't seem to understand any of Columbo's insinuations. Therefore the usual cat and mouse game between Columbo and villain is lacking in this episode. The 90 minutes seem to pass by extremely slowly and the episode is very boring, as is the villain.
Written by Mark Wilson
(C) Copyright Wilson/Young Enterprises 2006.
CAST:
Colonel Braillie.....Robert Foxworth
Sergeant Major Keegan....Andy Romano
Jenny Padget............Janet Eilber
General Jack Padget..Stephen Elliott
Sergeant Tanzer......Michael McManus
Sidney Winnik...........James Lashly
Marsha....................Lynn Clark
Corporal................Bennett Liss
