PLOT:
Kay Freestone works for a TV network and plans to murder her boyfriend and boss because he has passed her over for promotion and ended their relationship. While some executives are in a screening room watching a film Kay is in the projection room with the projectionist. The reel has to be changed every ten minutes. Kay alters the time left indicator and tells the projectionist she has left some films in the basement. The projectionist looks at the time remaining and says it is due to be changed soon so Kay says she will change the reel. While the projectionist is away Kay leaves the room and goes to her boss Mark McAndrews apartment and shoots him. A tape is playing in her ear the whole time telling her how much time she has left. She gets in the lift and throws the gun into a compartment above the lift. She then returns to the screening room and changes the reel. The projectionist returns and a minute later the people in the screening room are informed there has been a shooting and the film is stopped. Columbo has been involved in a car accident where he has sustained a whiplash injury and is wearing a collar. He witnesses Frank Flanagan make Kay up to be boss. Columbo then asks whether Kay would have been boss if McAndrews hadn't been murdered and she said she wouldn't. Columbo agrees that is not motive for murder on its own. He begins searching for evidence that Kay and McAndrews had been having an affair and finds a suit that is delivered to McAndrews apartment that belongs to Kay. He begins to get on Kay's nerves turning up all the time asking awkward questions. In one scene Kay and Columbo enter the lift. Kay sneaks a glance upwards and sees the shadow of the gun in the compartment above. Columbo leaves and Kay returns to the lift and retrieves the gun. She drives off to the TV studio and ditches it down a drain. Then Columbo shows up and demands to see Kay. He explains to her that he planted a camera in the lift. They had retrieved the murder weapon beforehand and planted another gun in the lift. The camera showed Kay retrieving the gun. Also, something the projectionist said about what segment of the film was showing when he returned to the room makes Columbo realise how Kay had altered the time on the counter to give herself an alibi. Columbo has all the evidence he needs and Kay gives a defiant speech about her winning in the end.
VERDICT: This is typical of the last few 70s Columbo episodes in that it falls short of the mark. This episode is similar to Double Exposure with the reel changing in the projection room and also copies other episodes with Columbo resorting to trickery. In fact it's obvious Columbo has planted the gun the moment Kay sees it because that's the sort of thing Columbo does! Trish Van Devere is a competent villain but the episode is not a classic.
Written by Mark Wilson
(C) Copyright Wilson/Young Enterprises 2006.
CAST:
Kay Freestone.....Trish Van Devere
Mark McAndrews.Laurence Luckinbill
Walter Mearhead.....James McEachin
Frank Flanagan......Patrick O'Neal
Luther..................Ron Rifkin
Valerie Kirk..........Lainie Kazan
TV repairman...........Bruce Kirby
Jonathan................Kip Gilman
Madge...............Dee Timberlake
Pete....................Don Eitner
