PLOT: Jack Cassidy, in his first outing as Columbo villain, plays Ken Franklin, who is one half of a successful writing team of detective stories. His partner Jim Ferris and he have been writing for years but Ferris has decided to branch out on his own. Franklin is worried by this, because Ferris has written all the novels himself, and people will be bound to realise this once he writes on his own. Franklin realises he must stop Ferris from publishing his first solo novel. He asks Ferris to come with him to his beach house, which is many miles from the city. Franklin is nearly at the beach house when he stops off at a gas station, where Lily LaSanka serves him. She also notices Ferris in the passenger seat of Franklin's car. Then on arrival in the beach house, Franklin murders Ferris. A phone call made from the beach house gives Franklin his alibi. He drives back to the city and dumps Ferris' body in his garden. Columbo is soon on the case and begins to unravel the puzzle. Franklin returns to his beach house and on the next trip to the gas station Lily mentions to him that she saw Ferris in his car. Although she seems a simple soul, Lily has more intelligence than it may seem and she blackmails Franklin. He asks her to a meal at the beach house and she accepts, as she has a bit of a thing for Franklin. However, she is also wary of him, as she realises he murdered Ferris. He comments on what a beautiful evening it is and asks if she would like to go out on the lake with him in his boat. She turns him down as she realises the danger. Franklin then picks up a bottle and smashes it over Lily's head. He rows out onto the lake and dumps Lily's body. He then capsizes the boat and swims back to the shore. Columbo suspects Franklin did the dirty deed, as he realises the proximity of the lake to Ken's beach house. He finds a book on Lily's bookshelf inscribed by Franklin and realises they must have known each other, a fact Franklin had denied. Columbo just needs proof that Franklin is the culprit and he comes across it by chance when he is at Ferris' house. Columbo finds scraps of paper lying on the table in the Ferris' house. Mrs. Ferris tells him that her husband always left story ideas on slips of paper. Columbo examines them and realises one of them describes Ferris' murder exactly. He confronts Franklin with it and tells him that he wasn't to know that Ferris wrote down the ideas. Columbo is feeling very proud of himself and mocks Franklin for not having any ideas for the novels. Then Franklin says that it was ironic that that particular murder idea was the one idea that was his own. He wasn't aware that Ferris had written it down.
VERDICT:
This episode was directed by Steven Spielberg and it is a decent contribution to the series. Jack Cassidy is on form as usual and the supporting cast perform well. The plot is OK, though the sealing clue is very inplausible and unsatisfactory. All in all though a good episode, setting the benchmark for the series.
Written by Mark Wilson
(C) Copyright Wilson/Young Enterprises 2006.
CAST:
Ken Franklin..........Jack Cassidy
Jim Ferris...........Martin Milner
Joanna Ferris.....Rosemary Forsyth
Lily LaSanka.........Barbara Colby
Gloria jr...........Lynette Mettey
Mike Tucker............Bernie Kuby
Sergeant...............Hoke Howell
