PLOT: Harold Van Wick is head of electronics firm Meadis Electronics and is a rich man. His wife Elizabeth is in a wheelchair and the house is fitted with doors which you clap to open and ramps, to aid her. There are also several security cameras which are linked to a room in the house and then relayed to the gatehouse, where a guard is. Elizabeth's mother Mrs. Midas owns the company and is not happy at Harold's management of it. After her daughter has gone to bed and her son Arthur has gone home, she tells Harold that she is sacking him and putting Arthur in his place. He laughs, saying that Arthur couldn't blow his own nose without a written instruction. She snipes back saying he would be better than he was. Harold is clearly annoyed and leaves the sitting room. He goes to the room where the security cameras are and begins recording a segment of film of the hallway with nothing going on. After a few minutes he moves some switches around and the relays the taped footage of the empty hall to the gatehouse instead of the live camera footage. Then he stands in the hallway and waits for Mrs. Midas to leave the sitting room. When she comes out he shoots her and then returns to the camera room. He rigs the equipment to play back the footage of the shooting about fifteen minutes later. He then leaves as he has an appointment at an art gallery. Then, soon after he has left, the guard in the gatehouse watches in horror as he sees the murder take place. Soon the police are on the scene and taking statements from everyone. Columbo has a cold and warns people not to come near in case they catch it! Harold arrives back from the art gallery and pretends to be shocked at the news. He is very courteous to Columbo, who is beginning to look at how the killer may have entered the premises. He sees a broken window and suspects that was how he got in, but is puzzled by the fact that he wasn't caught on one of the cameras. Harold explains that cameras were only installed to show certain parts of the house, such as the safe. "We expected a thief not a murder" he explains. Columbo accepts Harold's explanation, though he is still puzzled by the fact that the murderer knew exactly where to stop to avoid coming in view of the camera. Columbo continues to look for evidence, and he does not seriously begin to suspect Van Wick for some time. However, by the time the episode reaches it's conclusion it's obvious Columbo is on to Harold. He sees how he rigged the tape to provide him with an alibi and runs the tape of the murder and the tape of the empty room simultaneously. After a while he spots a little white mark on the table that is present on the murder tape but not on the other one. He blows it up and it transpires that it's Harold's invitation for the art gallery. This proves that Harold is guilty, as he must have climbed over the body to collect the invitation before presenting it at the gallery later that evening.
VERDICT: Austrian actor Oskar Werner proves to be a good Columbo villain. He is genuinely courteous to Columbo, though it is clear that he uses courtesy as a ploy to avoid being a suspect. The episode also features a fine performance by Gena Rowlands as Werner's wife. In fact the acting standard in this episode is very high, and Peter Falk is on particularly good form. The episode also has a logical plot and builds to a tense finale.
Written by Mark Wilson
(C) Copyright Wilson/Young Enterprises 2006.
CAST:
Harold Van Wick.......Oskar Werner
Elizabeth Van Wick...Gena Rowlands
Margaret Meadis.......Martha Scott
Francine............Patricia Barry
Arthur Meadis.........Robert Brown
Marcy.................Trisha Noble
Guard............Herb Jefferson jr
