PLOT: Anne Baxter plays Nora Chandler, the falling star in the title. She murders her assistant Jean Davis by leaving a trail of petrol from her car, because Jean knew about her murdering her husband and burying him under the fountain years earlier. However, it is made to look like the intended victim was Jerry Parks (Mel Ferrer.) Columbo begins to suspect Chandler, though he also suspects Parks was the intended victim, and the reason for the murder being blackmail. However, when Chandler reveals all her files to Columbo it becomes clear that Parks has nothing on Chandler and therefore she had no motive to kill him. However, Columbo delves into the past and realises the victim was the intended victim and also that Chandler killed her husband. He wonders why the fountain in Chandler's garden has no water running through it and in the final scene he explains to Chandler that he had solved the mysterious disappearance of her husband years earlier. Columbo had always wondered why the fountain in Nora's back garden didn't work. Then he'd discovered it was installed soon after her husband went missing. In order to lay a water pipe they would have to dig up the lawn, thus unearthing the body.
VERDICT:
This is not a very good episode. The main mystery of the episode is something that happened years before and only comes to light near the end. The main problem with this episode is it just isn't very entertaining.
Written by Mark Wilson
(C) Copyright Wilson/Young Enterprises 2006.
CAST:
Nora Chandler..........Anne Baxter
Jerry Parks.............Mel Ferrer
Dr Frank Simmons....Kevin McCarthy
Mr Fallon...........Frank Converse
Jean Davis.............Pippa Scott
Edith Head..............Edith Head
