PLOT: Robert Culp returns for his second role as Columbo villain. This time the moustachioed Culp plays Paul Hanlon, who manages a football team. The episode is set at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Culp murders a young player who he has known for years called Eric Wagner. The motive is hinted at but not directly confirmed. It seems to be to allow Hanlon to get closer to the victim's wife. Whilst the game is on, Hanlon leaves the ground dressed as an ice cream van and drives away in a Ding-a-ling ice cream van. Then he makes a call from a phone box near Wagner's house, pretending he is calling from his box at the Coliseum. He even has the radio on in the background. Then he murders Wagner while he is swimming in his pool. As he prepares to walk away from the pool he notices he has left tell-tale footprints behind, so sprays down the area with a hose. Then he gets back to game. He has told the coach of the team Mr. Rizzo to come to his box at half time, and Hanlon arrives just in time for his meeting. An hour later the game is still going on when Lieutenant Columbo arrives at the scene. He sees the water by the edge of the pool and presumes it is probably from the pool, but on tasting the water he realises it was from a hose. This starts his suspicions going. He goes to see Hanlon as the game is ending and Hanlon explains how he phoned Wagner from the box. Columbo begins to suspect foul play, particularly when he realises Wagner's phones have been tapped. He thinks it was Hanlon who tapped the phones, but he sees that Hanlon's phones have also been tapped and catches the man attempting to remove them. It transpires that the man worked for Walter Cunnell, the lawyer of the Wagners who was concerned about Hanlon's growing influence. However, Columbo then discovers that Hanlon knew that the bugs were in the phone. He had fired a secretary, Eve Babcock, after just two days because he found out she had planted the phone taps. This is crucial to the case, as the fact Hanlon's conversation was recorded was crucial to his alibi. Columbo listens to the recording over and over again for any slight sound that shouldn't be there but finds nothing. Then, he sees a cuckoo clock in a shop and the penny drops. It was not an extra sound, but a sound that was missing. He goes to Hanlon's box at the game and begins interrogating him. A hilarious scene ensues, with Hanlon trying to watch the game and being distracted by Columbo's questions. It's clear that Hanlon is getting nervous and he begins pretending to watch the game through binoculars to show Columbo he isn't worried by his questions. However, Columbo catches him out by pointing out that the ball was not in the area of the pitch he was looking at. Then, as the clock nears two thirty he begins to reconstruct the conversation, and right on cue the clock chimes, which was missing from the tape, thus showing that Hanlon wasn't in his box.
VERDICT:
This episode is entertaining, with a good plot. However, had this case gone to court it is extremely doubtful Columbo would have got a conviction. He may have thought the clock proved that Hanlon wasn't in the box (which in itself is debatable) but it doesn't prove he was at the scene of the crime. What if Hanlon claimed that the clock had been faulty on the day of the murder? Columbo's case is just too thin. However, this is still a good episode. Columbo is on form and his repartee with Culp is as good as always.
Written by Mark Wilson
(C) Copyright Wilson/Young Enterprises 2006.
CAST:
Paul Hanlon............Robert Culp
Walter Cunnell.........Dean Jagger
Coach Rizzo..........James Gregory
Eve Babcock.........Valerie Harper
Shirley Wagner........Susan Howard
Eric Wagner.........Dean Stockwell
Ralph Dobbs..............Val Avery
Miss Johnson...Kathryn Kelly Wiget
