PLOT:
Hugh Creighton is a famous lawyer who has never lost a murder case. He has concocted a scheme to murder his girlfriend Trish Fairbanks. Although they are unmarried, Trish and Hugh have been living as husband and wife for years and Trish intends to claim half of Hugh's assests when the couple's relationship comes to an end. Hugh has hired a private investigator and knows that Trish has been seeing a man called Neddy Malcolm in their beach house twice a week in the afternoons. Hugh has injected some sleeping pills into the cork of the champagne bottle. Trish and Neddy arrive at the beach house as normal and after playing on the beach they go to bed and get the champagne. Trish doesn't feel like any but Neddy drinks some. Meanwhile Hugh arrives in the gardener's truck. He had peeked a look at the gardener's schedule the previous day and knew where he would be at that time. Once Neddy has passed out, Hugh enters the apartment. He switches the corks of the champagne bottles and washes the tampered bottle's contents away. Hugh enters the bedroom and Trish is surprised to see him but begs Hugh not to hurt Neddy. After murdering Trish, Hugh then uses the rake to rake the path to remove his footprints. However, Hugh has no intention of hurting Neddy. When Neddy comes round a few hours later he is horrified as Trish is dead beside him. He panics and runs away. When Columbo shows up he notices that the path has been raked in an unusual fashion. Forensics finds Neddy Malcolm's fingerprints on the glasses and it looks as if he was the villain. However, Columbo is puzzled that the champagne cork on the side has a different number of stars on it than the other bottles in the fridge. Columbo visits the court, where he asks for an adjournment. He breaks the news to Hugh Creighton, who pretends to be very upset. Columbo and the police are still trying to hunt down Neddy Malcolm but Columbo begins to suspect Creighton. He and Sergeant Hubach enter Neddy's apartment but he enters out of the back door and they lose him. Columbo then tracks him down to a bar where Little Richard is singing. He interviews Neddy and Neddy admits he was there at the house. He tells Columbo about passing out and finding Trish dead when he woke up. Columbo believes him. Meanwhile Creighton's secretary Marcy Edwards is blackmailing Creighton. She had unwittingly been establishing Creighton's alibi and realised that Creighton was guilty once the news of Trish's death arrived. Marcy is made up to be partner. Columbo has tracked down the gardener, who is Japanese. He says the truck had gone missing when he was in LaMacia Avenue. Columbo sees that LaMacia Avenue is lined by trees. Columbo then sees the champagne corks in Creighton's office match the one left at the scene of the crime. Creighton claimed he was driving several miles away at the time of the murder but has no proof of his whereabouts. Columbo presses the police chief to arrest Creighton. Creighton says he will see him in court. The commissioner says that Creighton has no alibi, at which point Marcy remembers something that came in the post that day. It is a speeding ticket and also has a photo of Creighton's car and the time it was photographed by the speed camera. It is just a few minutes from the time of the murder and Creighton wouldn't have had time to be at the scene of the crime. Creighton has a cast iron alibi. However, Columbo knows that he can't have been driving the car. He blows up the photo and is puzzled, because Creighton appears to be behind the wheel. Then Columbo asks the speed camera people if the photo could have been tampered with. It is impossible. Then Columbo asks to have blow up photos of cars caught speeding around the same time that day. He pastes them onto a board and studies them closely. Then he realises what is different on Creighton's photo. There is no shadow under his nose. Columbo visits the road where the speed camera is at the same time Creighton's photo was taken and manages to get his battered old car to break the speed limit! He then pastes his photo next to the others and sure enough, there is a shadow under his nose. He then realises someone must have been wearing a mask of Creighton's face with pinholes for the eyes. He then confronts Creighton with the evidence. He says it doesn't prove he was at the scene of the crime. Then Columbo goes to Creighton's car and finds some berries stuck in the windscreen wipers. The only place these berries grew in the city was LaMacia Avenue, and this proves Creighton was the killer.
VERDICT: This is an ingenious complex murder plot. Dabney Coleman gives a good performance as the highly competent Creighton. Columbo needs all his powers of detection to find the evidence. Shera Danese is also in good form as Creighton's accomplice Marcy Edwards. There is also a cameo appearance by legendary singer Little Richard. What is particularly good is the way Columbo unravels the speeding ticket mystery. This is one of the better of the later Columbos.
Written by Mark Wilson
(C) Copyright Wilson/Young Enterprises 2006.
CAST:
Hugh Creighton........Dabney Coleman
Trish Fairbanks....Shera Danese Falk
Marcy Edwards...........Cheryl Paris
Neddy Malcolm...........Julian Stone
Sergeant Hubach........Sondra Currie
Little Richard........Little Richard
Sam Marlowe..............John Martin
Chief Quentin Corbett..John Finnegan
