Day 230: Columbo, Playback

Show: Columbo

Episode Particulars: S4EP5, “Playback”, original airdate March 2^nd, 1975.

 Summary: Harold van Wyck (Oskar Werner) is the head of an electronics company and has been investing the money into new inventions and technologies. As a result, the profits are suffering, and the head of the company, who happens to be his mother-in-law (Martha Scott), declares her intention to oust him from the company. Van Wyck’s response is to mock up the security system in their house to fool the cameras, shoot his mother-in-law, then fiddle with the camera tape so that it looks like the murder took place later than it actually did. Well, all this technological stuff may go over Columbo’s head, but he knows when things aren’t adding up. And no amount of video trickery is going to change that.

Standalone Thoughts: Unlike “Mind Over Mayhem”, where the futuristic trappings hurt the episode on the whole, the fact that this episode revolves around modern (for the time) technology actually adds a little something to the episode. Granted, it’s more of a time capsule thing than being good in its own right, but it still allows the episode to stand out. I’m kind of fascinated by it, because I try to imagine this episode being transplanted into the modern day, and I find that some of it works and some of it doesn’t. For example, having cameras all over the house for security purposes is something that’s more common nowadays, so that part wouldn’t need to change. However, van Wyck’s messing with the recording might be more difficult, given that most of the recordings are now digital. Similarly, van Wyck could still establish an exact time for his alibi because he has a digital watch, but it wouldn’t be quite as punchy because digital watches and clocks are now more common than analogue ones, whereas it was a brand new thing in 1975 if the dialogue is anything to go by. The one technology that doesn’t really work are the doors that open via clapping. The Clapper is a thing that exists, but it’s for lights, not doors, and it seems tremendously inconvenient and possibly unsafe. Unless there’s some complicated mechanics involved, it seems to imply that anyone could just walk into the house if they clapped their hands, which seems to be the opposite of good security. Clearly, the writers didn’t think this one through, especially when you add in the fact that a key piece of evidence relies on the doors being inconsistent.

No matter, though; the technology may date the episode a bit, but the actual execution is pretty solid. That key piece of evidence I mentioned may have its flaws, but it’s a clever bit of reasoning on Columbo’s part, and I forgive it for coming out of nowhere because as it turns out, it was set up in a subtle way. Werner’s performance as van Wyck is good, although it’s mostly a combination of his presence and his German accent doing wonders to flesh out the character (though that may be me invoking some stereotypes). And while a scene where Columbo checks out an art gallery to confirm van Wyck’s alibi is clearly just padding, I’m not going to object to it, because like Columbo, I too hate and don’t understand modern art. I’m just less successful in hiding my disdain for it. I don’t have disdain for this episode, though; it may be dated, but I still enjoyed it, and that’s what really matters.

Number of “Columbo-isms”: 4/6. We get Columbo’s car, his dog, and a literal “Just one more thing”. We also get a mention of his wife, but what’s unusual is that the first mention of her isn’t made by Columbo, but by Mrs. van Wyck offering Columbo some flowers for his wife. It’s not often other people are the ones bringing up Columbo’s family, and is therefore worth mentioning.

Other: *van Wyck carries the footage of the empty study in a container, which makes sense because that thing is huge. What makes less sense is the fact that he labeled the container “Tape of empty study”. Unless he has a good reason for having a tape of his empty study (and the episode never gives one) that just seems really, really suspicious. I think we’d have figured out what was going on without the helpful label, and van Wyck wouldn’t have risked incriminating himself.

*We got an unexpected followup to Columbo’s dislike of guns as mentioned in “Troubled Waters”, where Columbo has to borrow a fellow cop’s gun to run an experiment, mentions once again that he hates guns, and then covers his ears and turns away as much as possible before firing. And now I’m wondering if this was a new quirk of Columbo’s that the writers had latched on to and decided to play with. I guess it’s going to depend how many more times it comes up.

Would This Hold Up in Court?: Yes, because Columbo’s got some pretty solid evidence, and it’s video evidence to boot. That being said, I think the episode cheats just a little bit, because it suggests that the camera got a shot that it probably shouldn’t have been able to get, based on what we’re told. I think the episode still could have worked with a bit of tweaking; they just needed to be realistic about the camera’s range.