Day 236: Columbo, Now You See Him...

Show: Columbo

Episode Particulars: S5EP5, “Now You See Him…”, original airdate February 29^th, 1976.

 Summary: A magician known as The Great Santini (Jack Cassidy, for once playing a murderer who has nothing to do with writing) is back performing in L.A. and has decided that he’d rather not pay fifty percent of his earnings to his manager Jesse Jerome (Nehemiah Persoff). But there’s a reason Jerome’s asking so much of him; Santini is a former S.S. officer in hiding, and Jerome will send proof of this to Washington and Israel if Santini steps out of line. So during the most death-defying stunt of his magic act (where he’s conveniently out of the audience’s line of sight), Santini sneaks up to Jerome’s office and murders him, using trickery to give himself an alibi. While he might be good at illusions, though, Columbo’s good at figuring things out, and it won’t take too long for Columbo to pull a warrant out of his coat.

Standalone Thoughts: I’ll be the first to admit that this episode feels like it’s full of padding, but I’ll also admit that I don’t mind too much in this case, because most of the padding consists of skillfully executed magic tricks, and that can be fun to watch. Besides, a few of the magic tricks actually turn out to be relevant to the plot, including an onstage moment between Columbo and Santini that offers up a bit of subtlety. Two things I like in one scene; you can’t ask for better than that unless perhaps a cat is involved.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the decision to bring back Sergeant Wilson (even if his first name apparently changed from Frederic to John offscreen), from “The Greenhouse Jungle”, because it allows for a bit of continuity that will please fans while still being accessible to newcomers. As for his character, there are some hints that he’s improved since his first appearance, but his contribution to the episode is much the same as it was in his first appearance, which is to be enthusiastic but keep getting things wrong, although at least he’s making educated guesses that just happen to be incorrect instead of doing things that make the investigation more complicated. I don’t think I’d want Wilson to be a character who showed up constantly, but if he appeared every few seasons, perhaps growing more and more competent each time, I’d be fine with that.

 The rest of the episode is fine. Columbo makes some good logical deductions, his interactions with the various characters are fun, and while the way he catches Santini is literally impossible today, it’s a neat little time capsule for us watching it nowadays. About my only two complaints are that Columbo just happens to stumble across several solutions in quick succession, and that they didn’t really talk much about the fact that Santini was an ex-Nazi. I know that’s not the point of the episode, but if you’re going to include such heavy material in your story, I’d have thought they would do something with it. I’m not entirely sure what they’d do with it, but I’d have been intrigued if that had come into play somewhere. Then again, that may have made the episode way darker than anyone was comfortable with, so it may be best that we make do with what we have.

Number of “Columbo-isms”: 5/6. We see the car, Dog makes a one scene cameo, Columbo does a bit of fumbling and asks for a match, and there are two variations of “Just one more thing”. As for Mrs. Columbo, she’s responsible for a deviation from formula: Columbo starts the episode by wearing a dark brown coat that she got him for his birthday. There’s a running joke that features him trying to lose the coat because he doesn’t like it before eventually going back to the familiar beige one. Though I have to admit he looks pretty good in the new one…

Other: *Oddly, it takes the episode a full minute before it starts showing the credits. This would make sense if we opened on a tense moment or two people talking, but in this case, the camera was just panning over and around the Cabaret of Magic club. Rolling the credits over it would have made perfect sense in this case.

*The police lab that Columbo goes to to get some evidence examined looks like something out of a mad scientist’s lab in the movies, with bubbling test tubes full of colored liquids all over the place. Are police labs really like that, or was Hollywood taking creative license again?

*Santini is awfully quick to go from “No one can know the secret to my magic tricks” to being completely understanding when Columbo gets backstage and figures out how Santini’s biggest trick is done. I feel like we needed an extra scene or line of dialogue to explain this.

*At one point, Columbo goes to talk to a fellow entertainer (high wire act in this case) who knew Santini earlier in his career. He finds the guy in his cramped little apartment room, and in-between asking about Santini, Columbo keeps asking about the apartment; where’s the bathroom, does the apartment come with a TV, etc. He doesn’t seem to be doing it to throw the guy off balance, nor does it feel like something he’s doing to put the man at ease. Other than those two explanations, though, I’m not sure what Columbo’s intent with all that was.

*During a conversation with Columbo and Wilson at police headquarters, you can see a sign for a fallout shelter behind Columbo’s head. Now there’s a sign of the times.

Would This Hold Up in Court?: Theoretically yes, because Columbo’s got proof, but just because he has that proof doesn’t mean he’s got actual solid proof (it makes sense in context, I promise). I guess this one’s going to depend on the jury.