Day 254: Columbo, Uneasy Lies the Crown

Show: Columbo

Episode Particulars: S9EP5, “Uneasy Lies the Crown”, original airdate April 28^th, 1990.

 Summary: Wesley Corman (James Read) is a dentist working for his father-in-law’s (Paul Burke) practice. When he gets wind of the fact that his wife Lydia (Jo Anderson) is planning to divorce him and leave him in the lurch, he springs into action. But instead of trying to kill his wife or his father-in-law, he arranges for his friend, movie star Adam Evans (Marshall R. Teague) to come in for a dentist appointment when everyone else is out of the office, where he mixes something lethal into the filling for a crown. Just when you think he’s trying to frame his father-in-law, it turns out that Evans and Lydia are lovers, that Lydia is mentally fragile and has a heart condition, and that Corman seems intent on framing his wife for the deed. It’s a bit convoluted, but it makes sense as it goes on, both for the audience and for Columbo.

Standalone Thoughts: While this definitely isn’t the strongest episode of the season (and would probably be somewhere in the middle of the pack overall if I was ranking all the episodes), it’s still mostly decent. Both the way of dispatching the victim and the way Corman frames his wife are either clever or interesting, and I like the fact that Columbo gets some civilian help in order to help his case. That being said, the episode is mostly noteworthy to me due to the clear inclusion of padding. Most of them are only a minute or two long, but that obviously adds up over time. Just off the top of my head, there’s Columbo being starstruck by the people gathered around a poker table (several of whom are actors playing themselves), an exchange involving a broken coffee dispenser, and a bit where Columbo is futzing with the police light he can stick on top of his car. With the exception of the coffee one, which at least provides a little exposition, none of these add anything to the story, and while having one or two of them is fine for a character beat, too many in one episode brings the whole thing down. And then there’s the whole bit where Columbo takes a tip from Corman and bets on a “sure to win”  horse, even though it was established earlier in the episode that Corman has racked up massive gambling debts. You’d think this would go somewhere, but it just disappears from the narrative. We never even found out if the horse won. It’s not important to the story, but I’m still a little annoyed we didn’t get any sort of resolution to that. In short, a decent enough story, but one I wouldn’t say is a must-see. Also, I’m not sure if it will make you more or less motivated to go visit your dentist.

Number of “Columbo-isms”: 5/6. There’s a scene involving the car, several mentions of his wife, at least two “Just one more things”, Columbo briefly whistles “This Old Man”, and he both fumbles in his coat and asks for a match, the latter of which helps kick off his investigation. Nothing overly special otherwise, but there doesn’t always have to be.

Other: *When I first saw the title of this episode, I assumed it was going to revolve around Shakespeare again, since that’s where the phrase originally came from. Then I saw that Corman was a dentist, and I got the joke. It’s a clever pun, but I think whoever came up with it should have found some other crown related pun, so people would have had slightly different expectations going into the episode.

*When Evans comes into the building housing Corman’s office, he gets accosted by two excited fans and graciously signs autographs for them. If you look over to the left while this is happening, you’ll see a security guard watching the scene and occasionally looking down at the pen and clipboard in his hand. It’s a fun example of non-verbal acting, because it’s subtle enough that a lot of people won’t notice it, but detailed enough that those who do notice it can wonder if he’s trying to interrupt Evans to get him to sign in, or if he’s debating trying to get an autograph himself. He certainly looks a little sad as Evans walks away…

*Back in “Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo”, there was a brief moment when Columbo complained that he had a sensitive tooth. I wonder if that was either intentional foreshadowing for this episode, or if a writer spotted that line and thought having a dentist as the murderer would be a neat idea. Either way, it’s a form of continuity, and we know how I feel about that.

*After a fairly long absence, I’ve found another bizarre fashion that I need to comment on;

If this was a camouflage sweater, I’d understand. If the pattern was consistent, I’d understand. But this looks like it was patterned on some sort of half-covered Inca masonry. I’m not saying it’s awful, necessarily, it’s just…baffling.

Would This Hold Up in Court?: No, sadly. It really looked like it was, but then it turned out to be a frameup, one Columbo had to get other people in on. It’s clever on one level, but the lawyers would have their head in their hands again.