Show: Columbo
Episode
Particulars: S1EP1, “Murder by the Book”, original airdate September 15th,
1971.
Standalone
Thoughts: After the attempts to be fancy in “Ransom for a Dead Man”, this
episode is refreshingly straightforward. More attention is being paid to
telling the story than to showing off, and the episode is better for it. It
also actually gives us a motive very quickly and gets Columbo involved in the
action as often as it can, all of which are plusses. In fact, everything’s
assembled and played well enough that there isn’t too much for me to focus on
in this section. I’ll have plenty to say in the “Other” section, but looking
specifically at the murder and Columbo’s method for catching Franklin, I don’t
have much to say other than that this is a perfectly fine episode, with no
clear great moments but definitely no serious missteps. Which is actually
pretty good for an episode meant to kick off a long-running TV show.
Number of
“Columbo-isms”: There are definitely 2/6, with a mention of his wife and at
least one variation of “Just one more thing”. There may also be a third in the
form of Columbo’s car finally making an appearance, but I have my doubts about
that. What my memory told me and the internet confirmed was that the car looks
like this;
…but the car we see in this episode looks like this;
It just looks darker and in much better shape than I
remember it from previous watchings. Maybe it just got worse with age (which
makes sense), but I still feel like they changed the car’s look a bit once they
officially decided that would be a “thing”. You can try to argue with me on
this point, but I’ll always be a bit uncertain.
Other: *Back
in 1971, no one would have batted an eye when they saw the director’s name pop
up at the end of the episode. In fact, most people probably wouldn’t have even
cared. Nowadays, though, the sight of the name “Steven Spielberg” is all but
guaranteed to cause people to do a double take. I can’t say I saw anything in
the episode that made me say “Yes, Spielberg definitely directed this”, but
since it lacked most of the visual tricks that made “Ransom for a Dead Man” so
baffling, I’m inclined to like it. Besides, it now makes Columbo’s official first episode kind of special after the fact.
*In the interest of fairness, I must acknowledge that the
episode does indulge in two semi-artistic choices. One is that the opening of
the episode has no music and very little sound effects, other than the tapping
of typewriter keys. It’s an interesting move and is fortunately intriguing
rather than distracting. The other is that a scene of moonlight on the lake is
very sparkly, in a way that I’m pretty sure wouldn’t actually happen in real
life. However, this effect is onscreen for only a minute or less, so it doesn’t
overstay its welcome. So unlike the previous episode, I’m not going to complain
about it.
*I can’t help but wonder if the detective series Franklin
and Ferris write, the Mrs. Melville series, are meant to be a
parody/homage/reference to Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple books. In which case,
it seems like I haven’t quite managed to shake off Christie just yet.
*It may not have been immediately obvious to viewers in
1971, nor might it register with people who just remember the contents and not
the titles of Columbo episodes, but
the Melville book that Franklin gives La Sanka is called Prescription: Murder. Talk about a tip of the hat to your roots…
*When Franklin brings Ferris to his cabin to kill him,
Ferris sits down on a couch that’s conveniently covered in some sort of plastic
wrap. I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be a slipcover or if Franklin put it
down to make cleaning up after the murder easier, but if it was the latter, I
wonder why Ferris wasn’t even slightly suspicious. A one line explanation like
“I haven’t had time to unwrap my sofa yet” might have been advantageous here.
*In an amusing beat, Columbo says he didn’t go into
Ferris’ office, where the other cops are investigating Ferris’ disappearance,
because, among other things, it’s too smoky. Says the guy who smokes cigars
constantly, including in this episode. Though he may have been doing it to
provide comfort to Mrs. Ferris, in which case, that’s a sweet gesture.
*While most of the actors do a fine job, I have to admit
that Barbara Colby as Lily La Sanka is the one weak spot. Though that may not
be entirely her fault; it’s very possible that the role called for her to be
eager and excitable in a way that grates on Franklin’s nerves. Unfortunately,
that runs the risk of grating on our nerves, too. On the bright side, she’s
only in a few scenes, so you don’t have to put up with her for very long.
*When Columbo is investigating a general store, he takes
a piece of candy from the jar on the countertop and eats it. And I’m just
sitting here wondering if that technically counts as theft and/or tampering
with a crime scene. Really, the police should know better.
Would This Hold Up
in Court?: Ironically, even though Columbo directly says he needs a piece
of hard evidence to nail Franklin for the crime, the actual evidence he comes
up with is incredibly flimsy. There’s some concrete evidence that will put
doubt in a jury’s mind, and Franklin does kind of confess at the end, but I’m
pretty sure the main piece of evidence itself would be dismissed immediately. Looks
like Franklin wasn’t the only one getting creative at the end there.
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