Day 203: Columbo, Murder by the Book

Show: Columbo

Episode Particulars: S1EP1, “Murder by the Book”, original airdate September 15^th, 1971.

 Summary: Popular writing team Ken Franklin (Jack Cassidy) and James Ferris (Martin Milner) have decided to part ways. But since Ferris is the true creative one in this relationship, Franklin wants to preserve both his reputation and his livelihood. Therefore, he arranges an elaborate setup where he drives Ferris to Franklin’s vacation cabin and kills him there, but uses phone calls to make it seem like Ferris died at the office while Franklin was at the cabin. Later, he deposits the body on his front lawn and tries to pretend that Ferris was killed thanks to trying to investigate the mob. Of course, Columbo has his doubts almost immediately. And there’s the pesky little matter of a potential witness, Lily La Sanka (Barbara Colby)…

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.