Day 215: Columbo, A Stitch in Crime

Show: Columbo

Episode Particulars: S2EP6, “A Stitch in Crime”, original airdate February 11^th, 1973.

 Summary: Doctor Barry Mayfield (Leonard Nimoy) finds himself in an unusual position when he needs to perform a heart operation on his fellow doctor and research partner Edmund Hiedeman (Will Geer). The operation is a success, but Mayfield’s partner/nurse, Sharon Martin (Anne Francis), suspects something’s up, because she sees Mayfield as an opportunist who would do anything to get all the credit on that paper. When she finds some incriminating evidence, Mayfield murders her over it, and tries to make it look like the murder had to do with her access to drugs. Columbo, of course, suspects otherwise.

Standalone Thoughts: There are a lot of interesting things going on in this episode; some that help, some that hurt, and some that depend on the individual viewer. For example, it’s kind of hard for me to see and hear Leonard Nimoy and not think of Spock, even though Mayfield has nothing in common with Spock except for the fact that they both do scientific work (the episode even manages to avoid the words “logic” or “logical” altogether, though I’m not sure if they managed to do the same with “fascinating”), but others might be able to separate the roles better and therefore be able to focus on the episode without that detail butting in. That’s far from the only thing worth noting about this episode, but it’s also the most obvious one.

The other major thing, one that ties into a lot of the episode, is Columbo’s actions, and while I think it’s mostly to the episode’s benefit, others may disagree. For the first half of the episode, Columbo is a bit out of it due to lack of sleep and therefore acts kind of inconsiderate, both by scattering eggshells in the crime scene and by breaking another eggshell on the murder weapon (after it’s been dusted for prints, fortunately). Columbo puts on a façade of being a bumbler, but this seems a bit much even for him. That being said, I’m mostly accepting of it, precisely because we were told he’s not operating at full capacity. I’m a little less accepting of the fact that it took him so long to think of the possibility that the note he found that read “MAC” had to do with initials rather than a name, but that might just be because it occurred to me way before it did to him, and I expect him to be a bit quicker on the uptake. However, I am completely on board with Columbo’s actions near the end of the episode, when he loses patience, bangs a pitcher on Mayfield’s desk, and angrily reams him out. Some people say this is out of character, but I think it works, because I interpret that anger as Columbo being angry at Mayfield’s actions, and I’m not just talking about the fact that Mayfield is laughing at Columbo.

You see, I think Mayfield may be one of the most despicable bad guys we’ve seen in a Columbo to date, and while I may be projecting my feelings onto Columbo, I suspect he probably feels the same way. The other murderers in the show so far have committed their crimes for similar or even more petty reasons, but the fact that Mayfield is a doctor, and therefore has taken an oath to do no harm, just makes what he does even worse. He uses his position to try to get his partner out of the way so he can take all the credit for a research paper, he murders Martin because she’s getting too close to the truth and tries to discredit her reputation by planting drugs in her apartment, and he’s willing to ruin the life of a former drug addict by putting the drugs back into his system (and possibly re-addicting him) in order to frame him. Having actions that nasty add a little extra something to the episode, and even if it’s not the most comfortable feeling, I’d say it adds something to the story as a whole.

In general, I’d say this episode is pretty good. Sure, there’s some unnecessary padding, like Columbo visiting Mayfield’s house during a party or having to stop and deal with an allergy, but otherwise, it’s solid. We aren’t let in on all the details right away, but we’re given enough to at least get the gist, the hospital scenes feel realistic, and I think Will Geer’s turn as Dr. Hiedeman is fantastic, since he manages to make the character feel likeable and fully-realized with only a few scenes and appearances. That’s not an easy trick to pull off, and I admire him for it. He may be the strongest part of an already strong episode, but that shouldn’t diminish the accomplishments of everybody else. It’s just what I personally deem the best part; everyone else should be congratulating themselves on a job well done too.

Number of “Columbo-isms”: I’m going to say 3/6 this time. We see Columbo’s car, his wife’s upset stomach leads to him being out of it for the first half of the episode, and he fumbles for/asks for things both for personal and professional reasons. But in my personal opinion, there isn’t really a variation of “Just one more thing”, although others may disagree with me. Nothing felt quite right this time. Though Columbo’s still Columbo without his catchphrase, so I’m not too dismayed by this.

Other: *The more I see of Columbo, the more I see that he seems to have a character trait of a weak stomach. He doesn’t like flying, doesn’t seem all that comfortable on the water, and makes it very clear in this episode that he doesn’t like hospitals or seeing too much gore. One wonders how he manages to get through the day as a homicide detective, but it’s consistent characterization for him and humanizes him, so I’m mostly glad it’s there.

*I know times and technology have changed and I tend not to comment on these things, but I have to ask; what on earth is this?;

It looks like some sort of Rube Goldberg device for sterilizing blood or something. If anybody has any earthly idea what this thing is for, please enlighten me, because now I’m morbidly curious.

*The scene where the former drug addict, Harry Alexander (Jared Martin) goes on a drug trip is unintentionally laugh-inducing nowadays, because it’s just very grounded in the 60’s and 70’s and therefore looks ridiculous. There’s not much we can do about that, but as you know, I like to note the bad with the good.

*Speaking of the drug trip, Mayfield is an idiot, but the episode doesn’t fully realize it. So he breaks into Alexander’s apartment, knocks him out with chloroform, and then injects him with morphine and leaves the needle and bottle out for the cops to find. But he doesn’t make sure Alexander’s fingerprints are on the incriminating evidence. It would have taken a few extra seconds to place the items into Alexander’s hands and close his fingers around them before carefully putting them into position, but Mayfield doesn’t even seem to consider it, despite Columbo mentioning how odd it was that there were no fingerprints around any of the other pieces of evidence. Yet Columbo never brings this up; all he says is that it was odd that a left-handed man would inject the drugs into his left arm instead of his right. Did the screenwriters miss the obvious, or is this just me getting to nitpicky?

Would This Hold Up in Court?: We have a very clear yes this time around. There’s no question we have definitive evidence. Given that Mayfield himself pointed out earlier on that Columbo would need to convince the jury, I appreciate the episode’s follow-through.