Day 216: Columbo, The Most Dangerous Match

Show: Columbo

Episode Particulars: S2EP7, “The Most Dangerous Match”, original airdate March 4^th, 1973.

 Summary: Current chess master Emmet Clayton (Laurence Harvey) and former champion Tomlin Dudek (Jack Kruschen) are set to face off in a grand match. But Clayton is intimidated by his opponent, and actually playing informally against him shakes his confidence even more. So he arranges for Dudek to fall into a garbage compactor and makes it look like Dudek was the one who was intimidated and accidentally fell into the compactor while trying to flee the country in shame. But his plan goes wrong twice over; not only is Dudek not killed (just badly hurt and unconscious), but now Columbo’s on the case. And rest assured, Columbo will put him in checkmate.

Standalone Thoughts: This episode has a lot of things going on, and for the most part, it works out well. That being said, some of the choices made are a little too obvious, regardless of if you’re familiar with the Columbo formula or not. For example, you know that the fact that Clayton has a hearing aid is going to come into play; it’s possible to include a deaf character and not have that fact be important, but if the episode draws attention to it, then it’s going to be used in some capacity. Similarly, the fact that Dudek is diabetic is clearly going to play a role. The show even does the predictable thing of having Columbo play checkers at one point, drawing a parallel between it and chess. So there’s a little bit of predictability at play here.

However, just because some things are predictable doesn’t mean that everything is. The fact that Clayton’s former fiancée is on Dudek’s staff (and arranged the match) never really becomes important to the case, either as a motive or for any sort of romantic material. The inclusion of Columbo’s dog initially seems like it’s just an excuse for a Columbo character moment, but it turns out to be a setup for a bit of (admittedly manufactured) tension later on, and I will give the writers points for not seeing that coming. I also appreciate the fact that Dudek, despite clearly coming from a Communist country, is such a warm and friendly person. America was still in the middle of the Cold War when this aired, but I’m glad to see that TV shows didn’t just automatically call everyone from Eastern Europe bad or evil. It restores your faith in humanity a little bit.

Slight predictability aside, this is a fine episode. You don’t have to know chess to understand it, Columbo’s pretty devious in the most satisfactory of ways, and even if the show borrows the twist from “Prescription: Murder” it takes it in a new direction. Overall, you can’t ask for more than that.

Number of “Columbo-isms”: 4/6. There’s the dog, as I mentioned, a quick reference to his wife, a scene in Columbo’s car, and a few variations of “Just one more thing”, including one that’s exquisitely delivered by Falk. I don’t know why I appreciated that one so much, but if I liked it, that’s all that really matters.

Other: *Just like the drug sequence in “A Stitch in Crime”, the opening dream sequence in this episode is both trippy and possibly dangerous for epileptics. So watch out for that, if nothing else.

*I find myself amused by the fact that there are two episodes this season with similar titles; “The Most Crucial Game” and “The Most Dangerous Match”. What was the obsession with “The Most Dangerous Game” in the writers studio?

*I was initially baffled at the fact that there was so much press coverage for a chess match; it doesn’t seem like something the public would be too interested in. Then I was informed that chess was another way to fight the Cold War by proxy, so yes, this actually makes sense. You learn something new every day.

*It may be a bit obvious, but I do like the fact that Clayton and Dudek start playing chess with the condiments on the checkered restaurant tablecloth. It’s the sort of silly creativity I can get behind.

*This episode does something unusual and shows Columbo before the crime is even committed. It’s mostly there to set up future material, but I do like the change in routine.

*There’s a particularly nice moment when Columbo makes an observation, and Dudek’s handler (Lloyd Bochner) immediately goes from dismissive to impressed. Maybe I just appreciate Columbo getting his due in-universe every now and then.

*The restaurant Clayton and Dudek ate at is apparently called “Kosherama”, which is a) an odd name for a French restaurant, and b) a weird name for a restaurant in general. I don’t know, it just feels like you’re presenting something that shouldn’t be humorous in a humorous way. Though if any Jewish people want to disagree with me, feel free.

*Columbo makes a big deal about Dudek’s expensive ivory chess set, and that he’s nervous just carrying that thing around. Then, when he gets a phone call, he appears to rush out and leave the set on the table. Fortunately, he says in a later scene that he returned the set to Dudek’s entourage. Sure, that’s bad continuity, but at least it was acknowledged instead of forgotten about by the story entirely.

Would This Hold Up in Court?: Yes, however…while I think there’s enough combined evidence to make a case (especially if Columbo does some offscreen followup), it was pointed out to me that the “gotcha” moment actually doesn’t prove anything, depending on the argument being made. Since it also involves a bit of police trickery, a defense lawyer might use this to get Clayton acquitted. So I say yes in theory, but it probably wouldn’t play out in practice.