Day 265: Columbo, Strange Bedfellows

Show: Columbo

Episode Particulars: S10EP10, “Strange Bedfellows”, original airdate April 23^rd, 1996.

 Summary: Thoroughbred horse trainer Graham McVeigh (George Wendt) is fed up with his brother Randy’s (Jeff Yagher) gambling debts that threaten the McVeigh livelihood, and decides to kill two birds with one stone. First, he throws a race that would have cleared Randy’s debts, reassuring a panicked Randy that he’ll talk to the guy Randy owes money to, one Bruno Romano (Jay Acovne). Then he creates a distraction and uses Romano’s phone to arrange a fake meeting between Romano and Randy. Next, he shoots Randy and tells the investigating team (which of course includes Columbo) that it’s probably a mobster killing. Finally, he arranges for Romano to come to his house, where McVeigh shoots him and plants the gun to make it look like Romano killed Randy and was coming after McVeigh. It’s all beautifully done, but McVeigh’s got two problems. One, Columbo highly suspects the case isn’t that open and shut. And two, Romano’s associate and notorious crime boss Vincenzo Fortelli (Rod Steiger) is having similar thoughts, with no intention of punishing McVeigh by simply arresting him. In fact, he wants to make sure both McVeigh and Columbo know it…

Standalone Thoughts: I like a great deal of this episode. Columbo is in excellent form, deploying the information he knows at just the right time to make McVeigh nervous, and showing a lot of grace under pressure. The twists and turns of McVeigh’s plans are clever, and the climax is paced and shot very well, creating the intended effect of tension. However, while it definitely ranks high in my list of favorite episodes this “season”, the stuff involving the mob does bring the episode down.

To begin with, I’m very confused as to what exactly the original plan was. When McVeigh and Randy first were talking about the upcoming horse race, I assumed they were deliberately throwing the race so their horse would lose. Presumably this horse was favored to win, so the mobsters Randy was in debt to would bet on other horses and earn their money back because of the low odds. It’s only after the horse loses the race that it becomes clear that no, the mob expected the horse to win. How exactly did they expect that to happen? Did they think McVeigh would drug all the other horses, or bribe the jockeys? Did they think the horse had taken performance enhancing drugs? It’s a baffling plot point that’s not overly important in the grand scheme of things, but is nevertheless never quite explained to my satisfaction.

My bigger problem, though, is Columbo’s interactions with Fortelli. Sure, it’s one of those examples of grace under pressure that I mentioned, but the fact that he seems to be calmly negotiating terms regarding McVeigh with a man who’s a known mobster kind of bothers me. I started thinking partway through that Columbo was cooperating with Fortelli because he was working on a way to bring both him and McVeigh down, a two birds with one stone sort of deal. That doesn’t turn out to be the case, and while I don’t have a problem with the concept of a cop and a mobster working together for a common goal (which would explain the title of this episode), I do have a problem with that cop being Columbo. We’ve seen too much of him at this point (assuming we’re regular viewers) to think this is wholly in character for him. It doesn’t help that the mob aspect of the plot takes over the last third of the episode, so it’s kind of hard not to notice it. I’ll give credit to Falk and Steiger for playing off each other well enough to make their scenes together watchable instead of uncomfortable, but that doesn’t stop the scenes from rubbing me the wrong way a little.

Like I said, though, this is one of the stronger episodes for this “season”, although it admittedly doesn’t have a lot of competition. Still, the acting is good, and the technical side isn’t too shabby either. Check it out for yourself, but brace yourself for Columbo making some questionable choices. Maybe this is a case of enjoying it more when you’re forewarned and forearmed.

Number of “Columbo-isms”: 5/6. Columbo literally says “Just one more thing” twice and does a similar variation one other time, we see his car several times, he mentions his wife at least three times, he has one major fumbling scene and asks for a light at another point, and “This Old Man” appears on the soundtrack at the very end, in addition to the musical motif that sounds like it’s riffing off the tune. All we needed for another perfect score was Dog, but I’m not sure where they could have included him. Still, this is a great showing, so I’m not complaining.

Other: *One of the moments I really enjoyed in this episode is when Columbo asks if he can bum a cigarette off McVeigh. On the surface, it seems out of character, especially when we see him smoking his usual cigars later in the episode. But then you remember that Columbo noticed cigarette ashes in the ashtray of Randy’s car, and you realize this is a way for him to get more information. It’s brilliantly played by Falk, and is probably one of the better moments when he’s done something like this. Like I said, there’s a lot that this episode gets right, and this moment is near the top of the list.

*A key piece of the puzzle comes when Columbo learns that the restaurant that Romano owns had mice in the ladies room at around the same time as a supposed threatening phone call to Randy. We’re told several times that these were small mice, but when you actually see the body of one of the mice, its body looks large enough to take up most of the palm of your hand. That is not what I think of as a “small” mouse. Perhaps the rodents of California are way bigger than they are in the rest of the United States.

*Columbo tells Fortelli that he doesn’t know much Italian, which directly goes against what we saw in episodes like “Identity Crisis”, “Murder Under Glass”, and “Death Hits the Jackpot”. On the one hand, this seems like an egregious continuity error. However, I’m giving Columbo the benefit of the doubt here and choose to believe that he was playing dumb, so he could listen in on what Fortelli was saying to other people. Given some of the other things he did in the episode, it’s not much of a stretch to argue that case. I just wish he could have spoken some Italian at the end, just to show Fortelli what he’s capable of.

Would This Hold Up in Court?: This is a case where it’s going to hold up in court because Columbo’s ensured that McVeigh won’t be pulling any tricks, plus they’ve got evidence and a confession. However, if it ever comes out how Columbo obtained that confession and evidence, the case is not only going to be retried/thrown out, but Columbo’s going to be thrown off the force, and probably even arrested. It may make for an interesting final act, but this may be Columbo at his most morally questionable. I don’t think I’ll think less of him for it, but I’m decidedly not impressed.