Day 268: Columbo, Murder With Too Many Notes

Show: Columbo

Episode Particulars: S10EP13, “Murder With Too Many Notes”, original airdate March 12^th, 2001.

 Summary: Oscar-winning composer Findlay Crawford (Billy Connelly) is gearing up for yet another successful score, not to mention getting to conduct a concert made up of his various soundtracks. Unfortunately for him, his protégé, Gabriel McEnery (Chad Willett), has been the one doing most of the work on these soundtracks, and is finally fed up with the lack of recognition. Wanting to keep his little secret, Crawford pretends to appease McEnery, then drugs him, moves him onto the roof of the recording studio (where McEnery often spends his time, so this isn’t some random move on Crawford’s part), then arranges for his body to fall off during the concert. It seems like a tragic accident, but when Columbo finds out that nobody heard McEnery scream as he was falling, he starts to get suspicious. Even Crawford’s numerous attempts to distract him via music won’t deter him. And oh boy, are those attempts numerous.

Standalone Thoughts: My opinion on this episode hasn’t changed since I saw it for the first time years ago; this is the Columbo episode with the most egregious padding. It seems like almost every interaction between Columbo and Crawford eventually involves a digression that serves no purpose, other than to talk about music. And when they’re clearly supposed to be relevant to the case, like Columbo finding an excuse to get into Crawford’s car and ask him some questions, the time it takes to get to that point, followed by the lack of payoff (which in this case would be a statement that made Crawford nervous), makes it feel pointless even when it’s not. To make matters worse, these music scenes sometimes don’t even make sense in context. For example, if Crawford is supposedly shaken by McEnery’s death, why would he play Tchaikovsky and spend a good thirty seconds enthusiastically conducting along to it, before eventually singing “Camptown Races” with Columbo? If that was a clue to Columbo that Crawford wasn’t actually all that broken up about McEnery’s death, that would be one thing, but the incident passes without any comment. Later, Crawford spends what has to be two minutes discussing the use of music in movies, using some classic movie themes that have nothing to do with the case (and honestly kind of undermines his point that great movie music isn’t noticeable). You can try to argue that this is a lead-in to him playing music from the concert that helps to point Columbo in the right direction, but my response is “Why would Crawford play that piece to prove his point when we were told earlier that the piece is from a movie that hasn’t been released yet? Columbo wouldn’t have an association with the music because he’s never heard it before.” I enjoy a good “imagine a scene playing out to this music” thought exercise, but it would have been out of place at the best of times, and just feels like Admiral Plot Device was involved in this particular case.

Yet for all that…I don’t hate the episode. While it seems more interested in discussing music than solving the mystery, Falk and Connolly have a great rapport and seem to be enjoying each other’s company. It makes the episode pass quickly, and it honestly has much more energy and verve than a lot of better scripted, tighter paced episodes from this period. In fact, if you asked me to rank the episodes from this “season”, I’d probably put this one higher than things like “Caution: Murder can be Hazardous to Your Health” or “Death Hits the Jackpot”. Those two are more competently executed, but this one is more entertaining. Something can be technically flawless and still not have much soul, after all, and I think that’s what happened here. So despite the slight story, I wouldn’t say you should avoid it. It’s never going to be one of the greats, but if you just want to watch something fairly relaxing and light, this episode’s got you covered.

Number of “Columbo-isms”: 4/6. There’s one close enough example of “Just one more thing” (though it’s not said to the murderer), a big scene involving Columbo’s car, and several mentions of his wife. And after spending nearly an entire episode about music without it coming up, “This Old Man” finally makes an appearance at the very end of the story, both in and out of universe. I’m a little relieved, to be honest; missing that opportunity would have meant someone dropped the ball.

Other: *This is one of the few episodes where there’s a recurring character besides Columbo. Columbo’s partner on this case is Sergeant Degarmo (Richard Riehle), who was also helping him out in “Ashes to Ashes”, the previous episode. Given that there was at least a two year gap between episodes, that’s some pretty impressive continuity.

*I think we can definitively say that Columbo got over his fear of heights sometime between 1978 and 1989. Not only does he seem perfectly comfortable looking over the edge of the roof where McEnery died, but Degarmo acts as if Columbo’s standing a little too close to the edge, while Columbo seems completely unperturbed. I’m not sure what technique he used to get over it, but good for him for taking the effort to beat it. Besides, I’d rather think he overcame it himself rather than accuse the writers of being lazy and forgetting an established aspect of the character.

*For the first time in…ever, Columbo carries his cigars in a little tin instead of just having them hanging around loose in his coat. This is weird enough on its own, but I can’t help but notice that the tin looks uncannily like an Altoids tin. It’s not in the shot long enough for me to think it was product placement, and maybe it actually is meant for cigars, but it’s definitely a curious beat. Though if it is an Altoids tin, I would absolutely believe that Columbo would repurpose it for that use.

*During one of the padding scenes where Columbo is guiding Crawford home, Crawford has his media system on in his car. I’m not positive if he’s listening to a CD, listening to one radio station and turning up the volume, or switching between radio stations, but whichever one it is, I’m a little puzzled by the music choices. Sure, they’re funny out-of-universe, but in what universe would you ever expect to hear “Brahms’s Lullaby” and “Turkey in the Straw” one right after the other? For that matter, what radio station would be playing “Turkey in the Straw” in the middle of the night anyway?

*This episode has quite a few movie references scattered through it, some obvious, some oblique. Not only do we get yet another Spielberg reference with the theme from Jaws, but I highly suspect we’re supposed to see Crawford as a stand in for John Williams, and the story Columbo is told about a director who got too big for his britches and wound up being reduced to directing a television sitcom seems just specific enough that I feel like it’s referencing someone, though I’m not entirely sure who. If anybody’s got any idea, feel free to share.

Would This Hold Up in Court?: Maybe. It’s a pretty weak case, all things considered. Columbo has no solid proof for Crawford’s motive, and the one big piece of evidence he has can’t definitively be tied to Crawford either, at least not that we saw. Based solely on what we’re given in this episode, therefore, I’m going to say no. There might be other material that would add up to a case, but we’re not privy to it. One more reason that all that padding wasn’t the greatest idea.