"Columbo" The Most Crucial Game (1972)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Jeremy Kagan

Writers:

John T. Dugan (written by)
Richard Levinson (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Columbo" (1971)

Original Air Date:

5 November 1972 (Season 2, Episode 3)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

The manager of a football team murders its callow owner, making it look as if the young man had had an accident in his swimming pool. Lt. Columbo is on the case.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Swimming Pool | Block Of Ice | Ice Cream Truck | Phone Tap

Cast

Peter Falk	...	Columbo
Robert Culp	...	Paul Hanlon
Dean Jagger	...	Walter Cunnell
James Gregory	...	Coach Rizzo
Valerie Harper	...	Eve Babcock
Susan Howard	...	Shirley Wagner
Dean Stockwell	...	Eric Wagner
Val Avery	...	Ralph Dobbs
Kathryn Kelly Wiget	...	Miss Johnson
Richard Stahl	...	Mr. Fremont
Don Keefer	...	Deputy Coroner
Cliff Carnell	...	Plainclothesman
Joe Renteria	...	Box attendant Jimmy
Ivan Naranjo	...	Sgt. Hernandez, LAPD

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-7 (2005) | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Beverly Hills, California, USA

Company:

Universal TV

Trivia:

The murder victim's (Eric Wagner's) house is the same used in "Columbo: Murder by the Book (#1.1)" (1971) where it was the house of Ken Franklin.

Goofs:

Continuity: Columbo is sitting in his car, listening to the Rockets game on the car radio. Watch his cigar: the ash falls on his raincoat, and we see the size of his stubby stogie, it's barely a butt. Mere milliseconds later, we see the cigar again, and it has magically regenerated, grown back to almost full size.

Quotes:

Lt. Columbo: Uh, sir?
Walter Cunnell: Yes?
Lt. Columbo: You don't mind if I ask you a personal question, do you?
Walter Cunnell: No.
Lt. Columbo: What'd you pay for those shoes?

Good mystery with a somewhat awkwardly executed ending

A refreshingly originally plotted Season 2 Columbo episode which sees the general manager of an American Football team, Paul Hanlon (played by Robert Culp) bump off the lazy, unambitious and wasteful owner, Eric Wagner (played by Dean Stckwell).

The script adds one or two nice twists along way and Culp, in his second outing as a Columbo villain is consistently stern-faced and oddly humourless throughout; in fact, he encapsulates the devious, selfish determination of his character and his scenes with Columbo are increasingly confrontational.

There is humour afoot in this story too: the scene when Columbo goes to call-girl Eve Babcock's home to question her is really funny, as she thinks Columbo is one of her customers.

There are however some nagging minus points - some aspects of the script rely too heavily on coincidence and luck. For instance, Eric Wagner was obviously a stubborn person - Hanlon's pestering manages to ensure that he is the pool so he can orchestrate his murder. This happens too easily for my liking...

Furthermore, the sealing clue is both inconclusive and rather contrived: amongst other things, Columbo's damning of Hanlon's alleged alibi-creating phone call takes place at exactly the same clock time it was perpetrated some days earlier. Therefore, Columbo miraculously judges his typical end-of-case wrant to perfection....

A very curious episode in many ways....worth a look for its's controversies.