I’ve been thinking ab out this one for twenty years, and I haven’t been able to stumble across it. But the Power of the Dope has solved these before.
The show was probably a cop or private eye show from the 70s. Hawaii 5-0, Rockford Files, something like that.
As I remember its, the scene is that a body is discovered in a flea bag hotel, or a crappy apartment, and the body was left standing in a closet, so that when the door was opened, the body did a face plant into the room. The clue was that this was a scene from an old movie (?) and they detective(s) figured out the killer by the use of the similar staging of the body as in the movie. The original movie body falling scene was also seen in the episode, on TV.
There was a body in a wardrobe scene in an episodeof Jonathan Creek. Could that be it?
Remington Steele was a movie fan, and sometimes found clues through his knowledge of old movies.
My first thought was an episode of Remington Steele, also. “The clue was that this was a scene from an old movie” was essentially Steele’s main gimmick.
The scene as described, while vaguely familiar, doesn’t recall any specific episode.
I bet that was it. I hadn’t seen The Public Enemy so to me then it was “just a scene from a old movie”, but I could tell it meant something to the people in the show.
My memory says it was earlier than Remington, but it does fit. I did recently rewatch seasons 1 and 2 and I didn’t see it. I sort of ran out of interest to continue at that point, and it would be really bad if it was later and I missed it after all these years.
Aha! The Public Enemy was the key. In imdb, it is listed as being in a Hawaii 5-0 episode in which the killer “performs the killings in such a way to evoke scenes from old movies.” Of course, Rich Little plays the Cagney-obsessed killer. “Top o the world, ma!”
This is why I continue to ask stupid questions no one will ever be able to answer on the Dope. Sometimes even the wrong guesses get me closer to the right answer.
I posted a question in 2000, which didn’t get a single response. Then 18.95 years later, last December, I answered my own question.. Turned out I had badly misremembered some details that might have aided in its resolution.
