I did notice the similarity in the evidence planting.
Yep, that’s it. I think there’s another post with a slightly better aspect ratio, though.
The guy who plays Porfiry Petrovich is Innokenty Smoktunovsky. He was very popular as both a dramatic and a comedic actor.
I found it hard to believe when the forensics guy said he couldn’t. The only thing he could say was that there was soap in the lungs, but he couldn’t have told the difference between chlorinated pool water and bath water.
Still my favorite Columbo episode. DvD is a master of the slow burn, and by the end of the story he’s really at the end of his rope with Columbo. His expression when he realizes how he’s been caught out, I could frame and hang on a wall.
Unless I’m mistaken, both of these scenes are also from “Negative Reaction.” The soup kitchen scene, definitely.
The In-Laws also has a very young Ed Begley Jr, currently Sheldon’s latest college adviser on Young Sheldon.
I should think the soap is a dead giveaway.
And yes, those two scenes were in “Negative Reaction.” Dick van Dyke really gave himself away when he told Columbo “Anybody can see that’s not a good picture,” as if a common kidnapper/murderer would care. So much for the “perfect crime.”
Ed Begley, Jr, was in the episode with Laurel and Hardy, the killer Dobermans. IIRC, he was the officer in charge of the animal control unit.
I enjoyed this episode too, and I thought DvD made a great murderer, one of my favorites for sure. I also liked the end-- it was a classic ending where Columbo uses the murderer’s own professional know-how to trick and implicate themselves. It’s like detectiving Jujitsu.
But after, something bothered me about the end. Maybe I’m not getting something because I don’t know much about how film photography worked, so maybe someone familiar either with this ep or with film photography can help me here:
So Columbo has DvD meet him in a police evidence room to show him a blown-up display of the murderer’s fake kidnapping pic, and says that since the clock on the mantel says 10:00, it proves blah blah (not important to my point). DvD says no, you idiot, you reversed the negative! The clock should show 2:00. Columbo says, well I think it’ll hold up in court, and anyway we destroyed the negative.
DvD, desperate, thinking he’s being set up with false evidence, says the original negative will still be in the camera! He grabs the ‘kidnap’ camera from maybe a half dozen on an evidence shelf, and boom, implicated himself, since there’s no way he should know which was the ‘kidnap’ camera if he was innocent. Clever!
But, why would there still be a negative in the camera? As far as I remember, you’d remove the film from the camera once the roll was exposed, make negs, then make prints from the negs. Nothing remained in the camera. I know DvD made a point of buying a certain kind of used camera from a camera store, because a kidnapper couldn’t just get his photo evidence developed at a one-hour photo, so maybe it was some special type of camera that made its own negs and prints from inside the camera? Kind of a Polaroid instant pic camera? But Polaroid film doesn’t produce negs or leave any evidence of what pics were taken afterward. I’m having trouble understanding any way a negative could have been produced, yet there was still a negative in the camera.
Ugh, maybe I’ve been watching too much Columbo. I should see if L&O is streaming anywhere…
My dad had a Polaroid Land camera like that (also like the one Klinger was accused of stealing on MASH). That was a very long time ago, but I seem to remember a negative remained in the camera after you peeled off the positive print. It wasn’t like a conventional negative (transparent plastic); instead, it was left on the paper that contained the developing agent.
If my memory is faulty, please feel free to correct me!
PS: Antoinette Bower was in that episode as Dick’s insufferable wife. So that’s another ST:TOS alumna!
I believe that type of camera used a specialized film that you pulled the print via a crank mechanism out, which left the negative behind in the camera. I’m fairly certain that at the time they made this episode, Polaroid had not yet developed (no pun intended) their iconic camera that spit out pics that self-developed in 30 seconds.
Clearly the camera is an older model. IIRC, DvD had his patsy (played by Don Gordon) buy the camera himself. He would have wanted something that an obvious yutz would have wanted to use for a “kidnapping” picture.
If she had drowned in the swimming pool, she probably would have swallowed a few gobs of hair and at least one old Band-Aid. 
I love some of the cringe-worthy behavior:
Columbo: I don’t know how you do it.
Lawyer: Do what?
Columbo: Work for a woman…
Not singing “What’s new, Pussycat” this time, I take it.
He wasn’t exactly the most pleasant of people in The Comic. Not a murderer, but another arrogant asshole.
Halfway through a 4 episode season 12 now. Sadly, the remaining episodes are coming down to a mere handful left.
Some thoughts on the late 80s - early 90s Columbo latter era-- a couple gems and at least one clunker, in my opinion:
The clunker, end of season 11:
"No Time to Die": Columbo’s nephew’s bride is kidnapped on their wedding night. It turns out to be a random psycho that fixated on her in college or something. Columbo works with several other cops to figure out who kidnapped her and where he’s hiding her, but he has zero interaction with the kidnapper before he’s discovered. I understand the writers wanting to shake it up and deviate from the established formula, but for Columbo the cat-and-mouse game with the suspect should be key.
Season 12 has started out strong with two gems so far:
"A Bird in the Hand": Greg Evigan plays a mulleted, mustached douchebag whose uncle owns a pro football team. He’s a gambling addict who owes a lot of money, so he plants a pipe bomb under his mob-connected uncle’s Rolls Royce, wired to the starter, to get his share of the inheritance. But then his uncle is killed in a random hit-and-run accident before he has a chance to start the Rolls, and Evigan needs to remove the pipe bomb to prevent a bystander from blowing themselves up with a spare key, with a bunch of cops showing up and wanting the Rolls moved because it’s blocking the driveway. Can he remove the bomb in time, or find all the spare keys and hide them? Spoiler: Nope. He can’t. Bystander go boom.
Then, a fun twist involving Tyne Daly, seeming to enjoy herself playing the diabolical, conniving widow of the dead team owner.
"It’s All in the Game": Faye Dunaway plays a rich society woman who plots with another woman to kill an arrogant playboy type who is having an affair with both of them. As Columbo moves the net in on her ever so subtly, she starts to flirt with, and even downright come on to him in order to throw him off suspicion of her. Though she’s doing it to manipulate him it’s revealed she actually does enjoy his company and the feeling is mutual to a point. It’s a bit off-formula since she ultimately comes across as a very sympathetic character, and I prefer my murderers arrogant and douchey. But the way this is played out is very good-- plenty of pathos. The interaction between Dunaway and Falk is terrific. The ending, which reveals the exact relationship between the two women and the reason why she killed him, is almost Chinatown-esque.
Yup. That’s why I wasn’t a fan of the later episodes of Columbo at the time (and why I haven’t watched them since).
At least the bride showed some initiative working towards rescuing herself (something about oil and vinegar and the door hinges?).
Loosely based on a real person
I just finished Season 5 and started Season 6. The final episode of season 5 “Last Salute to the Commodore” was terrrrrrible. I was reading about it on IMDb before watching it and I was shocked that people left such bad reviews. But they were right! Falk seemed to be stumbling, bumbling and literally mumbling throughout the entire episode. I couldn’t quite tell what was going on half the time. Robert Vaughn was trying his best to stay stoic. And Diana Baker was out there like a 10th grader in her first school play trying really hard to “play the part of an alcoholic middle-aged lady.” They introduce a random new young detective named “Mac.” There were also legit slapstick moments written in, like Columbo trying to fit 5 people in his little car, and trying to speak to a guy over loud background noises.
The reviewers were saying this was all due to the direction of Patrick McGoohan, who directed the episode.
So weird. I highly recommend checking it out just for the weirdness!
The next episode, Season 6 Episode 1, is almost as ridiculous as it has William Shatner kind of playing a William Shatner role, as an actor who plays a TV detective. Columbo is definitely acting dumb with Shatner’s character to stroke his ego and basically get him to admit to the crime. It’s got an awkward ending, but it’s very enjoyable to watch. Falk and Shatner are just silly together!
NITPICK: It’s Diane Baker, not Diana. She was hot and in demand for a while, but then kind of disappeared until Silence of the Lambs came out.
The thing that bugged me about “Salute to the Commodore” was the ridiculous way Columbo got the murderer to “confess” to the crime. First of all, he’d have to be really, really stupid to say “'Tisn’t,” and second, what the hell does that prove? That the watch sounds different from the way it did before? Try making that stick in a court of law!
On the other hand, I enjoyed the twist of creepy Robert Vaughn not being the murderer this time. Up to the reveal, I was certain he was.
And I did smile when old Wilfred Hyde-White admitted to being with a hooker when the murder was committed. Way to go, Willie!
Yes! I forgot about that, and I even rewound to watch it twice. Cuz I noticed him saying “Tisn’t” and there was still 8 minutes left or something. So weird.
I mentioned No Time to Die earlier in the thread. It’s one of two that I skip. The story is from an Ed McBain novel. So basically, the character that Peter Falk is playing is not Columbo but Steve Carella (the main character of the 87th precinct series).