Lovely but Lethal Viveca briefly contemplates clonking Columbo about the temple with the microscopeĪnother rather flat and tenuous gotcha helps condemn Lovely but Lethal to the good-but-not-great Columbo bracket – and there was a big chance missed to make the case against Viveca far stronger. Too high-risk a strategy to be taken seriously, Dagger‘s gotcha was a very silly end to a very silly episode.
Having somehow deduced that a pearl from a broken necklace might have entered murder victim Sir Roger Haversham’s umbrella on the night of his death, Columbo employed sleight of hand techniques to seal the fate of murderous acting duo Nick and Lilly (aka ‘The Ham’ and ‘The Tart’).įlipping a pearl into the slightly open umbrella of a waxwork model of Sir Roger was enough to reduce Nick to babbling madman status and to elicit an immediate admission of guilt from Lilly. Dagger of the Mind The gotcha of this episode was about as convincing as the waxwork models… Why didn’t anyone in the creative team point out this massive discrepancy? It’s such a fatal flaw that I’m never quite able to get past it. The machine was huge, and Clayton was right beside it for Pete’s sake! Why? Because it’s a nonsense that a deaf man would fail to notice the lack of vibrations once the machine had been turned off. The Most Dangerous Match Only in the vacuum of space could Clayton have failed to notice the machine being shut offĬolumbo trapping chess Grand Master Emmett Clayton with the old ‘switch-off-the-machine-to-trick-the-deaf-man’ gag is clever on paper, but it doesn’t hold up to closer scrutiny. Even if Montoya did freeze on that first occasion with only Hector to witness it, would a man of his stature allow it to happen again in front of so many others? No way, Jose! The vain Don Luis Montoya would rather die than show such legacy-tarnishing weakness in public.Īnd let’s not even start on the highly implausible deductive leap Columbo takes to figure out Montoya’s weakness in the first place. Much worse is that it doesn’t ring true to who Montoya is at heart. It would be hard to dispute and his precious honour would remain intact. Yes, Montoya freezes in the ring and witnesses see it, but he could always say he was standing still to prevent attracting the bull’s attention because his leg had seized up due to the exertions of saving Curro days earlier. A Matter of Honor Luis Montoya was hard to beat at musical statuesĬolumbo’s elaborate set-piece deception to force Luis Montoya into revealing himself in bullring may be exciting, but it’s ultimately a load of old bull. His admission of guilt makes for a convenient but implausible finale. So what if Jim Ferris scribbled down Ken’s original murder plot and squirreled it away for Columbo to find in his personal effects? As smooth an operator as Ken Franklin ought to have been able to sweet talk his way out of that one in a flash. CHANCE.Ĭontroversial selection? Maybe, but many fans agree that the ending of this magnificent outing is by far its biggest weakness. Murder by the Book Fast-talking Franklin caving in without a fight? NOT. NB – I didn’t feature the uninspiring ending of Old Fashioned Murder here because I’m fatigued with it after writing a long review, and couldn’t be bothered to include it.
You may not agree with all my choices but at least they ought to stimulate some red-hot debate, so please read on! Please note, these are in no particular order, except the top 3. I’ve based my decisions on the power of the reveal, the strength of the evidence, the plausibility of the deductions made by Columbo to position himself for the gotcha, and the actions he takes to force his suspects to reveal themselves. With that in mind, I’ve compiled my list of the 10 least satisfying gotchas of Columbo‘s classic era. Granted, not every episode can have a rousing finale in the mould of Suitable for Framing or Candidate for Crime, but the strength of the gotcha plays a big part in our overall enjoyment of the episode. When Columbo hones in on ya, there’s no escape! A Columbo without a magnificent ‘gotcha’ is like a porcupine without quills a snake without fangs a cat without claws.
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