Somebody, help me, PLEASE! What music plays at the start of episode "Dagger of the Mind"?
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The music is not an existing classical piece, in case you were wondering, but part of Dick DeBenedictis’ faux 17th century score. The only existing piece of music utilised for this episode is “The British Grenadier”, heard as the guardsmen march past Buckingham Palace and Columbo takes photographs. Note that the piece of music heard after this was used at the start of “The Most Crucial Game”, at that most American of surroundings, an American football game! Typical of “Dagger”’s phoniness, I’m afraid.

I noticed a little while back that Sarah I asked what scenes for this episode were actually made in Britain. Well, here’s the best I can do:

Roughly speaking, the exteriors taking place in recognisable London locations were indeed shot over here, but the interiors and the rest of the exteriors were made back in the US. And the scenes involving real British people were made over here, but those involving people with awful, fake accents that manage neither to be British or American were made over there. But actually, it’s a wee bit more complicated than that…

As has been pointed out, the fact that the tyres of the police car are of a different make in the genuine London scenes to those at “Sir Roger’s country house” show that the latter was made in America. It’s also been pointed out that the house was clearly equipped for cars that drive on the wrong (to British eyes) side of the road. The place looks much too sunny for real British weather, and you can tell that it was a different cinematographer (the late, respected Geoffrey Unsworth) for the real UK scenes. Walker Edmiston, who plays the gardener (and reappeared in “Any Old Port In A Storm”) has an atrocious accent, sounding like someone who’s listened to the soundtrack of the film and Broadway version of MY FAIR LADY too many times. It’s sadly true that the wonderful Wilfrid Hyde-White was then hiding out from the British taxman in California (at the end of the 70’s, he was dragged home and made bankrupt in the High Court), but I don’t know if his casting was the reason for not actually filming in Britain.

The scene where Durk takes Columbo to his club is the one interior scene I know for definite to have been made in Britain. Richard Pearson, a lovable old actor who I best remember as the voice of Mole in a 1980’s ITV series of THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, and plays the pathologist here, is someone whose entire career has been in the UK, not a Hollywood exile like Bernard Fox or John Williams. Frustratingly, at the same time as this, the short-lived film spin-off MADIGAN, starring the late Richard Widmark, had an episode entitled “The London Beat”, made entirely on location over here. And as well as being for the NBC/Universal Mystery Movie, it had the same (then) producer as COLUMBO, Dean Hargrove. I can’t think why they couldn’t simply have swapped schedules and filmed COLUMBO entirely over here, and given MADIGAN the partwork treatment. Particularly as the villains in the latter were supposed to be American gangsters, and played by mainly Canadian or British actors with pretty wobbly accents.

Speaking of which…the worst, most annoying aspect of this episode is Arthur Malet, who has the phoniest accent, and the silliest lines; no-one says things like “right proper gracious of yer” or pronounces “ma’am” to sound like “mum”. Listening to him, you wonder if Dick Van **** didn’t just appear in “Negative Reaction”, but was also dialogue coach for this one. And it’s all the more annoying because the scenes in which Columbo asks him questions outside the pub definitely is in the real Sloane Square, and outside the Royal Court Theatre itself. Alas, the Royal Court pub is now a yuppie-type wine bar. It’s also possible that the scene inside the pub may have been filmed over here, there’s a balding, long-faced extra standing at the bar whom I recall seeing in genuine British series of that time, I believe his name is Roy Evans.

Having recently seen a preview of a very good documentary on British theatre of the 50’s, which had extensive filming inside the Royal Court, it’s clear that while the exterior of the building was genuine, the interior certainly wasn’t used for COLUMBO. Note that the other actors in those scenes, like Harvey Jason, a one-time LAUGH-IN regular, were American-based. Presumably, the COLUMBO team were refused permission to film in Madame Tussauds’, so the “London Wax Museum” is actually the Royal College of Music and, as is pointed out in the “Scrapbook” section, its interior is actually the redressed nightclub set from “Etude In Black”. Having Columbo walk up the steps of the Royal Albert Hall at the end may have been an homage to Hitchcock’s THE MAN WHO KNEW TO MUCH, the statue he looks up at is of Sir Henry Wood, founder of the Proms.

Another anomaly regarding actors is that John Fraser, who co-starred in EL CID among many other movies and is one of the “real” Brits, appears in one scene shot in Hollywood, collecting Columbo from Heathrow Airport. (Recently, a friend of mine who watched this episode said (before she fell asleep), “Are they trying to sound AUSTRALIAN?!” about the customs men.) When Columbo mutters about “Scotland Yard, Jack the Ripper”, I wonder if that was a kind of in-joke, as in the Sherlock Holmes original A STUDY IN TERROR (1965), the character Fraser played did indeed turn out to be Jack himself. Otherwise, Fraser only appears in real London locations like New Scotland Yard and Hyde Park, and in scenes taking place outdoors.

The scene of Nick and Lilly packing the bicycle into their sports car looks like it was on Universal’s backlot of London, seen again in such stuff as an episode of IRONSIDE “Shadow Soldiers”, which used a lot of the same bit-part actors from this, and Gene Roddenberry’s failed pilot THE QUESTOR TAPES. However, the shot which follows, of the car driving off, looks like it was genuinely in London.
I suspect the earlier shot of them in the car outside the theatre and realising their mistake with the umbrella, leading to Nick following Fenwick to the pub, was also made at Universal Studios. The person seen going into the Royal Court at night, with his face conveniently shielded by an umbrella, is clearly not John Williams but an extra.

The reason a lot of us fans in Britain don’t like this ep (http://columbo.freeukisp.co.uk/daggerofthemind.html, for example) is that the script is full of clichés, as well as the jarring shifts between Hollywood sets and the real thing. It’s so contrived. And comes off more like one of those “London, England” episodes of MURDER, SHE WROTE, with silly, would-be Dickensian dialogue and an idea of Britain that seemed stuck somewhere in WW2; because COLUMBO is usually so good, you expect something better.

One of the great pleasures of COLUMBO is observing the killer’s carefully worked out scheme, but you don’t get that here, the opening murder being unplanned. One fan I used to know told me, after I made a copy of this for him, that if it had been the first episode of COLUMBO he’d ever seen, he’d never have watched another episode. And Columbo doesn’t get enough time to indulge in his usual repeated questioning of the suspect(s), and somewhat getting to know them, the character of Durk getting in the way.

And the character of Durk is another annoyance – a real superintendent would simply never be as posh as that. In Britain, policemen simply don’t say things like “by Jove” and belong to gentlemen’s clubs; members of the Secret Service, yes, but not coppers. When I moaned about Bernard Fox’s portrayal a few years back, Ted replied pointing out that American viewers at the time regarded Fox in much the same way as cinemagoers regarded Terry-Thomas. I can see that there’s a similarity in characterisation, but for those of us over here, there’s a big difference – Terry-Thomas had a successful career in Britain before he became known internationally, and is still remembered here with affection. But in all honesty, most British people have never heard of Bernard Fox. He certainly wasn’t well known here before heading Stateside; mention his name, and even my fellow hardened character-actor spotters assume you mean James Fox or Edward Fox. Or, if you describe Fox’s appearance and the sort of parts he played, people get him mixed up with the likes of Thorley Walters (a regular in the ST. TRINIAN’S films) or Nigel Bruce. To British viewers, he might just as well have been an American with a stuck-on accent, like John Hillerman in MAGNUM.

IMHO, if there’s ever been a British series about a character similar to COLUMBO, it would probably be PUBLIC EYE, a 60’s/70’s series about a private detective (or “inquiry agent”) called Marker who wore a tattered raincoat, was often underestimated by clients, but was no fool and had a real feeling for the underdog. Alfred Burke, an actor with a splendidly “lived-in” face, played him, here’s the Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_eye. It would have been better casting, as well as a nice Anglo-American tie-in, if Burke had played Durk – see, it rhymes!

Two final bits of trivia that I don’t think have been mentioned anywhere else, except in reference books from the pre-Internet area. We all know the IMDb can’t always be trusted, but they claim that the steward at the gentlemen’s club whom Durk addresses as George, and says “Why else do you think we keep the ladies out, sir?” was an actor named Ronald Adam. This is correct, as in a long out-of-print book called BRITISH FILM ACTORS’ CREDITS, 1895-1987 by Scott Palmer (published 1988), Mr. Adam listed “Dagger Of The Mind” among his credits, although he gave its year as 1973. I also checked his appearance in THE RULING CLASS with Peter O’Toole, made in the same year, and it was definitely him. He had also been a playwright, so at least he was appropriate casting for this episode.

Also, successive entries for Honor Blackman in the INTERNATIONAL FILM AND TELEVISION YEARBOOK, which was updated yearly and edited by Peter Noble, listed among her activities for 1972 something called “Out ****ed Spot”, listed as being for “American TV”. Since I can’t trace anything with that title that she appeared in, and as it’s also a quote from MACBETH, it seems fair to conclude that this was a working title for “Dagger”.

And, is it just me, but wouldn’t OTHELLO have been a better Shakespeare play to reference than MACBETH? Like Iago, each COLUMBO murderer sets up schemes and then lies to cover them up.

Good to hear another perspective on this episode. One footnote...The other reused piece of music in this one is "Pass Me By", a song written by Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh for the movie "Father Goose". Your favorite actor, Arthur Malet, hums a bit of it as he leaves the pub.

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