Columbo plays a Dangerous game by making arrests without handcuffs on many people. For instance.....
Tommy Brown
Adrian Carsini
Nora Chandler
I'm sure there are many others. Of course this would never wash in a real police force. But I'm surprised that we never see Columbo with handcuffs. At any time if I remember correctly
That's incorrect. The only time he used handcuffs was in It's All In the Game when he put Faye Dunaway character in handcuffs. In Now You See Him, when the cops came for Jack Cassidy, he stood straight up and very haughty so the cops didn't touch him. It was in Playback when Oscar Werner told the cops, this won't be necessary when they showed him the cuffs so they didn't cuff him.
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When it comes to the line "That won't be necessary," it's tempting to think that only on COLUMBO would the police take the KILLER'S word for it! And of course I mean that in a GOOD way.