The Lt. Columbo Forum

An area where fans from all over can ask each other questions and voice their own ideas and opinions on anything Columbo.

This Forum is fondly dedicated in memory of  "cassavetes45"  (Carleen Zink),
Columbo's greatest fan and a great friend to us all.
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The Lt. Columbo Forum
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Re: Strange Clues That Lead to Conviction

Columbo planted a lens in the trunk but the important thing was that the murderer was looking for one. So he answered "who knows" to the question who lens it was, it doesn't matter who lens it was or how it appeared in the trunk.

Re: Strange Clues That Lead to Conviction

Richard
Columbo planted a lens in the trunk but the important thing was that the murderer was looking for one. So he answered "who knows" to the question who lens it was, it doesn't matter who lens it was or how it appeared in the trunk.
I have always thought that the lens was just some piece of glass that was in Brimmer's trunk, but now that you mention Columbo planted it, it's kinda obvious that he did. Columbo slyly confessed to disabling Brimmer's car with a potato, but why would he do this? Why would he want, specifically, Brimmer's car unavailable to Brimmer? So he could plant the lens and plant the seed in Brimmer's mind that the lens would be valuable evidence if found. This scene goes hand in hand with the scene in COLUMBO GOES TO COLLEGE where he tells the students,"When I get the scent, there's nothing I won't do to make the collar."

Re: Strange Clues That Lead to Conviction

"Columbo Likes the Nightlife": the toenail clippings in the toilet.

Re: Strange Clues That Lead to Conviction

Ted
"Columbo Likes the Nightlife": the toenail clippings in the toilet.
Classic Ted....and the way Columbo obtained the first one was great with the sound effects. And then holding it out a 4th story window and asking the sgt. if he could see this. "No sir" good stuff.

Re: Strange Clues That Lead to Conviction

For me it has to be the plunger wine bottle opener that brings down Mr Paul Gerrard. I can never figure out how Paul managed to get back into the crime scene and swap his opener. It just seems strange the way all of the openers were tested and forensics found nothing. I can't see how no trace of poison was left inside.

Re: Strange Clues That Lead to Conviction

This may be a bit off base but in Murder by the Book Columbo would have had to get a search warrant to search Franklins bank records. Wonder what the probable cause was for that. ??

Re: Strange Clues That Lead to Conviction

Good point.

Re: Strange Clues That Lead to Conviction

Once in a great while you notice the opposite thing, where something that SHOULD be a clue gets overlooked (though I guess sometimes that's because of editing). It's always bothered me slightly that Adrian Carsini buys a $5,000 bottle of wine, knowing that his $5,000 check to Ric won't be cashed. It's too bad that Columbo isn't shown finding out about that - even though he finds out that a bottle of wine can go for that price, I don't think he learns about that particular one. Or does he?

Re: Strange Clues That Lead to Conviction

Grant i agree. while Carsini admits to spending that much on one bottle Columbo appears to not discover which bottle is worth 5G.

Re: Strange Clues That Lead to Conviction

Good point. Along those lines (things that should have been clues), I always think of "A Friend in Deed."

Hugh shows up at the club, clearly nervous or upset, and pulls the police commissioner away from the gaming table to have an urgent private conversation. Later that day, his wife is found murdered. The murder is important enough for the police commissioner to go on television talking about it, yet somehow nobody remembers or reports that strange meeting between the murder victim's husband and the police commissioner on the very day she was murdered.

Re: Strange Clues That Lead to Conviction

In reference to "A Friend in Deed," who is Hugh's wife. One website that I saw, asked that question.

Re: Strange Clues That Lead to Conviction

I found the cheese clue in "Agenda for Murder" to be pretty strange. I wonder that would hold up in court?