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.
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
The Lt. Columbo Forum
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
Which Scenes Stands Out For Columbo's Subtle Yet Exceptional Detective Work?

I know so many topics have been played out on this forum over the years. And nobody wants to have to answer a "Best/Worst" type of question, so I thought of a topic while I was watching one of my favorite episodes, "Swan Song."

There is the scene where he is at the site of the plane crash and while Mr. Pangborn (of the National Transportation Safety Board) is being interviewed, Columbo keeps inadvertently getting into the camera man's shot. Eventually, Pangborn starts to talk with Columbo, and you can see how impressed he was with Columbo's questions. Columbo looks at the seat belts and sees that Tommy Brown's seat belt isn't fastened but the other two passengers were, which was slightly strange considering the seat belts don't give away on impact. He then notices that the navigation kit didn't have any ashes in it from the papers and maps that would normally be in it. An impressed Pangborn actually says, "I could use a man like you on my team. It's really all detective work."

So just wondering if any of you have certain scenes that maybe aren't denouement moments where you were just impressed with the man working subtly at his craft.

Re: Which Scenes Stands Out For Columbo's Subtle Yet Exceptional Detective Work?

Yeah, and Mr. Pangborn seemed kind of aloof when Columbo was showing him the things he noticed. Without Columbo being there i think he would have chalked it up to 'Pilot Error' and called it a day.

Re: Which Scenes Stands Out For Columbo's Subtle Yet Exceptional Detective Work?

Probably. I just watched that Johnny Cash episode again last week.

Re: Which Scenes Stands Out For Columbo's Subtle Yet Exceptional Detective Work?

A Matter of Honor comes to mind. The detective in Mexico was ready to chalk it up to death by bull, but Columbo, knowing nothing about bullfighting or Mexican culture/heritage, pieced it all together because of a piece of wood he found in the ring.

Re: Which Scenes Stands Out For Columbo's Subtle Yet Exceptional Detective Work?

In "Murder Can Be Hazardous To Your Health", I remember the first time I saw it, I didn't even think about the filters on the cigarettes, and how Wade Anders was simply just letting them burn, but Columbo noticed pretty quickly that the cigarette in between Budd Clarke's fingers wasn't smoked due to the missing nicotine stains. He also had an issue with some butts being crushed versus those that were twisted. Some of my favorite moments in this series are the initial visit to the murder site.

Re: Which Scenes Stands Out For Columbo's Subtle Yet Exceptional Detective Work?

As I have stated many times in this forum, I love the back and forth between Columbo and Leslie Williams in her office when he is demonstrating the tape machine. You said to her that the phone call could have come from carefully edited tape from her office. Wherein she replies something to the effect of

" I love the way that you come Waltzing in here with your shopworn bag of tricks. The seeming absent-mindedness, the anecdotes about the wife. Lieutenant Columbo fumbling and stumbling along. But it's always the jugular that he's after."

In that one scene, and in that one exchange, the Columbo character is set for the rest of the series even though it was only a movie before the series officially started

Re: Which Scenes Stands Out For Columbo's Subtle Yet Exceptional Detective Work?

Fred,

I need to watch that episode a couple of more times....that quote you mentioned really is the essence of the Columbo character. She knows him. He's got a pit bull's jaw yet a basset hounds personality.

Re: Which Scenes Stands Out For Columbo's Subtle Yet Exceptional Detective Work?

In "Death Lends a Hand," Columbo figured it out in the beginning with the ring and he went on from there. The scene where Mr. Brimmer and Mr. Kennicutt are at the cemetery while Columbo is looking for the "missing" contact lens after exhuming Mrs. Kennicutt's body. Columbo comes back to the car and says that "he wishes the murderer would be here to know about the missing contact lens" (correct me if I am wrong). He realizes that Mr. Brimmer committed the crime and he is setting him up. It leads to where he catches Mr. Brimmer at the repair shop. This show had more examples of good detective work -- when Mr. Brimmer wanted to hire him and take him off the case and give him another assignment, and the fact that the murderer was left handed and Mr. Brimmer was left handed.

Good show.

Re: Which Scenes Stands Out For Columbo's Subtle Yet Exceptional Detective Work?

I think the comment about the killer being most likely left-handed was an excellent example. I think it's also a case of where Columbo tries to rattle his prime suspect and even gets Brimmer to go through the actual, physical motion of how Columbo thought the killer may have struck Mrs. Kennicut:

And this is Brimmer I'm quoting:
"..And if the ring was on the right hand, then the bruise would be on the right cheek.
But it was on the left cheek, so the murderer was left-handed.
Struck her like this.
Which means the murderer is left-handed.
Well, that's interesting..."

Re: Which Scenes Stands Out For Columbo's Subtle Yet Exceptional Detective Work?

Lady in Waiting: Noticing the newspaper and asking how did it get there?

Blueprint for Murder: noticing the car radio was set on a classical station but whose owner was a country and western fan.

Fade in to Murder: notice the bullet hole in dress and the wound in body indicated the victim had their hands up in the air when killed, so was not killed in a random panic attack but premeditated.