Wow, the filming of the ending of this episode when Columbo gets his man is some of the worst I have seen. One moment it's looks as though it is filmed nearing sunset in shadow then the next shot the whole area is sunlit and clear skies then next scene there are clouds in the sky then it looks near evening again and it is clear skies again.

The arrest scene, Billy Connolly is in shade then sun then shade within 5 seconds.

What a mess of an episode.

While it's not the worst episode in the history of the show, it's not great. There are so many little things that erk about this one.

The totally pointless drive across town which sees Columbo allow a man who is clearly unfit to drive get behind the wheel. The terrible scene where Columbo is trying to guess the soundtrack "the fish, the fish" awful.

Then there's the gotcha. I think I read somewhere that it was changed and that the "love notes" were supposed to be a vital clue. As it was, all of the guff around the notes on the batton has no real value to the story.

This story could have been so much better if the script was tighter.