Hello,

Some comments again:

1. It was always kind of impressive for me how writers could actually WRITE the book. As you can see Mrs Melville books are not so short and small. And using a typewriter, it was for sure much slower writing than nowadays with keybord. I think I write quite fast with keyboard but it still takes some time to write some longer text. If I was writing a long book it would take me ages. And with typewriter? I can't imagine how long :)
2. Jim's office looks quite modern for that times - so I always have problem with this wooden old door in it, that just doesn't match a modern office in high building
3. Like a lot of people said in some forums, Ken's plan was really lousy. It was so full of possible failures that I'd say, nobody would risk that. I can't mention them all but, risk of being seen by someone while leaving the office building, possibility that Jim will join Ken in Ms La Sanka's shop, risk that Jim would say something incriminating Ken just before got shot, just his name for instance, and lot of others. Very risky plan overall
4. If Jim was finishing the last chapter of last book, and never finished it because of being dead, what happened with the whole book? and also police probably have found the manuscript in the office? was the book finished later on? released? nobody mentiones that :)
5. Another thing that always is funny for me: in every movie (not only Columbo), when someone wants to make it look like a burglary - makes a mess in the room like Ken does (and also Dale Kingston for example). I think if someone REALLY broke in, and looked for something, he would never leave a mess like this. So making this mess, makes it look like there was no breaking in at all to me
6. And previous point raises another thing: so Ken wanted police to think that someone broke in and was looking for the list of names. So the perpetrator turned the office upside down, and didn't find the list on the MOST OBVIOUS place - in the desk drawer? This is unbelieavable to me!
7. Ok, let's assume that Jim was indeed staying in the car. How then La Sanka saw him? when you see them parking next to the grocery store, it is impossible to see from the building if someone is sitting in the car
8. When Ken is leaving the car to enter Miss Lilly store, you hear birds singing. Maybe those birds sound always the same (I don't know) but I have a feeling that this particular sound was used later on in many other Columbos
9. Ken saying "oh, Joanna, and if you need me for some reason, you do know the numer of the cabin right?" bothers me! how su****ious is that, in the light of ***ure events that will happen from Joanna's point of view. Not to mention that everything could have easily been ruined by for example Miss La Sanka saying something in the background and Joanna would hear it
10. Jim says that he can recognize su****ious things because he is a criminal stories author. So wasn't it su****ious for him that Ken is wearing gloves? the sofa wrapped in foil?
11. I didn't pay attention to that before but when we see police in Jim's office, Joanna is there as well and says "I just keep thinking of the cliches and Jim and Ken wrote this scene in their books a hundres times". What does she mean by that?
12. When Columbo takes the bowl out of cupboard, there is cheese already inside the bowl :D
13. One of the main questions from that episode still not answered to me is: what was Jim actually going to write by himself? was it really something unmasking some criminals? or is it just the story made by Ken? If this is just a story - I think it could be easilly disproved by Joanna? and how did Ken come up with the names list? were they some real criminal names? Or was Jim really going to write about them, but then just an existance of such a list is kind of strange to me. So basically, no matter what the truth was, it doesn't add up to me. But what is your opinion about that? What kind of writing was Jim going to do?
14. Do you think Columbo actually read any of Mrs Melville books? :P
15. Franklin was lucky that nobody saw him putting the body out of trunk and leave it on the lawn
16. Everytime Columbo say "do you mind if I come with you? There's no lining on this coat and I'm a bit chilly" it reminds me about a joke from Agenda for Murder: "you call that a lining?" :P
17. I don't know if I mentioned that before: look at Franklin's house main entrance. There is a gap between door and the floor. No threshold. So, if it's raining outside - all the water will easily access the interior of house. At least it looks like it. Interesting
18. When Franklin leaves his house to meet with Miss La Sanka he just leaves the house unsecured. He doesn't lock the door, and even leave Columbo inside. But maybe the maid is still inside and that is the reason
19. When Columbo plays his trick about nightlife, and tell Franklin that he was calling day before and nobody was home, I am wondering if he really called. Because if he did, it would be totally out of his character. He always drops by unannounced, but if he didn't, it would be quite risky to tell Franklin that he called and noone answered
20. Again, kind of ridiculous for me: "Jack and Jill went up the hill. Did Jack kill Jill? If so, find out why"... Really?? this is the "brilliant" thought that needed to be written down? It is so BASIC thought for every criminal story, that I don't believe any writer would write such a cliche on the paper..
21. Why does Columbo say that the first killing was brilliant and second was lousy? I would rather say otherwise. Or at least not a big difference between them. So what Columbo has in mind?
22. If Jim was familiar with the story that Columbo reads in the end, it is hard to believe that he didn't recognize it in Ken's plan
23. I always wonder what was the rest of story on that piece of paper. Because Columbo asks "should I read some more?". That means that there were another details of the story which Ken probably used in his plan

I know some of the comments maybe I wrote before in previous posts, but they are still mystery because there was no feedback for them :) Anyway, I like to keep this forum alive, and everytime I watch episodes now, it is nice to write comments while doing that :D so I hope you don;t mind :)

I too like to comment while I'm watching an episode, especially something I thought of a while ago and couldn't remember which episode it was, when I see it, I write it down.

Don't really mind detailed comments or questions like these, it's interesting to read, and I think you're very insightful, for example point 9 makes a lot of sense to me and it's not something I'd have thought of myself, since Franklin tries to give the idea he's in another place compared to where he really is and if La Sanka's voice came up it'd have ruined his plan indeed.

Generally they're questions I find it really difficult to find an answer for, I'm also curious for example about what else Jim had written on that paper detailing the murder plan.

When it comes to point 13 I always thought it was a lie by Franklin that Jim was investigating some criminals, he was trying to point Columbo the wrong way by making him think it was a professional murder, and also explained him how it would be hopeless to find the culprit if that were the case.

As for point 14, Columbo is usually pretty open to things that don't harm the case, so I think he indeed read Melville's books, and he probably thought he could learn something more that could help with his job.

As for point 21, I always thought what Columbo said made sense, as in that the first murder was much more thought through compared to the second, and I think he says that because after the second murder he was easily caught, for example withdrawing the 15k dollars and then depositing them again the day after was a big red flag!

Fully agree about point 22, Jim should've seen it coming given he was very familiar with the plot, and indeed he mentions something about a sense of dejavu while in the car!

This is another thing I bring up, but along with depositing that money back the next day, maybe Ken makes another mistake with Miss La Sanka.
She's at least as excited by him as the money, so he could string her along for who knows how long. Even if EVENTUALLY he might get nervous enough to murder her.

Matti, I also enjoy your comments. You bring up a lot of good points, and often I can't think of a good answer to your questions. Keep posting!