Murder By The Book

Franklin never asked for police protection.

OH, THERES JUST ONE MORE THING. IN PLAYBACK, WHILE THE LT. AND KILLER ARE VIEWING RECORDED MURDER, THE PLANTSTAND FALLS, THE OLD WOMAN ENTERS,PAUSES TO RUN AND IS SHOT. IF YOU LOOK CAREFULLY, THE GUNSMOKE PUFFS FROM THE TOP LEFT CORNER OF THE ROOM, THE SHOT CAME FROM BEHIND THE FALLEN STAND BOTTOM RIGHT, PLEASE SOMEBODY EXPLAIN.

Another one from The Most Dangerous Match, which I like a lot, by the way: Even if Clayton had been totally deaf, he should have realized at the end that Columbo had switched the machine off. A machine that size would have made that rickety-looking staircase vibrate, and Clayton would have felt the vibrations (or their absence.)

"The Most Dangerous Match" is an episode that I go back and forth with...some times I can't get beyond the too many obvious plot holes, but other times I can overlook them.

Other plot holes involve how easily Clayton is able to break into Dudek's room both times. The maid just happens to be cleaning the room the first time, and then Linda and that other guy happen to return to the hotel (and leave the door unlocked) the second time.

Just about every episode has its mistakes and plot holes, but they generally don't appear too obviously to the viewer, at least not on a first-time viewing. The holes in "Match," however, are quite glaring.

This is a problem I have noted with a lot of Jackson Gillis stories. I think Jackson Gillis was given a little too much control over script-writing. He was story editor and a script-writer during the second season. The person in charge of previewing his scripts was himself...he was "too close" to the material.

I think Gillis came up with some interesting plot ideas, and his episodes usually have a few creative clues, but the overall finished product just never seems really impressive. Except for "Suitable for Framing," most Jackson Gillis stuff doesn't really thrill me. There seems to be potential in a lot of his work, but unfortunately it is never fully realized.

"The Most Crucial Game"

This one really bugs me and its the way Paul Hanlon just drives in and out of the stadium without even being noticed by security. He must have drove through a gate and it was incredibly risky to drive the ice cream truck anyway as the real driver could have returned at anytime and noticed the truck was missing. Also where did he get the uniform from?

And since Columbo believed Wagner's death was murder, he must have been very suspicious why Hanlon was so insistent for Wagner to go swimming.

The fresh water around the pool that alerted Columbo's suspicions would have long dried.

This was discussed very recently in another threat. You are quite right about the water drying up. Also, when he called Wagner from the phone booth while holding the radio so it seemed he was still in his stadium box, he was taking an unbelievably big risk that some vehicle would come by and make noise, knowing that the call was being monitored and recorded.

Fade in to Murder.


Ward Fowler's alibi

Ward drugs Mark whilst watching a baseball game, he then tapes game whilst Mark is asleep. He then goes and commits the murder, comes back, resets timepieces, rewinds tape and wakes Mark up, so it appears that he nodded off only for a moment or two.

What kind of alibi is that!?

Ward Fowler has no alibi!

For instance, say its 8.30 when he starts to tape the game and then he goes and commits the murder at 9pm and comes back and resets all the time pieces say to 8.32pm and wakes his friend up, he then takes his friend to a bed to sleep it off. All Columbo has to do is ask Mark, "Were you with Ward at 9pm" and Mark would say "I was asleep" and then Columbo would say to Ward, "You have no alibi for the time of the murder."

Have to disagree on this one. Since travel time is not instantaneous, Ward Fowler is placing himself at home, with Mark, late enough to make it impossible for him to have made the trip. Of course, I am assuming that the timing works out as he wants the police to believe. We have no way of knowing the actual drive time, but I am willing to give the show that much credit, at least.

When Columbo chats with Mrs. Hayward by the pool, if you'll listen intently, you'll hear Nelson repeat his campaign speech.

There are some plot holes by today's standards. For example, in "Candidate For Crime," Nelson Hayward never would have been able to get away with phoning the police department from his own home and making believe he was a psycopath. They would be able to trace the call.

I think most of the NBC episodes where a murderer uses the telephone as part of his plan would have to fall under the category of "might have worked in the 70s, wouldn't work now." Examples would be Ransom for a Dead Man, Murder by the Book, The Most Crucial Game, Candidate for Crime and An Exercise in Fatality. Of course, you can't really fault an old episode because technology has since passed it by... could it have worked at the time is the question!

Inspector: Sherlock is correct on this one. Fowler ruins the elaborate alibi he set up for himself. Fowler would have needed to have sat and watched the entire taped game with his friend for the "alibi" to have worked. By putting his friend to bed to sleep it off, the friend thinks he's going to bed very early in the night. Therefore, as far as the friend is concerned, Fowler had all of the rest of the night to go out and commit murder.

All of this is of course due to a mistake in the script and the direction of the episode. Someone should have caught it, but sometimes with these sort of elaborate clues, it would take a great detective to sort it all out!

In "The Conspirators", Joe Devlin tells George O'Connell that he searched Mr Pauley's room and got every scrap of paper in order to find out who his
gun supplier was. Suddenly Columbo shows up at his house with the signed copy of Devlin's book "Up From
Ignorance" (I'd sure like to read it!). He says they found it in Mr Pauley's coat pocket. If the coat was in the hotel room, Devlin surely would have found it, he wouldn't be that dumb to leave the book there, since he would certainly look through the coat to find the info about the supplier. If the coat was not in the room, then where was it? This is the clue that leads Columbo right to Devlin.

But another part of Ward's scheme ensured that the police would be able to pinpoint the actual time of the murder to within a few minutes. Remember that he slugged the counterman at the deli, but didn't kill him, so he could later tell the cops when it was that the "holdup man" came in. So assuming there was insufficient time to travel between Ward's place and the deli between the (actual) time of the murder and the (apparent) time that Ward put his assistant to bed, the alibi looks solid to me. Of course, nobody would use a VCR to establish an alibi nowadays, but that just means this is another plot that technology has made obsolete.!

Another thing I've noticed about the use of telephones in the '70s episodes is that whenever Columbo "calls the telephone company," their records conveniently (and inconsistently) prove or disprove facts as necessitated by the script.

I don't have access to my copy of "Fade In To Murder" where I'm at right now, but here is what Ward Fowler does in setting up and ruining his alibi:

7:30pm - Ward welcomes his friend into his home.

7:35pm - Ward hands his friend a drugged drink.

7:40pm - Friend passes out. Ward starts the tape recorder.

7:42pm - Ward leaves his home.

8:00pm - Ward enters the deli. Knocks out the deli owner and then kills Claire.

8:25pm - Ward returns home. Ward stops the tape recorder, rewinds it to the start. Ward alters his friend's watch so that it reads approximately 7:40pm. Ward plays the recorded baseball game. Ward wakes up his friend. Ward's friend appologizes for passing out. Ward says, "Hey, why not sleep it off?" Ward's friend looks at his watch, it's only 7:42pm (or so.) Ward's friend goes to have a nice sleep - passes out in bed. Ward corrects the time on friend's watch (but gets it wrong by 5 minutes.)

The following should then rightly follow but doesn't, because the script doesn't recognize the mistake:

6:00am - Friend wakes up. Remembers that Ward put him to bed around 7:42pm. Friend finds out later that Claire was murdered around 8:00pm the night before. Friend realizes that Ward could have left the house after he passed out - BECAUSE as far as Friend knows, Ward put him to bed at 7:42pm, not around 8:25 as it really was.

Several days later: Ward realizes that he should have awakened his Friend at 8:25pm - allowing the friend to BELIEVE that it was 7:42pm - and then CONTINUED watching the taped baseball game for a couple of hours - THROUGH THE 8 O'CLOCK HOUR - so as to arrange a REAL ALIBI.

Travel times to and from the deli don't enter into it. As far as Ward's friend is concerned, he was asleep by 7:42pm and Ward could have done anything to anybody after that point. Which is exactly what Ward did - only an hour (or so) earlier at the TRUE 7:42pm to 8:00pm.

Now then... is EVERYBODY TOTALLY CONFUSED by all this, or what?!

Thanks for the analysis, Headache. I guess poor Ward really was doomed from the beginning!

um.......................yes...
(no, you did a good job of explaining it. )

one little tid-bit here. When Ward wakes his friend Mark, and Mark looks at his watch and it says 7:42, in Mark's head he would have thought it was only 7:37 since he always set his watch 5 minutes fast.
what this means??............I do not know!!