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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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Dagger of the Mind Faux Pax

As I may have mentioned before, I am a Shakespeare freak! Well, my son is currently studying Macbeth in school. He is working on a paper which is specifically centered on Macbeth's dagger soliloquy...where the title of this episode is taken from.
"....Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?..."

Well, since he is working on this it got my juices up to watch this episode again. And I noticed something that I had never noticed before. As many of you are probably aware, this play, Macbeth, has had a curse on it since its very first production when the boy who was playing Lady Macbeth died back stage...over the years when this play was being performed, there have been strange goings on with the cast and crew...mysterious illnesses, heart attacks, car accidents and even deaths. It is considered the cursed play. And because of this it is considered very bad form and very bad luck to speak the play's name in the dressing room...that is why it is usually referred to as "The Scottish Play."
Well, while watching Dagger I noticed that the name 'Macbeth' is said 3 times in the dressing room. Once by Lilly, once by Nicky and once by an admiring fan who says to Nicky 'All hail Macbeth!'
So maybe regardless of whether Columbo was on the case or not...Lilly and Nicky were doomed from the start!

(sorry for the long post.. )

Re: Dagger of the Mind Faux Pax

A really good point! What I'd wondered is if the writers knew this and included the references to foreshadow the murderers' capture? It suddenly occurs to me that the plot is similar to the plot of Macbeth . . . the killer isn't a murderer by nature but by circumstance (it's been a long time since I've seen this episode).

Re: Dagger of the Mind Faux Pax

I've always thought, Michael, that the reference was deliberate, and very clever. Besides coming from the Scottish Play that the characters are performing, the "dagger of the mind" line is spoken by a character who is going insane from guilt, because of a murder -- which, as you say, is exactly what happens at the end of this episode. It's one of the all-time best titles.