I understand why Danzinger kept the gun and the gloves on board (to frame Lloyd). But had he gotten rid of them, would Columbo be so hot on his tail anyway? Without those items, the murder would have been impossible to prove yeah? At least that's the way I see it.

Actually he only kept the gun..which of course was falsely recipted as having been sold to the musician.

The gloves that were ultimately found were a second pair after Danzinger fired the magician's weapon in the engine room.

Columbo had been pestering him as to why they couldn't find the gloves.

If he, the unknown murderer, didn't have time to throw the gun overboard, he wouldn't have had time to throw the gloves...because if he had thrown the gloves overboard (at the time of the murder) not when Danzinger threw them over later...he would have thrown the gun also.

But we know they found the gun..which Danzinger wanted them to find...to implicate the musician.

Also, as someone else has posted here before....in all of these episodes...there just can't be a perfect murder and cover-up...there needs to be clues for Columbo to resolve.

Almost every episode lends itself to someone being able to ask "why didn't the murderer do thus and so" or "why did he do such and such that led to his being found/identified."

Mike is right in that he probably should have thrown both the gun and gloves overboard.

But he could half hide the gloves (as he did) and threw them overboard later.

Columbo, although was first suspicious because of the feather from the bed pillow.

But Abe is right because if the story was written differently with the gun and gloves going overboard, the writers would have to have concocted other things to give Columbo the necessary format leading to a solution.

Of course, this episode, as others, really involved a trap where columbo forced Danzinger to implicate himself by now producing the 2nd pair of gloves with no reasonably defendable purpose. Not really direct proof..but enough for us, the great masses.

One of my favorite episodes of the entire series. Robert Vaughn is spectacular. (He ain't too bad as Charles Clay either).

Robert Vaughn lost at the Bridge at Remagen and he lost to Columbo.

But I do have to admit..he plays it "cool and collected".

And although many on this forum criticize the "last salute" episode...Vaughn plays an entertaining character.