The Lt. Columbo Forum

An area where fans from all over can ask each other questions and voice their own ideas and opinions on anything Columbo.

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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The Lt. Columbo Forum
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Re: Re: Re: Now You See Him

I thought a very clever "last note", so to speak, was the fade out music at the exact end of the program.

Not spoken or sung, but the actual lyrics for the portion of the music played) are "...when we play(ed) our charade".

Fade.

Cut.

Clever and adroitly symbolic of the episode !!!

Re: Now You See Him

At the end Santini destroyed the letter instantly in a huge flame. How come in the beginning after he kills Jerome he is sloppily burning the original letter in the sink?

Re: Re: Now You See Him

The letter in the last scene was one of many copies Columbo had, courtesy of the IBM Selectric carbon film ribbon.

Re: Now You See Him

i get your point john....and it's a good one. he could have easily have used the 'trick' that he did at the end of burning the letter instead of taking all that time to, as you say, sloppily burn it up in the sink.
good observation!

Re: Re: Now You See Him

I think maybe the prop letter was rigged, using flash paper of some kind, for the effect.

Even if he ignited it with a flash, I would think it would still burn more normally.

Don't forget, it was Columbo who first brought out the given letter into the open, not Santini.

Re: Now You See Him

sorry,i'm not following you abe...
when santini goes to jerome's office he knew he was going to be looking for the letter...he should have had himself rigged up to flash burn it then instead of taking all that time to burn it the normal way.
when he arrives at the nightclub in the final scenes it is improbable that he would have had that flash thingy rigged on him...
i don't think i'm explaining this very well...

Re: Re: Now You See Him

Please disregard my post; I misinterpreted the question in the first place.

Re: Re: Now You See Him

Cassa..the point I was trying to make was that the letter produced by Columbo would be expected by us to be made of normal paper.

Even though the flash flame may have ignited the letter, I still think that it would have burned more normally.

Your point is good that we would not necessarily have expected Santini to have the flash trigger/mechanism with him as he entered the final scene....but does Clark Kent travel without his "S" cape ??

I have used a flash flame in a little magic performance that I did once, and the little trigger igniter (which is hidden) carries a small tiny wad of flash material.

The effect is a quick flash and flame.

I just think that the paper (for columbo's letter) was rigged and made of flash material for the razzle dazzle symbolic magic counterplay of the story's ending.

Therefore the original question raised here, while being an interesting point or observation, is a moot point in my mind because the first scene burning was normal, and the second, although triggered by Santini, in a flash mode, the paper should have ignited but not gone up in a POOF.

Re: Now You See Him

i'm going cross-eyed ....but i think i got you abe!

Re: Now You See Him

"Nadcuffs"!! OUCH!!!!

Re: Now You See Him

c.g.!!!!!