HI EVERYONE :)

I was wondering- how do you interpret Columbo's implications concerning the relationship between Ruth Lytton, her niece Janie and the "secret" behind her sister's marriage...? ( Old Fashioned Murder)

olga

hi olga,
welcome to the site.

old fashioned murder's plot is quite complicated, and i really still can't take it all in, but i do enjoy the episode.

there are so many contradictions. aunt ruth loves janie so very much, just like she was her own daughter. (and there has been speculation here on this site that maybe she is actually ruth's daughter, rather than her sister's, phyllis brandt)
anyway, as i said, auntie ruth loved janie so very much, so i could never understand why she tried to frame janie by planting the belt buckle in janie's closet.

as far as the marriage of phyllis brandt and mr. peter brandt, phyllis stole mr. brandt from ruth. he was ruth's beau but phyllis must have used her female wiles to cajole him, and steal him away from ruth. he and ruth were even engaged at the time. now possibly phyllis and he had an affair during this time and that's when janie was conceived. i don't know.

now to the secret?...well that could be a few things.
it could be what i just explained about the affair, and phyllis getting pregnant with janie before she was married.

but i think it's more than that. there are implications throughout the episode that mr. peter brandt had a bad heart condition, and that ruth was his 'nurse', who would care for him at his bedside, and would give him chamomile tea. so maybe aunt ruthie may have slipped some drugs into that delicious cup of tea? now, that would be a secret that she wouldn't want janie to know. she wouldn't want janie to know that she knocked off her father.

in the end, i think that ruth confessed and gave herself up because she loved her janie so much. whether she was her niece or daughter, she loved her. and she didn't want to have to go to trial and have all the nastiness of the past exposed to janie.

(sorry i went on so long, but this episode is a bit of a puzzle to explain, and i don't think i did very well. )

You did very well cassavetes. I actually feel the same every time I watch this episode and I've watched it just recently.
I have the same puzzle- too many contradictions- is Janie Ruth's or Phylis's daughter, or ( as it also occurred to me ) is she perhaps Phylis's daughter but not Peter Brand's?? We know that Phylis was not exactly "a nun.";)
All kinds of possibilities... But on the whole, that's what I actually like about the episode:)

yes, there are so many iffy things in this episode that it can really drive you nuts.
i DO like your idea about janie not actually being peter brandt's daughter. very interesting. and it opens up yet a whole other can of worms.

but regardless of all the contradictions that this episode holds, i still have learned to love it. i just love all the mystery that the museum holds. it's like the museum is an actual character in the episode.
just ask headache.

I agree with conclusions and comments-we really don’t know if Janie is Ruth or Phyllis daughter.There are some loose ends-confusing episode

My interpretation is that Janie is the spawn of Mr Peter Brandt and Phyllis, but that for jealousy or some other reason Aunt Ruth poisoned Mr Peter Brandt.

It seems illogical that Aunt Ruth would then try to frame Janie. Perhaps she was just a crazed individual. Or perhaps she thought (a bit oddly) that having Janie arrested would be preferable to Janie finding out that she killed Mr Peter Brandt. Who can say?

Columbo realised he didn't have any evidence that Aunt Ruth killed Mr Peter Brandt, so dropped the insinuations at the end on the condition that Aunt Ruth admitted to the murder of the security guard.

I'm pretty sure that Janie is really the daughter of Peter and Phyllis, because Columbo mentions that Phyllis and Peter Eloped, and that Phyllis was 3 months pregnant at the time. So it was a bit of a scandal that Phyllis and Peter were having an affair while he was engaged to Ruth.

I agree it seemed very out-of-character for Ruth to frame Janie, but I guess it goes to show just how evil and desperate she really was.