Last one from my favourite season. Years ago I didn't like it much but it grewn on me. Now I enjoy watching it, maybe except of some scenes, but you can find it out on usual's comments:
- maybe it is a funny comment, but I noticed how wide was the road leading to Donners' beach house :) unusual (for our standards here)
- Lieutenent has to have really an eagle eye, to see this flint on this kind of carpet, little far-fetched
- I guess a conversation with "Sorry I don't have a Willie" is some kind of funny? And I can imagine why I guess.. But I've never heard that word before, I mean with different meaning
- I am sure we could see the same building with colour lines on the corridor's floor in the other episode, but now I don't remember which one it was
- Columbo enters some random room in the hospital and you hear the girl screaming. What the heck was going on in this room? :D
- Dr Borden is straight when she answers Columbo: "we weren't exactly working but we were both here"
- I always had a strange feeling that when the telephone rings at Nadia's place, and she turns her head into it, it is a little spooky scene
- why Columbo is so surprised when he witnesses the telephone from Dr. Collier to Nadia? what is so suspicious for him? That Dr didn't know the proper number?
- I don't like all the scenes with Nadia under hypnosis, all of them are too long
- I like the scene when Columbo gets a little mad with Dr. Borden and yells "I'm asking you about a murder!"
- I love the dialogue: "Am I to presume that I'm currently your chief suspect?" "I'm not sure that suspect is a strong enough word" Columbo answers :D
- English question again: they call the road a "highway" all the time. I thought "highway" stands only for this multiline roads with high speed limit

I feel the same way about the episode in that I didn't like it at first, but it grew on me. It has one of the best "gotchas" and it's particularly good that Dr. Collier is so arrogant. He's almost childish when Columbo says something like: "This man is Mr. Morris". And Collier snaps: "So!". It cracks me up.

It's funny how much people used to smoke and how quickly it all changed.

The "Sorry I don't have a willy", remark was probably snuck in for an American audience by a British writer. Willy is slang for penis, but I expect that few Americans, especially back then would know that.


Regarding the word "highway", in America it usually refers to the interstate system built during the Eisenhower administration. However, state routes are often called highways, especially if they are very busy. The road by the beach house didn't look busy though.

Columbo takes special rage against doctors. Other than this episode, he famously threatens Dr. Mayfield and he lets Dr. Fleming know exactly how he feels about him. Perhaps it bothers him that somebody is supposed to be a healer but shows little regard for life. I guess he was relatively friendly to Bart Kepple because he kept forgetting that he was DOCTOR Kepple, lol.

Pete, that's an excellent observation - never heard that distinction made before. Great stuff!

I know almost nothing about it, but I think the scream coming from that room is a small joke about "Primal Screaming," a kind of therapy where patients are encouraged to actually do that.

The Room-Scream thing is an attempt at humor. It's like something out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon - the character opens a hospital room/bathroom/dressing room/bedroom and a woman is changing and she screams. It just reveals Columbo's single-minded focus and offers a bit of a chuckle.

"Regarding the word "highway", in America it usually refers to the interstate system built during the Eisenhower administration. However, state routes are often called highways, especially if they are very busy. The road by the beach house didn't look busy though."

Usually, yes -- but not necessarily. I used to live on Pacific Coast Highway and at multiple points it was a simple two lane (each way) street, right on the beach.

i agree with you that the hypnosis scenes are too long. They serve a purpose up to 1.4. I kind of got lost. It was almost like listening to the 15-minute version of Volaire.