A brilliant Spin-doctor has got his protégé on the Presidential ticket. However, as he breasts this career peak, a cruel blow sends him crashing, careering, downwards. He is threatened by an old corruption scandal and seeks to resolve it by a perfect murder. In an opening reminiscent of a carefully crafted 'Danger Man' sequence, McGoohan has Oscar performing a bewildering sequence of mysterious actions, using tin foil and gunpowder. The trap is set. Making one final, failed attempt to dissuade his criminal nemesis, Oscar is compelled to carry out the wicked deed.
At last Peter Falk shuffles onto the scene. A tiny drop of blood is found dried on the floor, beneath the fallen pistol. Columbo has found the loose thread and Oscar's scheme unravels.
The duel between the pair has it's inevitable conclusion because Right must overwhelm Wrong in the world of Columbo. However the meandering plot is anything but predictable as it wends its way to the final denouement. The sequence involving the fax machine and Falk's perplexed wonder at it's workings is superb and had me laughing out loud at one point. The fact that fax machines were not exactly new in 1990 makes it even funnier that Columbo should be so flummoxed by them! McGoohan is at his calculating best as the debonair Oscar, a man, not evil, but driven to great evil by his own ambition: a lesson for us all.
At last Peter Falk shuffles onto the scene. A tiny drop of blood is found dried on the floor, beneath the fallen pistol. Columbo has found the loose thread and Oscar's scheme unravels.
The duel between the pair has it's inevitable conclusion because Right must overwhelm Wrong in the world of Columbo. However the meandering plot is anything but predictable as it wends its way to the final denouement. The sequence involving the fax machine and Falk's perplexed wonder at it's workings is superb and had me laughing out loud at one point. The fact that fax machines were not exactly new in 1990 makes it even funnier that Columbo should be so flummoxed by them! McGoohan is at his calculating best as the debonair Oscar, a man, not evil, but driven to great evil by his own ambition: a lesson for us all.