Dr Bart Keppel is a media consultant who uses subliminal images in a marketing film to engineer the murder a blackmailed client threatening to go public. When Columbo is assigned to the case, he decides to use Dr Keppel's own methods to ensnare him ...
This is one of the most interesting Columbo stories - the one where the victim is plied with salty caviar and then shown a film with subliminal images of cool drinks, causing him to go out to the water-font in the lobby and get shot. This main conceit - and Stephen J. Cannell's entire script - is a bit silly (there's even a moment where Columbo leaps out from behind a bush to catch the crook in the act), but it's chock-full of nifty ideas and amusing developments. The moment where Culp asks Falk which way to the murder scene, the projectionist's-penny-on-the-floor idea, and the entire golf-course sequence are all priceless, and Falk and Culp are both sensational. I guess I'm a sucker for any movie that uses subliminal images (The Exorcist, They Live, From Dusk Till Dawn), which were a big advertising concern at the time. This isn't one of the most plausible Columbo stories but it's undeniably fun.
This is one of the most interesting Columbo stories - the one where the victim is plied with salty caviar and then shown a film with subliminal images of cool drinks, causing him to go out to the water-font in the lobby and get shot. This main conceit - and Stephen J. Cannell's entire script - is a bit silly (there's even a moment where Columbo leaps out from behind a bush to catch the crook in the act), but it's chock-full of nifty ideas and amusing developments. The moment where Culp asks Falk which way to the murder scene, the projectionist's-penny-on-the-floor idea, and the entire golf-course sequence are all priceless, and Falk and Culp are both sensational. I guess I'm a sucker for any movie that uses subliminal images (The Exorcist, They Live, From Dusk Till Dawn), which were a big advertising concern at the time. This isn't one of the most plausible Columbo stories but it's undeniably fun.