Mickey Spillane plays a bestselling author who is on the verge of leaving his publisher, Riley Greenleaf. The publisher hires a wacko bomb maker to kill the author as part of an elaborate plan where the evidence leads to the publisher being the main suspect. Riley meanwhile makes sure he has a good alibi at the time the murder took place by behaving like a drunken lout.
Sometimes Columbo's shtick not only irritates the suspect, it grates the viewer. I found the restaurant scene where Columbo is all at sea with the menu frustrating. Also as he was invited to eat by the guests in the restaurant to eat, the fact that he was later separately billed made no sense. It was just shoehorned for a particular gag involving the bill.
A lot of the episode was rather contrived. So Riley had been arrested for being drunk. His lawyer had come to pick him up. How did Columbo know that he was in the police cells? Columbo would only need to look at the charge sheet to find out where Riley had been arrested.
The episode does feature a cast of familiar faces who made early appearances such as James B Sikking. It also has a fantastic performance from Jack Cassidy and an unhinged one from John Davis Chandler.
Sometimes Columbo's shtick not only irritates the suspect, it grates the viewer. I found the restaurant scene where Columbo is all at sea with the menu frustrating. Also as he was invited to eat by the guests in the restaurant to eat, the fact that he was later separately billed made no sense. It was just shoehorned for a particular gag involving the bill.
A lot of the episode was rather contrived. So Riley had been arrested for being drunk. His lawyer had come to pick him up. How did Columbo know that he was in the police cells? Columbo would only need to look at the charge sheet to find out where Riley had been arrested.
The episode does feature a cast of familiar faces who made early appearances such as James B Sikking. It also has a fantastic performance from Jack Cassidy and an unhinged one from John Davis Chandler.