Viveca Scott (Vera Miles) is the owner of a high-end cosmetics company, recently sales have gone down and she's trying to fend off a takeover from corporate rival David Lang (Vincent Price). Viveca is pinning her hopes on a new wrinkle removal cream that her company has developed. But when she finds out that her chemist, Karl Lessing (Martin Sheen), is going to betray her and sell the compound to Lang, she beats him to death with his microscope. Viveca attempts to throw suspicion on Lang, but certain clues, like a scribbled note written in eyebrow pencil, point Lt. Columbo her way. There's also the matter of Shirley, Viveca's spy inside Lang's company, who knows a lot of secrets and also guesses what really happened to Karl.
Solid episode with a great performance by Vera Miles, who isn't quite evil. She's just desperate to save her business and turns to murder (she has no intention to kill Karl but so out of rage because he's adamant in selling the formula to her) in order to achieve it. Vincent Price is good in his small role but it's Sian Barbara Allen who steals the scene as a slimy employee who sees an opportunity to climb the ladder via blackmail. Columbo does his usual thing by torturing the main suspect by saying "one more thing" and "somethings bothering me - I hope you can help me on this." Me personally would just hand myself to the closest police station, confess and tell them to lock me up. Anything to avoid Colombo's pestering.
Solid episode with a great performance by Vera Miles, who isn't quite evil. She's just desperate to save her business and turns to murder (she has no intention to kill Karl but so out of rage because he's adamant in selling the formula to her) in order to achieve it. Vincent Price is good in his small role but it's Sian Barbara Allen who steals the scene as a slimy employee who sees an opportunity to climb the ladder via blackmail. Columbo does his usual thing by torturing the main suspect by saying "one more thing" and "somethings bothering me - I hope you can help me on this." Me personally would just hand myself to the closest police station, confess and tell them to lock me up. Anything to avoid Colombo's pestering.