- After killing her boring husband and disposing of the body, a supposedly brilliant tort attorney fakes his kidnapping and keeps the ransom money. The FBI may be fooled, but not Columbo.
- Leslie Williams, a brilliant tort attorney is bored by her husband, a respected member of the state supreme court. After trading on his famous name to get ahead, she tries to get her freedom by murdering him and concocts a scheme to make it appear that he's been kidnapped and held for ransom. After she pays the ransom to herself, his dead body is found. She may have fooled the FBI but not Lt. Columbo, who is aided by her vengeful stepdaughter.—duke1029@aol.com
- Three years after Peter Falk's debut as Columbo in Prescription: Murder (1968), this second pilot was created with Lieutenant Columbo assigned to assist with the kidnapping case of a high profile lawyer (Harlan Warde), but when he turns up dead, Columbo suspects that the wife has something to do with it. Leslie Williams (Lee Grant) does a superb job at portraying a villain who's able to hold her own with Columbo, and their interactions are very entertaining. Falk revamps the Columbo character as a clever, amiable, bumbling and unassuming detective who never shows all his cards but has some curious idiosyncrasies. Newcomer Patricia Mattick delivers a strong performance as the avenging stepdaughter, Margaret Williams.—ejp-68271
- Leslie Williams (Lee Grant) is a very important lawyer. She is good at her work but her big break and her big money arrived when she started to work in the office of her husband Paul (Harlan Warde). She devises a complex plot, in which she kills her husband in order to get to his money and inherit his office, but makes-believe to everybody that it was a ransom. She is worried and calls the police because her husband has disappeared, and some hours later she hears a voice on the phone asking for ransom money.
Lt Frank Columbo (Peter Falk) is one of the police officers who is assigned to solve this case, especially when things supposedly go awry when she tries to give the kidnappers the ransom money, after having traveled to the middle of the desert by helicopter. However, what really happened was that Leslie has exchanged two similar briefcases, and instead of the money -which she has kept in a , she put some cut outs from newspaper inside. On the meantime, Leslie has put the money on her locker. Everybody else, including Agent Carlson (Harold Gould) thinks that the kidnapping has failed, and soon the body of Paul Williams is found. When Columbo realizes that there is something fishy going on, he goes to open the lawyer's locker, but it's too late, as she has already taken the money home.
The widow (Leslie) thinks that she can fool everyone. Her main problem is her stepdaughter, Margaret Williams (Patricia Mattick). Leslie tries to reason with her. Margaret is back for the funeral from her Swiss boarding school. Margaret hates her stepmother, as she always believed her to be a gold-digger. Leslie threatens to cut her out of her estate money, and wonders aloud whether Margaret will be able to keep on buying her friends without money.
Columbo pesters Leslie about the late Williams' car, as he usually does with people he suspects to be guilty. Leslie tries to go on with all the cases of her late husband. Columbo, however, cannot pin the murder on Leslie. He eventually talks with Margaret, who explains why she never liked her stepmother.
There is a moment in which Margaret threatens Leslie with a gun and they have a big fight, running inside the Williams mansion. Finally, Leslie realizes that her stepdaughter doesn't want to frighten or kill her, the teenager only wants to reach an agreement with her concerning the money. Margaret promises to leave to Switzerland if Leslie gives her money- the money which Leslie has kept from the fake kidnapping.
Leslie and Margaret arrive together at the airport. Margaret boards the plane right afterwards. Leslie is getting ready to leave. However, whom non other than Columbo is waiting for her at the airport coffee shop? They talk over root beer and wine. Suddenly, somebody brings a suitcase to their table. Columbo opens it, and inside the suitcase is the ransom money. Columbo explains: he couldn't determine any final proof of Leslie's guilty, so he asked for Margaret's help. Columbo realized that Leslie was conceited, greedy and selfish; so selfish that, in fact, she couldn't imagine anybody not being exactly like her -- that's why she didn't suspect Margaret at all. Leslie thought that she could buy Margaret's desire for revenge, and her love for her father with money. Leslie's prints are all over the bills.
Leslie is taken away. Columbo is left with the bill, but he realizes that he hasn't got any money of his own at the moment. He doesn't touch the ransom money, but makes the waitress go crazy and finally tells her that he is from the LAPD, and ends up signing for the bill.
written by KrystelClaire
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
Top Gap
By what name was Ransom for a Dead Man (1971) officially released in Canada in English?
Answer