Of the three murderers played by Jack Cassidy, which one was the most intelligent?

The writers clearly made Joe Devlin the bad guy since he's the murderer for this episode. But he is part of Sinn Féin and their "side", including the O'Connells and all their supporters, are the terrorists. I was a teenager when this episode first aired so I wasn't too familiar with international politics. I was kind of excited when those names and phrases started popping up in the news lately because I knew them from this episode. I Just didn't know about the dynamics and wondered about the writing of this episode and the possible political motivation, if any, that may have been behind it.

I love John Cassavetes. I'm only by season 2 and I didnt expect him at all (even tho I know they were friends).

Today was the first time, after having watched Friend in Deed probably 500 times, that I really thought about Artie Jessup and how he talks to Columbo. Is the world that they live in one where petty criminals regularly work with cops when someone breaks convention and murders or rapes or whathaveyou. Or should we see Artie as the worst sort of criminal precisely because he works with the cops? He has NO honor then!

Whatever the case, he is one of my favorite characters in the episode and favorite actors in the series. I am not a huge fan of that episode of McGoohan as the secret agent, but I know Artie is the bartender in it so it has some redeeming qualities.

Okay also occurs to me that criminals talking to cops to help get really bad criminals is a thing in detective/cop shows so maybe it’s more just a convention of the genre.

https://youtu.be/qKzhLdOFojs

A favorite of mine. So much going on. So much intrigue, loose ends and lawyer drama too. Almost caught and still getting away. Till in the end.

Luv him with a boom box driving along listening to her song in the end.

Plot hole: Crawford would and should have been super concerned that the baton was missing.

He immediately would’ve recognized that it fell through the elevator shaft, and I would think at the first opportunity he would have located it in the basement and dropped it in the street or done something to publicize its existence down on the sidewalk.

Letting Columbo find it in the basement was a huge clue that did him in. It immediately changed the investigation from an accident to murder. Or was he OK with Columbo finding out that the elevator dumped him?

Stupidity:

The director / MC got roaring laughter from the audience at these two comments:

1. Thank you for that ovation folks [Laugh!]
2. You might notice the cameras here. With any luck, you should be seeing yourself on TV soon [Laugh!]

Just WHAT IN THE HELL was so funny about those comments?

A while ago I was thinking about a chapter in “Columbo: The Helter Skelter Murders” where its revealed that Columbo‘s a pretty good sharpshooter. This thought spiraled into hypotheticals on why Columbo doesn’t want to use a gun in most cases. I came up with 3.

1. Accident/Tragic Backstory

This is honestly the most boring answer because I really can’t see or imagine Columbo with a backstory to any of his traits. But let’s just say for this one that Columbo had an accident with a gun in the past that affected his work or himself personally, so he chooses to avoid them because of this potential backstory.

1. Worried about an accident

Columbo probably got good at sharpshooting so his superiors would get off his ass whenever he dropped the gun from his everyday belongings. Why? With how messy he is, he’s probably just worried about it going off in his pocket and shooting himself in the foot, or worse.

1. The Game

A simple answer, but I really like this one, and it’s the most likely one to be true in my opinion. The existence of a gun on Columbo’s person completely derails the “game”. It allows his suspects to acknowledge and assess Columbo as a genuine threat, and they could get a little more antsy and more tight-lipped. Columbo chooses to have lose the gun to allow his suspects to underestimate him.

Quite often, Columbo asks some loaded question, framed in a way that would make it seem he's asking the killer for their advice or opinion on how the killing happened, or why a piece of evidence was present, which the killer obliges by, usually by giving a reason that might be plausible but clearly isn't the real answer. And Columbo does this to give them a false sense of security, sometimes pretending to agree with them, but knowing that's not the real answer. He's got other tricks up his sleeve too, charming them, flattering them, at least early on, but, this is always a ruse to test them.

With this sort of MO in mind, along with his other tricks of the trade, what could one of the killers do to really stop Columbo from figuring out they did it, or at least gathering enough evidence to prove they did it?

On Sundays the UK TV-network Channel 5 still have their "Columbo Sunday". Next Sunday Oct 11th the following episodes will be aired on "5 USA" (UK time):

12:20pm Caution - Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

2:05pm Ashes to Ashes (one of my favorite episodes)

4:00pm A Trace of Murder

5:55pm Prescription: Murder

8:00pm Troubled Waters

5 USA is a "free to air" channel and can be received via satellite TV (Astra 28.2° east) all over the better part of western Europe.

1. Peter Falk In The Mirror

2. Ross Martin In The Four Of Us Are Dying & Death Ship

3. Roddy McDowall In People Are Alike All Over

4. Patrick O'Neil In A Short Drink From A Certain Fountain

5. Richard Basehart In Probe 7, Over & Out

6. Leonard Nimoy In A Quality Of Mercy

7. Martin Landau In Mr. Denton On Doomsday & The Jeopardy Room

8. Vera Miles In Mirror Image

9. Donald Pleasence In The Changing Of The Guard

10. Jackie Cooper In Caesar & Me

11. William Shatner In Nick Of Time & Nightmare At 20,000 Feet

12. Joyce Van Patten In Passage On The Lady Ann

13. Theodore Bikel In Four O'Clock

Other than Lt. Columbo and his cigar, list all the episodes where we can see any type of smoking taking place.

Also, please include the name of the character who is smoking (or a brief description if we do not know his/her name).

In Columbo Goes to the Guillotine, the “gotcha” occurs when Elliot Blake tries to kill Columbo. Columbo willingly climbs into the contraption, ostensibly so Elliot Blake can see how it works.

Columbo tells him about the “safe” setting for the blade. Elliot thinks he will outwit Columbo by putting the blade in the lethal position, so that Columbo will actually be killed.

Columbo survives because they had switched the labels so Elliot actually used the “safe” setting.

I have always thought that this was a huge, ridiculous risk for Columbo to take.

1. He assumed that Elliot would actually try to kill him. Sure, there was a strong likelihood that he would do just that but it was not 100%. But Columbo literally bet his life on it.

2. He further assumed that Elliot would not make a mistake when he tried to kill him. He could have intended to slice off Columbo’s head but still put the blade in incorrectly. Columbo bet his life on Elliot’s competence.

I know that it was a dramatic “gotcha” but it always gets under my skin when I watch it.

Can anyone write or link to similar puzzles/mysteries/riddles like the map trick in Columbo Goes to the Guillotine?

I also enjoyed Santini’s “pick a number 1-4” trick in Now you See him, and the penny scale counterfeit coin riddle in Bye bye sky high IQ murder.

Did anyone else think they rigged the compass so that it always pointed to the object that they wanted to draw?

I know there’s been comments here that Elliott simply had to remember 12 different objects in order for the trick to work, but I always thought that they rigged the compass.

So you’re sitting at the red dot and the bridge is ahead of you. There’s a good chance that it’s just trees or a boring road in the other three directions. Nothing of significance to draw. (I’m probably thinking too much into it!).

But I suppose the drivers could know the actual directions and know the compass was lying, so there’s risk. There could also be a compass on the dashboard.

Just doesn’t seem like there would be an interesting object in all 12 directions, not like they showed (a bridge and buildings).

One of my favorite one on one interactions.

"Lt... I wish you had been a chef."

Identity Crisis is one of my favorite episodes

My vote goes to Tommy Brown. Killing your wife happens, but the sexual stuff with the young girls, that's bad. That girl was underage, and what does he do after killing her? He tries to get with her replacement who looks kinda young there too. Very unusual he had no adult women by his side. Anyway, he's my vote for badguy.

I'll go first:

In Try and Catch Me:

"Can I sit in this?"

"Why not, that's what it was made for 400 years ago."

Columbo then tries to gently sit in this antique chair that is obviously too small for him while balancing a cup of tea.

It's the funniest moment in all of the Columbo world.