May 30, 2025: The Columbo rewatch continues with…Playback!

This episode aired March 2, 1975.

This was actor Oskar Werner’s sole television appearance. Peter Falk traveled to Switzerland to personally convince him to accept the role of Harold Van Wick.

This is the only episode in which Columbo actually fires a gun.

Peter Falk considered this episode one of his favorites.

Actor Herbert Jefferson Jr., who played Baxter in this episode, also played the part of Lieutenant Boomer in the original Battlestar Galactica.

My thoughts on this episode in chronological viewing order…

Aha! Making it look like a break-in. Shades of “Lady in Waiting”.

“Mother dear, have you done something to your hair?”
“No.”
“That’s what I thought.”
The venom!

To be fair, she is kind of the mother-in-law from Hell.

Interesting that we have a wheelchair-bound character. Very rare for the 70’s.

Hmmm. So she’s coincidentally firing him on the day he plotted her murder. What foresight!

They’re so wealthy that they have a security guard monitoring their indoor movements 24/7!

My mother has one of those chair lifts.

I love the wife played by Gena Rowlands. What a sweetheart.

Doors open with a clap of her hands. They are truly living in the future!

Wow. This is one intricately plotted murder.

I find it funny the way he clumsily draws attention to the time, with the guard at the gate and then at the party. That would immediately set off anyone’s alarm bells.

Why does Columbo have a cold in this episode? Will this play into the investigation and pay it off in some unexpected way. [Spoiler: No.]

Wonder if those doors open by just pushing them open the old-fashioned way as well?

I like Columbo gallantly helping her with her wheelchair.

When Elizabeth mentioned the presence of her brother, I initially thought she was referring to Harold who, to be fair, resembles her more than Arthur. I was like – wut?

While I do like Columbo announcing his presence with a sneeze, I have to wonder how long he stood undetected behind those curtains.

“I have a special watch that prints out the numbers.” HE is living in the future!

Does body heat really activate the video machine? Looks like that system is on constantly judging from the guard shack

“That’s fantastic,”he remarks upon seeing the footage of the old lady getting gunned down. “Absolutely fantastic.” Look at how she takes it in the back!

“Of all the dumb luck.” If only he had walked three more feet into the room. “Do you think he knew where the camera was?” Columbo has already figured it out.

Re: the logs – “You know when a person does something one way and he suddenly does it another way I immediately think…I’m sure it doesn’t mean anything.” He’s already forming a theory. Now he just needs to put the pieces together.

Not one but two “One more thing’s”.

I like Columbo’s discussion with Dog. Always great to see the affable hound.

No imprints in the mulch from a fleeing prowler and no mulch inside the house from the break-in. Almost as if…there was no break-in or prowler.

“Maybe he took his shoes off?” Columbo smiles and nods knowingly. “Thank you. I’m embarrassed.” Oh, he is so playing this guy.

“9:42 exactly” when he got there. “I’m a meticulous man, lieutenant.” I’m sure Columbo is thinking “Oh, I bet.”

Dog gets the run of the property and comes across Elizabeth who is so sweet to him. Love ’em both.

She thought she heard a noise but her husband dismissed it as her imagination. This guy is so done.

“Marcie, have you been smoking something awful?”
“We have a customer with a cigar.”
What the heck did she think Marcie was smoking?

“Could you explain this?”
“We don’t explain art. It’s just something you feel.”
“This doesn’t do anything for me.”
This art gallery scene is brilliant. I’m thinking that once we complete this rewatch, we should assemble a list of the funniest Columbo scenes.

Love Columbo’s increasingly shocked reactions to the price tags.

The art piece is called Ghost of a Dead Dog.
“Well in the right setting it will be very effective.”
This is the second time the show skewers the modern art scene after “Suitable for Framing”.

“Now this here I see it doesn’t have a title.”
“That is the ventilator for the air conditioning.”
Brilliant.

“My wife she paints a little.”
“Yeah she buys those canvases with the numbers on them.”
At least she didn’t try to sell them as originals like Luciano Pavarotti.

“It was 9:28.”
“I’m positive. He had a super watch that printed the time in red letters. He showed it to me.”
When you’re obviously trying a little too hard.

Harold (Can I just say he does NOT look like a Harold) shoots down her suggestion that she take over the chairmanship of the company because he doesn’t want to be subservient to his wife. This is one of those relationships that make you wonder how she could have possibly ended up with this guy.

Columbo admits: “I hate guns.”
As he prepares to shoot, he warns Harry who assures him “I can handle it.”
“I wish I could say the same,”says Columbo, then blocks his ears before firing.

The gunshot causes the door to open? Presumably every door in the house?

“But if the noise your wife heard was a gunshot, that means the shooting took place before nine thirteen.” Aha!

It’s funny how the second he turns off the light, the room becomes pitch black.

The fact that she couldn’t have possibly seen the clown in the chair because the room was dark feels like a huge reach. Even in the darkest of rooms, your eyes eventually adjust.

Why is Columbo behind the bar looking for catsup?

Aha, the football replay twigs something. He demands his own instant replay.

Columbo breaks down exactly how he did it.

That crystal clear zoom on the invitation is sharper than my iPhone camera 50 years later. You can even see his name written on it!

Of all the places in the house he could have left the invitation, he left it on that desk in frame of the murder scene. What rotten luck.

I feel sorry for his wife. She deserved better.

I ended up liking this episode more than I expected as I seem to recall being unimpressed with it on initial viewing many years ago. As is customary with Columbo, there are some terrific guest performances, several standout scenes (the art gallery bit comes immediately to mind), and, of course, Falk is always at his best. While I admired the complexity of the murder, I thought Harold was scuppered by some preposterous assumptions (the assumption his wife would not have been able to see the clown-in-the-chair in that dark room) and ridiculously bad luck (his leaving the invitation in the one place he shouldn’t have). Again, not a bad episode but not one I would place amongst the show’s best-to-date.

My revised episode rankings: 1. Negative Reaction, 2. Any Old Port in a Storm, 3. Double Exposure, 4. A Friend In Deed, 5. Double Shock, 6. A Stitch in Crime, 7. Death Lends a Hand, 8. Suitable for Framing, 9. Publish or Perish, 10. Dagger of the Mind, 11. Requiem for a Falling Star, 12. Prescription: Murder, 13. Murder by the Book/Ransom for a Dead Man (tie), 14. By Dawn’s Early Light, 15. Swan Song, 16. Troubled Waters, 17. Lady in Waiting, 18. An Exercise in Fatality, 19. Etude in Black, 20. Playback, 21. The Most Crucial Game, 22. Blueprint for Murder, 23. Lovely But Lethal, 24. The Most Dangerous Match, 25. The Greenhouse Jungle 26. Dead Weight, 27. Short Fuse, 28. Candidate for Crime, 29. Mind Over Mayhem.

Finally, it’s time to consider whether Columbo has enough evidence to help secure a GUILTY verdict, or is Harold looking at an ACQUITTAL. Well, in this case, I think Columbo’s ability to take apart Harold’s carefully orchestrated plotting will be enough to get him that conviction. GUILTY!

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Our Columbo rewatch will continue through seasons 5 and 6!

Our updated viewing schedule:

Friday, May 29th: Playback
Monday, June 2nd: A Deadly State of Mind
Friday,, June 6th: Forgotten Lady
Monday, June 9th: A Case of Immunity
Friday, June 13th: Identity Crisis
Monday, June 16th: A Matter of Honor
Friday, June 20th: Now You See Him
Monday, June 23rd: Last Salute to the Commodore
Friday, June 27th: Fade in to Murder
Monday, June 30th: Old Fashioned Murder
Friday, July 4th: The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case

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