June 9, 2025: Our Columbo rewatch continues with…A Case of Immunity!

This episode aired October 12, 1975.

Hector Elizondo, who played Hassan Sabah, fondly reflected on his experience shooting this episode: “You know what I remember? I remember laughing a lot. We had a great time.”

Four months after this episode aired, actor Sal Mineo, who played Rahman Habib, was stabbed to death.

Jeff Goldblum is an extra in this episode, part of the crowd demonstrating outside the embassy.

My thoughts on this episode in chronological viewing order…

Hooboy. I’ve got a bad feeling about this one.

Couldn’t they wait until they were done turning the place upside-down before summoning the security guard?

Columbo stepping on the poor guy’s robe (!).

Hmmm. The rifle misfired. How fortuitous for the murderer. So who had access to the guns?

Aha! The coffee from his 3 o’ clock break is almost full and cold.

Columbo on the priceless antique: “I think my wife go ours at the farmer’s market.”

Aha! The security guard had to have been surprised by someone he knew.

Again Columbo steps on his robe and we hear it rip. If this is a proper running gag, it has to happen one more time and completely tear away.

Columbo surmises it was an inside job. That was easy enough to put together.

Hmmm. He finds it suspicious that there was no ceiling dust on the documents from the explosion. Maybe because they were in the safe, no?

Uh oh. The protestors can identify Habib. He’s a goner.

Only 20% of the time that Columbo assumes innocence is he correct. That’s why I always say you have to assume the worst of people.

Ah, back in the good old days when a single blow to the back of the head was enough to render someone instantly unconscious.

Is that fall enough to kill him? Whiplash, probably, but death?

Columbo doing a bit of a Get Smart imitation, leaning up against the valuable antique and almost knocking it off its pedestal.

The dead man was wearing glasses when they found him. Really? The glasses managed to stay on despite the crash? Highly doubt that.

“Where’s your sign?”asks the protestor.
“I don’t have one,”replies Columbo
“Here,”says the protestor, handing him his protest sign. “Hold this.”
Columbo does and joins the protest.

“I’m fuzz”
“That’s cool.”
Can’t get much more 70’s than that exchange.

His majesty looks like he’s 16.

Columbo dipping his fingers in the beef. How uncouth.

He seems to have a problem with escargots, but didn’t he order and eat them in a previous episode? Somebody look into this for me.

“Haricots verts Bordelaise.”
“That looks like green beans.”

Columbo surmises the cash couldn’t have come from the safe and Habib could not have made that New York reservation.

After being accused of pursuing a vendetta and being ordered to back off, Columbo: ““Well that’s all well and good except for one thing. [—] He’s the murderer.”

This is the second time in as many episodes Columbo wears a tux!

“Wife insisted I wear striped pants,”Columbo confides. Reminds me of the time I was invited to my wife’s sister’s wedding in Japan. My father-in-law suggested I wear a traditional men’s kimono and Akemi loved the idea, throwing suggestions my way. I considered then, ultimately, opted to just wear a suit. The day of the wedding I show up and – every Japanese man in attendance is wearing a suit. I would have looked like a complete idiot!

“These are new. Sixteen ninety-five.” Columbo and his obsession with getting a good deal on shoes.

Columbo, parked outside the embassy liked a homeless man.

Seriously, why would Hassan even entertain Columbo’s presence at this point?

Columbo lays out his proof and…Hassan admits his guilt?! Why? What an idiot.

And, sure enough, it was a set-up.

What fate would await Hassan in his home country? Maybe Western prison food is preferable.

While this episode wasn’t as bad as I feared, it wasn’t particularly memorable either. Caricatures and amusing Columbo moments aside, the mystery itself wasn’t all that interesting to me and neither were any of the secondary characters. I also thought the Gotcha moment a little lame, one step above secretly tape recording a confession. Kinda weak.

Here is my revised episode rankings: 1. Forgotten Lady, 2. Negative Reaction, 3. Any Old Port in a Storm, 4. Double Exposure, 5. A Friend In Deed, 6. Double Shock, 7. A Stitch in Crime, 8. Death Lends a Hand, 9. Suitable for Framing, 10. Publish or Perish, 11. Dagger of the Mind, 12. Requiem for a Falling Star, 13. Prescription: Murder, 14. Murder by the Book/Ransom for a Dead Man (tie), 15. By Dawn’s Early Light, 16. Swan Song, 17. Troubled Waters, 18. Lady in Waiting, 19. An Exercise in Fatality, 20. Etude in Black, 21. Playback, 22. The Most Crucial Game, 23. Blueprint for Murder, 24. Lovely But Lethal, 25. A Deadly State of Mind, 26. The Most Dangerous Match, 27. The Greenhouse Jungle 28. Dead Weight, 29. Short Fuse, 30. A Case of Immunity, 31. Candidate for Crime, 32. Mind Over Mayhem.

Finally, in the event Hassan hadn’t confessed or made use of his diplomatic immunity, would Columbo have had enough evidence for a GUILTY verdict, or would Hassan have been looking at an ACQUITTAL? I think that, in this case, the circumstantial evidence wouldn’t have been enough. ACQUITTAL!

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