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COLUMBO: TRY AND CATCH ME {SEVENTH SEASON PREMIERE} (TV)

Summary

One in this series of police dramas in which Los Angeles homicide detective Lt. Columbo's unassuming manner masks his keen intelligence and sharp investigative abilities.

Abigail Mitchell, a famous elderly mystery writer, gives the manuscript of her latest novel to her secretary Veronica so that she can finish typing it. The next day, she takes a walk on the beach with Edmund Galvin, who was married to her niece Phyllis until her untimely death four months ago. Phyllis drowned in a boating accident while out with Edmund, and both he and Abigail are still emotional over her death. Since Phyllis was to be the heir to Abigail's estate, she has decided to leave everything to Edmund, although he feels unworthy of her generosity. That night, Abigail sabotages the light fixture in her bedroom. She invites Edmund over so she can sign her new will in his presence, and has him fetch her some items from her walk-in soundproof safe, hidden behind a false wall. Abigail's lawyer, Martin Hammond, enters to deliver the will, and Abigail gets Edmund to sign a will drawn up for him in case he should predecease her. He signs it without reading it, trusting Abigail completely. While Martin is away, Abigail tells Edmund that she wants to give him the combination to her safe; she says that Martin disapproves of this decision so Edmund should secretly re-enter the house after pretending to drive off.

Abigail and Martin prepare to leave on a flight to New York City, but she distracts him by asking him to fix the lights in her room. Abigail lets Edmund back into the house via the service entrance and they approach the safe. Abigail does not see Edmund set his car keys down on a nearby table. She gives Edmund the safe's combination and asks him to deposit the wills inside. Once he is inside, she accuses Edmund of murdering Phyllis before shutting the door, locking him inside. Martin returns for Abigail, who snatches up Edmund's keys and hides them in a large ashtray before he can notice. Abigail leaves on her flight to New York, but returns the following morning when she receives a call on the plane from Veronica, who finds Edmund's dead body in the safe.

The police are already searching Abigail's manor when she returns. She meets Columbo, who is a fan of her literature. He is already aware of Phyllis's death, and believes that Edmund's death was not accidental since the safe's burglar alarm was switched on when Veronica opened the safe. Edmund could not have entered the safe unnoticed if the alarm was active. The police find several pieces of evidence, including the manuscript for Abigail's latest novel spread out on the floor, as well as six used matches and several crumpled pieces of apparently blank paper. Columbo also notes that Edmund removed his belt, and that the police found traces of black paint on both the belt buckle and under his fingernails.

Columbo and Abigail sit down to further discuss the case. Abigail offers her own theory to explain Edmund's presence in the safe: she states that Edmund snuck into the safe to steal money. She claims that she remembered she had left the burglar alarm off and called from the plane to tell her maid to switch it on, theorizing that Edmund realized the maid was coming and closed the door, accidentally locking himself in the safe and leading to his death. Columbo is called away and Abigail searches in the ashtray for Edmund's keys, but she cannot find them. Meanwhile, the police discover a footprint on the back porch which appears to match Edmund's shoe. Abigail arrives, offering an explanation for how Edmund entered her house: Phyllis told him where Abigail keeps her spare house key. Columbo says that the police found Edmund's car on the road, but cannot find his car keys, as they were not on the body. Abigail says she doesn't know where the keys are, and Columbo leaves.

That night, Abigail searches for Edmund's keys again. She learns from her maid Annie that she discovered the keys when she emptied out the ashtrays and gave them to Veronica, who claimed that they belonged to her. Abigail gives Veronica a draft of her upcoming speech for a women's club; neither of them mention anything about the keys. At the women's club meeting, Abigail is delivering her speech when Columbo enters and sits in. She notices Columbo's entrance and puts him on the spot, inviting him up to say a few words about his detective work. Afterwards, Columbo drives Abigail over to Edmund's apartment to help him with his investigation; he claims he is still searching for Edmund's car keys. During the search, Abigail mentions that she is leaving on a boat cruise in a few days, although Columbo says the police will require her presence in order to solve the case. Columbo makes a discovery upon searching Edmund's apartment: despite Abigail claiming that Edmund and Phyllis had a happy marriage, he can find no pictures of her in Edmund's apartment.

Later, Veronica approaches Abigail as she's trimming some flowers on her property. Veronica hands over Edmund's keys and uses this as leverage to get Abigail to take Veronica with her on her cruise. Columbo inspects Abigail's safe again, finding several scratch marks on a stack of safe deposit boxes. Martin enters and tries to convince Columbo to let Abigail go on her cruise. However, Columbo has other concerns: he asks about the crumpled pieces of paper the police found in the safe, and gets Martin to agree that there appears to be a piece missing from them. The next day, Columbo finds Veronica at a belly-dancing class and asks her about the circumstances of her discovery of Edmund's body. She says she was opening the safe to drop off the manuscript for Abigail's latest novel, which she had finished typing the night before as per Abigail's instructions. He also discovers that Veronica is now accompanying Abigail on her cruise.

He catches up with Abigail at a dock just as she is about to toss Edmund's car keys into the ocean. They talk about Phyllis's death and Columbo expresses his sympathies. She gives Columbo the keys and claims that she found them that morning in her backyard, beneath a bush and adjacent to a sprinkler. She says Edmund must have dropped them on his way into the house. The next day, the cruise ship prepares to take off and everyone wishes Abigail and Veronica farewell. Just before it leaves, Columbo comes aboard to retrieve Abigail. He reveals that when the police were photographing Edmund's footprint, they also photographed the location where Abigail claims she found Edmund's keys, and they are not present in the photographs. Abigail attributes her mistake to forgetfulness. He gets her to return to her house with him.

There, the two of them open Abigail's safe again and Columbo shows her the deposit boxes and their scratch marks. Columbo reasons that if Edmund was murdered, he would be aware of the killer's identity and would try to leave some sort of clue to whoever would find his body. The deposit boxes are painted black, matching the paint found on Edmund's belt buckle and fingernails. Abigail and Columbo try to arrange the deposit boxes to see if there is some sort of pattern to the scratches. After a few false starts, Columbo realizes that the scratches form an arrow pointed upwards, indicating a ceiling-mounted light bulb. He unscrews the bulb and finds a small piece of paper hidden in the socket. He finds that the paper fits between the other pieces of paper found in the safe, revealing that it is the title page to Abigail's manuscript. Edmund used one of his matches to rub out some of the title's words, leaving only the message: "I Was Murdered by Abigail Mitchell." This final piece of evidence convinces Columbo that Abigail murdered Edmund in revenge for Phyllis's death, and he arrests her. Commercials deleted.

Details

  • NETWORK: NBC
  • DATE: November 21, 1977 9:30 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 1:13:08
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: B:74424
  • GENRE: Drama, police/private detective
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police/private detective
  • SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1968-1978; ABC - 1989-2003
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Richard Alan Simmons … Producer
  • James Frawley … Director
  • Richard Levinson … Created by
  • William Link … Created by
  • Gene Thompson … Writer
  • Paul Tuckahoe … Writer
  • Pat Williams (See also: Patrick Williams) … Music by
  • Peter Falk … Cast, Columbo
  • Ruth Gordon … Cast, Abigail Mitchell
  • Mariette Hartley … Cast, Veronica
  • G. D. Spradlin … Cast, Martin Hammond
  • Charles Frank … Cast, Edmund Galvin
  • Mary Jackson … Cast, Annie
  • Jerome Guardino … Cast, Sergeant Burke
  • Marie Silva-Alexander … Cast, Dance Instructor