COLUMBO: DOUBLE SHOCK {SECOND SEASON FINALE} (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.

Clifford Paris, a wealthy tycoon, is getting married to Lisa, a much younger woman, much to the distress of his housekeeper Mrs. Peck. His nephew Dexter Paris, a chef with a weekly cooking show on television, congratulates his uncle, although his twin brother Norman does not arrive, feeling more reservations about the impending marriage. After That night, after Mrs. Peck locks up the place either Dexter or Norman pretending to be Dexter sneaks in, switches off the burglar alarm, and kills Clifford by electrocuting him in the bathtub with an electric mixer especially modified for the task. After he sneaks out, Lisa arrives to go to see Clifford and she discovers his dead body on an electric bicycle in his gym, slumped over the handlebars as the device continues to pedal. Columbo arrives to investigate; the police believe he died of a heart attack, although Lisa insists that was in good health. Columbo inspects Clifford’s gym and Mrs. Peck soon becomes hysterical when he accidentally breaks some of Clifford’s things. Dexter returns as Columbo discovers evidence that Clifford recently used his bathtub. Columbo questions Dexter and Mrs. Peck, showing them a damp towel he discovered in the bathroom hamper. The uncertainty of the matter leads Columbo to suspect foul play, and he orders that an autopsy be performed on Clifford’s body despite Dexter’s opposition to the idea.

Down in Clifford’s gym, Columbo and Dexter look around and Columbo is suspicious that Clifford apparently transitioned from a fencing match with his lawyer Michael straight to a session on the electric bicycle. They also look over the bathroom and Columbo points out the signs of recent use. The police find a footprint outside one of the house’s windows belonging to a flatfoot, and Columbo gets Dexter to admit that both he and Norman have flat feet. Norman arrives and Columbo realizes that they are identical twins, and both of them stand to inherit their uncle’s vast fortune. The autopsy reveals that Clifford fell victim to ventricular fibrillation, and Columbo tells Norman this at his workplace, a bank where he serves as a vice president. He is coldly logical and uptight in sharp contrast to Dexter, and insists that he had no designs on his uncle’s money, although he believes Dexter is the culprit. Next Columbo questions Lisa at her apartment, but she quickly becomes uncomfortable when she believes that Columbo views her as a suspect. Columbo assures her that this is not the case, since he cannot discern any motive she might have had for Clifford’s death. Nevertheless, she asks him to leave and he does.

Columbo attends a taping of Dexter’s cooking show and ends up getting called up to the stage as a “volunteer” to help him with a dish. After the show Columbo talks to Dexter about Clifford’s death, noting that the police have established that he died from a sudden electrical shock. Furthermore, Columbo is on to the truth that Clifford’s death was caused by an electric mixer dropped into his bathtub; he found out that Dexter recently ordered a pair of such mixers. Dexter shows him the mixers and believes Norman is trying to shift the blame to him and that he is insincere about his lack of interest in his uncle’s fortune. Dexter takes Columbo with him to reveal that Norman, despite claiming that he had a business trip, actually went to Las Vegas to gamble. Dexter impersonates Norman briefly to a casino teller to show Columbo that Norman has extensive gambling debts, establishing a more compelling motive for him to try to acquire his uncle’s fortune. Dexter reveals himself and Columbo to Norman, and Dexter and Norman play a quick round of craps against each other.

Back in Los Angeles, Columbo and Mrs. Peck look through Clifford’s extensive art collection along with Michael Hathaway, Clifford’s lawyer, business manager, and close personal friend. He has a rather low opinion of both Dexter and Norman, and Columbo admits that the suspects them both of being the culprit and is unsure of which one did it. Columbo notes Lisa’s defensiveness when he questioned her, but Michael does not believe she had any reason to aid either brother. Michael has a reasonable alibi to his whereabouts during Clifford’s murder, but Columbo points out that he could have hired someone or arranged for Clifford to be murdered. Mrs. Peck continues to get hysterical when Columbo accidentally messes up several of Clifford’s possessions, and Columbo feels embarrassed and tries to apologize, which she accepts. He questions her about the night of Clifford’s murder and asks her for any further details, no matter how insignificant. She notes that the television she was watching went off briefly at 8:05 PM and that the color somehow got messed up when it came back on. Columbo inspects the set but she throws him out when he accidentally breaks a knob on the set.

Michael reveals to Norman that Clifford left a will leaving the bulk of his estate to Lisa. He points out that only three copies of the will exist: two of them are in his possession and one is in Lisa’s. He offers to persuade Lisa to give him her copy, thus allowing Clifford’s money to be inherited by his nephews, in exchange for Norman signing a contract hiring Michael as his business manager and attorney. He secretly makes the same deal with Dexter and calls Lisa, who tells him that Columbo has been snooping around and asking her questions lately. Michael convinces her that the police believe she is a prime suspect and will inevitably arrest her. He uses this to persuade her that her copy of the will could be used as incriminating evidence and she eagerly agrees to hand it over to him that night. Dexter signs a contract hiring Michael as his attorney. Michael goes to visit Lisa but finds her apartment empty and her copy of the will laid out on her coffee table. He pockets it and looks out of her balcony, finding Lisa’s dead body on the street below. Michael tries to flee but runs into a police officer who stops him.

Columbo interrogates Dexter, suspecting that since he was aware of the meeting between Michael and Lisa, that he could have gone in himself beforehand and pushed Lisa off the balcony to kill her. Dexter vehemently denies this; Columbo produces the contract he signed with Michael to retain his services, as well as the similar contract signed by Norman. Dexter claims that he spoke with Norman earlier that day on the phone, and that he informed Norman of the meeting between Michael and Lisa. However, he believes that Michael and Lisa are responsible for Clifford’s death, but that their deal went sour afterwards. Columbo performs an experiment at Clifford’s house involving shorting out the power and turning it on again, which causes similar results as the night of Clifford’s murder, including the mysterious discoloration of Mrs. Peck’s television set. An enraged Mrs. Peck hires a television repairman, and Columbo feels guilty about enraging her yet again.

He comes back later on while Norman and Dexter are trying to divide up their uncle’s art collection. He brings both of them to the bathroom and asks Norman to try to lift him out of the bathtub. He cannot do so owing to a lack of proper leverage. Columbo then recreates the electrical surge which killed Clifford by dropping an electric mixer into the tub, and then bringing the assembled party downstairs with him to the fuse box. He explains his reasoning: someone would have had to let the killer in so that he could deactivate the burglar alarm. Columbo reveals that he checked with the phone company, and that they report that Norman and Dexter have spoken over the phone quite frequently as of late, contradicting their stories about their lack of communication with each other over the years. Further evidence is revealed when Columbo records that it would take 67 seconds for a single person to go to the fuse box and switch the power back on after the electrocution, but that on the night of the murder the power was off for only 15 seconds, suggesting that multiple people were involved, especially since multiple people would be necessary to lift Clifford’s body out of the bathtub. Norman and Dexter admit that they are the culprits and are taken away by the police. Commercials deleted.

Details

• NETWORK: NBC
• DATE: March 25, 1973 8:30 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 1:13:40
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: B:60801
• 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

• Dean Hargrove … Producer
• Edward K. Dodds … Associate Producer
• Robert Butler … Director
• Richard Levinson … Created by, Writer
• William Link … Created by, Writer
• Steven Bochco … Writer
• Jackson Gillis … Writer
• Dick de Benedictis … Music by
• Henry Mancini … Theme Music by
• Peter Falk … Cast, Columbo
• Martin Landau … Cast, Dexter Paris, Norman Paris
• Jeanette Nolan … Cast, Mrs. Peck
• Tim O'Connor … Cast, Michael Hathaway
• Julie Newmar … Cast, Lisa Chambers
• Paul Stewart … Cast, Clifford Paris
• Dabney Coleman … Cast, Detective Murray
• Kate Hawley … Cast, Mrs. Johnson
• Michael Richardson … Cast, Young Lawyer
• Robert Rothwell … Cast, 2nd Detective
• Gregory Morton … Cast, Older Lawyer
• Tony Cristino … Cast, Stickman