COLUMBO: A STITCH IN CRIME (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. The elderly doctor Edmund Hiedeman is taken to the Los Angeles hospital where he works after he complains of chest pains, possibly owing to a disease in his aorta. Dr. Barry Mayfield intercepts a telegram for Dr. Hiedeman concerning his research project with another doctor involving discovering a means of counteracting tissue rejection in organ transplants. Dr. Mayfield asks if Dr. Hiedeman is ready to go public with his discovery, but he says he is not, as the project requires further testing in order to be deemed safe, although Dr. Mayfield is worried that another research team will go public before them and take the credit for themselves. When he learns about Dr. Hiedeman’s condition, Dr. Mayfield insists on performing an operation on him immediately to replace his diseased heart valve, and Dr. Hiedeman gives his consent. He then gives his nurse, Sharon Martin, the telegram and assures her that Dr. Hiedeman will be all right. However, Sharon is concerned when she discovers that the telegram has already been opened and that Dr. Mayfield has had it in his possession for over an hour. She informs Dr. Hiedeman of what she believes Dr. Mayfield was up to, calling him an “opportunist,” but Dr. Hiedeman says he values Dr. Mayfield’s skill and contributions. Dr. Mayfield begins the operation and Sharon seems worried throughout, although the surgery is completed without any apparent difficulty. While cleaning up, Sharon notices a length of suture beneath the operating table, which further stokes her suspicions about Dr. Mayfield’s motives. She believes that it is somehow not suture, and that Dr. Mayfield may have tried to do something during the operation to cause Dr. Hiedeman’s death in order to take over his research project. Acting on her suspicions she plans to meeting with someone the following day to report on Dr. Mayfield. That night, Dr. Mayfield corners Sharon in the hospital parking lot and beats her to death with a tire iron, taking the length of suture from her purse. Her body is found in the morning and the police arrive to investigate, including Columbo. Meanwhile, Dr. Mayfield uses the keys he got from Sharon’s purse to enter her apartment and ransack it. Columbo meets with Dr. Mayfield in his office and asks him about Sharon before he leaves to check on Dr. Heideman. Columbo notes that Dr. Mayfield was resetting his desk clock as he received news of Sharon’s death, raising his suspicions. While checking up on Dr. Hiedeman, Dr. Mayfield tells him about Sharon’s death. Columbo questions Sharon’s roommate Marcia, but does not learn anything useful. The police find several small jars of morphine hidden beneath Sharon’s bathroom sink, although they are mystified as to their significance. Columbo arrives at a party held at Dr. Mayfield’s upscale house and questions him about the ransacking of Sharon’s apartment and the morphine bottles. He produces a note written by Sharon while she was on the phone not long before her murder, referring to an individual identified only as “Mac.” He voices a hypothesis that Sharon may have been taking drugs from the hospital and was killed and robbed by a crazed addict. Columbo notes the lack of fingerprints around Sharon’s apartment, which seemingly contradicts his prior hypothesis. After Columbo leaves, Dr. Mayfield calls Marcia and asks her to take a walk on the beach with him. He gets her to shift her suspicions towards Harry Alexander, a patient who Sharon worked with as part of her volunteer work at a veteran’s association clinic. He asks her to go to the police about this and takes her home, secretly watched by Columbo. He reveals himself and accompanies her back to her apartment, where he asks her about Sharon’s personal life. He learns about Marcia’s discussion with Dr. Mayfield about Harry, and says he will try to locate him, noting that it was Dr. Mayfield who first brought up the subject. Columbo visits Dr. Heideman, still recovering from his surgery but insisting on continuing his research work despite his condition. Dr. Heideman says that Sharon seemed upset in the hours preceding her death, but Dr. Mayfield interrupts and asks Columbo to leave and let Dr. Heideman recover. He talks to Dr. Mayfield about Harry, but he knows very little about him. The police find Harry and Columbo speaks to him at his job at a petting zoo. He claims that he hasn’t seen Sharon in over six months, and says that he is no longer on any kind of drugs, rejecting Columbo’s postulation. Harry explains that he and Sharon became close during his time in withdrawal therapy, but that Sharon broke off their relationship because she felt that it was based on his addiction and felt that it would be better for him if they went their separate ways. Columbo also discovers that Harry met Dr. Mayfield once, and that he is not the “Mac” Sharon referred to in her note. Dr. Mayfield comes upon Columbo rooting through the trash in his office. Columbo notes that he no longer believes Sharon’s death was drug-related, and that the morphine bottles were planted to serves as a red herring. Dr. Mayfield becomes defensive, believing that Colubmo is insinuating that he is responsible. Columbo insists this is not the case, but points out that Sharon was reportedly still upset about something even after Dr. Heideman’s surgery. That night, Dr. Mayfield breaks into Harry’s apartment and ambushes him, knocking him unconscious and injecting him with drugs. Harry later awakens in a drug-fueled stupor and falls down a flight of stairs to his death. However, this still fails to convince Columbo that Harry was behind Sharon’s murder. He points out that Harry was left-handed and the drugs were injected into his left arm, which makes it seem unlikely that he did it himself. He confronts Dr. Mayfield with these findings; he attempts to shift the suspicion to Marcia and points out to Columbo that he would have had no reason to kill Sharon. While speaking with Dr. Heideman, Columbo has an epiphany and realizes that “Mac” refers to a medical supply company. Columbo calls the company and asks about Sharon’s inquiry, learning that she made an appointment with one of their chemists just before she died. Columbo discovers from the hospital records that suture is the only item bought from the company with any chemical composition. He learns that there are two kinds of suture: permanent, which lasts indefinitely, and dissolving, which is designed to come apart after a few days. Furthermore, he learns that heart valve operations always use permanent suture, and that dissolving suture would be extremely hazardous for the patient in such a context, causing death a few days after the operation. Columbo recommends to Dr. Hiedeman that he get another specialist to inspect him, but Dr. Mayfield interrupts again and throws him out of the recovery room. Columbo speaks to Dr. Mayfield about the suture varieties and the potential consequences if dissolving suture had been used in Dr. Hiedeman’s operation; Dr. Mayfield notes that it would be impossible to make such a mistake, as the suture types have different colors. Columbo points out that dye could be used to replace one type of suture with the other, and that this deception could have spurred Sharon to investigate by calling the manufacturer as she did. He directly accuses Dr. Mayfield of murdering Sharon and attempting to murder Dr. Heideman, but he denies this, claiming that Columbo has no proof to back up his claim. He warns that if Dr. Heideman dies, an autopsy would reveal if dissolving suture was used and thus implicate Dr. Mayfield. When Columbo leaves, Dr. Mayfield secretly pours something into Dr. Heideman’s medication which causes his condition to rapidly deteriorate. Dr. Mayfield determines that the new valve is not operating properly, and he is taken to surgery again to replace it. Columbo watches the operation from the viewing area and interrupts just before Dr. Heideman can be moved out of the operating theater. Columbo insists on having the police laboratory inspect the sutures Dr. Mayfield just removed from Dr. Heideman. However, the police search does not reveal anything of note and the medical staff present claim that the sutures used were appropriate for the type of surgery performed. Dr. Mayfield believes that he has won out over Columbo, but at the last second Columbo reveals that he pocketed the discarded suture, and that he knows Dr. Mayfield was the killer based on his reactions to Columbo’s presence. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: February 11, 1973 8:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:13:42
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:74419
- 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
- Hy Averback … Director
- Richard Levinson … Created by
- William Link … Created by
- Shirl Hendryx … Writer
- Billy Goldenberg … Music by
- Henry Mancini … Theme Music by
- Peter Falk … Cast, Columbo
- Leonard Nimoy … Cast, Dr. Barry Mayfield
- Anne Francis … Cast, Nurse Sharon Martin
- Nita Talbot … Cast, Marcia Dalton
- Will Geer … Cast, Dr. Edmund Heideman
- Aneta Corsault … Cast, Nurse Morgan
- Jared Martin … Cast, Harry Alexander
- Victor Millan … Cast, Detective Flores
- Kenneth Sansom … Cast, Paul
- Murray MacLeod … Cast, Dr. Simpson
- Leonard Simon … Cast, Dr. Michaelson
- Ron Stokes … Cast, Tom
- Patsy Garrett … Cast, Cleaning Woman