COLUMBO: THE MOST DANGEROUS MATCH (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.
Tomlin Dudek, former world chess champion from Eastern Europe, comes out of retirement to challenge the current champion, Emmett Clayton. Clayton grows increasingly anxious and neurotic as the day of the match approaches, partially since it was Dudek's sudden illness several years ago which allowed him to achieve his current chess ranking. He is also uncomfortable since the match was arranged by Linda Robinson, his ex-fiancée and the daughter of Dudek's closest friend. Clayton follows Dudek out of the hotel to a nearby French restaurant. There he and Dudek sit down to chat over a meal of escargot; Dudek suffers from several health problems such as diabetes, and relishes the opportunity to eat something other than the food prescribed for him by his physicians. As the meal progresses, the two of them put on an impromptu chess match using objects on the table as improvised chess pieces. During the match, Clayton reveals that he is virtually deaf without his hearing aid, and that he is an excellent lip-reader.
The two of them stay late into the evening, and it is clear that Dudek has the advantage over Clayton. Frustrated, Clayton proposes that they leave and they head back into the hotel together. Dudek wishes to avoid his strict coach and manager Berozski, so he and Clayton use the rear service entrance, passing by a large garbage disposal machine. After taking Dudek to his room and concealing him from an inquiring Berozski, Clayton and Dudek continue their match from the restaurant. Dudek plays out the remaining turns of the game, correctly anticipating all of Clayton's moves, resulting in victory for Dudek. After Dudek leaves, Clayton is overcome with rage and breaks his hearing aid in frustration. The next morning, Columbo is at the veterinarian's office hoping to fix his dog's ear infection. He was called in by the police last night on account of Berozski, worrying that Dudek may have gone missing, although it turned out to be a false alarm.
Clayton hatches a plan to murder Dudek, starting with placing a call posing as Dudek to an airline requesting a ticket on a flight to Mexico City. He then calls Dudek and tells him they must meet in the hotel lobby immediately, and Dudek agrees. When Dudek leaves, Clayton sneaks into his room and packs Dudek's suitcase full of his clothes and toiletries, and takes an official envelope from Dudek's home country as well. Clayton meets Dudek in the lobby and makes it seem as though he's gotten into trouble with a young woman from Dudek's country, asking him to write a non-specific apology note on behalf of him. When Dudek notices that Clayton has his suitcase, Clayton pushes Dudek through the service entrance and into the garbage disposal machine.
Columbo and the police arrive to investigate the murder attempt, and Columbo speaks to a cab driver sent from the airport to pick up Dudek. He then reports to Berozski, who insists that the fall was not an accident, since Dudek had no history of erratic behavior of this kind. Linda corroborates this story, saying it would be highly unlikely that Dudek would attempt to flee from the match with Clayton. Columbo searches through Dudek's suitcase before Clayton arrives with the note he had Dudek write, claiming that it was slipped under his door and presenting it so that it seems like an admission that he was vacating the match. Linda still does not believe such a thing. Columbo reveals that Dudek is still alive, but is in critical condition and is currently in surgery at a nearby hospital.
Upon further investigation, Columbo discovers garlic stains on Dudek's shirt and asks Berozski about it. Anton, Dudek's valet, notes that garlic was not on Dudek's prescribed menu the previous night, indicating that he went out to eat on his own. Berozski is extremely defensive, upset at the apparent implication that he failed in his duties, although Columbo tries to assuage him otherwise. Columbo also notes that he found a toothbrush packed in Dudek's suitcase, although Dudek wears dentures which cannot be cleaned in that manner. Anton recognizes the toothbrush as his own, which Columbo interprets to mean that Dudek couldn't have packed his own bag, leading him to suspect foul play.
Clayton visits the hospital, where Dudek's fate is still uncertain. He discovers that it will be 10-24 hours before Dudek is potentially conscious. He talks with Linda, who is there to deliver a list of Dudek's medications to the doctor. He tells her about his meeting with Dudek the previous night, claiming that he won their game and that it might have contributed to his erratic behavior. During the conversation, Clayton gets a brief look at the list of Dudek's medications. After they part ways, Clayton starts copying the medication list perfectly from memory, but he is forced to hide it when Columbo appears. He starts to leave the hospital, but Columbo catches up to him, returning his pen. He gives Clayton a ride back to the hotel, asking about the note supposedly written by Dudek. Columbo notes that while the envelope and seal were official stationery from Dudek's home country, the note itself was written on plain paper. Clayton dismisses this inconsistency as a byproduct of Dudek's irrational behavior. When Columbo mentions the toothbrush, Clayton also dismisses it as the error of a careless bellboy packing Dudek's bag. He asks why Clayton was a few minutes late to the chess match, and Clayton says he stopped off to get his hearing aid repaired.
Columbo takes Clayton to the French restaurant where he and Dudek ate the night before. Clayton wants to leave, deducing that Columbo only took him there because he showed the restaurant proprietor a photograph of Clayton and wanted to identify him. Columbo mentions the garlic stains found on Dudek's shirt, and Clayton says that Linda can corroborate his testimony as to the events in the restaurant. Columbo then produces Dudek's portable chess set, remarking that it is odd that they weren't packed with Dudek's things in his suitcase. He asks why Clayton told Linda about his meeting with Dudek and not the police, and Clayton claims that he beat Dudek in the impromptu chess match they had there, and thought it would be tasteless to reveal that information when his life is hanging in the balance. Columbo asks the restaurant proprietor about the chess match, but beyond observing that Dudek moved first he was unable to follow the match. Before he can ask any more questions, Columbo gets paged by the veterinarian and rushes over to pick up his dog.
Clayton and Columbo meet again at the hotel, and Columbo tells Clayton that Dudek is out of surgery and in stable condition. During their conversation, Clayton demonstrates his photographic memory to Columbo. He shows Clayton Dudek's chess journal, in which he recorded every match he ever played, including their game at the restaurant. He wrote no names in his journal, but merely states that black resigned at the end. Columbo notes that since the proprietor mentioned that Dudek moved first, that would make him white and thus invalidate Clayton's claim that he won the match. Clayton sharply denies that this is true. He sneaks back into Dudek's room and switches out the medicine in his cabinet just before Linda and Anton arrive to collect them.
Dudek goes into critical condition soon after receiving his injections, and Columbo arrives just before he dies. Columbo is unable to analyze the medication administered to him, as the syringes used were disposable. Clayton is informed of Dudek's death. Columbo speaks with Linda, asking about her delivery of the medications. He finds out from her that Clayton got a brief look at Dudek's medication list when they met in the hospital the previous day. While Columbo inspects the garbage disposal machine which Dudek fell into, his dog nearly falls in as well. However, a mechanic explains that if any object were to enter the machine while its safety switch was on, it would cease functioning until the switch was reversed.
With this newfound information, Columbo confronts Clayton, busy engaging multiple opponents in chess simultaneously. During all of this, Clayton recites all manner of arcane chess knowledge and history, which Columbo takes as proof that he could have memorized Dudek's medication list. He breaks Clayton's concentration and gets him to reveal that he copied down the list as well. Columbo also reveals that he was able to get a sample of the ink from Clayton's pen at the hospital; analyzing it revealed that it was the same one used to write "Dudek's" note. Clayton gets extremely flustered and angry. Columbo takes him to the garbage disposal machine and explains about the safety switch feature. The noise from the machine aggravates Clayton and he removes his hearing aid. At this, Columbo secretly has the machine switched off, revealing that Clayton could not hear whether the machine was switched on or off. Columbo points out that anyone else trying to murder Dudek would have realized that the machine had automatically switched off when he entered the disposal chute, and would have released the safety switch in order to finish the job. This, combined with all the other evidence, incriminates Clayton as the murderer. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: NBC
- DATE: March 4, 1973 8:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:13:45
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:74423
- 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
- Edward M. Abroms … Director
- Richard Levinson … Created by, Writer
- William Link … Created by, Writer
- Jackson Gillis … Writer
- Dick de Benedictis … Music by
- Henry Mancini … Theme Music by
- Peter Falk … Cast, Columbo
- Laurence Harvey … Cast, Emmett Clayton
- Lloyd Bochner … Cast, Mazoor Berozski
- Jack Kruschen … Cast, Tomlin Dudek
- Heidi Bruhl … Cast, Linda Robinson
- Paul Jenkins … Cast, Sergeant Douglas
- Michael Fox … Cast, Dr. Benson
- Oscar Beregi … Cast, Proprietor
- Mathias Reitz … Cast, Anton
- Drout Miller … Cast, 1st Reporter
- Manuel DePina … Cast, 2nd Reporter
- Stuart Nisbet … Cast, Dr. Sullivan
- Abigail Shelton … Cast, Nurse
- John Finnegan … Cast, 1st Workman