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Post by Nalkarj on Mar 14, 2018 15:31:52 GMT
I first wrote this in the “Favorite TV Mystery Shows” thread, but it’d be better here, obviously. Preemptory thanks, everyone… This one’s annoying me.
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Post by RiP, IMDb on Mar 14, 2018 17:27:40 GMT
I first wrote this in the “Favorite TV Mystery Shows” thread, but it’d be better here, obviously. Pre-emptive thanks, everyone… This one’s annoying me.
*Similar to the works of Freeman Wills Crofts (1879-1957), a Golden Age mystery author whose plots often center on elaborate false alibis that detectives figure out by perusing transportation (plane, boat, often train) schedules. The Columbo Phile
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Post by Nalkarj on Mar 14, 2018 17:38:19 GMT
RiP, IMDbI think the episode you’re referring to is “Murder by the Book”? It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I don’t think that’s the one. The alibi there has to do with a faked phone call; the one I’m thinking of has to do with a private plane. There’s also something, if I’m remembering correctly, about the killer faking the time the private plane either arrived or departed; Columbo sees that the killer erased the actual time in the records book.
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Post by Nalkarj on Mar 14, 2018 17:45:02 GMT
I guess it could have been some show other than Columbo, but I really thought it was a Columbo episode…
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Post by Doghouse6 on Mar 15, 2018 1:06:59 GMT
RiP, IMDb I think the episode you’re referring to is “Murder by the Book”? It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I don’t think that’s the one. The alibi there has to do with a faked phone call; the one I’m thinking of has to do with a private plane. There’s also something, if I’m remembering correctly, about the killer faking the time the private plane either arrived or departed; Columbo sees that the killer erased the actual time in the records book. Pretty much flying blind here, but I recall that the first episode of the series proper, Ransom For A Dead Man (1971), involved lawyer and suspect Lee Grant who was also a pilot owning and flying her own plane, and something to do with a newfangled gadget about the size of a suitcase that recorded telephone messages and came to be known as an "answering machine." Could that have been it, or am I another "Wrong-Way Corrigan?"
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Post by Nalkarj on Mar 15, 2018 1:35:56 GMT
Thanks, Doghouse6, but I know that one as well. I reached out to someone at a Columbo fan site; if she doesn’t know it, then I guess I’m thinking of something else. Between this and the “horse in bed” bit, huh?
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Post by BATouttaheck on Mar 15, 2018 2:32:56 GMT
Nalkarj While we are here waiting for a solution to the main inquiry, may I interrupt the proceedings with a small question (or twain) ? (Am hearing no MAJOR OBJECTIONS) : In No Time To Die (1992) where Columbo attends the wedding of his nephew, who is also with the LAPD. Suddenly it turns out that the bride is missing, possibly kidnapped. Columbo sets up the investigation to figure out what happened. 1) Columbo carries (and uses) a gun. As far as you know, iIs this the only episode where he is thusly armed ? 2) Is this the only episode where we (the viewers) do not see the crime and perpetrator right at the start of the program so that we know "who-dunnit" right from the get-go?
Somehow I don't think that these answers will prove as elusive as that singer person !
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Post by Nalkarj on Mar 15, 2018 3:04:28 GMT
Well, BATouttaheck … I actually know these two, amusingly enough! 1. I haven’t seen “No Time to Die,” but I do know that Columbo doesn’t usually carry a gun. There’s a scene in an early episode, if I’m remembering correctly, in which he states that he hates firearms. Wikipedia informs me that “No Time to Die” and “Undercover” are based on Ed McBain novels, so I suppose that’s why the character may be somewhat “off.” 2. Spoilers, but… There is more than one episode in which this is a twist, so that’s this spoiler: two early episodes, “Last Salute to the Commodore” and “Double Shock,” are both disguised whodunits—you think you know who the killer is early on, like most Columbo episodes, but it’s not actually that person (for two very different reasons that I won’t spoil). There’s also another later episode, “Columbo Cries Wolf,” in which the whole plot is a surprise. Oh! and in “Columbo Goes to the Guillotine,” we know the killer from the get-go, as usual, but we don’t know how he killed his victim, and we don’t know how he really figured out some information, apparently by psychic powers.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Mar 15, 2018 3:31:31 GMT
Thanks Nalkarj... they showed the kidnap episode this weekend and I did notice the Ed McBain notation just as it vanished ... not my favorite episode as it was too much like any other cop show and lacked that Columbo special touch. I like the "we know and he has to figure it out" aspect of the Columboes . Best of luck on your quest ... to which we now return you !
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Post by The Herald Erjen on Mar 15, 2018 9:53:18 GMT
Could it have been an episode of Ellery Queen? The series wasn't on very long, so looking through all the episodes wouldn't be a major task. I would do it, but the hour is late.
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Post by Nalkarj on Mar 15, 2018 14:41:56 GMT
Thanks kindly, The Herald Erjen, but I know EQ fairly well, and it’s not one of those.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Mar 15, 2018 14:45:18 GMT
Thanks, Doghouse6 , but I know that one as well. I reached out to someone at a Columbo fan site; if she doesn’t know it, then I guess I’m thinking of something else. Between this and the “horse in bed” bit, huh? You're racking up the unsolved mysteries; I wonder if there's the premise of a TV series in there somewhere.
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Post by BATouttaheck on Mar 15, 2018 18:02:56 GMT
Well Nalkarj ...as the old saying goes "Better a horse in the bed than a horses's head in the bed".
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Post by Nalkarj on Mar 15, 2018 20:39:06 GMT
You're racking up the unsolved mysteries; I wonder if there's the premise of a TV series in there somewhere. The Office of Strange Science, perhaps?
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Post by novastar6 on Mar 15, 2018 20:58:17 GMT
It's not the pilot, Prescription: Murder, is it?
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Post by Nalkarj on Mar 15, 2018 22:29:53 GMT
I don’t think so, novastar6 —I checked that a little while ago while looking for yet another unsolved mystery (ugh…), and I don’t think that’s the one. As always, thanks, though!
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Post by Doghouse6 on Mar 15, 2018 23:37:58 GMT
You're racking up the unsolved mysteries; I wonder if there's the premise of a TV series in there somewhere. The Office of Strange Science, perhaps? We've lately been seeing episodes of the British-produced Karloff series of the '50s, Colonel March Of Scotland Yard (which I'd never seen), based on your old avatar's The Department of Queer Complaints stories. Cursory but brisk and good-natured, and although Karloff seems to be phoning it in some of the time, it benefits greatly from his charm.
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Post by Nalkarj on Mar 16, 2018 1:03:14 GMT
Ah, yes, Colonel March… May I ask where you found the episodes, Doghouse6 ? They all used to be online (I think they’re in public domain), but now I can only find one or two of them. No, they’re certainly not great, but one or two of them are quite good, I thought, and I agree with you about Karloff. (He’s rather better in the far-superior Thriller, though—seems to be having much more fun with that show.) I was surprised, when I first found out about them, that those were the ones he adapted; Carr wrote the Queer Complaints stories just on the side for some quick cash, if I’m not mistaken, and they’re not really his best work. (Carr’s detectives were never all that well-done—his heroes, heroines, and supporting characters are much better—but Marsh is completely colorless; Karloff gave him a bit of character, at least.) The Crooked Hinge, which has such cinematic elements as a flashback to the Titanic, circuses, an automaton, and a watched murder, would work great for a movie, I always thought—oh, well.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Mar 16, 2018 4:29:37 GMT
Ah, yes, Colonel March… May I ask where you found the episodes, Doghouse6 ? They've been running on a network that calls itself Decades, which I understand is partially owned by CBS and appears primarily on the digital sub-channels of their O&Os and affiliates (which is where we get it) around the country. There's a chart and search function at their site to help viewers find it in their markets: www.decades.com/wheretowatch I think they've so far run no more than half of the 26 episodes produced, as part of a "Lost TV" programming block of little-seen-or-remembered series. As once die-hard fans of the original X-Files series, we've had fun watching this forerunner and, in a way, found it more satisfying at least for its "everything gets explained" conclusions. Not that we routinely require tidy wrap-ups to any story, but the coyness with which The X-Files dragged out "the truth is out there" teases, particularly where it concerned its recurring "mythology" story arcs, became pretty tiresome by the demise of its first incarnation.
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Post by Nalkarj on Mar 16, 2018 15:14:54 GMT
Doghouse6 Ah, didn’t know Decades was running it. Thanks! I only got into The X-Files about a year ago; it had never seemed “my thing,” as I’m not a big sci-fi fan, but I really enjoyed the most of the episodes I’ve seen so far. Still haven’t made it past the first season, though! (I particularly loved “Ice,” “Beyond the Sea,” and “Eve.”)
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