Season 4 started off with one of the best episodes of the entire series, An Exercise in Fatality.
📺Watch it here for free: An Exercise in Fatality on IMDB TV (May not be available in all regions)
Philip Bruns is Gene Stafford, the franchisee who gets wise to Milo's shenanigans and promises to expose him...earning himself a funeral in the process.
What to watch for
A few things I found notable or interesting in the episode.
Location Location Location
This whole episode hit close to my former home for me...
Milo Janus HQ
Located at 15720 Ventura Blvd. in Encino, it's just a couple of blocks down the street from 16000 Ventura, which is where I worked for a couple of years. In fact, if I recall correctly, there used to be a Tony Romas restaurant on the first floor of 15720, where some of my coworkers took me to lunch on my 21st birthday.
The Chatsworth Spa
I don't have an exact address on this one but I'm pretty sure it's located on De Soto in Chatsworth, and less than a mile north of where my company headquarters was in the early 90s.
The legendary Michael Lally
The great Michael Lally makes a more prominent than usual appearance in this episode. He's "Charlie", the guy on the exercise bike who greets Milo when he arrives at the Chatsworth club about 2-1/2 minutes into the episode.
For more screenshots like this check out Vagebond's Columbo Screenshots.
Milo puts the moves on Jessica
To set up his alibi Milo invites Jessica over to his place that evening. He needs her there because he plans to use a recording of Stafford to make it seem like he's still alive and the recording will undoubtedly greet her by name. (It would be weird if Buddy answered the phone and Gene said "Hello Jessica...) And he needs somebody who recognizes Stafford's voice to confirm that Stafford called.
Couple of small continuity issues in this scene. Her arms keep changing position in an unnatural way. Suggests they did multiple takes and didn't take care to make sure she posed the same way each time.
Later we'll talk about the typewriter.
Milo's magic driveway
Milo goes home to set up the recording and the phone. In the shot of his driveway when he's inside though Jessica's orange Vega is already there.
Later when Milo arrives for the party he parks his red Rolls right in front of the door...but the next morning when Columbo arrives to tell him about Gene, it's been moved up next to Jessica's car.
Mrs. Columbo calling
While he's at the crime scene Columbo gets a phone call. He takes it in Stafford's office and it's his wife. This is one of the more convincing signs that she really exists. She called him, not the other way around, so it's not a fake phone call (unless he had somebody stage a call to him, which is absurd).
Second, he's alone in Stafford's office, so he's not staging a fake conversation for the benefit of a suspect. In fact, there aren't any suspects in the building. At the time of the phone call Columbo isn't even sure if it's a homicide yet.
As I've said elsewhere, Mrs. Columbo is real, we just don't see her on screen.
Columbo meets Ruth
In scene 9 Columbo goes to meet Ruth Stafford. She's living at the Crestlane Apartments, unit 8c. Odd that Columbo didn't know that since when he arrives Ruth says somebody from the department had come by earlier to tell her about Gene.
Predictably Ruth is drinking. In fact, other than when she's laying in a hospital bed near the end of the episode, Ruth is drinking or drunk in every scene EXCEPT the scene where she's confronting Milo in the restaurant. There she throws her drink in Milo's face.
Milo invents cross-training
In scene 10 Columbo tracks down Milo on the beach where he's working out.
Fun fact: The beach he's walking onto is the same beach where Jim Rockford's trailer is parked for most of The Rockford Files.
It may be significant that Columbo is singing "This Old Man" as he walks. There is a school of thought that when Columbo whistles (or sings, I guess) that song it's a sign that he's figured out who the killer is.
We see Milo run and dive into the ocean...but then he's coming back out again as Columbo approaches. Either he was just jumping in to cool off or that was the shortest swim workout I've ever seen.
He does a few pushups, then heads off for a run, with Columbo in pursuit. During the rest of the scene he shadow boxes, dives into the pool, hits the speed bag, shadow boxes some more, jumps rope. Short attention span this one.
Milo makes an odd comment about Gene though. Says he was a "forget about the rules" guy who wanted to do things right away. Doesn't seem to fit with the buttoned down "corporate controller" image we saw of Gene. I guess Columbo never met him so maybe Milo could get away with that claim.
While they're chatting Columbo uses his "leave 'em hanging" technique to try and put Milo off balance. He mentions the scuff marks, then abruptly pivots to talking about Milo's antique furniture. It's a trademark Columbo move, though I'm not sure how often it actually works.
During the conversation Milo doubles down on his claim that Gene had already changed into his gym clothes. This will be a key point in the Gotcha, of course.
Tricon is always happy to cooperate
Scene 11 is an iconic scene (though not as iconic as Gretchen Corbett answering the door in her barely-there bikini) where Columbo goes to Tricon to try and track down Lewis (or Louis) Lacey.
Apparently, the episode had to be stretched in 2 hours so this scene was added. Falk enjoyed the scene in Blueprint for Murder where he's getting the runaround to different city offices and thought this was a chance to riff off that. And riff he did...the scene goes on for more than 4 minutes.
For a long time the identity of uncredited actress who plays the officious Tricon office lady was unknown...but author David Koenig finally was able to track her down. Her name is Ann Coleman and the Columbophile blog has the whole fascinating story.
Apparently, most of the scene was filmed separately, with the Coleman and Falk doing multiple takes of their dialog and the other actor not actually on the set for most of it. But they did meet, at least briefly.
The disappearing typewriter
When Columbo visits Milo's office and learns about Jessica recording all the calls, the typing table with the red typewriter has mysteriously vanished. Probably because it got in the way when Columbo walked around the desk to see the tape machine.
By the way, strikes me as sort of inefficient to keep the recorder in the desk drawer - given how often she has to use it. I guess she doesn't always close it between calls, so that's something.
Columbo loses his temper
It doesn't happen often, but Columbo fans enjoy it when it does. After Ruth ends up in the hospital Columbo drops his act and tells Milo what's up."What do you care? You don't care if she lives or dies. She's drinking because she thinks you're responsible for the death of her husband and you want to know something…so do I!"
"What the hell gives you the right, Columbo?"
"This sir, this is a warrant. This gives me the right."
Gotcha.
Just a few more things...
- Judging by the signs on the wall in the gym, the episode probably takes place in early May.
- Jude Farese does a nice job as Murphy the janitor. If he looks familiar that's because he was also the Highway Patrolman who gives Columbo directions in Season 3's Candidate for Crime.
- Likewise Pat Harrington Jr. turns in a good performance as Buddy. If Harrington looks familiar you might know him as Schneider the handyman from One Day at a Time.
- It's said that Gene met Milo thru their mutual friend, Buddy Castle. Buddy and Gene don't seem like the kind of guys who would be pals though.
- When Columbo talks with Buddy Castle outside the Chatsworth spa he deliberately mentions Lacey to see if he gets any reaction out of Buddy. He doesn't. Worth noting that Buddy probably doesn't know that Milo murdered Stafford.
- When Ruth tosses her drink in Milo's face at the "Sea Food Restaurant" (Why is "Seafood" two words?) the guy in the booth behind him reacts as if the drink got him too. Nice touch.
A couple of plot holes that bug me
Why did Milo remove the bulb from 6901? Seems odd that Stafford would call on the second line; most people only give out the first line. Why not remove the bulb from 6902, then call from that?
Milo never puts Gene's left hand on the barbell. When Nolan dusts for prints he would discover that either the bar was placed there, or Stafford was trying to press 180 lbs one-handed.
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