Troubled Waters

On February 9th, 1975, the 4th episode of season 4 aired. In Troubled Waters we find the Lieutenant, and his wife, on a cruise ship heading to Mexico. Joining them on the cruise is used car baron Hayden Danziger (played by Robert Vaughn), his wife Sylvia (played by Jane Greer), and a big group of passengers and crew.

Among those passengers and crew is voluptous songstress Rosanna Wells, played by Poupe'e Bocar who is supplementing her earnings by seducing and blackmailing Hayden.

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What to watch for

A few things I found interesting about the episode.

Falk from the start

This is one of the few Columbo episodes where we see and meet Columbo before the murder has occurred. In fact, the episode opens with the criuse ship at the dock and Columbo running along the pier. This is probably the earliest in any episode that we see Columbo.

It's also one of the few episodes where Columbo meets the murderer before the murder has even occurred.

Is my wife aboard?

One of the most convincing pieces of evidence that Mrs. Columbo exists happens right from the outset of this episode. Columbo boards the ship and immediately flags down the purser to ask if he's seen Mrs. Columbo. 

The rest of the episode hangs on this!

Don't overlook this scene. If Columbo doesn't meet the captain and purser in that opening, and tell them that he's an LAPD detective, they wouldn't have come looking for him when the murder happens and it's possible he never even learns of it until much later. Especially with the Captain so intent to keep it quiet from the passengers.

Actually, she's Italian

The ship that the episode was filmed on was called the "Sea Palace" on the show, but in real life it was called the "Sun Princess" at the time of filming. In fact, in the scene where Danziger throws the Curtis Clipper overboard you can see a lifeboard in the background with the ship's real name on the bow.

Though Purser Watkins says that the ship was built in Norway (hence the Ving locks) the ship was actually built in Italy, and finished at a UK shipyard.  There might have been some confusion because it was originally ordered by Norwegian Cruise Lines, though they sold it before it was launched and it was being operated by Princess Cruise Lines when the episode was filmed.

Just a baby

The Sun Princess was practically new when Columbo was filmed aboard. Launched May 11th, 1972 she was barely 2-1/2 years old when the episode was filmed.

A tragic end

Eventually the ship was renamed to the Ocean Dream and operated between China and Vietnam. On February 27th, 2016 she capsized and sank off the coast of Thailand, where she had been abandoned about a year before.

More evidence for Mrs. Columbo

As the ship is leaving port Columbo runs into Danziger in the arcade and asks him if there's room service aboard. It's a chance meeting for the soon-to-be adversaries, but it also gives more evidence for the existance of Mrs. Columbo. Columbo tells Danziger that his wife is hungry and lunch is still more than an hour away. 

Danziger WILL be the killer...but he's not the killer yet and Columbo would have no way of knowing the random fellow passenger was on his way to commit a murder. Danziger doesn't even know Columbo is a cop...so no reason for Columbo to invent a fake wife for his benefit.

Lally in the Galley

The legendary Michael Lally makes at least a couple of appearances in this episode. The first is at the beginning, in the scene where Rosanna and Lloyd have their argument. He brings the check to the table for Artie and Melissa.

Later you'll see him again when Columbo and Danzinger are having a drink.

By the way...

Other than the smoking I found Melissa more attractive than Rosanna and I initially wondered why Lloyd didn't woo her instead. Then I noticed she's wearing a ring.

Let's talk about the Volare in the room

Maybe the thing this episode is most notable for is Poupe'e Bocar's endless rendition of Volare. Officially it's 6-1/2 minutes of TV time, but since quite a bit of that is Hayden getting out of bed, stealing gloves, running to the crew laundry, running to her room...it was probably at least twice that long in real time.

When Dean Martin sings Volare, it's only about 3 minutes long.

By the way, did you notice that when she takes the microphone away from her mouth to offer it to a passenger to sing, the volume of her voice doesn't change?

An L too far?

After shooting her, Hayden uses Rosanna's lipstick to write an "L" on the mirror to implicate Lloyd. This is a good example of pushing the frame too far.

Columbo and the doctor are right that she probably couldn't have written it before she died, and if Lloyd had seen her write it, he would have wiped it off before he left. 

Columbo is a bad shot

A common error is that folks remember Columbo has having fired the gun into the mattress on deck to get a round for a ballstics check. Actually he had Danzinger do it.

"I hate guns. Besides, I'm a bad shot and likely to miss." -Columbo

For more on if and when Columbo carried a gun on the series see Does Columbo carry a gun? (acolumboblog.blogspot.com) 

Just a few more things

• The captain says Danzinger's guests are "104 gentlemen and their ladies" and the purser says they have "over 500 passengers" on board. Which means the Danzinger party is roughly 40% of the passengers.
• The woman who offers Hayden a margarita, just before his fake heart attack, is apparently Peter Falk's personal assistant in real life.
• A lot of the "extras" in the scenes were actually just passengers on the cruise.
• Did Mrs. Danzinger even visit him in the sick bay?
• Columbo makes a recurring joke out of the claim that "I've never been on a boat before" but in real life Peter Falk spent 18 months in the Merchant Marines.
• Does Rosanna just do the one song? At one point Lloyd says "She just did her song and went back to her cabin". Despite that fact that it seems to last 20 minutes, it seems odd to pay and carry a singer whose only on stage for one number.
• One of the few episodes where you don't see Columbo's famous car or any other cops/detectives.

A few problems (mostly small)

• Melissa gives him a tranquilizer at 11:00 (which he only pretends to take) but then comes back to wake him up and check his vitals at 11:30? Seems like the tranquillizer would have affected his vital signs in ways that make the measurement sort of irrelevant.
• When Curtis Credel is doing his show - the entire purpose of which was to show that there was another gun on board that Hayden would use later to make the phony gloves - it looks like Lloyd is at the piano in the background. But he was supposed to be confined to quarters.
• Continuity goof - When Columbo is checking the pool for the Amyl Nitrite capsules he climbs over a little railing to access the pool. When he starts to climb over there are two people sitting on the pool deck to his left. When the camera changes to show him on the deck looking at the filter those people are gone. When he pulls the filter out of the water and splashes water on his pants...they're back again.

This article was written by a person, with a little help from Microsoft Copilot.