A Trace of Murder

On May 15th, 1997, the second episode of Season 13 premiered - A Trace of Murder. Of course, in the later years the whole concept of "seasons" got a little dodgy since Columbo wasn't so much a series at that point as a set of TV movies - often just one or two airing in a year.

Starting David Rasche as double-crossing criminologist Patrick Kinsley, and Mrs. Peter Falk, Shera Danese, in her sixth, final, and probably most substantial role as Cathleen Calvert - the scheming wife.

Barry Corbin really shines as Clifford Calvert, the obnoxious millionaire husband who gets framed for the murder.

📺Watch it for free, on Tubi TV here: Watch Columbo S14:E01 - A Trace of Murder - Free TV Shows | Tubi (tubitv.com)

What to watch for

A few things I found interesting or notable about this episode.

Something off about Patrick?

I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's just something about David Rasche's performance that just didn't quite resonate for me. I don't know if it's his voice, his intonations...just felt a kind of unnatural. And I do normally like Rasche quite a bit.

For that matter...

Shera was ok, but I've always felt like Shera plays the same character in every Columbo episode. Was Cathleen Calvert a different person than Geraldine Ferguson from Undercover? Or Trish Fairbanks from Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star?

They all seem like the same person just dropped into a different scenario.

In case you weren't aware, Shera Danese is in real life Mrs. Peter Falk.

Barry Corbin carries the episode

Corbin is terrific as the acerbic tycoon husband that Cathleen tries to frame to get out of her marriage with his money.

He manages to be both quite rude, and quite likeable at the same time, and his performance feels very natural.

Tracy Rose lives up to her name

Anybody notice that Howard Seltzer's attorney, Tracy Rose (played by Donna Bullock) decorated her office with pictures of roses?

A slower ride

It's hard to think of an episode that rolls deeper before Columbo really has a suspect he feels good about. It's nearly an hour into this 90-minute episode before he starts sniffing around Cathleen and then has the realization that Cathleen and Pat know each other.

The great unknown

Pat tells Cathleen he's been working on homicides for 15 years. Even if he was only teaching at the academy, you would think he'd still have heard of the homicide detective who put away Deputy Commissioner Halperin and Nelson Hayward. The detective who caught Big Fred's killer and solved the murder of movie star Adam Evans. He caught legendary artist Max Barsini and legendary director Alex Brady.

But he and the 15-year forensics guy in his department haven't met?

And what's with the DA?

Also, the DA in this episode seems awfully dismissive of Columbo. You'd think that the guy who has solved so many high-profile cases would get a little more respect/leeway when he asks for a little extra time on a case.

I mean jeeze, he got Hugh Creighton out of the courtroom. She owes him one.

Both too much, and not enough, Barney

Columbo occasional John Finnegan has a small role reprising Barney the diner owner. Unfortunately, he's only on screen for a few minutes and most of those minutes are spent in the final filler scene.

Speaking of that final filler scene

Just when you thought it was all wrapped up Columbo is back at Barney's to spend the better part of 6 minutes explaining to Barney and John (and the audience) how he figured out that Pat and Cathleen knew each other. Maybe I'm a bit biased because I've seen the episode many times and discussed it with other Columbo fans, but that whole thing felt unnecessary and a bit condescending.

My first impulse seeing the scene, especially that it's close to 6 minutes long, was that they ran out of script before they had enough minutes of show and needed something to get the episode to the end of the time slot the network wanted.

A couple of winks, pun intended, to Falk's eye

This episode contains the most obvious reference to the fact that Peter Falk has a glass eye. When Columbo invites Pat to come along to his interview with Cathleen, Columbo chirps "Three eyes are better than one" as he's leaving.

While it's well-known that Falk lost his right eye as a child and has always had a glass eye (and a small scar over his right eye) it's never been evident that Columbo doesn't have two eyes. (they've never claimed he did either, it's just never come up).

This little inside joke isn't conclusive evidence that Columbo has a glass eye either, could have just been a malapropism, but it's clever.

Speaking of winks - towards the end of the episode when Pat is trying to reassure Cathleen he refers to Columbo as "...a little goofy" and he winks his right eye.

Might have just been a facial tic or mannerism...but it occurs to me that it might also have been a subtle reference to Falk only having one eye.

Pat overshares

In scene 16 we're back to Seltzer's house because Pat is concerned about the missing cigar end and Columbo is independently concerned about the missing cat. Both are found.

When the cat leads them to the missing cigar end Pat does something dumb...he says that he returned to the house because he thought he saw something in the ashtray at the crime scene and wanted to find it. The problem is that it was presumably the cat who moved the cigar end to the laundry room and the cat ran out of the house when Officer Will responded to the alarm. The cat hasn't been back in the house until just now, so Pat couldn't have seen the cigar end in the ashtray at the scene...unless he was the one who put it there.

Hello again, Vincent

If John the busboy at Barney's looks familiar that's because he's Vincent McEveety and he's had bit parts as policemen in two other episodes: A Bird in the Hand, and It's All in the Game.

And does Officer Will seem familiar?

If so that's because he's Will Nye, who also played a cop in the movie Clue, and a deputy on a dozen or so episodes of Murder, She Wrote.

Just a few more things

• During the initial investigation at the crime scene, Columbo mentions to Pat that Mrs. Columbo lost an earring, and he couldn't find it in the carpet. The only people in the room are police officers and lab folks, Columbo has no reason yet to think Pat is involved so no reason to invent a fake Mrs. Columbo. 
• When Columbo first goes to the Calvert home to interview Clifford, he surreptitiously takes a pocketful of Godiva chocolates from the bowl in the living room.
• When Columbo is initially interviewing Clifford he assures him he'll just ask a couple of questions then "get out of your hair." Clifford, of course, is bald...and not amused.