On October 7th, 1973 the 2nd episode of Season 3 aired. Any Old Port in a Storm was reportedly one of Peter Falk's all-time favorite episodes, and it became an audience favorite as well.
The episode features Donald Pleasance as Adrian Carsini, a winemaker who murders his half brother Rick (played by Gary Conway) after Rick reveals that he's going to sell the winery out from under Adrian.
Wasting no time
The episode jumps right into establishing the characters, and the murder itself occurs within the first few minutes. There are a few things I noticed from the opening sequence.
A familiar face
If you don't recognize "Lewis" one of Adrian's wine buddies, you will. He's Regis Cordic and in the very next episode, Candidate for Crime, he plays the deputy commissioner.
I'm not a wine expert myself (far from it) but it struck me how all of the wine buddies held their glasses by the base, rather than by the stem - as you can see in the photo of Kordic and Dana Elcar above.
Nicely played
Donald Pleasance gets a lot of kudos for his performance in this episde and deservedly so. Watch how he plays the transition from his joy at being the wine group's "Man of the Year" to his harsh confrontation with Rick.
Speaking of performance, Gary Conway is good as Rick but he's only in the one scene and for less than 4 minutes.
And one less comment on Conway, later in the episode we learn that Rick is 28 years old. Conway looks a bit older than that and that's because he's actually 37.
Taking a chance
Carsini leaves Rick unconscious on his office floor, but unrestrained. If Rick regains consciousness before Adrian can return, Adrian would be in a great deal of trouble.
He takes another chance later when he parks Rick's Ferrari in the garage at the winery before going to New York. The garage doesn't have a lock on it, lucky none of the workers looked in there for anything.
Did Karen have a key?
Adrian gives Karen some rushed instructions about staying in New York longer than expected, but one of the odd ones is that he's going to need a tuxedo and some suits. Is she packing his bag for him? Does she have a key to his home? How would she get his tuxedo, suits, and luggage?
Did they get a group rate?
The entire wine society came to the winery in the same limo.
Strategic placement?
Rick's body fell at least half behind the desk. That's convenient when the smaller Donald Pleasance has to try and lift Gary Conway to drag him to the wine cellar. Conway could use his feet (and maybe legs a bit) to help Pleasance without it being as obvious on camera.
New York, New York
Carsini, Karen, and the wine boys head off to the wine auction in New York. Curiously Adrian seems to be the only one who brings his secretary with him.
This was the golden age of air travel, apparently, first class in the 747 includes a young lady playing muzak on the keyboard.
And like many young ladies then, and now, sadly...she has to deal with some creepers. I don't think the bland music is what has the wine guys so enthralled here.
The check that will never clear
Adrian's generousity, a $5,000 wedding gift, was a safe thing to do. Naturally he knows that check will never be cashed.
And that's exactly why he feels fine spending $5,000 on the bottle of wine at the auction.
Airline wine
There's a lovely subtle moment at the end of the airplane scene when Carsini takes a sip of his airline wine and realizes...it's not very good.
Adrian and Karen
Adrian and Karen's relationship takes a few little dips and turns during the episode and turns out to be key at the end.
On the flight to New York Adrian refers to her as "Karen, my sweet" which seems awfully familiar for a professional relationship. She expresses admiration for his generousity.
At the wine auction, though, she sees a different side when Adrian says "Nobody really needs a $5,000 bottle of wine, Karen, I just don't want anybody else to have it." She seems a little disappointed in his revealed selfishness.
On the flight back she gives him a chance to drive her home, and is disappointed that he doesn't take it (especially given their just-concluding trip) but little does she know he has to rush over to the winery to deal with Rick's body. Chances are he wouldn't have taken her up on the offer anyhow.
Near the end of the episode Adrian says that their dinner with Columbo "Can only be described as a date" and even suggests that they might "suspend the formalities" indefinitely. He's giving Karen a spot of hope.
Of course, in the end, she tries to blackmail him into marrying her. An idea that apparently frightens him more than prison.
Joan finds Columbo
We first see Columbo in this episode in an exceedingly rare location: His office. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's the only time in the entire series that we see Columbo's office.
He's a nightowl
Columbo's first line tells us that it's 2AM and there he is at his desk. It's not clear what case he's working on, perhaps he's wrapping up the Karl Lessing murder?
What you want is missing persons
Joan's first line is one of the funniest lines of the show.
Columbo: "What you want is Missing Persons, I'm in Homicide."Joan: "I know that Lieutenant, but I've been up to Missing Persons and there's nobody there."
Credit to her to doing that line with a straight face.
Rick gets around
He's 28 years old and he's already been married and divorced 3 times?
Carsini disposes of the body
Adrian returns to the winery to find Rick dead, though there's been a struggle in the wine cellar so obviously Rick regained consciousness at some point. That makes his death somewhat more grusome I think.
What was the cause of death?
Cause of death is announced as suffocation but the wine cellar door doesn't look air tight to me. And when Carsini leaves Rick tied up in the wine cellar he goes out an exterior door that is clearly not air tight.
I've heard it suggested that maybe Rick died of starvation or dehydration but he died 2 days after Carsini locked him in the wine cellar and an otherwise healthy person can live without food or water for 2 days.
Conversely you can't live without air for 2 days, so if the wine cellar was truly air tight he should have suffocated within the first minutes.
It was hot in that cellar, Adrian turned off the A/C, but you'd think the medical examiner could have detected if he died of heat stroke...which should have raised a lot of suspicion given that he was diving in the ocean where heat stroke is probably rare.
Quite a job
Adrian gets the much larger Rick dressed in a wetsuit, then somehow wrestles him into the passenger seat of his car. It's probably not an accident that, other than when we see Adrian drag Rick to the wine cellar earlier we never actually see him manhandle the corpse.
Conway is a full 6 inches taller than Pleasance, and considerably more muscular.
It's not clear how Adrian would have managed to get the much larger Rick down to the water - let's not forget that his corpse is wearing about 40 or 50 lbs of scuba gear - he couldn't have heaved him from the cliff and it looks like a long way down for him to carry the body.
He'd have had to carry him from the car too, to avoid suspicious drag marks.
Well, it's a TV show.
Smart move
Carsini does something smart after he pulls the bicycle out of the car trunk, he lifts it up and carries it away from the car so that the bike tire tracks don't raise suspicion.
Nice car
When the find Rick the patrol cop is admiring Rick's car. He should, that car is a 1967 Ferrari 330 GTS. When it was new it cost $16,800 (probably more than an LAPD officer made in a year back then) and today one in mint condition has sold at auction for nearly $2 million.
Breaking the news to Joan
Columbo has to go break the news to Joan. They seem to be at some kind of outdoor bar at a shopping center.
It is the early 70s
The music, outfits, and awkward dancing are about as 70s as it can get.
Speaking of the music...if it sounds familiar it's because the same song is playing in "The Lariat", Artie Jessup's place of business in A Friend in Deed.
Billy Fine
Actor Robert Walden not only looks the part of a 70s guy, but he has the very 70s name of "Billy Fine".
Joan has her eyes to the stars
Actress Joyce Jillson was more than just the pretty (almost)-widow. She was also the official astrologer for 20th Century Fox Studios during the 70s. Apparently she was consulted on what would be the best opening days for movies, including 1977's Star Wars.
The bar scene
The bar scene features two interesting appearances.
Behind the bar is none other than the legendary Michael Lally.
And the actor in the yellow jacket, in what seems like a bit of a throwaway role, is Robert Donner. He gets a much more substantial role as Zeke, the parking meter cop, in Season 12's Undercover.
Meeting Carsini
Columbo goes to the winery to interview Adrian. We learn that it's a big place, with lots of staff, and famous enough to offer tours to guests. And later we learn that their security guard, Norman, is an alcoholic.
Columbo doesn't buy it
Adrian attempts to fake some grief for his brother, but Columbo clearly isn't buying it.
Immediately afterwards he begins to decant the wine and notice that Columbo never takes his eyes off Adrian, throughout the decanting process. He stares right at him, like he's trying to read him.
He's got his hook
Part of Columbo's mastery is understanding what motivates his suspects. With Carsini he quickly realises that he can gain his confidence, even friendship, by showing an interest in Carsini's favorite subject: wine.
Every time he needs to reel Carsini in a bit he just shows an interest in learning about wine, and Carsini can't resist.
And he makes Carsini a bit distracted and nervous by rather casually handling a couple of bottles of precious wine in the cellar while asking him about the decanting. It's perfectly subtle but you can see Carsini trying to think about his story while being preoccupied with how Columbo is holding the bottles.
This old man
When Columbo says goodbye to Adrian and is walking back to his car he's whistling his trademark "This Old Man". Some people have theorized that it's a tell that Columbo has figured out who did it.
The climax - liquid filth
Columbo sets his trap in a fancy restaurant that Carsini selected.
Welcome Vito
This scene is the Columbo debut of the great Vito Scotti who would go on to five more notable appearances in Columbo. Scotti plays the maitre'd.
Monte Landis
Scotish actor Monte Landis does a great job as the wine steward who can't let on that he's in on the trap.
"You know what it is when you have kids"
Bit of a throwaway line but Columbo mentions to Adrian and Karen that he and his have at least one child. Of course he says that in front of his prime suspect so you can't put too much faith in it.
In the final scene we seen Columbo take Carsini into custody after finding him discarding the ruined wine bottles. Presumably Adrian tasted one or two of the bottles first to ensure they were actually ruined before he threw them all away.
The dialog in that scene is well-written and nicely delivered and you really get a sense of how much Falk and Pleasance enjoyed working together.
Just a few more things...
There some nice moments from the vecchio saggio in the winery warehouse. It feels a bit like a filler scene, but the old fellow is charming.
We discover that Columbo is learning about wine when he makes a trip to a wine shop to talk to the guy who runs the place. Behind the fake french accent is George Gaynes. You may remember him as the newspaper publisher in Season 2's Etude in Black.
If you were a fan of the TV show "Punky Brewster" he played Punky's adopted dad and if you enjoyed the "Police Academy" movies he was Commandant Lessard.
Columbo is still driving the 1959 Peugeot in this episode. Not many episodes later he quietly switches to the 1960.
The other thing you might notice in this picture is that the sign on the wall says "Carsini Winery" but the sign over the main building says "Carsini Wineries" a little branding inconsistency.
When Columbo gives his car to the valet at the restaurant he boasts "If you take care of your car, it'll take care of you!" And, promptly, the valet can't get the car started. There are a lot of subtle little jokes like that in this episode.
Learn more
Hope you enjoyed Any Old Port in a Storm as much as I did!
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