On October 12th, 1975, Season 5’s “A Case of Immunity” takes Columbo out of the comfortable world of rich Los Angeles murderers and drops him into a situation where the killer’s biggest weapon isn’t a gun or a poison—it’s paperwork. Diplomatic immunity. A foreign legation. State Department pressure. And Columbo, in a tux, refusing to leave well enough alone.
Meet Hassan Salah
The episode doesn’t waste time pretending it’s going to be a
slow-burn mystery. Within minutes, Hassan Salah (Hector Elizondo) is already
arranging the chessboard inside the Suari legation: a staged “radical” break-in
and the security chief Youseff Alafa dead on the floor.
Elizondo plays Salah with a very specific kind of menace: calm, controlled, and quietly contemptuous. He’s so used to being in charge, and so convinced of his own purpose, that he doesn’t feel the need to raise his voice.
I really liked Hector Elizondo’s performance, but I like
Elizondo generally and was pleased to see him in Columbo.
The real obstacle isn’t the clues—it’s the politics
Columbo doesn’t struggle to suspect Salah. The physical
logic of the crime points inward fast: Alafa is struck from behind by someone
he trusted; the safe explosion looks staged; the timeline and the phone call
are too convenient.
But knowing and proving are two different jobs, and in this
case proving isn’t even the biggest issue. Columbo runs into something the
series only rarely uses as a serious threat: his superiors. When the State
Department wants the whole mess to go away, the Lieutenant is suddenly fighting
on two fronts.
I have to say that I found Columbo’s analysis of the crime
scene – the experienced security man struck from behind with his gun still
securely holstered, and the plaster bits on top of the burned paper, to be
right on point. He quickly and decisively realized it was an inside job.
Two tuxedos in a row
One of the small, delightful Season 5 continuity quirks:
this is the second episode in a row where we get dressed-up Columbo. It’s not
just a wardrobe gag; it fits the story. Columbo has to operate in a world of
receptions, etiquette, and status. The rumpled raincoat routine doesn’t quite
cover it—so he shows up looking like he borrowed a suit and dared anyone to
comment on it.
Columbo does struggle a bit to fit in, I found his antics in the kitchen a little presumptuous and awkward.
I also found Columbo’s incessant rambling about “striped pants”
at the Suarian reception to be a little excessive.
And the lovely Xenia
Mike behind the camera
The Suari legation is a legendary Hollywood location
If the legation looks too lavish to be a routine TV set, that’s because it isn’t. Much of the episode was filmed at Harold Lloyd’s Greenacres estate (1740 Green Acres Drive, Beverly Hills)—a silent-era movie-star compound so over-the-top it feels like its own character.
Greenacres was built for Lloyd in the late 1920s and later
became a designated historic site. By the mid-1970s, parts of the original
acreage had been subdivided, but the mansion and core grounds remained—and
Columbo got to play in them.
The clues that do the heavy lifting
My favorite thing about this episode is that the solution doesn’t hinge on a magic gadget. It’s classic Columbo observation work, applied to a setting where everybody thinks they’re too important to be questioned.
- Alafa’s untouched routine coffee suggests he was summoned—and killed—before he could relax into the ‘normal’ part of his day.
- The safe looks like a dramatic radical attack, but the debris and staging point toward it being set off after the murder to create a false narrative.
- Habib’s death is staged as something else—until Columbo notices that his eyewear doesn’t match the situation.
Sal Mineo’s tragic footnote
It’s hard not to watch Habib with a little extra sadness.
Mineo gives him a jittery sincerity—a guy who thinks he’s serving a cause and
only gradually realizes he’s disposable.
The episode first aired just four months before Mineo was
murdered in real life (February 1976), which lends the character’s fate an
eerie weight.
And yes… that’s Jeff Goldblum
If you’re the type who scans every crowd scene, keep an eye
out during the legation protest moments: Jeff Goldblum appears as an uncredited
extra. Once you know, it’s one of those ‘wait—was that…?’ delights.
The ending is pure Columbo: a trap made of manners
The final act leans into one of the show’s best tricks:
Columbo pretending to concede. He arrives with an apology, plays the humble
public servant, and lets Salah enjoy a victory lap.
Salah can’t resist. And once he starts talking, the whole
idea of immunity shifts from a shield into a confession—because the only thing
that beats diplomatic privilege is a political authority higher than the
diplomat expects to be in the room.
"A word of warning, Salah. Should you choose to repudiate your confession, we shall be waiting to welcome you home." -The King
Plot holes
I really like this episode, but I have a hard time
connecting the crime to the stated goal. Salah wants to undermine, even
overthrow, the king…but it’s not clear how this crime advances that goal.
Getting Alafa out of the way? Making certain problematic documents public? What
makes those documents problematic? Why couldn’t he do that without staging this
elaborate scheme? Was he trying to create anger against the protesters? Why
would American protesters cause significant problems for the king in their fictional
country a world away?
Just a couple more things…
- The king is played by Barry Robins. He was 30 years old when this was released. Sadly he passed away at just 41.
- If Capt. Ortega looks familiar that’s because he was played by Jay Varela, who also played Sgt Rojas in Candidate for Crime.
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