First broadcast on NBC’s Mystery Movie on January 13th, 1974, the 5th episode of season 3, Publish or Perish, features a familiar face as the villian, Jack Cassidy.
Meet Riley Greenleaf
Cassidy is having the time
of his life playing Riley like a man who believes charm is a legal
defense.
What makes Riley fascinating is that he’s not a “mastermind”
in the icy, silent sense. He’s a performer. Even when he’s laying out a murder,
he’s pitching it.
Meet Eddie Kane
Eddie Kane is one of the show’s creepiest hired guns: a
dead-eyed drifter who’s happiest when something is going boom. The episode
wastes no time establishing that Eddie’s dangerous — not just to the victim,
but to anyone unlucky enough to stand nearby.
The opening sequence
The opening credits roll over a sequence of Eddie Kane
testing various kinds of explosives. Don’t think about it too hard – he’s not
writing anything down, he doesn’t seem to have any particular methodology, and
he starts and stops his watch at seemingly random moments.
But that’s ok, the point is just that he’s a crazy
bomb-throwy guy.
He might actually know...
The Cocktail Party
The cocktail party is doing a lot of heavy lifting – it
establishes who the main players are and what the motive is.
Meet Alan Mallory
The victim, writer Alan Mallory, is played by real-life
best-selling writer Mickey Spillane. In real life he published 28 novels, most
notably his “Mike Hammer” detective series.
“I'm a writer, not an author. A writer makes money.” -Mickey Spillane
Hello Mariette Hartley
Mallory’s lovely agent is played very well by Mariette Hartley, one of the most underrated beauties of the Columbo series. If you like the tight, low-cut, dress she’s wearing at the cocktail party it resembles an almost identical dress worn two episodes earlier by Joanne Linville in Candidate for Crime, and the following season by Lesley Ann Warren in A Deadly State of Mind (Though Warren's seems to be a darker color).
We’ll see Ms. Hartley again in season 7 when she stars as
Abagail Mitchell’s assistant “Veronica” in Try and Catch Me.
Murder night: split screens and sleight of hand
The murder itself is staged like a three-act trick. While
Mallory works late, Eddie closes in, and Riley sets up his alibi. The episode
uses a memorable split-screen sequence to keep all three threads moving at
once, which gives the whole thing a ticking-clock energy.
The split-screen sequence is unique and another example of
the interesting cinematography tricks that Columbo tried in the 70s.
Riley’s alibi is pure theater: he drinks too much, insults
too many people, and even engineers a minor parking-lot fiasco to make sure
he’s seen and remembered. It’s the kind of performance only a man who thinks
he’s the star would attempt.
Did you see Lally?
You could be forgiven if you didn’t spot the Legendary
Michael Lally. In what may be his slightest scene of the entire series he’s one
of the bartenders at the bar where Riley is getting drunk. You catch a glimpse
of him behind the main bartender, and another glimpse in the parking lot after
the “accident”, but that’s about it.
Need help, huh?
Columbo on the scene
The murder scene is vintage Columbo. It’s late at night,
he’s a little groggy, needs coffee. Lots of other detectives and crime scene
guys bustling about.
Yes, that’s Lt. Hunter
If the cop who brings Columbo the murder weapon looks
familiar that’s because it’s James B. Sikking. He was already well-traveled
through TV shows like Cannon, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Mannix…but he got
big in the 80s and 90s as a featured character on Hill Street Blues and Doogie
Houser, M.D.
Manuscript service
The actor who plays Norman Wolpert, the messenger kid, is
Jack Bender. His acting career never really rose above bit parts like this one,
but he became an award-winning producer and director on shows like Lost and
Game of Thrones. As of this writing he’s still working actively as a producer
and director.
Columbo enters: keys, tapes, and a publisher who can’t stop talking
Once Columbo arrives, the case quickly becomes less about
‘who shot Alan Mallory’ and more about the details that don’t sit right: a door
key that doesn’t behave, a murder weapon that feels placed, and a nightly tape
pickup that turns out to be a lot more important than it sounds.
Cassidy’s ‘shocked friend’ routine is exactly what you want
in a Columbo villain: too big, too loud, and just believable enough that a
roomful of bystanders might buy it for a minute.
Hello Alan Fudge
If Riley’s lawyer looks familiar that’s because he’s Alan
Fudge. You’ll see him again, in season 8, as Mr. Harrow, the CIA guy, in Columbo
Goes to the Guillotine. And he has a small role in season 10’s Columbo
Goes to College as Cooper’s angry dad.
A familiar playground: Murder by the Book’s evil twin
There’s an extra layer of fun here because Columbo has
already tangled with Cassidy in Murder by the Book. That earlier episode
also lived in the writing/publishing world but Publish or Perish leans harder
into the industry as a character: the swanky rival publisher, the ego, the
brand-building.
But Riley doesn’t take the bait…
As Columbo often does, he gives Riley the chance to “bribe”
him of sorts. Columbo expresses an interest in writing a book. Many other
killers in Riley’s position would see an opportunity to curry favor by playing
along and acting like they’re excited to publish Columbo’s theoretical book.
But Riley doesn’t bite. Maybe he figures he doesn’t have to.
What kind of contract was that?
Columbo’s chili break
The episode uses Hollywood’s Chasen’s as a meeting spot, and
Columbo horrifies the waiter by ordering chili. The joke is that Chasen’s was
famous for its chili. Columbo ordering it feels like the writers are daring you
not to smile.
The Boom
Riley drugs Kane and sets him up to take the fall. And he
plants an explosion in Kane’s apartment to kill him. And, ironically, it looks
like he refers to Kane’s book on how to set up the explosion.
Lucky break that the cop found Kane's address book, looked through it, and noticed Greenleaf's name in it.
Riley’s undoing is that he’s always slightly off schedule
What really undoes Riley is that for all the synchronized
timing of the crime, he’s off by a step or two on two big things:
The clever key…or keys
One part of this episode I really liked was the key thing.
Mallory changed the lock, so the key Kane had wouldn’t have worked. Of course,
Riley didn’t know the lock had been changed. But then…Columbo changed the lock
again. And yet another key to the office turns up where it shouldn’t be.
Nice.
For $100,000 you don’t kill off Rock Hudson
Riley sets up a fake synopsis of the book in Kane’s
apartment, but he didn’t know that he actually had the NEW ending…one that Kane
couldn’t have had.
If he’d known to give Kane the original ending he might have gotten further with that.
The motive
One of the small problems I have with this episode is that
they undersell the motive. Did Riley really set up this elaborate a murder just
out of spite?
More likely it was the million-dollar insurance policy Riley
had, which is barely mentioned in passing about 40 minutes into the episode and
never really comes up again.
Just a few more things…
- Riley Greenleaf might be one of the most ‘Columbo’ villains ever: arrogant, theatrical, and allergic to leaving well enough alone.
- I couldn't help but wonder why Riley's house was in such disarray, art piled against the walls. Riley makes the excuse that he's redecorating but that seems like an unnecessary and extraneous fact. I couldn't help but wonder if they didn't have time to properly dress the set and just made up an excuse on the spot.
- This is one of those cases where Columbo wins by listening: to people, to habits, to a routine (like tape pickups) that everyone else ignores.
- Eileen and Mr. Neal are sitting awfully close together for a business lunch at Chasens. Could there be someting more developing there?
Learn more
The Columbophile Blog – Episode review
Comments
Post a Comment