Butterfly in Shades of Grey

On January 10th, 1994, William Shatner returned to Columbo after eighteen years. In Fade in to Murder he played television detective Ward Fowler, an insecure actor who hid behind characters. This time he hides behind an ever-changing moustache.

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Fielding Chase is a nationally famous radio host: rich, combative and certain that his voice deserves to dominate every room. He is also obsessively protective of his foster daughter Victoria, played by Molly Hagan. When her friend Gerry Winters helps her pursue a writing career in New York, Chase decides that the solution is murder.

Written by veteran Columbo scribe Peter S. Fischer and directed by Dennis Dugan, Butterfly in Shades of Grey has a clever central alibi, a very 1990s technological gotcha, and two stars who clearly enjoy sparring with each other. Filmed in 1993 before It’s All in the Game, but aired after it, this broader outing makes Falk’s subsequent restraint opposite Faye Dunaway especially interesting.

Meet Fielding Chase

Chase dispenses certainty to millions of listeners, turning politics and controversy into entertainment. He is not merely arrogant; he is professionally arrogant. Chase embodies the swaggering political-talk-radio boom of the early 1990s, but his real ideology is Fielding Chase. Shatner attacks the role with gusto, giving Falk a murderer who enjoys performing superiority.

William Shatner, take two

Shatner’s first Columbo murderer, Ward Fowler, hid insecurity behind a television detective’s image. Fielding Chase has enough confidence for three people.

Shatner plays him very big - emphatic pauses, sudden eruptions, theatrical indignation and a radio voice that seems to remain switched on even when no microphone is present. Viewers allergic to Shatner's most recognizable acting rhythms are unlikely to be converted here.

But the excess also suits Chase. This is a man who has monetized certainty. Subtlety would almost be out of character.

The moustache in shades of brown

Then there is the moustache, whose darkness and thickness vary noticeably from shot to shot. Sometimes it is barely visible; elsewhere it looks freshly painted. It has nothing to do with the murder but once noticed it becomes difficult not to watch.

Years later, Shatner himself remarked that in hindsight he was amused by the ever-changing moustache which was, unsurprisingly, fake.

“I went back to review some of the footage and I have to tell you, I lost track of the dialogue so quickly because I became simply riveted by the terrible, pencil-thin prosthetic mustache they put me in. Go back and look at the episode and tell me you’re not distracted by that thing! Not only was it a poor mustache, but in half the scenes it sags to the left or the right. How the makeup folks—and I, for that matter—could have allowed that to happen, I will never know. The episode is fun, and it was a treat working with Peter again, but that mustache… that mustache…”

For more on Shatner's experiences on Columbo, the Columbophile blog has an article that's worth a visit: WORLD EXCLUSIVE: William Shatner shares his Columbo memories – THE COLUMBOPHILE BLOG

Victoria wants out

Victoria produces her foster father’s program but wants to be a novelist. Through Gerry Winters, her manuscript reaches literary agent Lou Caten, played by Richard Kline, who sees a future for her beyond the studio. Fielding sees the same possibility and is horrified.

He calls it concern: his enemies will use her, publishing will hurt her, and he is only trying to protect her. But Chase doesn’t want Victoria safe. He wants her close.

Peter S. Fischer reportedly explained the title as a reference to Victoria herself - a butterfly held in drab shades of grey, waiting to escape the cocoon and show her real colors. The script never spells that metaphor out, but it fits the character neatly.

Molly Hagan returns

This is Molly Hagan’s second Columbo appearance, following Ruth Jernigan in Murder, Smoke and Shadows five years earlier. Victoria is a more substantial role, and Hagan gives her enough backbone to be more than a sheltered daughter awaiting rescue.

Learning that Fielding interfered with her novel begins Victoria’s break from him. Gerry’s murder temporarily pulls her back: Fielding tells her he needs her more than ever. It is emotional blackmail disguised as vulnerability.

Gerry Winters makes himself a target

Jack Laufer plays Gerry Winters, an investigative reporter who has worked for Chase and discovers that he has quietly sabotaged Victoria’s publishing prospects. Gerry confronts him publicly and promises to help Victoria leave for New York.

Gerry humiliates Chase in front of witnesses and challenges the thing he values most: control. Chase responds with a threat, then starts planning.

The first openly gay Columbo character

The episode openly identifies Gerry’s relationship with Ted rather than coding it or avoiding the subject. The treatment is matter-of-fact: they were together, they split up, and Chase tries to exploit that history. It's an admirable handling of a potentially taboo topic and the show handles it the way a show with the social sensibilities of Falk and the show's creators would be expected to - very well.

A very clever telephone alibi

The murder setup is one of the episode’s strongest ideas. Chase arranges for Gerry to telephone him at home at exactly four the following afternoon. But Chase is not at home.

Using Victoria’s spare key, Chase enters Gerry’s house in disguise. When Gerry calls, Chase’s answering machine picks up; Chase then lifts an extension in Gerry’s den and answers. Gerry believes he has reached Chase at home, while the machine records a conversation that seems to place the men miles apart.

Still talking on the telephone, Chase shoots Gerry in the back. Then he cries out as though he has heard the murder from a distance. The answering machine captures his apparent shock.

It is exactly the sort of alibi Columbo killers love: not merely a story, but a story that seems to have been recorded by a machine.

Framing Ted Malloy

Chase also tries to frame Gerry’s former boyfriend, soap actor Ted Malloy, by planting a handkerchief with theatrical pancake makeup and transferring traces to places connected with the murder.

But the clue is a little too helpful. Gerry’s brief relationship with Ted was not widely known; whoever planted the makeup needed that private knowledge. That shrinks the list of suspects considerably.

I do have a couple of problems around the Ted story. The two of them were apparently only together briefly - a fact that was necessary to establish that their relationship might not be widely public. But Ted had a key to Gerry's house already? There are women I dated for months who never gave me a key to their house.

And Gerry's trip to New York was never made clear - was he moving there? Or was he just accompanying Victoria there to get her started then returning to L.A.? If it was the former he doesn't seem to have made any preparations for a move. If it was the later then why would Ted break up with him over a business trip?

The missing key

Victoria remembers her key to Gerry’s house going missing around the time of his death, then reappearing on her key ring. For her, it is an odd memory. For Columbo, it is an access route.

Chase also suggested Victoria spend the day of the murder at the radio station, something she almost never did on a Saturday. He had an opportunity to borrow the key and arranged for her to be elsewhere.

Columbo presses Chase by suggesting Victoria could be a suspect: she had a key, was alone at the station and cannot fully verify her movements. Chase becomes furious. His possessiveness is not just the motive; it is a weakness Columbo can exploit.

Felt familiar

Pushing Fielding on Victoria felt familiar as well. You may remember that Columbo undid Dr. Cahill in Mind Over Mayhem by making a show of pursuing his son for the killing. Maybe Columbo was hoping for a similar result here – certainly he didn’t really suspect Victoria – but Fielding doesn’t fall for the bait. He reacts with anger, rather than concession.

The senator stunt

Chase finally destroys his hold over Victoria during a live broadcast with Senator Gordon Madison. Against her wishes, he engineers a sensational call about a false allegation involving the senator and a teenage actress. Whether he believes it is beside the point. He wants the spectacle.

Victoria sees the ugliness of the machine she has helped run. The next morning, she leaves for New York with Lou Caten to pursue her writing career.

Chase killed Gerry to keep Victoria close. Before Columbo arrests him, he has already lost everything he murdered for—and his own behavior finishes what Gerry started.

Dennis Dugan comes back behind the camera

Dennis Dugan previously appeared as Detective Theodore “Mac” Albinsky in Last Salute to the Commodore. Nearly two decades later, he returned to direct Falk, keeping this feature-length episode moving while letting its stars stretch the comic beats. Whether every beat needed stretching is another question.

The comedy problem

The biggest tonal problem is that the story is darker than its performance style. Chase sabotages his daughter’s career, murders her friend and uses her grief to keep her dependent. Yet the episode repeatedly shifts into broad comedy: Columbo shouting at Chase’s gate, fumbling on a television set, setting a wastebasket alight with his cigar and struggling with cellular phones.

Falk can make almost anything amusing, but after the restraint of It’s All in the Game, the difference is striking. Classic Columbo comedy grew from social contrast; here the script and direction sometimes seem determined to underline the joke.

And the soundtrack also feels a bit too light for the subject matter.

The mountain road trap

The final gotcha is satisfying. Columbo asks Chase to accompany him downtown, where a witness supposedly claims Chase tried to hire him to kill Gerry.

On the winding road from Chase’s property, they encounter an apparent bicycle accident. While Columbo fusses over the cyclists, one quietly disables Chase’s car. Chase reaches for his mobile to call for help. No signal.

Columbo’s phone has the same problem. He has tested the road: the surrounding hills are a cellular dead zone.

Four minutes

Chase could not have driven from home to an area with service in the four minutes between the shots and his successful 911 call. He was not where he said he was.

Columbo reconstructs the trick: Chase answered from Gerry’s extension, committed the murder, then drove away and called 911 from an area with service. The recording was real. The assumption about his location was false.

A 1994 gotcha

The clue is a time capsule. In 1994, mobile phones were novel enough for Columbo’s unfamiliarity and specialist knowledge of dead zones to anchor the plot. Earlier mysteries used answering machines, pagers, videotapes and computers; here the emerging technology is the mobile phone.

The clue may have aged, but the underlying principle has not: the murderer builds an alibi around a machine and Columbo asks whether the machine could actually have behaved the way he claims.

The shotgun

The confrontation takes a dangerous turn when Chase reaches into his car for a shotgun and asks whether Columbo was foolish to confront him alone. Columbo sounds the horn. The cyclists return—they’re police officers.

There was no witness downtown. The trip was staged to strand Chase where his phone would fail, with backup ready.

“I may have misread you”

Chase finally acknowledges that he may have misread Columbo. Of course he has. Beneath the technical mistake lies the familiar social one: he sees a rumpled, distracted, overly polite man and decides he cannot be dangerous. A professional judge of other people ought to know better.

A mansion with its own railway

IMDb identifies Chase’s mansion as 3469 Cross Creek Road in Malibu’s Serra Retreat area. It has a small funicular railway makes it especially memorable. IMDB claims the house has since been demolished, though on Google Maps it’s clear that an impressive mansion still sits there today and it’s not clear if it’s the same building.

The location is not nearly as remote as it’s portrayed to be in the show – on Google Maps you can see that it’s not even ¾ of a mile from Pacific Coast Highway, a Whole Foods Market, and not far from Malibu City Hall.

Peter S. Fischer

This was Peter S. Fischer’s eighth Columbo script, and his experience shows in the clean mechanical trick and the final confrontation that turns the killer’s explanation against him. Later accounts of his comments trace the ending’s inspiration to cellular phones failing in the hills.

Does the motive convince?

The motive is shakier than the alibi. Killing Gerry cannot guarantee Victoria will stay: Lou Caten can still represent her novel, and she can still leave. Gerry is a catalyst, not her only route out.

Possessive people need not act rationally when control is threatened. Still, Columbo’s best motives are both emotionally powerful and practically comprehensible. Chase’s crime buys him very little.

So does it work?

Well…Butterfly in Shades of Grey has a smart central trick, a sympathetic Molly Hagan and a memorable final trap. Shatner and Falk have easy chemistry, and Chase is impossible to forget.

But the broad comedy and Shatner’s larger-than-life delivery sometimes turn a frightening man into entertainment before the menace can settle. I would rather watch a Columbo villain who is too vivid than one who leaves no impression. But this one might be just a bit too far. And it’s hard to stop staring at his comical moustache.

Just a few more things...

• I'm not a car expert but it seems unlikely you could disable a Mercedes like that with just a few moments and a pair of pliers.
  
  
  
  
  
• Though you could probably make a guess, Fielding Chase's political affiliation is never made clear. That's common for Columbo - Neither Nelson Hayward nor Paul Mackey were clearly identified as being from one party or the other. It's not relevant to the story and the writers wisely steered clear of that potential minefield.
• The phone recording alibi recalls another Columbo killer - Paul Hanlon in The Most Crucial Game used a similar stunt to try and show he was miles away from the murder scene.