This episode of Columbo finds Peter Falk investigating what looks like an accidental drowning of Dean Stockwell. Actually it was a carefully thought out murder scheme by Robert Culp who is the general manager of the pro football team that Stockwell inherited from his late father which would have had Stockwell look like he hit his head on a diving board and drowned.
For you historians the relationship between Stockwell and Culp is roughly equivalent of the one between Otto Von Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm II. Bismarck who ran things under Wilhelm I thought the grandson a twit and Wilhelm thought a change in ministers was needed because he was going to do things differently. Imagine if Bismarck had murdered the Kaiser and stayed on and you roughly have the situation between Culp and Stockwell.
Columbo would never have solved the case but for the fact of a third player in the mix, lawyer Dean Jagger having Culp's office and home electronically bugged. At first those tapes seem to clear Culp, but in the end they don't. A rather pedestrian sound missing from the tapes incriminate him. The producers of Columbo anticipated Richard Nixon's downfall with his tapes by well over a year.
Funniest scene in the film is Valerie Harper who planted the bugs on Culp at the behest of Jagger. She doubles as an escort and her trying her best seduction on Peter Falk is worth seeing this episode alone for.
For you historians the relationship between Stockwell and Culp is roughly equivalent of the one between Otto Von Bismarck and Kaiser Wilhelm II. Bismarck who ran things under Wilhelm I thought the grandson a twit and Wilhelm thought a change in ministers was needed because he was going to do things differently. Imagine if Bismarck had murdered the Kaiser and stayed on and you roughly have the situation between Culp and Stockwell.
Columbo would never have solved the case but for the fact of a third player in the mix, lawyer Dean Jagger having Culp's office and home electronically bugged. At first those tapes seem to clear Culp, but in the end they don't. A rather pedestrian sound missing from the tapes incriminate him. The producers of Columbo anticipated Richard Nixon's downfall with his tapes by well over a year.
Funniest scene in the film is Valerie Harper who planted the bugs on Culp at the behest of Jagger. She doubles as an escort and her trying her best seduction on Peter Falk is worth seeing this episode alone for.