- Columbo matches his skills against Brimmer, a former cop turned private investigator with a quick temper who tries to blackmail a client's wife. When she refuses, he accidentally kills her and it's up to Columbo to nail him.
- A private detective kills the wife of one of his most important clients when she refuses to take part in his blackmail scheme and even plans to expose his unsavoury methods to her husband. In an ironic twist, the PA is rehired by his client to assist Columbo in the investigation.
- Brimmer, a former police officer turned investigator with a bad temper, tries to blackmail a newspaper magnate's wife into spying on her husband after he discovers evidence of her affair with another man. When she refuses he accidentally kills her. When Brimmer is hired back on the case, he tries to cover his tracks, but Colombo always manages to stay one step ahead of him.—charmardee-smith
- Brimmer, a short-tempered private detective, is hired by Arthur Kennicutt, a prominent Los Angeles publisher, to investigate the publisher's wife's activities under suspicion of an extra-marital affair. Although his investigation discovers an affair with a golf instructor, Brimmer chooses not to tell Kennicutt about it and proposes Mrs. Kennicutt to act, in return for Brimmer's silence, as a "pipeline" for information involving powerful persons with whom her husband is involved. When Mrs. Kennicutt refuses to cooperate and threatens to tell her husband about Brimmer's unsavory proposal, Brimmer becomes enraged and accidentally kills her. He then transports her body across Los Angeles and dumps it in an industrial area, hoping her death will look like a robbery gone awry. Enter Lieutenant Columbo, the cigar-smoking detective in a rumpled raincoat, who does not accept the murder-by-mugging theory surrounding the woman's death. When Kennicutt assigns Brimmer to assist Columbo in the murder investigation, Brimmer struggles to deflect Columbo's increasing suspicions that he was involved in Mrs. Kennicutt's demise.—Kevin McCorry <mmccorry@nb.sympatico.ca>
- Investigator Brimmer (Robert Culp) meets with Arthur Kennicut (Ray Milland) in his office, while the secretary of the former (Barbara Balvadin) is waiting outside. Brimmer tells Arthur that his wife is not really being unfaithful. Arthur is much relieved. Brimmer recommends him to pay more attention to her and that's what Arthur intends to do: to buy aplenty luxurious presents for her. Arthur Kennicut, a renown and wealthy LA publisher, leaves contentedly.
Brimmer goes to a room nearby. Thirty-somehting Lenore Kennicut (Patricia "Pat" Crowley) is there, on her own, listening to everything. She asks why Brimmer wanted her to listen to what has just happened between him and her husband. Brimmer says to her that he'll keep quiet about Lenore's love affair -of which he has photographic proofs - if she helps him by giving him information concerning some of the business associates and customers of his husband. Brimmer has been secretly blackmailing people, and Lenore can be a good contact in order to find more victims. Lenore doesn't even want to talk to him. She has recently decided to come clean to her husband, so she threatens him with telling her husband of his proposal. There is a row, and hot-tempered Brimmer kills Lenore of a blow on the head. Brimmer is cold-headed as well, and he knows what to do. The audience will see his cold-blooded actions reflected on the surface of his huge glasses. He cleans his office up, takes all her jewellery away from her and gets rid of the corpse, dumping her in an factory-crammed area of the city, intending it all to look like a robbery gone terribly wrong.
After her body is found, two people are on the case: one is shabby-looking and cigar-smoking Lt Frank Columbo (Peter Falk). He is stopped by a traffic police officer (Bill Hickman) because there is a light broken in his car. His driving livence is also about to expire. Despite all this, the traffic officer suggests driving in front of him opening the traffic for him. As usual, when he reaches the place where the crime was found, Columbo gives his grey raincoat wearing and clumsy appearance, so that Arthur Kennicut won't trust his abilities, so he hires private detective Brimmer once again to investigate the case. Brimmer tells Columbo that he wants to help him, not compete agains him.
In spite of Brimmer's devious tactics, Columbo soon finds out that Lenore Kennicut was really having an affair - in spite of Brimmer's denial. He talks to the golf instructor who used to be Lenore's lover. He talks to him, and he first denies it, but afterwards he admits it, although he says that everything was over and that she intended to go on being married to her husband. As usual, Columbo asks Brimmer about the things he doesn't understand. Lenore was hit on her head with a left hand, but frist Brimmer says that he's right-handed, to being forced to admit soon afterwards that he's ambidextrous, which means that he can write both with his right and his left hand. Brimmer starts getting more and more nervous, and he finally decides to offer Columbo a well-paid job, trying to buy him out. As usual, that only is a further proof of Brimmer's guiltiness.
Columbo finally uses a double-ruse to force an admission of guilt from Brimmer... He intimates to Brimmer that one of the victim's contact lenses has fallen out, and it might be in the killer's vehicle. Brimmer has to go to the repair shop (which Columbo and Kennicut are stalking out) in order to search the trunk of his Eldorado for the contact lens, which implicates him totally.
The reason Columbo was able to stage the Cadillac in a garage? He had disabled the car by putting a potato in the tailpipe, as he used to do when he was a rebellious teenager!
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content