Not too bad, it was kind of funny in a way because this Ward character was so out there it was laughable. Not one of the cleverer murders Colombo had to bust, for sure, most of the time I had no idea why he did what he did, and I think Colombo felt the same because he kept asking him why would the murderer do this or do that… :lol:
So, this Ward Fowler is an actor, playing the part of famous lieutenant Lucern in an ongoing television show. The show’s producers are Claire and her husband Sid, but she’s the one who always insists on giving Ward a raise or stuff like that. They argue aften, though, everyone can hear them.
There’s much loathing between the two, actually. She despises him, but he hates her. We hear right away that she wants 50% of what he gains with his work, which is quite a lot, but we’ll learn through Colombo’s investigation that she was blackmailing him because she was the only one who knew whinWard really was, and it wasn’t a poor actor totally broke from Canada, no, it was an American, it was a deserter, and that is not something he’d like people to know. That could ruin him.
So, Ward invited his sort-of-assistant Mark to warch some baseball together, then he put something in Mark’s drink, putting him to sleep in a couple of minutes. He recorded the game and went out. He knew where Claire would be because she had arranged it while on the phone right next to him. He took a jacket and a red thing to cover his face in the studio wardrobe, plus sunglasses, and went to the shop where Claire wanted to get something to eat before an interview or something. Ward came in pretending it was a robbery, took the cash from the registry and the cash in her wallet, leaving the rest. He hit the man on the head and then killed the woman. She recognized him, and stopped being scared because she was so sure he wasn’t the type to murder someone, she thought he didn’t have the courage to do it, and if it wasn’t clear why at first, it sort of becomes clear later: she knew he was a deserter, that’s where she based all her opinion of him. Anyway, he does shoot her. When Colombo comes to the studio, to talk to the husband and everyone else, he reaches Ward immediately by ruining a scene he was shooting. At first Ward acts inconsolable, as if Claire was so so dear to him, then he acts shocked, like he barely remembers what they’re saying or what he did. Then he stops it and starts acting his more usual cocky self; he says he knows a lot about police procedures, and he explains every little detail to Colombo: why the robber didn’t take the credit cards, for example, or why he put the gun back where he took it… and every time Colombo replies that it makes sense, clever thought ot stuff like that Ward smiles all smug, as if pleased that he was so smart :p
The jacket he destroyed and discarded in a bin, while the gun was at first hidden and then put back where he took it, in the studio armory. He wiped it of fingerprints and added to it a thread taken from Claire’s husband’s sweater. He probably wanted the police to concentrate all suspicions on the man, but Colombo knows better and has it examined very well. He forgot one thing: to use it he had to take out the blanks and put real ones (where did he find those?) and then he put the blanks back in, apparently, and he forgot to clean those as well of his fingerprints. When Colombo tells him he’s all: Damn, there’s always something I forget. :lol:
There’s also Walter Koenig in one scene as Sgt Johnson, explaining how things went as soon as he is called to the crime scene.
There was the girl that played the assistant in Murder under glass, and the man who played the blind man in A deadly state of mind, in a small but funny scene.
Wow, a quick look at wikipedia an it appears the blond was Shera Danese, Peter Falk’s wife in real life :)
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