April 21, 2025 • 37 mins
Mike and Chris head south of the border for A Matter of Honor, the rare Columbo episode set in Mexico, where the Lieutenant faces bulls, bravado, and a different kind of justice. Ricardo Montalbán plays a retired matador with a secret—and a motive—and Columbo has to navigate a new culture and language barrier while staying one step ahead. The guys dig into the episode’s unique setting, the ethics of honor killings, and how the show handles cultural sensitivity (or doesn’t). Is this an underrated gem or a misstep in a sombrero?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Welcome to the Shabby Detective, yet another Colombo podcast. I'm
your host Mike White. Joining me, of course, is mister Christashue.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
You can call me a toriodor Oh boy.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I have a feeling there's gonna be a lot of
bad Mexican accents on this episode.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I didn't even use the correct term. I believe I
used the Spanish term for mattador as opposed to yeah,
I guess, Toria, Doria.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
They've got all kinds of adors out there. I remember
Ferdinand smelling the flowers, and all those guys who were
out there trying to say, come on, let's go. I
want to kill you. I want to murder you bull.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
They had a parade the bull ring. First came the
Bandarriero's with long sharp pins with ribbons on them to
stick in the bull and make him mad. Next came
the picadores, who rode skinny horses, and they had long
spears to stick in the bull and make him madder.
(01:19):
Then came the matador, the proudest of all. He thought
he was very handsome and bowed to the ladies. He
had a red cape and a sword and was supposed
to stick the bull. Last of all.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
The idea of sitting and watching a human being kill
a bull for entertainment. Boy, that's a lot. Can we
get that out of the way here and just say
that that's a lot?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
It is a lot. But I'm glad that this is
all faked. That we're not going to see any real
deaths and the only people that do get killed are people.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
By other people, people who killed people. Killing you with
bulls apparently.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, murder weapon. On this episode, we're talking about a
matter of honor. We are still in the fifth season
of Colombo. This is the fourth episode directed by Ted Post,
the ever solid Ted Post. Always enjoy the stuff that
he directs his movies. We're really good as well. But yeah,
this is TV and it is Colombo. This episode came
(02:21):
out February first, nineteen seventy six. It is a blissful
seventy minutes long, tight tight this episode is and it
was written by Brad Radnitz And I don't think it
was based on a story by anybody. I think it
was just all him. And yeah, it is Ricardo Montlbon
as a bullfighter who's lost his nerve. And we don't
(02:43):
start with a murder. We start with a kind of
a fantasy slash dream sequence and showing what has happened
with a Martinez who is one of my favorite actors,
and good to see him in a hospital bed. We
start off with that and move into the whole idea
of the Riccardo Montalban player from gosh, what the movie
(03:07):
is this that he's watching himself. This is like The
Forgotten Lady, but he's not losing his mind. He's watching
Oh fies to nineteen forty seven. So we get to
see Ricardo Montalban watching a younger Ricardo Montalban from a movie,
but it is supposed to be footage of him in
the ring murdering this bull, so we get to see
stock footage of the bull from all those years posts.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Okay, so at the top here a couple of things.
I enjoyed this episode a bit, but I will say
what the conceit ends up being in the end, I
was not a fan of what the ending ends up being.
And this is the reason why I was like, oh
my god, really it felt a little hanky. It's fine,
(03:52):
They're setting the stage for it right here, which is
why I want to mention my feelings on it, because
this is the setting of the stage for that twist
to go in that direction.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Well, how would you describe this?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
He would just the twist.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah, the twist, and the whole reason for them.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Matter twist is he kills the other guy because the
other guy saw that he's lost his nerve. Yeah, the
other guy saw that he is no longer able to
murder a bull anymore. So that's why I don't understand
why it's such a big deal that someone else sees
that he can't Because someone else sees that he in
fact can't.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Well, somebody saw that he was afraid.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
But why is anyone surprised that he's afraid given what
happened to him? That's what I don't understand. He even
talks openly about it like it's weird because it's almost
like the episode lets you know what the reasoning is
going to be, but it doesn't get on board with
the reasoning at all, because I don't know, like Ricardo
Boltivon's character talks about that bull that hurt him pretty openly.
(04:50):
It's not like a secret. It's almost like it would
be better off if it was a secret. If it's
going to be such a big deal that the hector
rongel character sees that he is no longer able to
to do it anymore. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yes and no. For me, it's that he was hurt
in the ring years ago, yet he was fighting. He
was not afraid at that point, and I think now
he is afraid and he cannot let anybody know that
he's too afraid to fight a bull again. And he
has to act like a macho dickhead through this, which
(05:25):
is perfect for playing into this kind of culture of
machismo where we have to be so supermanly and we
have to protect our reputation.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Sure, and again, like I don't disagree with any of
that either. I just for me, I don't know, like
what a.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Lot to base a whole episode on a person losing
their nerve and that's the reason why they would murder
someone else's to keep them from knowing or keep them
from spreading the stories of what a coward I.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Am, if that were to be a thing, It's an assumption.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, exactly on his longest term confidants that he ends
up murdering the father of the boy who was in
the ring, right right, And I guess when he was
in the ring with the boy he froze then and
couldn't help him out, and so his father had to
bail him out. So I think that there's and then
his friend is basically believing he's just that's it. I'm
(06:19):
done with this stuff. And yeah, there needs to be
a little bit more as far as are you leaving
because you're upset with me or upset with this bull
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, stuff is left on the floor in this episode.
This is a seventy minute episode that almost needs more
time or a finer tooth comb like over the more
sharp kind of edges of the episode, because like they're
I don't know, the stuff with pedro Amandari's Junior is great.
He's great, obviously, but I feel like the conceit in
(06:52):
this episode of why Colombo is in Mexico is so bizarre.
And then again we have the Colombo's wife is not here,
but she's here conceit again, and then they make reference
to the episode where this happened the first time. I
enjoyed this episode for the performances. I don't dislike this episode.
I just don't think that this episode is very well
(07:15):
put together. I feel like the conceit of this episode
is a little less interesting than I think it thinks
it is, And I'm glad that they put it in
something like the world of the Matadors, because man, could
you imagine how boring this episode would be able to
set in like the world of the military, because this
would be like what the other direction you would go
if it was in the state, be something like military
(07:37):
or military adjacent. And then we just have a episode
of this show that we've seen before too, because we've
seen an episode at least one right.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
More yet one the vers Magoon one we saw with
the young.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
And then there was one before that where it was
the guy with the uniform and the boxes and the
gun in the heavy held cases. So I'm glad that
it was something different. But Colombo also so it is
really underwritten in this episode compared to the last two
that we saw.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I agree. I would have liked this one to be
a little bit longer, and I would have liked there
have been more back and forth between him and Ricardo
Montleban because Montcaban is just fucking awesome. I love that guy.
I was a big fan of Fantasy Island when I
was a kid, even though some of those episodes actually
scared me. I think when mister Wark went against the Devil,
(08:26):
that was pretty creepy, but then of course ratafell. He
is just so fucking good in Wrath of Khan.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Well, and that's that is the thing about this episode
is Ricardo Maltabon is so good it carries any of
the like his content with Colombo and his hatred for
Colombo is palpable. He is not having any of it
with Colombo at all whatsoever. And I really like that.
I like the way he treats Columbo. I don't like
the way he treats Clumbo, obviously, because I like Columbo
(08:55):
as a character. But I like that they give a
villain in the show the wherewithal to really hate that
Columbo's around, because so many of the villains are just like,
of course, come look, I'm so full of shit and
full of myself, and Moltibon does that a little bit.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
But it's more about him just being frustrated and annoyed
at Colombo most of the time, because again he thinks
that he has gotten away with it out right. And
I would say, in a lot of ways, if not
for the fact that Colombo is there, he would have
gotten away with This is one of the ones where
I don't think anybody but Colombo would have put disparate
(09:32):
things this much together because Colombo is Again. This is
one of those episodes where, like, God damn it, this
is why Colombo is Colombo, because he is. I was
watching this episode with my girlfriend and the moment he
picks up the lance, I go, he's got him, He's
got him, like it came over. That was the moment
where it's like it's over. He knows something is up
the moment that piece of the lance is there, because
(09:53):
it makes no sense. And this is one of those
episodes where it's you know he's got him from the
moment he's there and you're waiting because this episode waits
so long to tell you why, because the why is
not clear until the literal final frames of the episode.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
This is one of the very few episodes where we
actually have a script for this, which is quite a rarity.
I don't know why scripts for Colombo are just so
hard to find, but think over the years, I've maybe
found like a dozen out there in the wild, and
this one just to glean a few things from the
(10:30):
script participating writers Larry Cohen, which was nice to see
that and then bred Rad knits. Like I mentioned before,
former title a matter of bravery. It is interesting that
the whole thing with the car crash, like there's talk
of the car, but I don't think the whole thing
with the car crash is there, which is really the
(10:51):
inciting incident for Colombo sticking around until he basically is
being worced to stick on. I don't like I like
that that the police chief is just yeah, I've heard
about you, and I want you to come out and
see this. It's almost like he knows that something is hinky,
(11:11):
but it's more, Oh, I like this guy. I want
to hear more about this crime that he solved on
the boat.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Growth crime was a big hit here in Mexico because
again they were traveling to Mexico at the end of
the cruise.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
That they do that, I and it's so rare that
we get mentions of other episodes in an episode.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I agree. I like it. I just wish they hadn't
done the same kind of dopey conceit that they did
in that episode where it's like missus Colombo disappears, you
don't have to mention her, just say he was in Mexico.
We get it, and I don't know how many more
times it is going to show up. But Missus Colombo
does exist. I'm going with she exists because there is
a show named Missus Colombo with her as his wife.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Kate Mulgrew, I have built on a throne of lies.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
I know, I get it. I have to believe that
it's real only because of the context of the show
and the other show existing. Other than that, I wouldn't
believe that he has a wife because I don't believe
he has any family, because it seems like he walks
in at the behest of the writers in every episode
of the show. He is a tool, a little too
(12:20):
used by the writers to make chaos. That's the point.
He is the vehicle of the writers, the detective in
most of these, if not all of these stories, is
the vehicle of the writers to untangle the not that
they've tangled the chords in intentionally. And Colombo is a
very unique case because it's solved in reverse. It's solved
from the point of view of him while we know happened.
(12:43):
And in this episode, he and Pedro Armandariz Junior are
so good together you almost wish they had their own show. Yeah,
but again, the initial inciting incidents, like all right, there's
no question in anyone's mind, even in the writers that
he's on to Pedro Urge, he's on to Ricardo Maltavon.
(13:04):
But that's why they withhold why he does it the
entire episode, because you, as the viewer, know the moment
Columbo is brought in that there's nobody else he's gonna
think that did it other than Ricardo Maltavon, And to
be fair, there's nobody else there. This is one where
it's not so much solving it as a crime as
proving that a crime happened and then solving said crime,
(13:26):
which is what the whole angle of Pedro Ahmandari's character is.
He doesn't want to go on the record saying that
there is a crime because Ricardo Maltavon's character is such
a big wig in Mexican I guess pop culture, or
I guess in just Mexican pop culture to begin with, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
How dare you try to take down this very famous man.
There's another couple things that are part of the script
that I find interesting. There's a housekeeper character and I
don't think and correct me if I'm wrong, but I
don't think that they talk about this in the episode.
She refuses to speak English to Colombo, even though she
knows a little bit of English, and she just really
(14:05):
hates Americans and especially hates anybody that's coming around and
astling her boss.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
No, the other thing I found because it's not very good.
That's not a very necessary subplot.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
No, no, it's not. And the other thing that is
just a little different is the guy who gets sent out.
I think he was in The Wild Bunch, It's been
a while since I've seen it, but he gets sent
out to the other side of the range. Basically, I
want to say it's Miguel, the Emelio Fernandez character. He
(14:37):
gets sent over to the other side of the range
in order to like, oh, go check the whatever's the murder?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
You mean?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, During the murder, he is given a bottle of
tequila by the mantle Bond character. But in the script
he just finds this bottle of tequila, which you think, maybe.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
It's not even the bottle of tequila. It's a bottle
of mez col In the episode, so I think they
even change what it is. Is there a difference between that, Yeah,
mescal is smoked. Oh okay, mescal is very smoky in flavored.
I believe mezcal is made from smoked a gave e bit.
Mezcal's very good, but it's very smoky. That's the thing
with mezcal. They're very different, which is why I was
(15:20):
very surprised that the guy drank a bottle of mescal.
That would be pretty intense when it's like smoked paprika.
When you put it in something, it makes itself known,
and you know what I mean, there's no way of
hiding it. So it was like, hey, I drink a
bottle of mescal, Like, holy shit, man, that'd be pretty
pretty intense thing to drink. A whole bat He drank
a whole bottle of mezcow by himself.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
They're tequila and mescow related.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, they're similar. Just I believe mezcal is made from
smoking the alo vera plant.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I have to say that A very into Ricardo Montalban's house, especially,
and now this is a true confession his bullfighting posters.
I love bullfighting posters, even though I don't like bullfights.
If you were to walk into my house right now,
go to our spare bedroom. It is all decorated in
(16:09):
bullfighting posters, because I just love the look of that
art style so much.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I like that Ricardo Maldivon seemingly just fits into that
world perfectly, the way he looks on his own. I
like the setting of this episode a fair amount. I
like that they set it in Mexico again, for Columbo
to just be in Mexico and then for him to
interact with a cop who happens to know who he is.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I'm wondering if it's like he Wana or something, so
he can get to it a little bit easier.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Which is but he's in La they're not in San Diego.
That's a bit of a hump. Still. Yeah, look, I
don't it doesn't bother me that much. It's just again
like I'm assuming that, well, Columbo go other places in
these later seasons, the kind of TV movie seasons.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I'm trying to think if he does.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I because he went overseas already.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, you know it, this gimmick of him going places.
I mean, we saw the British one, obviously, we saw
the boat one, we saw this one here in Mexico.
I'm really trying to think if we see him out
of water too much more. There's nothing that really jumps
(17:17):
to my mind. I would not be surprised if some
of those ABC years if he does do some traveling
in there, but really, at first plush, as I roll
through the rolodex in my head, I don't think he does.
It almost feels like a little stunt for first little.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Bit of a bottle episode. It's a little bit of
a gimmick. It feels like.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
If this was sweepsweek, it would make sense. But at
the same time, I think they probably would have gone
for a two hour episode or an hour and a
half plus some commercials in there.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Yeah, it's very funny that we're doing another recording after
this one, and that episode of that show is also
on a very special episode where the characters go overseas, right,
And it feels like the plot of the episode is
almost at swords with itself because it's like, we need
you to see all this stuff, but what about the show.
That's why I said, like Columbo feels a little underwritten
in this episode because Colombo it's almost less about Colombo
(18:10):
and more about Colombo and Pedro Almandari's junior, which is fine,
but this is a very atypical Columbo episode in almost
every single way other than again the villain being a
very well written performed performance like this in a lot
of ways, like we haven't had Colombo paired up with
somebody an entire episode. We haven't had Colombo not knowing
(18:34):
the motive up until the last moment, including us as
the audience on knowing the motive, because that again, that's
another thing. The audience doesn't know the motive either, which
is a meta thing, like they made that choice intentionally
for us to not know.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah, which I admire because so much of the time
it's almost always money.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
It's never that interesting anyway, and it.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Is interesting though with this there's money involved in so
far as Mantaban's character is very wealthy. He lives on
this big hacienda. He's got all these people that serve him.
He's got that boss called Both of his cars are
freaking awesome, man, just they look great. And he's got
(19:14):
that oh real piece of meat out there rubbing those
cars down. Holy cow, give me the vapors.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Here with the stands together seductively.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Not that Martinez is any slouch either, but he's barely
in the episode.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I know, he really is, and he factors into the
finale again in an off screen kind of way where
they needs you to trust me right it's and again
we as the audience are not in on what's going
to happen either.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Once again, and another little not necessarily bone of contention,
but just an interesting thing to think about too, is
the there's very few women in this episode. There's the
wife of the inspector, and then there's the daughter of Mantlebon.
And I didn't mention that housekeeper, but I really don't
seem to remember her being in this episode very much,
if at all. So it's so much the story of
(20:06):
these men. But then when the daughter comes in, I'm like, oh,
here's the complication, but she's not very complicated. I was
really thinking that this was almost going to be like
a almost a Romeo and Juliet thing as far as
Maltabond maybe being like, Hey, I am super wealthy here,
I've got this great place and people respect me, and
you want to go out with the son of this
(20:29):
guy who's been driving my car for the last forty years,
the guy who I just fucking gank like. I was
expecting there to be more resistance, and it does really
feel like he's setting up a Martinez to be moved
out of the picture. He talks about, Oh yeah, he's
going to go to medical school and get him out
of here. Basically it feels like maybe he's trying to
(20:49):
cock block him that way, but never really got the
sense of a distaste for a Martinez.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah, I was expecting there to be some sort of
complication with his daughter as well, or him to be like,
I couldn't protect his son in the ring. He couldn't
protect his son in the ring, so I need to
figure out a way to make it so that his
son leaves. And the easiest way to have his son
leave is to kill his dad. Like I don't. Again,
like I couldn't see how they got to the point
that they got to. So it was weird that they
(21:18):
introduced that character of the daughter, because again they didn't.
It ends up not factoring into anything, that ends up
having nothing to do with anything. It ends up being
a red herring, a complete red hairring. Almost everything that
the episode introduced this is a red herring. Frankly, other
than the I guess the pick is technically not a
red herring, but the reason is so well guarded and unknown,
(21:42):
because it's a character flaw of the main character that
we literally have to have Columbos fell it out for
us to understand what happened, literally literally, because otherwise, right
at the end of the episode, even my girlfriend and
I were like, what just happened? Why did that happen?
It's it's not eminently clear. He freezes, but what does
(22:03):
that freezing mean?
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I almost wish that they had started this episode like
five minutes earlier. As a Martinez is remembering things. I
almost wish he had remembered what happened with Ricardo Montalban,
because I almost want there to be that threat of
Martinez as well. He could remember that I froze in
the ring, right. I feel bad pulling it apart a
little bit because I like this one. I genuinely liked
(22:27):
this episode, but it's mostly because of Colombo and the
inspector and their relationship, and then Montalban and his conflict
with Colombo. I had just seen Colombo as this fish
out of water, which we've seen before. Columbo is almost
always a fish out of water, right, because he walks
into these places and he's always the sloppiest guy there.
(22:47):
He's the guy who doesn't fit in. We just saw
him at that party a few months ago at the
Embassy and rented the tuxedo, I got the sixteen dollars
shoes and all this. I'm sure if I was more
of an expert in nineteen seventies fashion, and I'd be like,
oh man, it's his outfit out of date, and he
just looks terrible. From a twenty twenty five perspective, Yeah,
(23:11):
dude looks okay. Yeah, Dotty Kali the pretty nice.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I yeah, he does look out of sorts when he's
in Mexico, but that's also because everything in Mexico looked
really warm, and I don't understand why he's wearing that
goddamn jacket when it feels like it's so warm at Yeah,
i'd probably be sweating my ass for a humid Yeah.
I was like, man, is this supposed to be summertime?
I don't know when this is supposed to be set,
unless it's just being set. Whenever the episode aired, it's like,
what do you got a check in on Colombo? That
(23:37):
seems a little hot. I guess it's supposed to be February,
So February in Mexico, and maybe it's a little chili,
I guess, so.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Oh chili. Can you imagine the kind of chili he'd
be getting down there?
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yeah? Ooh no, because we never see that anymore. We
never see Colombo in Chili. We barely see him eat.
I was gonna say, we don't even see him eat
that meal with Pedro Mandaris and his wife. The I
do like the adr line of oh this is where
my wife is. I just put it on a bus
and center out of town. Okay, yeah, okay. Are they
are fucking Peter Folk recording that line in a studio
(24:09):
in Burbank somewhere? Great.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I did like that little thing about the wife serving
him burritos and them being such a common thing that
he's just ah, these burritos. Oh they're delicious.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
You've never had something like this before, creak.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
So much of this episode takes place outdoors in my daylight. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
I like that a lot.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
And it's not tinted yellow like we see most American
movies these days, Like I just walked into Mexico and
then the color just turns all weird.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah. James Bond and Sacario.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
I want to say, even Soderbird with like traffic, or
even the counselor film. Yes, yes, thank you. Yeah, I
almost said Ridley Scott film, but.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Probably deserves to be remembered more as a Ridley Scott
film than anything else for me.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, you don't just see a Brad pitt get self
garreted every single day. So no, it was a pretty
cool moment.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
I like the country of Mexico, and I like that
they said it here in this episode because again, like
that is something that feels reasonable within the realm of
living in California as well. So that's the other thing.
This is again supposed to be.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Tijuana, Pijuana, very nice, Juana will Yes, I like it.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
For three years of Spanish in high school, I grew
up in Texas, somebody somewhere like, good for you, pal
mucho Gusto.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I always forget how much Spanish I know until I
go to Mexico, and then it's oh fuck, yeah, I
remember you say all these words. Okay, this is good,
thank you, missus, Loader, kurrt Loader, professor Loader, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Lowdare is probably very I'm actually disappointed that Colombo doesn't
go back to Mexico because it seemed like, again we've
established it, this is a one off thing because Pedro
Amondaris and him are so good together.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Yeah, I would like him back. I mean, Colombo doesn't
have a Watson, and Aman Darius as almost as Watson
in this episode.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
He really is.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
He's impressed with Colombo when he gives him a wide berth.
I'm just glad that he's not over here being like, no, Lieutenant,
we cannot do this. Because at the end of the episode,
before Colombo makes this big aha moment, it's okay, basically
I sent him up for you. You can get him eventually,
but you're gonna have to keep looking for stuff, and
(26:31):
hands the case over to the inspector and then at
boom he sees those kids, sees the inspectors kids themselves
playing bullfighting, and that's when the light bulb goes off,
when he sees the water and the cape. And that's
such a nice thing too, when it's that you know,
he looked at that cape earlier and just like really
(26:51):
got into it, really inspected it, and wasn't looking for
anything in particular. But then it's the absence of the
thing that tips him off.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
It's the absence of the water on the cape, because
if you put water on the cape, when it's windy.
It stops it from moving so much, is what it is.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Yeah, because you're out there with a big old wet
rag hanging around your arm.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Habit leather again, like it's it didn't seem like it
was made out of normal cloth. Is the thing that
I was trying to figure out because I kept looking
at it. I was like, that doesn't even seem like cloth. Yeah,
so it is a red cloth, so it is.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Officially it's a wuletta, a stick with the red cloth
hanging from it. It obscures the sword.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
That sword is pretty gnarly looking, by the way, and
when Ricardo Maltabon is spending it on the wall, that's
pretty gnarly shit. When he was doing that, I was like, oh, man,
like this is again. I mentioned it at the top
of the episode, like the idea of going to watch
a man kill a bowl is it's pretty barbaric in
my opinion. Again, maybe I don't know anything. Maybe I'm
just a stupid foreigner, but I find that of entertainment
(28:00):
to be a bit much. But I understand it culturally,
but I just it's a bit much to watch a
human being stab of bull to death. Oh and then
when you see what it is that they're stabbing them with.
It's like this giant sword. It's pretty gnarly. Hey, the
balls on the people doing it though, And that's the
other thing. You got to stand down the bull and
watch it charge you. That is the thing. They definitely
(28:23):
almost don't make enough of a point in this episode
to hammer home that it really fucking dangerous. We see
the bull running around, but I think because they never
committed to showing us real bull fighting footage. It's clearly
not stock footage, but like we're shooting the bull just
running around on its own with nobody in there. For
the most part, we never really get the sense of
(28:44):
how dangerous the bull actually is.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yeah, there's no sense of scale, No, not at all.
Bulls are fucking a couple funds.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
You know, they're huge to kill you in two seconds.
When Colombo goes, no, the bull is the murder weapon,
it's like, yeah, no, shit, like that makes for sense?
Oh yeah, yeah no.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
I think that would have been really good if they
could have hired some stuntmen and actually done a little
bit more when it comes to showing a human interacting
with the boar. Even I'll show some documentary footage or
something like Colombo goes to the cinema and watches a
little documentary about bull fighting or something. Maybe even as
inspector friend takes them someplace with books is always a
(29:25):
great thing too. I would love for him to be like,
I read the thing about this and is it true
that the bull can kill a man in a matter
of fifteen second? They talk about the femoral artery and
how dangerous that is as somebody gets gored there because
they'll bleed out within a matter of seconds. But yeah,
really make it a little more dangerous as far as
(29:46):
that this is the murder weapon. We all understand what
a gun can do or a knife, but not too
many Americans are going to know what a bull can
do to a man.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Espe' say in nineteen seventy six.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Oh yeah, and Colombo has that react to the corpse
where you're just say, oh boy, But yeah, I wanted
a little bit more. Of course, not going to get
out of the back of that ambulance and start throwing
up or anything, but I almost wanted them because I
can't handle watching surgery. I would think that seeing a
man gored would really affect him.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Oh I would assume it would be pretty gnarly, right, Yeah,
but yeah, again, it's almost like the episode can't go
there because it literally can't. Like, yeah, which is fine.
I just again, when you're gonna have a guy getting
goured by a bull and you don't really make the
stakes of the bull that large, it's fine. I think
that Cat deealding a little bit of a missed opportunity
(30:39):
in my mind.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Yeah, they could have gone farther on a lot of fronts,
And yeah, it's weird, like after watching last month's episode
with that full thing and it just felt a little
and boring and you wish it to end, But then
you watch this one and you're just like, I would
gladly take another half an hour of.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
This, take ten minutes from the last episode and give
him to this episode. Yeah, put the different because yeah,
this episode, again, the setting is so interesting. The world
that they're in is so unique, and we're clearly never
going to come back to it. I'm not saying we're
never going to come back to the world of the Cia,
and we very well might, but felt like the world
of the Matadors is a little bit more interesting than
(31:22):
the world of the Cia, right, and they really thought
that whole episode was really but it was something special.
Good lord. Again, maybe it's the Patrick McGowin of it all,
just being like I want ninety minutes to myself, like, all.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Right, well acts like himself in this one.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah, even it be is a little underwritten and not
there as much like he feels. I'm not saying he's
going through the motions, but this is a pretty stock
in trade glubal performance. I would say, go almost to
a t.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, good to have the shabby detective back. But yeah,
I just wanted more of him, and I really this
is literally a foreign place, and yes, this Mexico, so
it's not like it's a million miles away. But I
would have liked even more cultural differences or more oh
is it that's interesting, or more of he's in a
(32:10):
foreign land and he's dealing with a foreign sport, ritual, custom,
whatever you want to call it. Yeah, give me more,
give me like, okay, yeah, here's the lances, here's the picks. Okay,
this is good. I want to learn more about this thing.
I want to learn more about the muletta, I want
to learn about the swords. Give me more of that
kind of stuff. So this is a good episode that
(32:31):
really could have been a great episode. I think, yeah,
and I totally agree.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
It's weird that we don't have like a weird columboism
in this episode, like a moment where he just fucks
off to go do something and his interactions are just
weird with people like where is that? I am surprised
we don't get that, because that in this episode almost
feels like a foregun conclusion for Funk's sake, Like you said,
he's in Mexico, why are we not having like we
(32:56):
get him in old burritos. We have him interacting that
minimal amount that's not enough. Give us more than that,
especially if we're never going to come back here.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Well, like I said at the beginning, it's so strange
that the script of this didn't have the car crash,
because that's like when he actually gets to interact with
other people. Yeah, yeah, and that's always like what you're
afraid of when you go to a foreign country is
like somebody trying to take advantage of you, and just
to get those reactions from him where he's just amused
(33:24):
by like the guy who's just oh, my neck. But
it's like, right, I wanted almost a little bit more
of that of oh, by the way, we paid off
this guy, or something like just a little throwaway line
as far as yeah, this guy's causing trouble and still
saying that you damage his car. I would love there
to be a scene of him going and looking at
the car and the mechanic being like, oh, there's nothing
(33:46):
I can do for it, and Colombo just being like,
what are you talking about. It's in perfect condition. Something
like that.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Yeah, And there was none of that. It's weird. There
was a lot of this stuff happened off screen. It
feels like, hey, it's not almost most of the things
that we have had happened before in this show that
happened on screen happened off screen. Almost all of those
columboisms we didn't get to see him. To your point,
we know they had to happen. We know we had
to go and get his car and all this stuff,
(34:13):
but we don't see it, which is it's odd for
this episode. This feels like a layup, and it feels
like they just I don't know, maybe they just weren't
as interested in doing some of those things with this
episode as they normally have been. But in my mind,
I don't understand what the point of taking him and
putting him in Mexico is if they're not going to
(34:34):
do at least one or two scenes of him being
a fish out of water because Peter Folk had a
great face. Oh yeah, right with the reaction shots of
him and his pick. Character of Colombo has so many
idiosyncrasies that like, you would want to see him interacting
with people in Mexico. So it feels like a pretty
large missed opportunity in my mind.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Anyways, Oh, one hundred percent. Where's the scene where it's
a hallapang or something.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah, it's just a little bit of a missed opportunity,
that's all.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Yeah, Well, hopefully you enjoy next month's episode when we
come back and talk all about Now You see Him,
which if there was a sequel, it'd probably be Now
You Don't. As opposed to those movies, which has our
boy Jack Cassidy coming back as the Great Santini and
that's not the awful father figure that is being played
(35:25):
by Robert Duvall from the Great Santini movie. This is
a magician. He doesn't throw a basketball in anybody's face
and go come on Wan to see you're going to
squirt some Come on, have you ever seen that movie?
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Chris? I have not.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Oh that's exactly that's my father and my relationship right there.
So yeah, definitely check it out.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Those basketballs in your face?
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Oh yeah, what you're gonna do?
Speaker 2 (35:44):
You gotta cry?
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Oh my god, that movie's fucking man.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Never seen it? Oh boy?
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Yeah, but no, this is not as intense, but I
had a lot of fun with Now you see him,
I hope you enjoy it as well. So until then,
what are you working on these days? Chris?
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Everything that I'm working on can be found over at
Weirdingwaymedia dot com, where this show and all the other
shows that we work on can be found other than
ranking on Bond, which can be found on yours and
my respective patreons patreon dot com, slash culturecast and patreon
dot com slash Projection booth.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
What about you, Mike, same damn thing all the way
down the line. I want to thank John Walker for
our opening theme, and I want to thank Colin Gallagher
for our closing theme, and I want to thank everybody
out there in radio land for listening. Thank you so much.
If you enjoy listening to these episodes. Please, why not
rate and review the show wherever you get it. That
would really help us out. Bully Sad was
Speaker 2 (37:03):
To fish the snow
Welcome to the Shabby Detective, yet another Colombo podcast. I'm
your host Mike White. Joining me, of course, is mister Christashue.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
You can call me a toriodor Oh boy.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I have a feeling there's gonna be a lot of
bad Mexican accents on this episode.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I didn't even use the correct term. I believe I
used the Spanish term for mattador as opposed to yeah,
I guess, Toria, Doria.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
They've got all kinds of adors out there. I remember
Ferdinand smelling the flowers, and all those guys who were
out there trying to say, come on, let's go. I
want to kill you. I want to murder you bull.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
They had a parade the bull ring. First came the
Bandarriero's with long sharp pins with ribbons on them to
stick in the bull and make him mad. Next came
the picadores, who rode skinny horses, and they had long
spears to stick in the bull and make him madder.
(01:19):
Then came the matador, the proudest of all. He thought
he was very handsome and bowed to the ladies. He
had a red cape and a sword and was supposed
to stick the bull. Last of all.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
The idea of sitting and watching a human being kill
a bull for entertainment. Boy, that's a lot. Can we
get that out of the way here and just say
that that's a lot?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
It is a lot. But I'm glad that this is
all faked. That we're not going to see any real
deaths and the only people that do get killed are people.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
By other people, people who killed people. Killing you with
bulls apparently.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, murder weapon. On this episode, we're talking about a
matter of honor. We are still in the fifth season
of Colombo. This is the fourth episode directed by Ted Post,
the ever solid Ted Post. Always enjoy the stuff that
he directs his movies. We're really good as well. But yeah,
this is TV and it is Colombo. This episode came
(02:21):
out February first, nineteen seventy six. It is a blissful
seventy minutes long, tight tight this episode is and it
was written by Brad Radnitz And I don't think it
was based on a story by anybody. I think it
was just all him. And yeah, it is Ricardo Montlbon
as a bullfighter who's lost his nerve. And we don't
(02:43):
start with a murder. We start with a kind of
a fantasy slash dream sequence and showing what has happened
with a Martinez who is one of my favorite actors,
and good to see him in a hospital bed. We
start off with that and move into the whole idea
of the Riccardo Montalban player from gosh, what the movie
(03:07):
is this that he's watching himself. This is like The
Forgotten Lady, but he's not losing his mind. He's watching
Oh fies to nineteen forty seven. So we get to
see Ricardo Montalban watching a younger Ricardo Montalban from a movie,
but it is supposed to be footage of him in
the ring murdering this bull, so we get to see
stock footage of the bull from all those years posts.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Okay, so at the top here a couple of things.
I enjoyed this episode a bit, but I will say
what the conceit ends up being in the end, I
was not a fan of what the ending ends up being.
And this is the reason why I was like, oh
my god, really it felt a little hanky. It's fine,
(03:52):
They're setting the stage for it right here, which is
why I want to mention my feelings on it, because
this is the setting of the stage for that twist
to go in that direction.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Well, how would you describe this?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
He would just the twist.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Yeah, the twist, and the whole reason for them.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Matter twist is he kills the other guy because the
other guy saw that he's lost his nerve. Yeah, the
other guy saw that he is no longer able to
murder a bull anymore. So that's why I don't understand
why it's such a big deal that someone else sees
that he can't Because someone else sees that he in
fact can't.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Well, somebody saw that he was afraid.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
But why is anyone surprised that he's afraid given what
happened to him? That's what I don't understand. He even
talks openly about it like it's weird because it's almost
like the episode lets you know what the reasoning is
going to be, but it doesn't get on board with
the reasoning at all, because I don't know, like Ricardo
Boltivon's character talks about that bull that hurt him pretty openly.
(04:50):
It's not like a secret. It's almost like it would
be better off if it was a secret. If it's
going to be such a big deal that the hector
rongel character sees that he is no longer able to
to do it anymore. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
Yes and no. For me, it's that he was hurt
in the ring years ago, yet he was fighting. He
was not afraid at that point, and I think now
he is afraid and he cannot let anybody know that
he's too afraid to fight a bull again. And he
has to act like a macho dickhead through this, which
(05:25):
is perfect for playing into this kind of culture of
machismo where we have to be so supermanly and we
have to protect our reputation.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Sure, and again, like I don't disagree with any of
that either. I just for me, I don't know, like
what a.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Lot to base a whole episode on a person losing
their nerve and that's the reason why they would murder
someone else's to keep them from knowing or keep them
from spreading the stories of what a coward I.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Am, if that were to be a thing, It's an assumption.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah, exactly on his longest term confidants that he ends
up murdering the father of the boy who was in
the ring, right right, And I guess when he was
in the ring with the boy he froze then and
couldn't help him out, and so his father had to
bail him out. So I think that there's and then
his friend is basically believing he's just that's it. I'm
(06:19):
done with this stuff. And yeah, there needs to be
a little bit more as far as are you leaving
because you're upset with me or upset with this bull
or whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, stuff is left on the floor in this episode.
This is a seventy minute episode that almost needs more
time or a finer tooth comb like over the more
sharp kind of edges of the episode, because like they're
I don't know, the stuff with pedro Amandari's Junior is great.
He's great, obviously, but I feel like the conceit in
(06:52):
this episode of why Colombo is in Mexico is so bizarre.
And then again we have the Colombo's wife is not here,
but she's here conceit again, and then they make reference
to the episode where this happened the first time. I
enjoyed this episode for the performances. I don't dislike this episode.
I just don't think that this episode is very well
(07:15):
put together. I feel like the conceit of this episode
is a little less interesting than I think it thinks
it is, And I'm glad that they put it in
something like the world of the Matadors, because man, could
you imagine how boring this episode would be able to
set in like the world of the military, because this
would be like what the other direction you would go
if it was in the state, be something like military
(07:37):
or military adjacent. And then we just have a episode
of this show that we've seen before too, because we've
seen an episode at least one right.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
More yet one the vers Magoon one we saw with
the young.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
And then there was one before that where it was
the guy with the uniform and the boxes and the
gun in the heavy held cases. So I'm glad that
it was something different. But Colombo also so it is
really underwritten in this episode compared to the last two
that we saw.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I agree. I would have liked this one to be
a little bit longer, and I would have liked there
have been more back and forth between him and Ricardo
Montleban because Montcaban is just fucking awesome. I love that guy.
I was a big fan of Fantasy Island when I
was a kid, even though some of those episodes actually
scared me. I think when mister Wark went against the Devil,
(08:26):
that was pretty creepy, but then of course ratafell. He
is just so fucking good in Wrath of Khan.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Well, and that's that is the thing about this episode
is Ricardo Maltabon is so good it carries any of
the like his content with Colombo and his hatred for
Colombo is palpable. He is not having any of it
with Colombo at all whatsoever. And I really like that.
I like the way he treats Columbo. I don't like
the way he treats Clumbo, obviously, because I like Columbo
(08:55):
as a character. But I like that they give a
villain in the show the wherewithal to really hate that
Columbo's around, because so many of the villains are just like,
of course, come look, I'm so full of shit and
full of myself, and Moltibon does that a little bit.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
But it's more about him just being frustrated and annoyed
at Colombo most of the time, because again he thinks
that he has gotten away with it out right. And
I would say, in a lot of ways, if not
for the fact that Colombo is there, he would have
gotten away with This is one of the ones where
I don't think anybody but Colombo would have put disparate
(09:32):
things this much together because Colombo is Again. This is
one of those episodes where, like, God damn it, this
is why Colombo is Colombo, because he is. I was
watching this episode with my girlfriend and the moment he
picks up the lance, I go, he's got him, He's
got him, like it came over. That was the moment
where it's like it's over. He knows something is up
the moment that piece of the lance is there, because
(09:53):
it makes no sense. And this is one of those
episodes where it's you know he's got him from the
moment he's there and you're waiting because this episode waits
so long to tell you why, because the why is
not clear until the literal final frames of the episode.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
This is one of the very few episodes where we
actually have a script for this, which is quite a rarity.
I don't know why scripts for Colombo are just so
hard to find, but think over the years, I've maybe
found like a dozen out there in the wild, and
this one just to glean a few things from the
(10:30):
script participating writers Larry Cohen, which was nice to see
that and then bred Rad knits. Like I mentioned before,
former title a matter of bravery. It is interesting that
the whole thing with the car crash, like there's talk
of the car, but I don't think the whole thing
with the car crash is there, which is really the
(10:51):
inciting incident for Colombo sticking around until he basically is
being worced to stick on. I don't like I like
that that the police chief is just yeah, I've heard
about you, and I want you to come out and
see this. It's almost like he knows that something is hinky,
(11:11):
but it's more, Oh, I like this guy. I want
to hear more about this crime that he solved on
the boat.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Growth crime was a big hit here in Mexico because
again they were traveling to Mexico at the end of
the cruise.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
That they do that, I and it's so rare that
we get mentions of other episodes in an episode.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I agree. I like it. I just wish they hadn't
done the same kind of dopey conceit that they did
in that episode where it's like missus Colombo disappears, you
don't have to mention her, just say he was in Mexico.
We get it, and I don't know how many more
times it is going to show up. But Missus Colombo
does exist. I'm going with she exists because there is
a show named Missus Colombo with her as his wife.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
Kate Mulgrew, I have built on a throne of lies.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
I know, I get it. I have to believe that
it's real only because of the context of the show
and the other show existing. Other than that, I wouldn't
believe that he has a wife because I don't believe
he has any family, because it seems like he walks
in at the behest of the writers in every episode
of the show. He is a tool, a little too
(12:20):
used by the writers to make chaos. That's the point.
He is the vehicle of the writers, the detective in
most of these, if not all of these stories, is
the vehicle of the writers to untangle the not that
they've tangled the chords in intentionally. And Colombo is a
very unique case because it's solved in reverse. It's solved
from the point of view of him while we know happened.
(12:43):
And in this episode, he and Pedro Armandariz Junior are
so good together you almost wish they had their own show. Yeah,
but again, the initial inciting incidents, like all right, there's
no question in anyone's mind, even in the writers that
he's on to Pedro Urge, he's on to Ricardo Maltavon.
(13:04):
But that's why they withhold why he does it the
entire episode, because you, as the viewer, know the moment
Columbo is brought in that there's nobody else he's gonna
think that did it other than Ricardo Maltavon, And to
be fair, there's nobody else there. This is one where
it's not so much solving it as a crime as
proving that a crime happened and then solving said crime,
(13:26):
which is what the whole angle of Pedro Ahmandari's character is.
He doesn't want to go on the record saying that
there is a crime because Ricardo Maltavon's character is such
a big wig in Mexican I guess pop culture, or
I guess in just Mexican pop culture to begin with, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
How dare you try to take down this very famous man.
There's another couple things that are part of the script
that I find interesting. There's a housekeeper character and I
don't think and correct me if I'm wrong, but I
don't think that they talk about this in the episode.
She refuses to speak English to Colombo, even though she
knows a little bit of English, and she just really
(14:05):
hates Americans and especially hates anybody that's coming around and
astling her boss.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
No, the other thing I found because it's not very good.
That's not a very necessary subplot.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
No, no, it's not. And the other thing that is
just a little different is the guy who gets sent out.
I think he was in The Wild Bunch, It's been
a while since I've seen it, but he gets sent
out to the other side of the range. Basically, I
want to say it's Miguel, the Emelio Fernandez character. He
(14:37):
gets sent over to the other side of the range
in order to like, oh, go check the whatever's the murder?
Speaker 2 (14:43):
You mean?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, During the murder, he is given a bottle of
tequila by the mantle Bond character. But in the script
he just finds this bottle of tequila, which you think, maybe.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
It's not even the bottle of tequila. It's a bottle
of mez col In the episode, so I think they
even change what it is. Is there a difference between that, Yeah,
mescal is smoked. Oh okay, mescal is very smoky in flavored.
I believe mezcal is made from smoked a gave e bit.
Mezcal's very good, but it's very smoky. That's the thing
with mezcal. They're very different, which is why I was
(15:20):
very surprised that the guy drank a bottle of mescal.
That would be pretty intense when it's like smoked paprika.
When you put it in something, it makes itself known,
and you know what I mean, there's no way of
hiding it. So it was like, hey, I drink a
bottle of mescal, Like, holy shit, man, that'd be pretty
pretty intense thing to drink. A whole bat He drank
a whole bottle of mezcow by himself.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
They're tequila and mescow related.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, they're similar. Just I believe mezcal is made from
smoking the alo vera plant.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I have to say that A very into Ricardo Montalban's house, especially,
and now this is a true confession his bullfighting posters.
I love bullfighting posters, even though I don't like bullfights.
If you were to walk into my house right now,
go to our spare bedroom. It is all decorated in
(16:09):
bullfighting posters, because I just love the look of that
art style so much.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
I like that Ricardo Maldivon seemingly just fits into that
world perfectly, the way he looks on his own. I
like the setting of this episode a fair amount. I
like that they set it in Mexico again, for Columbo
to just be in Mexico and then for him to
interact with a cop who happens to know who he is.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I'm wondering if it's like he Wana or something, so
he can get to it a little bit easier.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Which is but he's in La they're not in San Diego.
That's a bit of a hump. Still. Yeah, look, I
don't it doesn't bother me that much. It's just again
like I'm assuming that, well, Columbo go other places in
these later seasons, the kind of TV movie seasons.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
I'm trying to think if he does.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I because he went overseas already.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Yeah, you know it, this gimmick of him going places.
I mean, we saw the British one, obviously, we saw
the boat one, we saw this one here in Mexico.
I'm really trying to think if we see him out
of water too much more. There's nothing that really jumps
(17:17):
to my mind. I would not be surprised if some
of those ABC years if he does do some traveling
in there, but really, at first plush, as I roll
through the rolodex in my head, I don't think he does.
It almost feels like a little stunt for first little.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Bit of a bottle episode. It's a little bit of
a gimmick. It feels like.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
If this was sweepsweek, it would make sense. But at
the same time, I think they probably would have gone
for a two hour episode or an hour and a
half plus some commercials in there.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Yeah, it's very funny that we're doing another recording after
this one, and that episode of that show is also
on a very special episode where the characters go overseas, right,
And it feels like the plot of the episode is
almost at swords with itself because it's like, we need
you to see all this stuff, but what about the show.
That's why I said, like Columbo feels a little underwritten
in this episode because Colombo it's almost less about Colombo
(18:10):
and more about Colombo and Pedro Almandari's junior, which is fine,
but this is a very atypical Columbo episode in almost
every single way other than again the villain being a
very well written performed performance like this in a lot
of ways, like we haven't had Colombo paired up with
somebody an entire episode. We haven't had Colombo not knowing
(18:34):
the motive up until the last moment, including us as
the audience on knowing the motive, because that again, that's
another thing. The audience doesn't know the motive either, which
is a meta thing, like they made that choice intentionally
for us to not know.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Yeah, which I admire because so much of the time
it's almost always money.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
It's never that interesting anyway, and it.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Is interesting though with this there's money involved in so
far as Mantaban's character is very wealthy. He lives on
this big hacienda. He's got all these people that serve him.
He's got that boss called Both of his cars are
freaking awesome, man, just they look great. And he's got
(19:14):
that oh real piece of meat out there rubbing those
cars down. Holy cow, give me the vapors.
Speaker 2 (19:21):
Here with the stands together seductively.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Not that Martinez is any slouch either, but he's barely
in the episode.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I know, he really is, and he factors into the
finale again in an off screen kind of way where
they needs you to trust me right it's and again
we as the audience are not in on what's going
to happen either.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Once again, and another little not necessarily bone of contention,
but just an interesting thing to think about too, is
the there's very few women in this episode. There's the
wife of the inspector, and then there's the daughter of Mantlebon.
And I didn't mention that housekeeper, but I really don't
seem to remember her being in this episode very much,
if at all. So it's so much the story of
(20:06):
these men. But then when the daughter comes in, I'm like, oh,
here's the complication, but she's not very complicated. I was
really thinking that this was almost going to be like
a almost a Romeo and Juliet thing as far as
Maltabond maybe being like, Hey, I am super wealthy here,
I've got this great place and people respect me, and
you want to go out with the son of this
(20:29):
guy who's been driving my car for the last forty years,
the guy who I just fucking gank like. I was
expecting there to be more resistance, and it does really
feel like he's setting up a Martinez to be moved
out of the picture. He talks about, Oh yeah, he's
going to go to medical school and get him out
of here. Basically it feels like maybe he's trying to
(20:49):
cock block him that way, but never really got the
sense of a distaste for a Martinez.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Yeah, I was expecting there to be some sort of
complication with his daughter as well, or him to be like,
I couldn't protect his son in the ring. He couldn't
protect his son in the ring, so I need to
figure out a way to make it so that his
son leaves. And the easiest way to have his son
leave is to kill his dad. Like I don't. Again,
like I couldn't see how they got to the point
that they got to. So it was weird that they
(21:18):
introduced that character of the daughter, because again they didn't.
It ends up not factoring into anything, that ends up
having nothing to do with anything. It ends up being
a red herring, a complete red hairring. Almost everything that
the episode introduced this is a red herring. Frankly, other
than the I guess the pick is technically not a
red herring, but the reason is so well guarded and unknown,
(21:42):
because it's a character flaw of the main character that
we literally have to have Columbos fell it out for
us to understand what happened, literally literally, because otherwise, right
at the end of the episode, even my girlfriend and
I were like, what just happened? Why did that happen?
It's it's not eminently clear. He freezes, but what does
(22:03):
that freezing mean?
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I almost wish that they had started this episode like
five minutes earlier. As a Martinez is remembering things. I
almost wish he had remembered what happened with Ricardo Montalban,
because I almost want there to be that threat of
Martinez as well. He could remember that I froze in
the ring, right. I feel bad pulling it apart a
little bit because I like this one. I genuinely liked
(22:27):
this episode, but it's mostly because of Colombo and the
inspector and their relationship, and then Montalban and his conflict
with Colombo. I had just seen Colombo as this fish
out of water, which we've seen before. Columbo is almost
always a fish out of water, right, because he walks
into these places and he's always the sloppiest guy there.
(22:47):
He's the guy who doesn't fit in. We just saw
him at that party a few months ago at the
Embassy and rented the tuxedo, I got the sixteen dollars
shoes and all this. I'm sure if I was more
of an expert in nineteen seventies fashion, and I'd be like,
oh man, it's his outfit out of date, and he
just looks terrible. From a twenty twenty five perspective, Yeah,
(23:11):
dude looks okay. Yeah, Dotty Kali the pretty nice.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
I yeah, he does look out of sorts when he's
in Mexico, but that's also because everything in Mexico looked
really warm, and I don't understand why he's wearing that
goddamn jacket when it feels like it's so warm at Yeah,
i'd probably be sweating my ass for a humid Yeah.
I was like, man, is this supposed to be summertime?
I don't know when this is supposed to be set,
unless it's just being set. Whenever the episode aired, it's like,
what do you got a check in on Colombo? That
(23:37):
seems a little hot. I guess it's supposed to be February,
So February in Mexico, and maybe it's a little chili,
I guess, so.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Oh chili. Can you imagine the kind of chili he'd
be getting down there?
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yeah? Ooh no, because we never see that anymore. We
never see Colombo in Chili. We barely see him eat.
I was gonna say, we don't even see him eat
that meal with Pedro Mandaris and his wife. The I
do like the adr line of oh this is where
my wife is. I just put it on a bus
and center out of town. Okay, yeah, okay. Are they
are fucking Peter Folk recording that line in a studio
(24:09):
in Burbank somewhere? Great.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I did like that little thing about the wife serving
him burritos and them being such a common thing that
he's just ah, these burritos. Oh they're delicious.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
You've never had something like this before, creak.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
So much of this episode takes place outdoors in my daylight. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
I like that a lot.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
And it's not tinted yellow like we see most American
movies these days, Like I just walked into Mexico and
then the color just turns all weird.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah. James Bond and Sacario.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
I want to say, even Soderbird with like traffic, or
even the counselor film. Yes, yes, thank you. Yeah, I
almost said Ridley Scott film, but.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Probably deserves to be remembered more as a Ridley Scott
film than anything else for me.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, you don't just see a Brad pitt get self
garreted every single day. So no, it was a pretty
cool moment.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
I like the country of Mexico, and I like that
they said it here in this episode because again, like
that is something that feels reasonable within the realm of
living in California as well. So that's the other thing.
This is again supposed to be.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Tijuana, Pijuana, very nice, Juana will Yes, I like it.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
For three years of Spanish in high school, I grew
up in Texas, somebody somewhere like, good for you, pal
mucho Gusto.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
I always forget how much Spanish I know until I
go to Mexico, and then it's oh fuck, yeah, I
remember you say all these words. Okay, this is good,
thank you, missus, Loader, kurrt Loader, professor Loader, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Lowdare is probably very I'm actually disappointed that Colombo doesn't
go back to Mexico because it seemed like, again we've
established it, this is a one off thing because Pedro
Amondaris and him are so good together.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Yeah, I would like him back. I mean, Colombo doesn't
have a Watson, and Aman Darius as almost as Watson
in this episode.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
He really is.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
He's impressed with Colombo when he gives him a wide berth.
I'm just glad that he's not over here being like, no, Lieutenant,
we cannot do this. Because at the end of the episode,
before Colombo makes this big aha moment, it's okay, basically
I sent him up for you. You can get him eventually,
but you're gonna have to keep looking for stuff, and
(26:31):
hands the case over to the inspector and then at
boom he sees those kids, sees the inspectors kids themselves
playing bullfighting, and that's when the light bulb goes off,
when he sees the water and the cape. And that's
such a nice thing too, when it's that you know,
he looked at that cape earlier and just like really
(26:51):
got into it, really inspected it, and wasn't looking for
anything in particular. But then it's the absence of the
thing that tips him off.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
It's the absence of the water on the cape, because
if you put water on the cape, when it's windy.
It stops it from moving so much, is what it is.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Yeah, because you're out there with a big old wet
rag hanging around your arm.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Habit leather again, like it's it didn't seem like it
was made out of normal cloth. Is the thing that
I was trying to figure out because I kept looking
at it. I was like, that doesn't even seem like cloth. Yeah,
so it is a red cloth, so it is.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Officially it's a wuletta, a stick with the red cloth
hanging from it. It obscures the sword.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
That sword is pretty gnarly looking, by the way, and
when Ricardo Maltabon is spending it on the wall, that's
pretty gnarly shit. When he was doing that, I was like, oh, man,
like this is again. I mentioned it at the top
of the episode, like the idea of going to watch
a man kill a bowl is it's pretty barbaric in
my opinion. Again, maybe I don't know anything. Maybe I'm
just a stupid foreigner, but I find that of entertainment
(28:00):
to be a bit much. But I understand it culturally,
but I just it's a bit much to watch a
human being stab of bull to death. Oh and then
when you see what it is that they're stabbing them with.
It's like this giant sword. It's pretty gnarly. Hey, the
balls on the people doing it though, And that's the
other thing. You got to stand down the bull and
watch it charge you. That is the thing. They definitely
(28:23):
almost don't make enough of a point in this episode
to hammer home that it really fucking dangerous. We see
the bull running around, but I think because they never
committed to showing us real bull fighting footage. It's clearly
not stock footage, but like we're shooting the bull just
running around on its own with nobody in there. For
the most part, we never really get the sense of
(28:44):
how dangerous the bull actually is.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yeah, there's no sense of scale, No, not at all.
Bulls are fucking a couple funds.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
You know, they're huge to kill you in two seconds.
When Colombo goes, no, the bull is the murder weapon,
it's like, yeah, no, shit, like that makes for sense?
Oh yeah, yeah no.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
I think that would have been really good if they
could have hired some stuntmen and actually done a little
bit more when it comes to showing a human interacting
with the boar. Even I'll show some documentary footage or
something like Colombo goes to the cinema and watches a
little documentary about bull fighting or something. Maybe even as
inspector friend takes them someplace with books is always a
(29:25):
great thing too. I would love for him to be like,
I read the thing about this and is it true
that the bull can kill a man in a matter
of fifteen second? They talk about the femoral artery and
how dangerous that is as somebody gets gored there because
they'll bleed out within a matter of seconds. But yeah,
really make it a little more dangerous as far as
(29:46):
that this is the murder weapon. We all understand what
a gun can do or a knife, but not too
many Americans are going to know what a bull can
do to a man.
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Espe' say in nineteen seventy six.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
Oh yeah, and Colombo has that react to the corpse
where you're just say, oh boy, But yeah, I wanted
a little bit more. Of course, not going to get
out of the back of that ambulance and start throwing
up or anything, but I almost wanted them because I
can't handle watching surgery. I would think that seeing a
man gored would really affect him.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
Oh I would assume it would be pretty gnarly, right, Yeah,
but yeah, again, it's almost like the episode can't go
there because it literally can't. Like, yeah, which is fine.
I just again, when you're gonna have a guy getting
goured by a bull and you don't really make the
stakes of the bull that large, it's fine. I think
that Cat deealding a little bit of a missed opportunity
(30:39):
in my mind.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Yeah, they could have gone farther on a lot of fronts,
And yeah, it's weird, like after watching last month's episode
with that full thing and it just felt a little
and boring and you wish it to end, But then
you watch this one and you're just like, I would
gladly take another half an hour of.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
This, take ten minutes from the last episode and give
him to this episode. Yeah, put the different because yeah,
this episode, again, the setting is so interesting. The world
that they're in is so unique, and we're clearly never
going to come back to it. I'm not saying we're
never going to come back to the world of the Cia,
and we very well might, but felt like the world
of the Matadors is a little bit more interesting than
(31:22):
the world of the Cia, right, and they really thought
that whole episode was really but it was something special.
Good lord. Again, maybe it's the Patrick McGowin of it all,
just being like I want ninety minutes to myself, like, all.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Right, well acts like himself in this one.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Yeah, even it be is a little underwritten and not
there as much like he feels. I'm not saying he's
going through the motions, but this is a pretty stock
in trade glubal performance. I would say, go almost to
a t.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah, good to have the shabby detective back. But yeah,
I just wanted more of him, and I really this
is literally a foreign place, and yes, this Mexico, so
it's not like it's a million miles away. But I
would have liked even more cultural differences or more oh
is it that's interesting, or more of he's in a
(32:10):
foreign land and he's dealing with a foreign sport, ritual, custom,
whatever you want to call it. Yeah, give me more,
give me like, okay, yeah, here's the lances, here's the picks. Okay,
this is good. I want to learn more about this thing.
I want to learn more about the muletta, I want
to learn about the swords. Give me more of that
kind of stuff. So this is a good episode that
(32:31):
really could have been a great episode. I think, yeah,
and I totally agree.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
It's weird that we don't have like a weird columboism
in this episode, like a moment where he just fucks
off to go do something and his interactions are just
weird with people like where is that? I am surprised
we don't get that, because that in this episode almost
feels like a foregun conclusion for Funk's sake, Like you said,
he's in Mexico, why are we not having like we
(32:56):
get him in old burritos. We have him interacting that
minimal amount that's not enough. Give us more than that,
especially if we're never going to come back here.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Well, like I said at the beginning, it's so strange
that the script of this didn't have the car crash,
because that's like when he actually gets to interact with
other people. Yeah, yeah, and that's always like what you're
afraid of when you go to a foreign country is
like somebody trying to take advantage of you, and just
to get those reactions from him where he's just amused
(33:24):
by like the guy who's just oh, my neck. But
it's like, right, I wanted almost a little bit more
of that of oh, by the way, we paid off
this guy, or something like just a little throwaway line
as far as yeah, this guy's causing trouble and still
saying that you damage his car. I would love there
to be a scene of him going and looking at
the car and the mechanic being like, oh, there's nothing
(33:46):
I can do for it, and Colombo just being like,
what are you talking about. It's in perfect condition. Something
like that.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Yeah, And there was none of that. It's weird. There
was a lot of this stuff happened off screen. It
feels like, hey, it's not almost most of the things
that we have had happened before in this show that
happened on screen happened off screen. Almost all of those
columboisms we didn't get to see him. To your point,
we know they had to happen. We know we had
to go and get his car and all this stuff,
(34:13):
but we don't see it, which is it's odd for
this episode. This feels like a layup, and it feels
like they just I don't know, maybe they just weren't
as interested in doing some of those things with this
episode as they normally have been. But in my mind,
I don't understand what the point of taking him and
putting him in Mexico is if they're not going to
(34:34):
do at least one or two scenes of him being
a fish out of water because Peter Folk had a
great face. Oh yeah, right with the reaction shots of
him and his pick. Character of Colombo has so many
idiosyncrasies that like, you would want to see him interacting
with people in Mexico. So it feels like a pretty
large missed opportunity in my mind.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Anyways, Oh, one hundred percent. Where's the scene where it's
a hallapang or something.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Yeah, it's just a little bit of a missed opportunity,
that's all.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Yeah, Well, hopefully you enjoy next month's episode when we
come back and talk all about Now You see Him,
which if there was a sequel, it'd probably be Now
You Don't. As opposed to those movies, which has our
boy Jack Cassidy coming back as the Great Santini and
that's not the awful father figure that is being played
(35:25):
by Robert Duvall from the Great Santini movie. This is
a magician. He doesn't throw a basketball in anybody's face
and go come on Wan to see you're going to
squirt some Come on, have you ever seen that movie?
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Chris? I have not.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Oh that's exactly that's my father and my relationship right there.
So yeah, definitely check it out.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Those basketballs in your face?
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Oh yeah, what you're gonna do?
Speaker 2 (35:44):
You gotta cry?
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Oh my god, that movie's fucking man.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Never seen it? Oh boy?
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Yeah, but no, this is not as intense, but I
had a lot of fun with Now you see him,
I hope you enjoy it as well. So until then,
what are you working on these days? Chris?
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Everything that I'm working on can be found over at
Weirdingwaymedia dot com, where this show and all the other
shows that we work on can be found other than
ranking on Bond, which can be found on yours and
my respective patreons patreon dot com, slash culturecast and patreon
dot com slash Projection booth.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
What about you, Mike, same damn thing all the way
down the line. I want to thank John Walker for
our opening theme, and I want to thank Colin Gallagher
for our closing theme, and I want to thank everybody
out there in radio land for listening. Thank you so much.
If you enjoy listening to these episodes. Please, why not
rate and review the show wherever you get it. That
would really help us out. Bully Sad was
Speaker 2 (37:03):
To fish the snow
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