May 19, 2025 • 40 mins
The great Santini takes center stage—but Lieutenant Columbo isn’t impressed by smoke and mirrors. In this episode of The Shabby Detective, Mike and Chris shine a spotlight on Now You See Him, the 1976 Columbo classic starring Jack Cassidy in his final turn as a Columbo killer. Cassidy plays the arrogant nightclub magician who thinks he can make murder disappear, but the rumpled detective sees right through the act.
Chris and Mike unpack the episode’s sleight-of-hand plotting, its eerie undertones of Nazism and blackmail, and Cassidy’s show-stealing performance. Along the way, they ponder Robert Loggia’s mustache, comment on the trickery of typewriter ribbons, and debate whether this outing is one of Columbo’s best.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-shabby-detective-yet-another-columbo-podcast--5084441/support.
Chris and Mike unpack the episode’s sleight-of-hand plotting, its eerie undertones of Nazism and blackmail, and Cassidy’s show-stealing performance. Along the way, they ponder Robert Loggia’s mustache, comment on the trickery of typewriter ribbons, and debate whether this outing is one of Columbo’s best.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-shabby-detective-yet-another-columbo-podcast--5084441/support.
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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 Columbo podcast. I'm
your host Mike White. Joining me, of course, is mister Christashue.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
To know him was to detest him.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
On this episode we are talking about now you see him.
It was the fifth episode of the fifth season, our
old boy Jack Cassidy coming back to play villain, his
last time as a villain, unfortunately, because he can really
play these characters very well. This one originally aired on
Leap Year, February twenty ninth, nineteen seventy six. It's an
(00:56):
eighty five minute episode, so we complain sometimes when there's
any we complain sometimes from their ninety so here we
are at eighty five, So no complaints this time, I imagine.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
No. Thoroughly enjoyed this episode, and this might be the
best episode of this season so far.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, it is pretty damn good, and it's so funny
because I think I was making a lot of references
to this back when we were talking about the fifth
episode of the fourth season playback, the one with Oscar
Werner as Harald von Vick, the tech guy, and I
kept saying he should have been a former Nazi, because
(01:32):
here we have a former Nazi and that's a pretty
good motivating factor. This whole thing of how the club
that he works at. Jack Cassidy as the Great Santini,
not a bad father figure like we would see in
the movie The Great Santini. Here, he's a magician and
his boss, I guess it is the guy that owns
(01:56):
the cabaret, Jesse Jerome played by Namayah hers Off. He
knows exactly what Cassidy is, what Santini is, I should say,
and is blackmailing him. And I guess that Santini isn't
holding this weight, so he's going to turn him into
the Israelis. And I have a good old time watching
(02:19):
the Great Santini just taking off over to Israel and
probably put to death or put into a cell for
a very long time. This is nineteen seventy six, folks.
We are still talking about Nazi hunting a lot back
when it was okay to hunt Nazis.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, what a time to be alive.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
What a time when people thought Nazis were bad.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
It's strange to think about, isn't it to go to
the Nazi of it all right out of the gate,
which is really how you want to handle Nazis and
if you're gonna handle it, it's just punch it right
in the fucking mouth, because that's exactly what those asshole deserve,
is the fact that he's a fucking Nazi and that
the motivating factor as to why he does everything that
(03:04):
he does. But it is all wrapped up in this
magician shell that I found so interesting because I am
so glad that it wasn't just the Nazi of it all.
And that for me, is why this is such a
good episode, is because it is a multi layered episode.
Or there is no universe where Colombo goes into this
thinking this guy is reasoning for killing his bosses because
(03:25):
he's a Nazi. That is as surprising to Colombo as
it is to us. Again, we find out pretty quickly
that he's a Nazi. That's surprising. When Columbo finds out,
he is just as surprised because there's no universe where
he could have thought that's what was going on here.
He thinks that he's murdering his boss because his boss
has the contract dispute didn't go the way he wanted,
(03:45):
not because he's about to be outed as a Nazi.
And I love that is where this episode goes that
is a hell of a twist. To your point, it
reminds me of that Richard Kylee episode of Twilight Zone
nineteen eighty five, or I think it was that, or
Night Gallery maybe, where it's like he's a Nazi on
the run who gets trapped in a painting, like you said.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Ni Calory. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah. The Nazi of it all is such a thing
in the eighties where it's like we're hunting these Nazis
down that have gotten away with their war crimes forever,
and I love that this is that, but it's also
a magician thing, which is also starting to gain a
lot of steam in the eighties and nineties, especially when
you talk about Las Vegas and all of how Vegas
(04:26):
and magicians starts becoming like intrinsically linked around this time.
And I'm not saying they weren't before, but we have
like magicians becoming a thing too. So I think it's
interesting that this episode is working in multiple playgrounds at
the same time.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Using magic is so great because it's the art of illusion.
So it's the whole thing of trying to pull the
wall over the audience's eyes. So what's Jack Cassidy doing.
He's pulling the wall over their eyes. But he's also
trying to do the exact same thing to Colombo. And
this whole thing of you can't ask me certain things
because these are the secrets of magic, so I can't
(05:00):
really come out and tell you you're going to have
to figure it out on your own. So Colombo's basically
trying to figure out the murder while he's also trying
to figure out magic tricks. So him with the whole
thing of the different rocks and things or the different
stuff in the office where it's yes and number oh,
I knew you were going to see number two kind
(05:21):
of thing, like, that's pretty cool when Colombo's there. I
especially like when Colombo goes to the magic shop, and
I really liked the guy that plays the magician who's
teaching him those things. I thought he was really well played.
Their David was the clerk at the magic shop, and
I just thought he stole the whole scene that he
(05:42):
was in with Peter Falk.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
He's great, and it's one of those things where it
could have totally been one of those scenes that we've
talked about so many times with the show where it's
like the Colombo of it all, he doesn't feel like
that at all. He upstages Peter Fulk in that scene.
But Peter Folk is having such a good time. I
don't think I've seen Peter Folk smile so many times
in and so does I have in this one. He's
having a great time in this episode. From that scene
(06:05):
to the scene with Jack Cassidy where he's brought on stage.
Jack Cassidy calls him a beautiful boy, which is so
fucking strange. I love Peter Bulk is having the time
of his life with this episode, and I feel like
that goes back to the world of magic of it All,
where there's like a level of whimsy and fantasy and
suspension of disbelief.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
No, I really think that's great. And the other reason
I think that he's having such a great time in
this is Bob Dishy is back.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
What a redemption for his character and his portrayal of
that character in the show, because that was not great
in the last episode, not because of him. It was
a bad episode that he was.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
In Greenhouse Jungle, right, But yeah, here he's so great,
and he's so obsequious and just always chasing down the
wrong thing, to the point where Colombo it's amazing. He
doesn't lose is cool because it's just, hey, I am
on this path over here, Bob Dishey, you are on
this path way the fuck over here, and never the
(07:01):
twain shall meet because you are not following where I'm
going at all. Finally, it feels towards the end and he's, oh, okay,
now I get it. But there are so many times
where he's just Lieutenant, what about this and that and
the other thing? And no, you're chasing down all the
stuff that Cassidy is setting up for you. You are following
that directly. Colombo on a whole different thing, whole different level, literally,
(07:26):
a different level as far as that playing field. But
he's always mister three D chess as opposed to what
the hell dish he's up to, Dishy, just like he's
not a beat cop, but he might as well be
with those detective skills he's got.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, Bob, Dishy is woefully out of his depth, as
they would say. But again, when you're partnered up with Colombo,
what the fuck do you expect? Like he's Colombo for
God's sakes, I don't know. This is one of those
episodes of Colombo where he doesn't know it's Jack Cassidy
out of the gate, and that's because he could never
have anticipated that Chack Cassidy is a Nazi, is under suspicion.
(08:01):
And there's that scene where Colombo is underground with him
and you're down here and you could be down here,
Honey's man. That clears up a lot. Is okay, Columbo's
gotcha now, But Colombo has to figure out. And it's
not up until the last moment that Columbo figures out
what impact is going on?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Oh yeah, In the he goes back to the classic
three right motive opportunity and means right, and it's just
like he can't figure out the motive throughout the entire
episode until he finally cracks open that selectric typewriter and
is able to read that letter, and then that amazing
reveal when he pulls up the letter, he bolts it
(08:41):
up above his head and then Jack Cassidy takes it
and somehow turns it into flash paper and burns it up,
and then Columbo pulls out another one, and it's just like,
how many copies you want? We got a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, I love that magic is part of it every time,
Like I like the magic is part of the end
of the episode. I like that we get this goofy
shit with Colombo pulling that letter out because it wouldn't
work in any other episode, but it works here.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
So I did read some behind the scenes about this one,
and Assidy was actually not their first choice. One of
the reasons why they went with him is because his
price was right. The original choice for this magician character was,
of all people, Orson Wells. They wanted to get Orson Wells,
who was a magician in this role, and I think
(09:29):
it would have been just incredible to have him, but
I think Cassidy pulls it off wonderfully. Now, Cassidy didn't
have enough time to learn actual prestidigitation, sleight of hand,
any of that kind of stuff, so they used a
hand double sometimes or like a guy who was trying
to teach him some of these things. Didn't really pick
up on it as much as he could have. But
(09:50):
he's just, oh damn smarmy and great in this role.
I thought that was great. I would have liked to
have had Wells in there because it would have been
a nice throwback to which one was It was mister R.
Coddon where he plays a secret Nazi, So that would
have been a nice little nod there. But yeah, Cassidy
coming back and just killing it well, and.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
That's why they give Cassidy that facial hair was a
little nod to the fact they couldn't get Orson well
If I don't know, Jack Cassidy with a mustache is
a weird look, but it works.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah. I guess Wells wanted twenty grand for his role
and Cassidy was willing to take twelve or something.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
So what eight grand to not have Orson Wells? Fuck you?
That's fuck you. Come on, man, it's like watching an
episode of ponnd stars that five hundred dollars is going
to separate you from having this thing in your store.
Fuck off. Come on. I'm not saying Jack Cassidy is
not a great actor. He is, especially in the context
of Colombo. He has turned in three great performances, and
(10:50):
especially that second one is in a I would say
pretty subpar episode. I really don't like that second episode
r And that's the one where he's the writer and
it's the thing with the bomb and the bomb maker,
and I guess he's the writer the first time too.
But that's the one where it's like he's the writer
and against his friend and he murders his friend. That
(11:10):
and that's the one that's directed by Steven Spieldvers. It's
a much better episode put together, but it's again his
performance in the second episode is what kind of redeems
that second episode. This is a great episode with a
great performance. But can you imagine Orson Wells may what
an episode that would have been like real, like it
would have been mentioned in other things. That's the thing
(11:32):
when you have someone like Orson Wells who's such a talent,
he's such an icon of pop culture like this Colombo
would have more fans because of Orson Wells being part
of it than by not having him. And that's a
reality because Orson Wells has been again talked about in
a lot of deserved tones as a important figure in
(11:53):
pop culture, both film, television and just pop culture in general.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
And he so could have used that money to put
that right back in one of his productions.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
That's the other thing. Yeah, it's a shame, but again,
Jack Cassidy is so good that at least they get
Jack Cassidy, who is a fantastic actor who turns in
a fantastic performance, and he is great opposite Columbo because
he is very antagonistic towards Colombo at the end, but
throughout most of it they're just back and forth. He
doesn't really again because what the motive is has to
(12:25):
be hidden so much. He really has to treat Colombo,
I would say, nicely throughout the episode, because the motive
is so out there that once Columbo figures it out,
it recontextualizes Jack Cassidy's character completely.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
I don't think this is too successful, and please tell
me the whole thing about Cassidy's daughter and tire. Yeah,
the singer who we see twice very prominently performs before
the great Santini comes out, and then we see him
fairly early on, and I'd say, like during the pre
(13:02):
Colombo murder sequence. I think it's before Santini even goes
on stage. You see that singer guy and Santini's daughter
and they're making out and there's tension there. There's this
big thing because that guy, that lounge singer, is Jewish.
And that's why even more than don't go after my daughter,
(13:23):
it's don't go after my daughter, you jew and it's boy,
oh boy, I did not pick up on that at
all in this and it came out in the script,
came out in some of those behind the scenes things
they were talking about, and they're just like, yeah, I
really wasn't very successful. I'm like, no, it wasn't at all.
I didn't really remember that guy or Santini's daughter for
(13:45):
the longest time. I'm like, oh, yeah, she's just an assistant.
I didn't really pick up that they were related.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
And it doesn't contribute anything overall to the story because
it's so underrepresented. On the last episode, with a matter
of honor, they also had a throwaway romance between one
of the characters like family members and someone else, doesn't
go anywhere and feels like a vestigial storyline. Once again,
(14:11):
same thing. If they had hammered home the jewishness of
it all, it would have worked. Columbo would have given
pause for a second. But we don't get any of that,
and again, it's not needed. It's more of the point.
I think in my mind, they get there without it,
So excize it and save yourself a couple minutes, save
yourself some time, save yourself some budget, because I don't
(14:33):
think his daughter and that character needed to be in
the episode at all. Genuinely, they add nothing to the
episode if they're not gonna hammer home the jewishness and
the Jack Cassidy hating Jewish people because he's a fucking Nazi.
There's no such thing as an x Nazi at this
time in history. Now people can change their minds, I
would hope and come to their goddamn senses. Right now
(14:56):
in nineteen seventy six, there's no such thing as an
ex fuck Nazi. These are literally the people that were
putting people to death in the camps. That's what Jack
Cassidy's character is. He is a SS prison guard, not
someone who thinks that Nazis have some interesting ideas, which
is what amounts to Nazism. Now in our country, it's
like dipshits who think that being a white person and
(15:19):
white supremacy is okay, and there are people that aren't
white that think that, which makes no fucking sense. Like Nazis.
The actual Nazis that were putting people to death in
the camps were not going to let people that did
not look like them run around and do things. And
that is the thing. Like in seventy six, this kind
of Nazi is a detestable piece of shit because he's
(15:39):
killing people. And the fact that they even have a
Jewish character in this episode and do nothing with it
is shocking to me.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Well, I figure his boss has to be Jewish too, right.
The guy that played his boss is famous for playing
Jewish people like you look at his filmography, you look
at his IMDb picture, and it's okay, me and Maah
Piisov played I don't know how many rabbis over the years,
and I'm like, if anything, it feels like he's such
a detestable guy in this Maybe he is Jewish and
(16:10):
he's just like, okay, having this fucking Nazi there under
his thumb. I think he almost gets a little bit
of a thrill out of it. And then when he's like,
oh hey, I can fuck this guy over too, this
is going to be great. It's kind of strange. By
the way. Most people will probably know of this actor
as playing Papa Mouskowitz from the American Tale movies.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah. I was gonna say, we saw him in Barney Miller.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Oh yeah, he's got one of those faces. Man, He's
really good. Robert Losha seems wasted in this episode because
he's fucking Robert Loja.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
He really does. I think that Loja is similarly to
the Jewish possible like love interest character. It's a direction
that goes nowhere. And also Robert losen he's not on
screen a whole lot. That seems like a missed opportunity.
It's not like Robert Losan seventy six was an unknown quantity.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
That's what I was wondering if people knew who Robert
Loja was like, because it feels like they should have
because he's just so good all the time. Of course,
when he's giving traffic lessons and lost Highway, that's definitely
something he was something at this point, right.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I had assumed. So it's weird to see very young
Robert Loja. I wonder again, like with what we were
talking about with the Jewish character, like I wonder if
there's more going on there, if there had been more,
But it doesn't seem like we needed more there, So.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
No, Yeah, I'm going back and looking at his filmography.
Scarface is still a few years away, Psycho two is
still a few years away, but okay, yeah, he's playing
in Fantasy Island, Charlie's Angels of Vegas. OH ninth Configuration
it's just a few years away as well. But yeah,
maybe he wasn't the Robert Loja that we know at
(17:52):
this time because he's just playing a lot of TV roles.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
We just reverse hindsight Lojia, like, oh, we know now
that he's like that would explain why he's not really
given a lot of time in the episode. But he
makes an impact, which I think is the other thing
for me. He's got a great look to him and
he's I like that him and Peter Falk get to
share the screen together, Like, because this is peak Peter Falk,
(18:15):
it might not be peak Robert Loja. I know Robert
Loser from Independence Day. That's the thing that I know
him from. That's the first thing I saw him in.
And then he's done some random, other strange things, like
being in Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar movie, which is
super strange, playing Oh what's that William Atherton? Is that
the guy from die Hard? And yeah it's him and
(18:35):
William Atherton played the villains in that movie opposite Tim
and Eric, And like, Loja is just hamming it up
and I love Robert Loja, but yeah, he's not in
this enough. But I think the problem is he's not
in this enough is not that much of a complaint,
you know what I mean. The episode is so good
anyways that yes, I wish there had been more of him,
(18:56):
And yes, this episode's eighty five minutes long, so technically
you could have given six more minutes and still been
within the boundaries of what this show does, at least
within the what ninety one eighty five seventy is the
three options, it would seem for the length of the episodes.
You could have given us a little bit more, and
I don't think we would have complained, because I think
(19:16):
that the world of magic is well represented, and the
fact that it's not the motivating factor behind things, it's
just part of it. It's the vehicle, less the engine.
I think is so smart because in the last episode
we had that similar thing where it's the world of bullfighting,
but the reason behind everything is less about bullfighting and
(19:37):
more about someone's fragile ego. And I like that because
we've had things in this show where it's like, no,
it's specifically this thing. It's like, I don't need it
to be, like, it doesn't specifically have to be this
thing to work in the world of that thing.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Well, and here the murder is so well done and
such an actual mystery, as opposed to how easily Colombo
finds that pick in the dirt, and you know he's
got Ricardo Mantabon did rights very quickly, and it's still
that same thing of oh, no, you shouldn't question this
guy because he's like this very revered person, whereas with
(20:14):
this one, it's like this is one of the few
ones where the villain isn't very well to do, Like,
I don't see the great Santinei making bank. He's working
at the shitty magic club kind of thing and doing okay,
he's a headliner and everything, but at the same time,
he's not making bank off of this stuff. He's just
making a living. And sounds like nobody likes the boss,
(20:36):
the one guy who's just cay. Can he make this
guy disappear? I'm like, okay, so he's not very well loved.
People are not sad when the ball is not his
pretty much, no one's just oh, he was such a
great humanitarian or something. No, there's really nothing to that.
And then yeah, to have Santini twits with the Columba,
(20:58):
you feel like he's a smart guy and He's been
one step ahead of all of these different people all
these years, because so much of Columbo's investigation is about
what Santini was like when he was going by this name,
that name. He runs across the one guy who's, oh, yeah,
he used to have this German accent, and then when
Colombo calls him on, he's just, oh, did he speak
(21:19):
like decent? He starts doing all these accents, and I'm like, oh, okay,
that's a nice way to throw him off the trail.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
There. The why of it all becomes so part and
parcel to everything, and it goes in an interesting direction
because yeah, Colombo is along for the ride in being
surprised that this guy is like a former Nazi who's
like German like. He doesn't present it. He does a
very good job of covering it up throughout the entire episode, which,
to Jack Cassidy's credit, Heat does not let that performance
(21:49):
slip at all. No, which I really appreciate.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Yeah, I really like it too, And I like some
of the stupid stuff in this episode, And the stupid
is very much in quotes, because I think the whole
thing with the raincoat gag is fantastic. Just Colombo trying
to lose that new coat as much as he possibly can.
And then the whole thing too about his shoes and
all that stuff. We know what a problem he has
(22:14):
with shoes. And then like him like, I got to
take this coat off. I can't even think of this thing.
I'm just like, oh, that's so nice. I really be
His wife is put this new coat out him and
he just can't even handle it. You're talking last episode
about how you're very much in that. I believe missus
Columbo exists.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Thing.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
I think so too with an episode like this, because
Columbo's not going to buy that coat for himself, I.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Wouldn't think so. But he looks rather well dressed in
this episode. Otherwise, he doesn't look as shabby as normal.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
No, no shabby in his episode.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah. The hair, it's always with the hair. He does
look a little unkempt above the eyebrows.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yeah. I saw this meme the other day. It was
very young Colombo versus a little bit older Colombo, and
it said how you look after a exploding cigar goes
off in your mouth?
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Pretty much pretty much?
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, yeah, okay, I can see that. Yeah, I can
see that. Big the big hair. So I also saw
a great clip yesterday because it was Easter. We're recording
this today. It's probably got some sort of weird name
to it, right, all of these this is Easter Monday, yeah,
because I was thinking of like Maundy Thursday or Holy Saturday.
And there was a Easter Seals telethon and there was
(23:29):
a segment that Peter Falk was hosting and just everybody
in that stage was having a great time. I'm like,
what time of the day or night was this when
these people are just having such a blast dancing on
stage for this Easter telethon, And just Peter Falk was
just loving life at that moment, and it made me
(23:49):
so happy to see it.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
I love Peter Falk's energy in this episode. He's having
such a good time. He really is. I really like
him in this episode. He's having a great time. And
I wanted to mention this because we haven't talked about it.
We've talked about the Nazis of it all, We've talked
about the magic of it all, but can we talk
about the technology of it all? Because that's the thing
that ultimately we come back to with this episode, is
(24:13):
the juxtaposition of technology versus the magic, because you have
that scene where he's in the magician's store and they're talking,
do you have something that allow me to throw my
voice from one room to the other. I'm like, oh,
my god, this is nineteen seventy six, Like they could
not fathom what we have now at all. And it's
like at the end of the episode, is I heard
(24:33):
you were in one room and it's in the other
and it's my god, you were using radio transmitters, Like oh,
it's the typewriter's ribbon has the things in it. Like
technology is wild and undercutting the magic of magic. And
I like that about this episode. The episode is very
subtle about it. It doesn't bash you over the head.
(24:53):
But we have talked so much about Colombo technology and
Colombo being part and parcel and and this episode has
him catching somebody because of a typewriter and a radio transmitter.
What more is technologically advanced in nineteen seventy six than
those two things? I'll wait, nothing like really seventy six.
A typewriter, a selectric typewriter, which is a electric typewriter,
(25:17):
and a radio transmitter that is about lapel sized. Those
are pretty technologically advanced things. For people to be seeing
in nineteen seventy six. I do feel like.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yeah, because we forget that before those selectric typewriters with
the ribbon cartridge, you would just have a regular ribbon
with the ink soaked into it, so you really couldn't
see what you had typed before. When you're doing that,
I'm typing, by the way, this is my hand motion typing,
air typing, and yeah, now you have a record of
(25:49):
everything that was written on that particular typewriter, which is
such a Colombo twist. I was just okay, I've exhausted
all these other things. And then I love Dishy with
just how happy he is to talk about that. The
way he's like caressing the top of the typewriter, It's
just like this baby could get up to about two
hundred and twenty wards a minute. I'm like, wow, Yeah,
(26:12):
you really know your stuff here, Luke or Captain.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
It's interesting, is it.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah. And then the other thing I'd like a lot
too is the scene with the handcuffs where Colombo has
to prove that Cassidy can get out of these particular
handcuffs and they use the exact same key that was
being used before and just that look on Columbo's face
as he's watching Cassidy get that lock of art. Oh
(26:38):
you got him. He doesn't know that you got him,
but you got him that little I knew you could
do it, sir. I'm like, oh, so good, but.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
You got him. Yeah, I know, colobu. That is the
thing about this episode that is so fun is that,
because it is the magic of it all, we get
to watch Jack Cassidy externalize things that we have seen
people do before where it's like, you got him, Columbo.
In this moment he signs his own warrant. This is
not one of these oh circumstantial evidence. Nah, even if
(27:09):
he had not admitted to it, it's like they got him.
They've got him. And I do love that the entryway
for Columbo is for him to go, my boss isn't
gonna believe that you were locked in that box for
ten minutes, and that's you know what, if you can't
prove where you were right, then you're a fucking suspect.
And I love that. I love that. It's almost like
it's almost like a locked room this episode. There is
(27:32):
a little locked room to this, like a little Agatha
Christia of it all. Really, even the third act twist
for Columbo to be like he's a Nazi, like the
audience knows because of the way they tell the story.
There's a version of this where we find out with
Columbo that he's a Nazi and we're floored. The girl
with the dragon tattooed, there's a Nazi twist subplot in that,
and it's like, came out of nowhere, what the hell?
(27:54):
And here it's the same thing. But again we know
because we see and see what that he's a Nazi
when he's talking to me and my.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Person to the busy kitchen, and just that Cassidy can
get himself lost in this kitchen because it is just
such a center of chaos. I love that no one
sees who comes in or out. Nobody could say who
was here or who was there, because it's just fucking crazy.
And this is the perfect alibi of having this kitchen
(28:24):
between the two spaces and just like Okay, yeah, this
guy's going to pass through here. He's going to wear
a false wig and put on a waiter's coat. Nobody's
going to see him. Nobody will notice this guy. They
barely noticed the Columbus there, and this little guy wearing
a trench coat.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
I love how understated Jack Cassidy disguises. It's just yeah,
again like to your point, like, because it's so hectic,
you can do anything. Robert Los is like my mother
could come in here and kiss me and I wouldn't remember.
And oh, yeah, I believe that, Like this place is
pretty popular. I guess this is modeled after the Magic
Castle in Los Angeles. I'm ssooming that's what this is
(29:01):
supposed to be. Strikes me as that, Yeah, I love
the world of magic. There are some stand out and
again like not stand out, but they stand out to
me as good examples of using magic and stuff. There's
a Tales from the Crypt episode where they use magic.
I think we have talked about or we'll be talking
about Tales from the dark Side episode with magicians. The
world of magic and magicians is such an interesting world
(29:25):
for ripe investigation and to do fun things with. And
I'm glad that we get an episode in the world
of magic because just I love it, even at the end,
like a perfect murder is only an illusion. Man, we
even get at the end he's doing the magic thing. Yes,
thank you. Episode, like the fact that again it goes
back to this idea of the best kind of themed
restaurants are the ones that have the menu items are themed,
(29:48):
the drinks are themed, the bathrooms are themed. It's like,
you have to if you're gonna go into this world,
do it right. Have things have a magic show and
have them go to the magic shop, and have him
go to the underneath where the magician isn't into his
kind of layer and you can see the tricks, and
have Columbo learn how to do a trick. And one
of the reasons Jack Cassidy gets caught is because he's
(30:11):
undoing a lock, which is such a magician thing to do.
And then at the end of the day we have
all that as the pretense, and then it's he's a
Nazi and the guy found out he was a Nazi
and was gonna out him as a Nazi, and that's
ultimately what gets him caught. Has nothing to do with magic.
Magic is just what seems to be the alibi here
is I was locked in a box underwater, but I
(30:32):
have to out myself as not having actually been in
that box, and therefore there goes my alibi immediately, just
because Columbo goes my boss isn't gonna believe you were
in that box for ten minutes.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
And then it's the old boss excuse, Oh yeah, my sergeant.
He's always sign me, oh my captain. So always got
somebody who's just busting his balls about this stuff that
I can make it up on the spot.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
And isn't it interesting how Colombo uses his boss versus
the way Pedro Amandari's junior used his boss as an
excuse last episode, because it's so different. That's why Pedro
Romadar's was like dragging his feet to do things because
he was worried his boss was going to rake him
over the colls. And here Columbo's boss is being used
rightfully so by Colombo as justification because Columbo's boss knows
(31:15):
that Colombo is legit and gets the results and gets
the job done. That's the one thing we haven't seen yet.
Who are Columbo's superiors and what do they think of
the job that he does, because they've got to just
be like over the moon that Colombo keeps catching all
these people in these cases that are seemingly impossible that
no other cop would be able to. Again, we're to
(31:37):
the point now with this kind of media where we
don't even have cops doing this anymore. Natasha Leone is
not a cop in poker face. She's just a normal
person because at this point, if they were a police officer,
their boss would be like, we're just going to send
you around the country to do this for everybody. And
that's why you have to suspend disbelief with Colombo. But
the show, I'm assuming we never see his boss, or
(31:57):
if we do, and they make it really no point
to have it be like, you know, how many people
you've called Colombo that would not be caught otherwise, because
that's the thing about Sherlock Holmes. Scotland Yard makes note
of the fact that theying Sherlock Holmes is a genius.
We need to bring him in on this. Colombo is
a genius that his bosses are like, just send Columbo in,
(32:18):
he'll figure it out.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yeah. We get to see a little bit of that
stuff with the was it a friend indeed the other
cop and then also with even with the a case
of immunity, but that was another department. I think when
he came in there and that one CoP's just what
the hell are you doing here? Colombo?
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Bob Dishy technically is that, But I want to see
someone who's his superior, not someone who is effectively And
again Bob Dishy is painted in such a ding dong
in this episode. Bob Dishy is columbus subordinate, like his subordinate,
and I want to know what Columbo's boss to think
of what he does, because he is the smartest guy
in the room at all times, unless you're Anzi, and
(33:00):
then I got to get over that hump. Otherwise, Columbo
is always the smartest guy in the room, always the
one in the know. And you don't want to be
in columbus crossairs because if you're in his crosshairs, it's
already over for you. Literally, Like we've had this conversation
so many times in this show about the show. On
these episodes we talk about where there's a moment where
Columbo's got him, and it's not at the end of
(33:21):
the episode most of the times. Most of the times
it's five minutes in six minutes into him being on screen,
like heat got him. We just got to figure out
how he's gonna catch him. But he knows maybe these
people should murder people so close to them.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Be found a stranger that could kill somebody close to
him and that he would kill somebody close to the
stranger and be the perfect murder Chris, what.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Was it where hired and Jack Cassidy's last episode hire
somebody who makes pipe bombs to blow them up and
then kill him and make it look like an accident. Well,
this was a great example of Colombo operating at peak Colombo,
from the way it resolves to the villain having a
great repertoire back and forth with a reparte I guess
(34:05):
with Colombo, and even having the wrinkle of Bob Dishy
and the wrinkle of the Nazi of it all like,
those are fun little wrinkles that make this episode stand
out this season. And again I'm not saying that there
have been bad episodes this season. Frankly, I think this season,
for the most part, it's pretty good. But this, I
think for me, is like a standout episode this season
(34:25):
because I think for me, it's this episode in the
last episode or the two really like good episodes this season.
There have been great episodes. There have been some good episodes.
Case of Immunity Forgotten Lady are good, but these last
two have been great, really great.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Chris, get ready for utter disappointment As we go into
the last episode of this season, Last Salute to the Commodore,
directed by our old friend Patrick mcgoin, who doesn't show
up in this. We do get Fred Draper, who we
just saw as a blind man or the blind man's brother,
and previous episode also worked in that cosmetics company when
(35:08):
Martin Sheen was getting killed, and I think he showed
up at least one other time. Then of course he
was in Woman under the Influence and some other Cassavettes movies.
We're also going to get Robert Vaughan coming back the
Shipboard Killer, but we'll be back, but this time as
a victim. And yeah, this might be one of the
worst Columbo episodes, but I'm going to walk into it
(35:29):
with an open mind and try to make sense of
this thing. I'm gonna read as much as I possibly
can about this episode, see what happens, see why. This
is what I consider and I think a lot of
Columbo fans consider one of the worst ones. Let's hope
that you find something enjoyable from this one. If nothing else,
(35:49):
at least Dennis Dugan is in this next one.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Thank you, you beat me to it, you motherfucker. Adam
Saylor's best friend, dan Is Duke. It is in the
episode Everybody, Oh Boy, Dennis.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Dugan, Dennis Dugan who had a I think it was
just a I don't know if it was a full
fledged show, but it was an offshoot of The Rockford
Files for a little while where he played a detective
on that, and then I think he comes back in
possibly Missus Colombo, probably not as this same one.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Richie Brockleman Private Eye. Good God, And it was a
Rockford Files spinoff? What and you know what? You know
how I know that show was not a success. By
the fucking title.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Richie Brockleman Private Eye.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Was he five years old? It's not like a Zach
Galvinakis in Hangover, like he's carried on somebody's chest. He's
like a baby detective. I mean that's what it sounds like.
Ricky Brockleman Private Eye. What are you fucking ten years old?
Speaker 1 (36:50):
He definitely has some trouble at parallel parking, or at
least doing a backup job. That's the only thing I
really remember from that, as well as Diane are just
looking amazing in this episode. She's the one who is
Catherine Martin's mother in Silence of the Lambs.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Mm, okay, love your suit. I'm excited. I know that
we've been barreling towards this episode, so I'm excited to
watch it. But yeah, man, here we go. Ending the
season five of Columbo coming soon. We're halfway through the
run of this show.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Then we're gonna have to watch some stuff that Fulk
was up to and maybe even get more Lincoln Levinson
in our lives as well. So I'll take a look
at what was going on in nineteen seventy six and
where we can go from there. But yeah, one more
episode for season six. We'll be back next month to
talk about last Salute to the Commodore. In the meantime, Chris,
what are you working on these days?
Speaker 2 (37:45):
It's working on podcasts over Weirdingwaymedia dot com. Head on
over there to find everything I work on other than
ranking on Bond, which is our Patreon exclusive show, which
can be found over at Mypatreon, Patreon dot com, slash
culturecastpatreon dot com, slash Projection Boot. What about you, Mike?
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Quite yeah, pretty much the same thing all the way
down the line. So all those good things that we
do are available at Weirdingmaymedia dot com except for that
one show that is available on our patreons. Hopefully you're
listening to this on one of our patreons, that would
be a nice thing. But otherwise, yeah, just go on
over to I believe It's Shabby Detective dot com you
can get more of this show, or weadoway Media dot
(38:22):
com you get all of the shows. I want to
thank John Walker for our opening theme and Colin Gallagher
for our closing theme, and I want to thank you
the listener for listening to this show and hear us
talk about Colombo every month. Don't care if anybody's really listening,
because I'm going to have a hell of a time
talking about one of my most favorite TV shows in
the world with one of my best friends. So I'm
(38:43):
really glad to be here with you, Chris, and I
look forward to next month, even if it's going to
be a bummer of an episode.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
And you know what, I forgot to mention, my girlfriend
has really taken a liking to Colombo. I really enjoy
watching both with you, and I'm like, wow, So there
you go, Mike White, Columbo spanning the generations.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Love it.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
She's a little younger than both of us. The audience
for Columbo is still there, for the cozy murder mystery.
I think it's still there. And I'm so glad that
we were watching the show together because I feel like
this is one of your shows that you had always
talked about free us doing it. This is a great show.
That's the other thing that helps. This is one of
those shows where I've never seen any of it, So
(39:26):
getting to watch it with you and enjoy it in
real time and not rush ahead and savor it. There's
not a whole lot of shows like this where I
don't rush ahead and I don't spoil it for myself.
So says a lot about Columbo as a show. I
feel like a gay town a gay towns
Welcome to the Shabby Detective, yet another Columbo podcast. I'm
your host Mike White. Joining me, of course, is mister Christashue.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
To know him was to detest him.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
On this episode we are talking about now you see him.
It was the fifth episode of the fifth season, our
old boy Jack Cassidy coming back to play villain, his
last time as a villain, unfortunately, because he can really
play these characters very well. This one originally aired on
Leap Year, February twenty ninth, nineteen seventy six. It's an
(00:56):
eighty five minute episode, so we complain sometimes when there's
any we complain sometimes from their ninety so here we
are at eighty five, So no complaints this time, I imagine.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
No. Thoroughly enjoyed this episode, and this might be the
best episode of this season so far.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yeah, it is pretty damn good, and it's so funny
because I think I was making a lot of references
to this back when we were talking about the fifth
episode of the fourth season playback, the one with Oscar
Werner as Harald von Vick, the tech guy, and I
kept saying he should have been a former Nazi, because
(01:32):
here we have a former Nazi and that's a pretty
good motivating factor. This whole thing of how the club
that he works at. Jack Cassidy as the Great Santini,
not a bad father figure like we would see in
the movie The Great Santini. Here, he's a magician and
his boss, I guess it is the guy that owns
(01:56):
the cabaret, Jesse Jerome played by Namayah hers Off. He
knows exactly what Cassidy is, what Santini is, I should say,
and is blackmailing him. And I guess that Santini isn't
holding this weight, so he's going to turn him into
the Israelis. And I have a good old time watching
(02:19):
the Great Santini just taking off over to Israel and
probably put to death or put into a cell for
a very long time. This is nineteen seventy six, folks.
We are still talking about Nazi hunting a lot back
when it was okay to hunt Nazis.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, what a time to be alive.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
What a time when people thought Nazis were bad.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
It's strange to think about, isn't it to go to
the Nazi of it all right out of the gate,
which is really how you want to handle Nazis and
if you're gonna handle it, it's just punch it right
in the fucking mouth, because that's exactly what those asshole deserve,
is the fact that he's a fucking Nazi and that
the motivating factor as to why he does everything that
(03:04):
he does. But it is all wrapped up in this
magician shell that I found so interesting because I am
so glad that it wasn't just the Nazi of it all.
And that for me, is why this is such a
good episode, is because it is a multi layered episode.
Or there is no universe where Colombo goes into this
thinking this guy is reasoning for killing his bosses because
(03:25):
he's a Nazi. That is as surprising to Colombo as
it is to us. Again, we find out pretty quickly
that he's a Nazi. That's surprising. When Columbo finds out,
he is just as surprised because there's no universe where
he could have thought that's what was going on here.
He thinks that he's murdering his boss because his boss
has the contract dispute didn't go the way he wanted,
(03:45):
not because he's about to be outed as a Nazi.
And I love that is where this episode goes that
is a hell of a twist. To your point, it
reminds me of that Richard Kylee episode of Twilight Zone
nineteen eighty five, or I think it was that, or
Night Gallery maybe, where it's like he's a Nazi on
the run who gets trapped in a painting, like you said.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Ni Calory. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah. The Nazi of it all is such a thing
in the eighties where it's like we're hunting these Nazis
down that have gotten away with their war crimes forever,
and I love that this is that, but it's also
a magician thing, which is also starting to gain a
lot of steam in the eighties and nineties, especially when
you talk about Las Vegas and all of how Vegas
(04:26):
and magicians starts becoming like intrinsically linked around this time.
And I'm not saying they weren't before, but we have
like magicians becoming a thing too. So I think it's
interesting that this episode is working in multiple playgrounds at
the same time.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Using magic is so great because it's the art of illusion.
So it's the whole thing of trying to pull the
wall over the audience's eyes. So what's Jack Cassidy doing.
He's pulling the wall over their eyes. But he's also
trying to do the exact same thing to Colombo. And
this whole thing of you can't ask me certain things
because these are the secrets of magic, so I can't
(05:00):
really come out and tell you you're going to have
to figure it out on your own. So Colombo's basically
trying to figure out the murder while he's also trying
to figure out magic tricks. So him with the whole
thing of the different rocks and things or the different
stuff in the office where it's yes and number oh,
I knew you were going to see number two kind
(05:21):
of thing, like, that's pretty cool when Colombo's there. I
especially like when Colombo goes to the magic shop, and
I really liked the guy that plays the magician who's
teaching him those things. I thought he was really well played.
Their David was the clerk at the magic shop, and
I just thought he stole the whole scene that he
(05:42):
was in with Peter Falk.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
He's great, and it's one of those things where it
could have totally been one of those scenes that we've
talked about so many times with the show where it's
like the Colombo of it all, he doesn't feel like
that at all. He upstages Peter Fulk in that scene.
But Peter Folk is having such a good time. I
don't think I've seen Peter Folk smile so many times
in and so does I have in this one. He's
having a great time in this episode. From that scene
(06:05):
to the scene with Jack Cassidy where he's brought on stage.
Jack Cassidy calls him a beautiful boy, which is so
fucking strange. I love Peter Bulk is having the time
of his life with this episode, and I feel like
that goes back to the world of magic of it All,
where there's like a level of whimsy and fantasy and
suspension of disbelief.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
No, I really think that's great. And the other reason
I think that he's having such a great time in
this is Bob Dishy is back.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
What a redemption for his character and his portrayal of
that character in the show, because that was not great
in the last episode, not because of him. It was
a bad episode that he was.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
In Greenhouse Jungle, right, But yeah, here he's so great,
and he's so obsequious and just always chasing down the
wrong thing, to the point where Colombo it's amazing. He
doesn't lose is cool because it's just, hey, I am
on this path over here, Bob Dishey, you are on
this path way the fuck over here, and never the
(07:01):
twain shall meet because you are not following where I'm
going at all. Finally, it feels towards the end and he's, oh, okay,
now I get it. But there are so many times
where he's just Lieutenant, what about this and that and
the other thing? And no, you're chasing down all the
stuff that Cassidy is setting up for you. You are following
that directly. Colombo on a whole different thing, whole different level, literally,
(07:26):
a different level as far as that playing field. But
he's always mister three D chess as opposed to what
the hell dish he's up to, Dishy, just like he's
not a beat cop, but he might as well be
with those detective skills he's got.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, Bob, Dishy is woefully out of his depth, as
they would say. But again, when you're partnered up with Colombo,
what the fuck do you expect? Like he's Colombo for
God's sakes, I don't know. This is one of those
episodes of Colombo where he doesn't know it's Jack Cassidy
out of the gate, and that's because he could never
have anticipated that Chack Cassidy is a Nazi, is under suspicion.
(08:01):
And there's that scene where Colombo is underground with him
and you're down here and you could be down here,
Honey's man. That clears up a lot. Is okay, Columbo's
gotcha now, But Colombo has to figure out. And it's
not up until the last moment that Columbo figures out
what impact is going on?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Oh yeah, In the he goes back to the classic
three right motive opportunity and means right, and it's just
like he can't figure out the motive throughout the entire
episode until he finally cracks open that selectric typewriter and
is able to read that letter, and then that amazing
reveal when he pulls up the letter, he bolts it
(08:41):
up above his head and then Jack Cassidy takes it
and somehow turns it into flash paper and burns it up,
and then Columbo pulls out another one, and it's just like,
how many copies you want? We got a lot of them.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, I love that magic is part of it every time,
Like I like the magic is part of the end
of the episode. I like that we get this goofy
shit with Colombo pulling that letter out because it wouldn't
work in any other episode, but it works here.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
So I did read some behind the scenes about this one,
and Assidy was actually not their first choice. One of
the reasons why they went with him is because his
price was right. The original choice for this magician character was,
of all people, Orson Wells. They wanted to get Orson Wells,
who was a magician in this role, and I think
(09:29):
it would have been just incredible to have him, but
I think Cassidy pulls it off wonderfully. Now, Cassidy didn't
have enough time to learn actual prestidigitation, sleight of hand,
any of that kind of stuff, so they used a
hand double sometimes or like a guy who was trying
to teach him some of these things. Didn't really pick
up on it as much as he could have. But
(09:50):
he's just, oh damn smarmy and great in this role.
I thought that was great. I would have liked to
have had Wells in there because it would have been
a nice throwback to which one was It was mister R.
Coddon where he plays a secret Nazi, So that would
have been a nice little nod there. But yeah, Cassidy
coming back and just killing it well, and.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
That's why they give Cassidy that facial hair was a
little nod to the fact they couldn't get Orson well
If I don't know, Jack Cassidy with a mustache is
a weird look, but it works.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah. I guess Wells wanted twenty grand for his role
and Cassidy was willing to take twelve or something.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
So what eight grand to not have Orson Wells? Fuck you?
That's fuck you. Come on, man, it's like watching an
episode of ponnd stars that five hundred dollars is going
to separate you from having this thing in your store.
Fuck off. Come on. I'm not saying Jack Cassidy is
not a great actor. He is, especially in the context
of Colombo. He has turned in three great performances, and
(10:50):
especially that second one is in a I would say
pretty subpar episode. I really don't like that second episode
r And that's the one where he's the writer and
it's the thing with the bomb and the bomb maker,
and I guess he's the writer the first time too.
But that's the one where it's like he's the writer
and against his friend and he murders his friend. That
(11:10):
and that's the one that's directed by Steven Spieldvers. It's
a much better episode put together, but it's again his
performance in the second episode is what kind of redeems
that second episode. This is a great episode with a
great performance. But can you imagine Orson Wells may what
an episode that would have been like real, like it
would have been mentioned in other things. That's the thing
(11:32):
when you have someone like Orson Wells who's such a talent,
he's such an icon of pop culture like this Colombo
would have more fans because of Orson Wells being part
of it than by not having him. And that's a
reality because Orson Wells has been again talked about in
a lot of deserved tones as a important figure in
(11:53):
pop culture, both film, television and just pop culture in general.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
And he so could have used that money to put
that right back in one of his productions.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
That's the other thing. Yeah, it's a shame, but again,
Jack Cassidy is so good that at least they get
Jack Cassidy, who is a fantastic actor who turns in
a fantastic performance, and he is great opposite Columbo because
he is very antagonistic towards Colombo at the end, but
throughout most of it they're just back and forth. He
doesn't really again because what the motive is has to
(12:25):
be hidden so much. He really has to treat Colombo,
I would say, nicely throughout the episode, because the motive
is so out there that once Columbo figures it out,
it recontextualizes Jack Cassidy's character completely.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
I don't think this is too successful, and please tell
me the whole thing about Cassidy's daughter and tire. Yeah,
the singer who we see twice very prominently performs before
the great Santini comes out, and then we see him
fairly early on, and I'd say, like during the pre
(13:02):
Colombo murder sequence. I think it's before Santini even goes
on stage. You see that singer guy and Santini's daughter
and they're making out and there's tension there. There's this
big thing because that guy, that lounge singer, is Jewish.
And that's why even more than don't go after my daughter,
(13:23):
it's don't go after my daughter, you jew and it's boy,
oh boy, I did not pick up on that at
all in this and it came out in the script,
came out in some of those behind the scenes things
they were talking about, and they're just like, yeah, I
really wasn't very successful. I'm like, no, it wasn't at all.
I didn't really remember that guy or Santini's daughter for
(13:45):
the longest time. I'm like, oh, yeah, she's just an assistant.
I didn't really pick up that they were related.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
And it doesn't contribute anything overall to the story because
it's so underrepresented. On the last episode, with a matter
of honor, they also had a throwaway romance between one
of the characters like family members and someone else, doesn't
go anywhere and feels like a vestigial storyline. Once again,
(14:11):
same thing. If they had hammered home the jewishness of
it all, it would have worked. Columbo would have given
pause for a second. But we don't get any of that,
and again, it's not needed. It's more of the point.
I think in my mind, they get there without it,
So excize it and save yourself a couple minutes, save
yourself some time, save yourself some budget, because I don't
(14:33):
think his daughter and that character needed to be in
the episode at all. Genuinely, they add nothing to the
episode if they're not gonna hammer home the jewishness and
the Jack Cassidy hating Jewish people because he's a fucking Nazi.
There's no such thing as an x Nazi at this
time in history. Now people can change their minds, I
would hope and come to their goddamn senses. Right now
(14:56):
in nineteen seventy six, there's no such thing as an
ex fuck Nazi. These are literally the people that were
putting people to death in the camps. That's what Jack
Cassidy's character is. He is a SS prison guard, not
someone who thinks that Nazis have some interesting ideas, which
is what amounts to Nazism. Now in our country, it's
like dipshits who think that being a white person and
(15:19):
white supremacy is okay, and there are people that aren't
white that think that, which makes no fucking sense. Like Nazis.
The actual Nazis that were putting people to death in
the camps were not going to let people that did
not look like them run around and do things. And
that is the thing. Like in seventy six, this kind
of Nazi is a detestable piece of shit because he's
(15:39):
killing people. And the fact that they even have a
Jewish character in this episode and do nothing with it
is shocking to me.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Well, I figure his boss has to be Jewish too, right.
The guy that played his boss is famous for playing
Jewish people like you look at his filmography, you look
at his IMDb picture, and it's okay, me and Maah
Piisov played I don't know how many rabbis over the years,
and I'm like, if anything, it feels like he's such
a detestable guy in this Maybe he is Jewish and
(16:10):
he's just like, okay, having this fucking Nazi there under
his thumb. I think he almost gets a little bit
of a thrill out of it. And then when he's like,
oh hey, I can fuck this guy over too, this
is going to be great. It's kind of strange. By
the way. Most people will probably know of this actor
as playing Papa Mouskowitz from the American Tale movies.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Yeah. I was gonna say, we saw him in Barney Miller.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Oh yeah, he's got one of those faces. Man, He's
really good. Robert Losha seems wasted in this episode because
he's fucking Robert Loja.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
He really does. I think that Loja is similarly to
the Jewish possible like love interest character. It's a direction
that goes nowhere. And also Robert losen he's not on
screen a whole lot. That seems like a missed opportunity.
It's not like Robert Losan seventy six was an unknown quantity.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
That's what I was wondering if people knew who Robert
Loja was like, because it feels like they should have
because he's just so good all the time. Of course,
when he's giving traffic lessons and lost Highway, that's definitely
something he was something at this point, right.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
I had assumed. So it's weird to see very young
Robert Loja. I wonder again, like with what we were
talking about with the Jewish character, like I wonder if
there's more going on there, if there had been more,
But it doesn't seem like we needed more there, So.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
No, Yeah, I'm going back and looking at his filmography.
Scarface is still a few years away, Psycho two is
still a few years away, but okay, yeah, he's playing
in Fantasy Island, Charlie's Angels of Vegas. OH ninth Configuration
it's just a few years away as well. But yeah,
maybe he wasn't the Robert Loja that we know at
(17:52):
this time because he's just playing a lot of TV roles.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
We just reverse hindsight Lojia, like, oh, we know now
that he's like that would explain why he's not really
given a lot of time in the episode. But he
makes an impact, which I think is the other thing
for me. He's got a great look to him and
he's I like that him and Peter Falk get to
share the screen together, Like, because this is peak Peter Falk,
(18:15):
it might not be peak Robert Loja. I know Robert
Loser from Independence Day. That's the thing that I know
him from. That's the first thing I saw him in.
And then he's done some random, other strange things, like
being in Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar movie, which is
super strange, playing Oh what's that William Atherton? Is that
the guy from die Hard? And yeah it's him and
(18:35):
William Atherton played the villains in that movie opposite Tim
and Eric, And like, Loja is just hamming it up
and I love Robert Loja, but yeah, he's not in
this enough. But I think the problem is he's not
in this enough is not that much of a complaint,
you know what I mean. The episode is so good
anyways that yes, I wish there had been more of him,
(18:56):
And yes, this episode's eighty five minutes long, so technically
you could have given six more minutes and still been
within the boundaries of what this show does, at least
within the what ninety one eighty five seventy is the
three options, it would seem for the length of the episodes.
You could have given us a little bit more, and
I don't think we would have complained, because I think
(19:16):
that the world of magic is well represented, and the
fact that it's not the motivating factor behind things, it's
just part of it. It's the vehicle, less the engine.
I think is so smart because in the last episode
we had that similar thing where it's the world of bullfighting,
but the reason behind everything is less about bullfighting and
(19:37):
more about someone's fragile ego. And I like that because
we've had things in this show where it's like, no,
it's specifically this thing. It's like, I don't need it
to be, like, it doesn't specifically have to be this
thing to work in the world of that thing.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Well, and here the murder is so well done and
such an actual mystery, as opposed to how easily Colombo
finds that pick in the dirt, and you know he's
got Ricardo Mantabon did rights very quickly, and it's still
that same thing of oh, no, you shouldn't question this
guy because he's like this very revered person, whereas with
(20:14):
this one, it's like this is one of the few
ones where the villain isn't very well to do, Like,
I don't see the great Santinei making bank. He's working
at the shitty magic club kind of thing and doing okay,
he's a headliner and everything, but at the same time,
he's not making bank off of this stuff. He's just
making a living. And sounds like nobody likes the boss,
(20:36):
the one guy who's just cay. Can he make this
guy disappear? I'm like, okay, so he's not very well loved.
People are not sad when the ball is not his
pretty much, no one's just oh, he was such a
great humanitarian or something. No, there's really nothing to that.
And then yeah, to have Santini twits with the Columba,
(20:58):
you feel like he's a smart guy and He's been
one step ahead of all of these different people all
these years, because so much of Columbo's investigation is about
what Santini was like when he was going by this name,
that name. He runs across the one guy who's, oh, yeah,
he used to have this German accent, and then when
Colombo calls him on, he's just, oh, did he speak
(21:19):
like decent? He starts doing all these accents, and I'm like, oh, okay,
that's a nice way to throw him off the trail.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
There. The why of it all becomes so part and
parcel to everything, and it goes in an interesting direction
because yeah, Colombo is along for the ride in being
surprised that this guy is like a former Nazi who's
like German like. He doesn't present it. He does a
very good job of covering it up throughout the entire episode, which,
to Jack Cassidy's credit, Heat does not let that performance
(21:49):
slip at all. No, which I really appreciate.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Yeah, I really like it too, And I like some
of the stupid stuff in this episode, And the stupid
is very much in quotes, because I think the whole
thing with the raincoat gag is fantastic. Just Colombo trying
to lose that new coat as much as he possibly can.
And then the whole thing too about his shoes and
all that stuff. We know what a problem he has
(22:14):
with shoes. And then like him like, I got to
take this coat off. I can't even think of this thing.
I'm just like, oh, that's so nice. I really be
His wife is put this new coat out him and
he just can't even handle it. You're talking last episode
about how you're very much in that. I believe missus
Columbo exists.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
Thing.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
I think so too with an episode like this, because
Columbo's not going to buy that coat for himself, I.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Wouldn't think so. But he looks rather well dressed in
this episode. Otherwise, he doesn't look as shabby as normal.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
No, no shabby in his episode.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah. The hair, it's always with the hair. He does
look a little unkempt above the eyebrows.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yeah. I saw this meme the other day. It was
very young Colombo versus a little bit older Colombo, and
it said how you look after a exploding cigar goes
off in your mouth?
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Pretty much pretty much?
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, yeah, okay, I can see that. Yeah, I can
see that. Big the big hair. So I also saw
a great clip yesterday because it was Easter. We're recording
this today. It's probably got some sort of weird name
to it, right, all of these this is Easter Monday, yeah,
because I was thinking of like Maundy Thursday or Holy Saturday.
And there was a Easter Seals telethon and there was
(23:29):
a segment that Peter Falk was hosting and just everybody
in that stage was having a great time. I'm like,
what time of the day or night was this when
these people are just having such a blast dancing on
stage for this Easter telethon, And just Peter Falk was
just loving life at that moment, and it made me
(23:49):
so happy to see it.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
I love Peter Falk's energy in this episode. He's having
such a good time. He really is. I really like
him in this episode. He's having a great time. And
I wanted to mention this because we haven't talked about it.
We've talked about the Nazis of it all, We've talked
about the magic of it all, but can we talk
about the technology of it all? Because that's the thing
that ultimately we come back to with this episode, is
(24:13):
the juxtaposition of technology versus the magic, because you have
that scene where he's in the magician's store and they're talking,
do you have something that allow me to throw my
voice from one room to the other. I'm like, oh,
my god, this is nineteen seventy six, Like they could
not fathom what we have now at all. And it's
like at the end of the episode, is I heard
(24:33):
you were in one room and it's in the other
and it's my god, you were using radio transmitters, Like oh,
it's the typewriter's ribbon has the things in it. Like
technology is wild and undercutting the magic of magic. And
I like that about this episode. The episode is very
subtle about it. It doesn't bash you over the head.
(24:53):
But we have talked so much about Colombo technology and
Colombo being part and parcel and and this episode has
him catching somebody because of a typewriter and a radio transmitter.
What more is technologically advanced in nineteen seventy six than
those two things? I'll wait, nothing like really seventy six.
A typewriter, a selectric typewriter, which is a electric typewriter,
(25:17):
and a radio transmitter that is about lapel sized. Those
are pretty technologically advanced things. For people to be seeing
in nineteen seventy six. I do feel like.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yeah, because we forget that before those selectric typewriters with
the ribbon cartridge, you would just have a regular ribbon
with the ink soaked into it, so you really couldn't
see what you had typed before. When you're doing that,
I'm typing, by the way, this is my hand motion typing,
air typing, and yeah, now you have a record of
(25:49):
everything that was written on that particular typewriter, which is
such a Colombo twist. I was just okay, I've exhausted
all these other things. And then I love Dishy with
just how happy he is to talk about that. The
way he's like caressing the top of the typewriter, It's
just like this baby could get up to about two
hundred and twenty wards a minute. I'm like, wow, Yeah,
(26:12):
you really know your stuff here, Luke or Captain.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
It's interesting, is it.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Yeah. And then the other thing I'd like a lot
too is the scene with the handcuffs where Colombo has
to prove that Cassidy can get out of these particular
handcuffs and they use the exact same key that was
being used before and just that look on Columbo's face
as he's watching Cassidy get that lock of art. Oh
(26:38):
you got him. He doesn't know that you got him,
but you got him that little I knew you could
do it, sir. I'm like, oh, so good, but.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
You got him. Yeah, I know, colobu. That is the
thing about this episode that is so fun is that,
because it is the magic of it all, we get
to watch Jack Cassidy externalize things that we have seen
people do before where it's like, you got him, Columbo.
In this moment he signs his own warrant. This is
not one of these oh circumstantial evidence. Nah, even if
(27:09):
he had not admitted to it, it's like they got him.
They've got him. And I do love that the entryway
for Columbo is for him to go, my boss isn't
gonna believe that you were locked in that box for
ten minutes, and that's you know what, if you can't
prove where you were right, then you're a fucking suspect.
And I love that. I love that. It's almost like
it's almost like a locked room this episode. There is
(27:32):
a little locked room to this, like a little Agatha
Christia of it all. Really, even the third act twist
for Columbo to be like he's a Nazi, like the
audience knows because of the way they tell the story.
There's a version of this where we find out with
Columbo that he's a Nazi and we're floored. The girl
with the dragon tattooed, there's a Nazi twist subplot in that,
and it's like, came out of nowhere, what the hell?
(27:54):
And here it's the same thing. But again we know
because we see and see what that he's a Nazi
when he's talking to me and my.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Person to the busy kitchen, and just that Cassidy can
get himself lost in this kitchen because it is just
such a center of chaos. I love that no one
sees who comes in or out. Nobody could say who
was here or who was there, because it's just fucking crazy.
And this is the perfect alibi of having this kitchen
(28:24):
between the two spaces and just like Okay, yeah, this
guy's going to pass through here. He's going to wear
a false wig and put on a waiter's coat. Nobody's
going to see him. Nobody will notice this guy. They
barely noticed the Columbus there, and this little guy wearing
a trench coat.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
I love how understated Jack Cassidy disguises. It's just yeah,
again like to your point, like, because it's so hectic,
you can do anything. Robert Los is like my mother
could come in here and kiss me and I wouldn't remember.
And oh, yeah, I believe that, Like this place is
pretty popular. I guess this is modeled after the Magic
Castle in Los Angeles. I'm ssooming that's what this is
(29:01):
supposed to be. Strikes me as that, Yeah, I love
the world of magic. There are some stand out and
again like not stand out, but they stand out to
me as good examples of using magic and stuff. There's
a Tales from the Crypt episode where they use magic.
I think we have talked about or we'll be talking
about Tales from the dark Side episode with magicians. The
world of magic and magicians is such an interesting world
(29:25):
for ripe investigation and to do fun things with. And
I'm glad that we get an episode in the world
of magic because just I love it, even at the end,
like a perfect murder is only an illusion. Man, we
even get at the end he's doing the magic thing. Yes,
thank you. Episode, like the fact that again it goes
back to this idea of the best kind of themed
restaurants are the ones that have the menu items are themed,
(29:48):
the drinks are themed, the bathrooms are themed. It's like,
you have to if you're gonna go into this world,
do it right. Have things have a magic show and
have them go to the magic shop, and have him
go to the underneath where the magician isn't into his
kind of layer and you can see the tricks, and
have Columbo learn how to do a trick. And one
of the reasons Jack Cassidy gets caught is because he's
(30:11):
undoing a lock, which is such a magician thing to do.
And then at the end of the day we have
all that as the pretense, and then it's he's a
Nazi and the guy found out he was a Nazi
and was gonna out him as a Nazi, and that's
ultimately what gets him caught. Has nothing to do with magic.
Magic is just what seems to be the alibi here
is I was locked in a box underwater, but I
(30:32):
have to out myself as not having actually been in
that box, and therefore there goes my alibi immediately, just
because Columbo goes my boss isn't gonna believe you were
in that box for ten minutes.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
And then it's the old boss excuse, Oh yeah, my sergeant.
He's always sign me, oh my captain. So always got
somebody who's just busting his balls about this stuff that
I can make it up on the spot.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
And isn't it interesting how Colombo uses his boss versus
the way Pedro Amandari's junior used his boss as an
excuse last episode, because it's so different. That's why Pedro
Romadar's was like dragging his feet to do things because
he was worried his boss was going to rake him
over the colls. And here Columbo's boss is being used
rightfully so by Colombo as justification because Columbo's boss knows
(31:15):
that Colombo is legit and gets the results and gets
the job done. That's the one thing we haven't seen yet.
Who are Columbo's superiors and what do they think of
the job that he does, because they've got to just
be like over the moon that Colombo keeps catching all
these people in these cases that are seemingly impossible that
no other cop would be able to. Again, we're to
(31:37):
the point now with this kind of media where we
don't even have cops doing this anymore. Natasha Leone is
not a cop in poker face. She's just a normal
person because at this point, if they were a police officer,
their boss would be like, we're just going to send
you around the country to do this for everybody. And
that's why you have to suspend disbelief with Colombo. But
the show, I'm assuming we never see his boss, or
(31:57):
if we do, and they make it really no point
to have it be like, you know, how many people
you've called Colombo that would not be caught otherwise, because
that's the thing about Sherlock Holmes. Scotland Yard makes note
of the fact that theying Sherlock Holmes is a genius.
We need to bring him in on this. Colombo is
a genius that his bosses are like, just send Columbo in,
(32:18):
he'll figure it out.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Yeah. We get to see a little bit of that
stuff with the was it a friend indeed the other
cop and then also with even with the a case
of immunity, but that was another department. I think when
he came in there and that one CoP's just what
the hell are you doing here? Colombo?
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Bob Dishy technically is that, But I want to see
someone who's his superior, not someone who is effectively And
again Bob Dishy is painted in such a ding dong
in this episode. Bob Dishy is columbus subordinate, like his subordinate,
and I want to know what Columbo's boss to think
of what he does, because he is the smartest guy
in the room at all times, unless you're Anzi, and
(33:00):
then I got to get over that hump. Otherwise, Columbo
is always the smartest guy in the room, always the
one in the know. And you don't want to be
in columbus crossairs because if you're in his crosshairs, it's
already over for you. Literally, Like we've had this conversation
so many times in this show about the show. On
these episodes we talk about where there's a moment where
Columbo's got him, and it's not at the end of
(33:21):
the episode most of the times. Most of the times
it's five minutes in six minutes into him being on screen,
like heat got him. We just got to figure out
how he's gonna catch him. But he knows maybe these
people should murder people so close to them.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
Be found a stranger that could kill somebody close to
him and that he would kill somebody close to the
stranger and be the perfect murder Chris, what.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Was it where hired and Jack Cassidy's last episode hire
somebody who makes pipe bombs to blow them up and
then kill him and make it look like an accident. Well,
this was a great example of Colombo operating at peak Colombo,
from the way it resolves to the villain having a
great repertoire back and forth with a reparte I guess
(34:05):
with Colombo, and even having the wrinkle of Bob Dishy
and the wrinkle of the Nazi of it all like,
those are fun little wrinkles that make this episode stand
out this season. And again I'm not saying that there
have been bad episodes this season. Frankly, I think this season,
for the most part, it's pretty good. But this, I
think for me, is like a standout episode this season
(34:25):
because I think for me, it's this episode in the
last episode or the two really like good episodes this season.
There have been great episodes. There have been some good episodes.
Case of Immunity Forgotten Lady are good, but these last
two have been great, really great.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Chris, get ready for utter disappointment As we go into
the last episode of this season, Last Salute to the Commodore,
directed by our old friend Patrick mcgoin, who doesn't show
up in this. We do get Fred Draper, who we
just saw as a blind man or the blind man's brother,
and previous episode also worked in that cosmetics company when
(35:08):
Martin Sheen was getting killed, and I think he showed
up at least one other time. Then of course he
was in Woman under the Influence and some other Cassavettes movies.
We're also going to get Robert Vaughan coming back the
Shipboard Killer, but we'll be back, but this time as
a victim. And yeah, this might be one of the
worst Columbo episodes, but I'm going to walk into it
(35:29):
with an open mind and try to make sense of
this thing. I'm gonna read as much as I possibly
can about this episode, see what happens, see why. This
is what I consider and I think a lot of
Columbo fans consider one of the worst ones. Let's hope
that you find something enjoyable from this one. If nothing else,
(35:49):
at least Dennis Dugan is in this next one.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
Thank you, you beat me to it, you motherfucker. Adam
Saylor's best friend, dan Is Duke. It is in the
episode Everybody, Oh Boy, Dennis.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Dugan, Dennis Dugan who had a I think it was
just a I don't know if it was a full
fledged show, but it was an offshoot of The Rockford
Files for a little while where he played a detective
on that, and then I think he comes back in
possibly Missus Colombo, probably not as this same one.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Richie Brockleman Private Eye. Good God, And it was a
Rockford Files spinoff? What and you know what? You know
how I know that show was not a success. By
the fucking title.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Richie Brockleman Private Eye.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Was he five years old? It's not like a Zach
Galvinakis in Hangover, like he's carried on somebody's chest. He's
like a baby detective. I mean that's what it sounds like.
Ricky Brockleman Private Eye. What are you fucking ten years old?
Speaker 1 (36:50):
He definitely has some trouble at parallel parking, or at
least doing a backup job. That's the only thing I
really remember from that, as well as Diane are just
looking amazing in this episode. She's the one who is
Catherine Martin's mother in Silence of the Lambs.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Mm, okay, love your suit. I'm excited. I know that
we've been barreling towards this episode, so I'm excited to
watch it. But yeah, man, here we go. Ending the
season five of Columbo coming soon. We're halfway through the
run of this show.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Then we're gonna have to watch some stuff that Fulk
was up to and maybe even get more Lincoln Levinson
in our lives as well. So I'll take a look
at what was going on in nineteen seventy six and
where we can go from there. But yeah, one more
episode for season six. We'll be back next month to
talk about last Salute to the Commodore. In the meantime, Chris,
what are you working on these days?
Speaker 2 (37:45):
It's working on podcasts over Weirdingwaymedia dot com. Head on
over there to find everything I work on other than
ranking on Bond, which is our Patreon exclusive show, which
can be found over at Mypatreon, Patreon dot com, slash
culturecastpatreon dot com, slash Projection Boot. What about you, Mike?
Speaker 1 (38:00):
Quite yeah, pretty much the same thing all the way
down the line. So all those good things that we
do are available at Weirdingmaymedia dot com except for that
one show that is available on our patreons. Hopefully you're
listening to this on one of our patreons, that would
be a nice thing. But otherwise, yeah, just go on
over to I believe It's Shabby Detective dot com you
can get more of this show, or weadoway Media dot
(38:22):
com you get all of the shows. I want to
thank John Walker for our opening theme and Colin Gallagher
for our closing theme, and I want to thank you
the listener for listening to this show and hear us
talk about Colombo every month. Don't care if anybody's really listening,
because I'm going to have a hell of a time
talking about one of my most favorite TV shows in
the world with one of my best friends. So I'm
(38:43):
really glad to be here with you, Chris, and I
look forward to next month, even if it's going to
be a bummer of an episode.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
And you know what, I forgot to mention, my girlfriend
has really taken a liking to Colombo. I really enjoy
watching both with you, and I'm like, wow, So there
you go, Mike White, Columbo spanning the generations.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Love it.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
She's a little younger than both of us. The audience
for Columbo is still there, for the cozy murder mystery.
I think it's still there. And I'm so glad that
we were watching the show together because I feel like
this is one of your shows that you had always
talked about free us doing it. This is a great show.
That's the other thing that helps. This is one of
those shows where I've never seen any of it, So
(39:26):
getting to watch it with you and enjoy it in
real time and not rush ahead and savor it. There's
not a whole lot of shows like this where I
don't rush ahead and I don't spoil it for myself.
So says a lot about Columbo as a show. I
feel like a gay town a gay towns
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