September 20, 2024 • 48 mins
Set sail for murder as Lt. Columbo takes a cruise to Mexico with his wife only to be asked to help solve the murder of lounge singer Rosanna Wells (Poupée Bocar) at the hands of used car sales exec Hayden Danzinger (Robert Vaughn). It's the return of Bernard Hill and Dean Stockwell in an episode Chris Stachiw says may be the best of the season.
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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 on this episode, of course, mister
Chris Dashu my co host.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And you sucked the chrome up of my bumper hitch
or my toe hitch or whatever.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
You know what.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I'm talking about, some little basketball action, little bare Robert
Bond for everybody.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, yeah, a lot of people know him, the guy
who's a bad boy in Magnificent seven. We go right
for basketball. We're nothing but class around here.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, we're sophisticates as they would.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Say, Yeah, were the aristocrats. On this episode, we were
talking about the episod So Troubled Waters. It is the
fourth episode of the fourth season. Oh Man, my Numerology
is kicking in. It was directed by Ben Gazzara from
a story by Jackson Gillis and William Driscoll, with a
teleplay by William Driscoll. It came out February ninth, nineteen
(01:17):
seventy five, and as with every episode this season, it
is a ninety plus minutter, though in my opinion, they
don't waste a whole lot of time. Maybe a little
bit with some singing set in the stage here and yeah,
otherwise I'm curious, Chris, what did you think about Troubled Waters.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
This might be one of the best episodes of the
show we've seen so far.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Holy cow, it's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
It's solid.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I think I like Robert Vaughan. His involvement is a
little strange. It is like sideways involvement, and I'm gonna
help you solve the crimes, dude, Like this is a
little obvious. I think the framing device is strange with
Colombo's wife doesn't exist or she does exist, or what
(02:02):
is happening here? Again, we've talked about Columbo's wife before.
This is I think the first episode where Colombo's wife
is a thing, at least more so than we've ever
seen up until this point.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I think, Yeah, I don't think I needed to hear
Hoope Bokar sing volare that much.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
That was a bit much, and by a bit much
a lot. And hey, it's nice to see that even
in nineteen seventy five, they were using poppers for something
other than gay sex. So gotta love Colombo, everybody. I
was wondering that in the episode, like when Robert Bond
pops that thing under his nose.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
I was like, is this guy doing poppers or oh yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I was like, oh yeah, okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, he's preparing for something.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
There's a lot of plot to this episode, and I
think that it benefits from the amount of plot that
it has and just how intricate this murder is. And
also I know this is not the first time that
we've seen Colombo at the very beginning of an episode.
I remember Kennedy for Crime especially. We see him right
off the bat, see him here before we see pretty
(03:11):
much anybody else. It's just him on this boat, on
this mfor boat, and he gets to meet up with
our old friend Benar Fox from the British episode, the
English episode. He is now Pursher Watkins. And we get
to Patrick McNee, one of the two people from the
Avengers in here as the captain. Yeah, we meet them
(03:33):
first before we even meet Robert Vaughan. And yes we
get the setup of Columbo's wife is somewhere on this
boat and apparently McNee has seen her or he's just
pretending in order to glomm off this guy and get
him away from the real good passengers, the one that
aren't wearing raincoats in the summer. What are you doing here?
(03:56):
Left Tenant? Colombo? Why are you dress so strangely? Love
that Columba just rolls with the punch. Oh no, it's
gonna be very hot in Mexico from White, I understand.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I do like how they called him lieutenant over and
over again. This is the overwhelmingly British episode of Colombo,
even more so than the British episode was, Like, they
weren't calling him left Tenant in that episode, and having
Patrick McNee in your episode more or less makes it
pretty goddamn British because him and Bernard Fox are throughout
the episode. Yeah, I actually enjoyed this episode of fair amount,
(04:31):
and I really enjoyed the plot of the episode. I
enjoyed where the episode went in terms of the story,
and yeah, there's a lot of ground to cover. There's
a lot of story to cover here. And even funnier,
this is an episode where the way Colombo catches him
is the first thing Columbo finds out. Oh yeah, it's
(04:52):
the first thing. But in a lot of ways. I
like this episode so much because it Columbo knows it's
Robert Vaughan, but he can't prove it until the very end.
And he has to prove it. We've seen this before
where Columbo like gets them hardcore. This might be the
first time where it's like this, this is incontrovertible. This
guy doesn't really admit to it as much as like Columbo.
(05:15):
He does admit to it at the end, but Colombo
has him dead to rights in this episode period. And
I'm not saying that hasn't been the case in a
lot of the episodes. But we've talked about it before.
I'll mention it here again. Sometimes it's not as cut
and dry as Columbo's got him. Sometimes it seems like, oh,
they might be able to wiggle their way out of
this one if they're rich enough, and not so much
(05:36):
in this one. He has to get him without a
shadow of a doubt, and he does. But it has
to go through the pistol, It has to go through
the gloves, it has to go through the amal nitrate,
has to go through just everything. There's everything that we
see gets more or less talked about and dealt with
in some way and connected to Robert Vaughan's character.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, there's also the key cutter and the pass key
that gets made, and that's crucial to Robert Vaughan's characters
Hayden Danziger. He is the head of a group of
used car salesman. I guess is what his deal is.
And he's got all these used car salespeople on this ship,
not a boat, but a ship. And yeah, I like that.
(06:20):
There's this whole thing where Danziger is being blackmailed or
potentially blackmailed by Rosanna Wells played by and I'm going
to scripup how I say her name Poope Bocar. I
know Poope in French is doll, so I'm guessing that
she's named after that. She is a singer with the
band here on the ship where you've got pianist Lloyd
(06:43):
Harrington played by our friend Dean Stockwell, who luckily gets
to stay away from any chlorinated water on this episode,
as well as the man of the hour for me,
Artie Podell played by Peter Maloney, mostly known to me
for being in the Thing and his incredible scene where
he is half transformed and he's still got the monster
(07:05):
arm and he lets out that crazy howl before he
gets flamethrowed. Great seeing them in here, and I like
what they're doing. Some of the direction here especially when
they're like, oh, we need to talk with Lloyd Harrington
and then cut to Peter Maloney going Lloyd Harrington and
I'm like, right, and that's nice. I like that.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
That was Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I'm glad you mentioned it because I would have mentioned
that as well. The direction in this episode was really
well done. It's not surprising given the fact that Ben
Gazzara is such a good friend of our dear friend,
mister Peter Falk. So yeah, look, I think this episode
is really good for a whole host of reasons. A.
It's well written, B it's well directed, and see it's
(07:46):
well acted. Robert Vaughan, I think the only issue I
overwhelmingly have with this episode is his involvement in all
of it feels a little tenuous. Columbo ran into him
the moment he got on the boat, like this dude
was fucked. Clump goes onto you before you've even done anything.
This is like Columbo is Minority Report. In this episode.
He literally meets Robert baughd before Robert Vaughan is even
(08:09):
clear to us as the guy who's going to be
murdering someone he already knows.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
And Vaughan when he's talking with his wife who's played
by Jane Greer, and he gets all snippy with her
about his gloves being missing, and at first I was like,
why is he so mad about his gloves? Then I realized, oh,
he needs these gloves for the crime. But then he's
going to get the gloves from the doctor's office or
they keep calling it a hospital even though it's two rooms, right,
(08:39):
but at least they can do an autopsy there. They
get to autopsy Rosanna and not really fine much of
anything as far as I know, but I'm guessing they're
keeping her in the freezer section for the rest of
this voyage as they go to Masatman in Mexico or
apparently I think Alcapoco might be their final destination.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Riviera Baby.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Oh yeah, that's where I like to go, right there
with kan Kun.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
That's where I'm headed next summer.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Oh wow, yeah, right there on the seven baby. It's great.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, how do you feel about the setting of this episode,
because this is like that Cold Check episode that was
set on a boat. Boat episodes are a dime a dozen.
A lot of TV shows have them. X Files had one,
Colchack ad one. This show had one. I'm sure people
will chime in and tell us all kinds of boat episodes.
What do you think about a boat episode in Colombo.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
I think it's great. I really like it, especially because
Colombo one point, he forgets he's on a boat. So
speaking of the dead body or like the lieutenant, we're
on a boat here. Basically this corpse is going to
start smelling pretty soon. Oh yeah, I forgot, And then
he has to go back to the old police methods,
(09:49):
the guys literally using a magnifying glass. And you've got
two gentlemen in this cast that have played John Watson
in various and so it's so nice that we have
doctor Watson here watching Colombo as Sherlock Holmes.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah, no, I you mentioned the old school detective of
it all. I like the fact that the boat setting
forces that to be part of the story more than
anything else, and because it really shows that at the
end of the day, like Colombo is a detective, Like
our show is called the Shabby Detective for a reason.
This isn't Batman via Zack Snyder detective. This is Batman
(10:30):
via Matt Reeves. Like we actually get to see Colombo
be a detective here and do detective work. And yeah,
using the old school methods. I really like that aspect
of the episode. I think that setting it on a
boat could have been a crutch that would not have
worked in a less well written show.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
But this is not that.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
This is a very This is a consistently well written show,
and I think that they realized because it is set
on a boat, they have to cram as much into
this as possible because the intro of the murder, that
has to be the point of this episode, because the
setting is not going to be It's not that it's
not interesting, but while it is a big boat, it's
(11:09):
really a small setting ultimately, like there's a lot you
can do with it, but not as much as one
would think.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
It cuts him off from the boys in the lab,
which he's never been overly reliant on the boys in
the lab, but they do help him out occasionally. Oh
what is the smudge here? Oh, that's actually shoot polish.
What did he have for dinner last Oh it was
lettuce and that didn't digest all the way. So the
time of death is off. Like those little things. He's
(11:36):
cut off from that. He has no boys in the
lab to do any sort of work. He's there doing
it himself. Doing the whole thing with the graphite for
the fingerprints and everything, which I love. And then you
also get the added benefit of, as Columbo points out himself,
you have the world's largest evidence dump where you can
(11:56):
just throw these gloves into the ocean, maybe throw the
gun into the ocean. But why didn't he throw the gun.
Why did he throw the gloves away? Why wasn't it
the gun. So you've got that as well as far
as we don't know where this evidence is going to,
and it's really a not good thing for Colombo. And yeah,
(12:17):
like I said, he has to go back to the
old school methods. I'm surprised he wasn't using like sticky
tape along with the graphite to be like, oh, there's
the fingerprints.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yeah, I was hoping for that. We didn't get any
of that, but we got.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Two thirds of the way there, really.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I Yeah, I enjoyed the aspects of this episode that
were essentially restrictive.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
To what was going on with Colombo.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
You're totally right having Colombo have like a ticking clock too,
because that's the other hole he's gonna get away essentially, right, Like, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
If that boat docks again, he's done for because yeah,
Robert Von will just disappear.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, and he'll do it.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
He's made it clear that he's willing to just dip
out on everybody, and just because I don't know, it's
weird though. I think maybe the I understand why he
kills Roseanna Wells, but it seems a little drastic, right.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Not really. I guess he wants to keep like a
Robert Cole thing, right, Yeah, he wants to keep her
away from Sylvia so that she doesn't spoil his marriage.
I'm guessing that Sylvia is probably pretty well off because
in this position, he's probably okay as far as how
much money he makes. But it really feels like Sylvia
and I think she even says at one point, I'm
(13:30):
an older woman, and you probably think that my husband
married me for my money. You're right if he absolutely did.
But yet he wants to play around with Rosanna Wells,
the hot singer of this band, and he's probably on
an earlier cruise because obviously he gets recognized by McNee
(13:52):
and Barnard Fox as being a regular person on this voyage.
So yeah, he wants to have his cake and eat
it too. And when Rosanna starts knocking saying, hey, you
got to pay or play. He doesn't want any of
that stuff. He needs to get her out of the picture,
and I can see him doing anything that he needs to.
(14:13):
I love when he's talking with her and he's holding
her by the neck and she's, oh, that hurts. I
was hoping maybe she would have bruises on her neck.
Later on that came up post mortem to give us
one more piece of evidence as far as the size
of the hands or whatever it was. But yeah, yeah,
I can see he's very vicious and very well thought
out too. This whole thing of getting the gun and
(14:36):
getting the receipt for the gun with Lloyd's name on
it and then planting it in Lloyd's cabin. I thought
it was really nice. And I love how Colombo, though,
just completely disregards this l that was allegedly written on
the mirror by Roseanna Wells, where I love I think
it's Bernard Fox is just like, oh what about the L?
(15:00):
He's like, or did you see the lipstick? And he's
just like, oh yeah, I saw it, and it was
just like so dismissive, and then he almost has play along.
I guess we should look for people with the letter
ELA in their name and then he uses that against
Vaughan later on, whereas any of your dealers have l's
in their name that have taken this cruise before, because
obviously whoever did this knows when the band goes.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
On break and then doesn't someone say something to the
effect about the L. She would have died immediately, so
how would she have been able to put the L
on the mirror?
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Anyways?
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I like that thinking in this show where we need
to use common sense and just the facts to diffuse
the horseshit of the murder, and that's one of it. Like,
I don't know what Robert Bonn was thinking, but that's
so bullshitty to put, like what.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
An L whatever? I like it though.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I like that this episode has a lot of different
directions that it goes in. In all those directions, all
those doors have to be closed, as it were, so
that we can finally get the one solution, which is
there was just a feather on the ground, and the
feather Like, how as someone who has only seen this
episode two times now, you've been with this episode a
(16:11):
lot longer, how do you feel about it being the feather?
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I love that it's the feather. I love that he
picks up the one feather in the cabin room and
puts it in his pocket and then sees the other
feather does the exact same motion with it later on,
and it's just the simplest thing. That's the thread that
he starts to unwind and start pulling on, pulls himself
right into Robert Vaughan's room, just like, oh, I'm so sorry.
(16:35):
Didn't know anybody who was in here, And I'm like, oh, yeah,
sure you didn't.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I loved it.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
It's great he lies so much in this episode.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
But I like that we also get to see Colombo
let others in on it because he lets the Stockwell
in on it, Patrick McNee, Bernard Fox, Robert Douglas, like
they're all in on it. Because at one point he's like,
do you think that's the person who did it? And
he's like, yeah, I do, like I do, And I
was like, whoa. We normally don't get It's not that
we don't get to see it, but this is a
(17:05):
different episode because he can't go to anybody else. These
are the people he has to work with, and I
really like that, and I like those scenes towards the
end where Patrick McNee has to be like, it has
to be explained to him, what's going on? Yeah, and
then he's oh, okay. Like the thing with the heart
like the thing with the fucking heart rate.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
The thing with the heart rate is another great avenue
that has to be explored because there's some evidence in
the camp of this guy did it, which in and
of itself it's great because we have the things that
he's trying to put out there that Colombo has to disprove,
and then the things that Colombo has to prove. I'm
saying this is a This is one of the best
episodes because it has a lot of evidence and anti
evidence that it really clears up, which a lot of
(17:45):
the episodes have not done any of this, and if
they have, they don't do it nearly as well as
this episode does.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
We talk about exercise and fatality and just how it
felt like a jump drawer of clues with the ultimate
clue being the shoes tied the wrong way. Meanwhile, you've
got this one where it's just like this piece and
they all add up and they all fit into this
wonderful puzzle. This is what a Columbo episode should be.
(18:11):
Keep your exercise and fatality. Of course, there's some funny
moments in it and all that, but I don't need it.
I need more like this where it just feels like
a ticking clock.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
This feels like a proper detective story. Yes, there are
so many of these episodes of this show that it's
not that they're bad, it's far from it. It's just
they don't put in the effort that something like this does.
And it really feels like a well oiled machine, which
is how these stories should feel when they're well written,
Like everything slides into place seamlessly, to the point where
(18:44):
yet you think Colombo's going with the gloves and then
he's like, how did you know it was me?
Speaker 3 (18:49):
It's his fucking feather.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
We had him going through three quarters and we got
him at the end. And that's how I felt that
this episode. I remembered he picked up the feather, but
I didn't think it was going to be like the
true Danu maw of the episode is the feather. But
it's so smart because again it's like how did you know?
It's not how did I catch you? It's how did
you knows? And how did I get you onto my scent? Initially,
and it's the simplest, Like you said, it's the simplest
(19:12):
of things. Ted Bundy left a wrench, this guy left
a feather. Same fucking difference.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
And I'd like that towards the end when he's explaining
quote unquote explaining things to Patrick McNee with that whole
thing with the graph fight and the gun and the
gloves and all those kind of stuff, that he is
really explaining it to Robert Vaughan. I don't know if
McNee knows this stuff or not. He's explaining it to
us the audience, but really for me, he's explaining it
(19:39):
to Robert Vaughan to be like, and this is how
I catch you. This is the uncut Gems moment, this
is how I win.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
And hey, we haven't mentioned to you, but that fucking
shirt that he is wearing in that scene, my friend,
what is that? That's Colombo being stylish for the first
time and in his entire higher life in this show,
my lower.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
It's hilarious when they come down to wake him up
because there's been a murderer aboard the ship and he's like, okay, yeah,
give me a minute, and Bernard Fox looks a little
put out and then he comes out and he's putting
out his fucking tie. I'm like, it's got to be
probably twelve thirty one o'clock a night, and you're putting
your tie on as you walk up and about to
talk to the captain and the doctor. And by the way,
(20:23):
the doctor Robert Douglas, he was both an actor and
a director. He actually comes back in season six and
directs an old fashioned murder, which I found interesting because
it's not just this whole Gazara crew that has, you know,
inroads into this that this guy was in one episode
and then directs another I thought was pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Look, Ben Gazara kills it with this episode. The direction
in this episode is great and it's not surprising, right
Like Peter Falk John Cassavetti's did really well too, it's
actually far from surprising. Peter Folk, I think, is a
quality actor, and quality actors like to surround them with
people that are going to sharpen them, as it were.
(21:04):
And I think Ben Gazara and John Cassavetti's clearly there's
a reason Peter Foulk was friends with these people, and
I think it was a good reason, because yeah, this
is genuinely a great episode of the show, Like a
genuinely great episode of the show. And I think a
lot of it does have to do with the direction
and the script writing. But everybody's great. But everybody in
(21:25):
this episode's great and everything else they've been in, or
at least the things I've seen them in, especially even
someone like Dean Stockwell, who, like we've already mentioned, finally
has a lot to do in an episode of the show.
I wouldn't say he's unfortunately he's still sidelined as the
Patsy character. But I like him in this episode. I
like him in this episode more than I do in
the last one, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, he's got a lot more to do in this episode,
even though he's not in it for very much. Like
you said, he's got that crazy hair and that big
mustache going on. I love it. And but you get
the quality actor where he has that fight with her,
which I thought was great. Oh if you're drowning now
three at anchor, I'm like, oh, that's nice. It made
(22:05):
this big display of things to really make yourself look guilty.
That's great. And somebody like a Jack Cassidy would do
that in order to cast suspicion upon him, where Dean
Stockwell is just doing this because he's angry at this woman.
He's not causing a scene just to have an alibi.
And meanwhile, Robert Vaughan is, Oh, I've got the alibi.
(22:26):
I've got this popper. I'm going to put it under
my nose and fake a heart attack in order to
get these gloves, in order to get like a base
where I know that the nurse isn't going to come
in from eleven to eleven thirty, so I'll be okay
with this. I'm like, oh, that's really nice. And you
mentioned Culp. I think Colp and Vaughn feel like they're
(22:47):
cut from very similar cloths to me. Opios get that
moment of explosion and you're afraid he's going to explode.
Robert Vaughn is like a reptile or something where he's
just always so cold and calculate, and I just am like, Oh,
even though this guy is like essentially a used car salesman,
Columbo's really up against this guy in a pretty good
(23:07):
way because you don't know where where Robert Vaughan is
going to go with this stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
And up until the last moment, I've wanted that shit
on purpose. Wow, there's no way he wiggles out of
this one. He's wiggled out of everything else, not this time, Pal.
I like that moment. But yeah, Robert Vaughan is great.
This is great in this episode. I know we were
talking about basketball at the beginning, and his role in
that is nothing like this. But I think it just
(23:33):
speaks to the quality of him as an actor that
he can do both of these kinds of things. He
murders someone in cold blood. This is a graphic episode
of Colombo on top of everything else. I don't think
we've seen anyone open back shot with blood on skin before.
There's a little bit of not graphic gore, but as
graphic as this show has gotten. He's willing to shoot
(23:55):
someone on a boat who's a real nasty dude.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
I feel, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
And then the silencer quote unquote, with the pillow and
that being what gets them, then faking the l all
of these things he thinks are really clever. He thinks
that shooting her through the pillow is probably the most
clever thing a person could do. But that's ultimately his
undoing and just this whole They don't have feather pillows
(24:21):
in hospitals. They cause allergies.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
I'm like, oh that, I will say, though in all reality,
shooting a gun through a pillow doesn't do fuck all.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
I don't imagine. I know you always complain with there's
silencers in movies. On a handgun. I'm just like, yeah,
I know, this isn't a real thing, but it's definitely
a good movie conceit or TV conceit.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I'm surprised that they used a gun on a boat
because that's a really loud way of killing someone. I
would have thought that Robert Vaughan would have strangled her
or something.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Well, two boats, the two guns on this boat, the
Magician's gun. And I love that he uses the magician gun.
That they set that up check off hello, and it's oh, yeah,
by the way, here's this other gun that we have,
and he's going to use that in order to get
the powder burns on the gloves and you know, recreate
what he did before. I'm like, oh, that's clever too.
(25:16):
Just another thing that they set up earlier in the
episode that comes.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Back later a lot of as our friend rich HadAM
would say, planting in payoff. Yes, yeah, this is up
there for me for some of the best, most tightly
written episodes of the show. It does a good job
of making sure that anything in everything that it has
opened the way for is addressed, handled, and then used
(25:40):
as evidence or anti evidence against Robert Vaughan.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
And I like that.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I think that's been a complaint of mine from time
to time in this show, is that the directions that
it ultimately goes are unsatisfying. In the conclusion of the
how catch him? And this one is like beyond satisfying
because everything else is ruled out or added into the mix,
and then it's this one fucking thing though, And it's
like that one thing, like you said with the hospital pillows,
(26:07):
like it's just so smart. I think the only thing
that maybe comes close was the thing with Leonard Nimoy
where he's like, oh, it's in the in my pocket.
Oh it's that level of Oh, you were so far
ahead of him this whole fucking time, right, he was
fucked the moment he ran into you on that boat
and you hadn't even killed anybody.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
And apparently there were quite a few scenes where Gazara
was not feeling well. A lot of the actors weren't
feeling well because they actually shot most of this on
an actual cruise line. It was like premiere of one
of the lines. I don't know if it was Princess
or somebody else. It actually this episode made me want
to go out and rewatch some old Love Boat episodes
(26:48):
just to see that those scenes. I don't know if
you're familiar with Love Boat, but there's this whole thing
of you get to introduce all of the characters. At
the beginning, as they're all walking up the way that
the gameplank. Maybe I don't know if that's what That's okay.
They're all coming away and oh who is this person? Oh?
Who is It's very fantasy island. There's a reason why
(27:10):
those shows get confused sometimes because it's we all come
on to the boat, we all come on to the island.
We get introduced to these people. They have the little
adventures on the boat, and then when they're done, see
I take care, where what's the state of these people
that we welcomed here an hour ago? It looks like
their marriage is saved. It looks like Robert Vaughn as Fox.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
And boy isn't he They just escort his ass off
the boat and that's that goodbye, have fun in prison.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
That's in prison.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Oh, and poor Lieutenant Columbo still can't find missus Columbu.
I love when Bernard Fox comes to his room to say,
we have a problem. Isn't my wife she likes to party?
Is basically what he's saying. Apparently, there was originally a
scene where he walks into stateroom and there's a woman
(28:01):
with dark hair and she's brushing her hair in front
of the mirror, and you're like, oh, it's Missus Columbo.
And then she looks up and sees his reflection and goes,
what are you doing here? And he's oh, was this
fifty two S? And no, this is fifty two E
or whatever. Oh, I'm sorry that walks out. So they
were really trying to play up the Missus Columbo ness
of it. I'm glad that they didn't do that, and
(28:23):
instead it's other running gags like the whole boat slash
ship thing, and that's a nice payoff at the end.
It could have been a little bump upup, but I
actually thought it worked well.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
I think that's the ultimate question I have in this episode,
because it's the thing that I do wonder about. What
is the What is the fan consensus on Missus Colombo.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
As far as if she exists or not?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yeah, because I know that we know that there's the
show with Red from Orange is the New Black Jane
Way from Voyager, So I know that Kate Moulgrew plays
Missus Columbo in the Missus Columbo Show, which sounds like Fish.
Like we'll have to watch one episode, like I know
it's gonna be like pulling fucking teeth because Fish was
(29:08):
like pulling Fish was just eh, it's like a physical
reaction to that.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
I've seen episodes of Missus Columbo. It's definitely better than Fish,
but it's I don't know, watered down Rockford Files or something.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Better than Fish is damning something with the faintest of
fucking praise.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
A lot of the same writers show up on that,
and a lot of the same talent is behind the scenes.
But yeah, it's just it's not nearly as good. And
she's just not the character that Colombo is. She doesn't
have all of the ticks and things that he has.
And you don't feel and this is no offense to
Missus Columbo, you just don't feel it that she that
(29:48):
genius behind the shabby facade that he is, and that's
what we like about him so much, the way that
he disarms people, the way that he knows all of
this stuff but then just placates people like, oh yeah,
I'll look into people with the letter L for their
first name. And they said, he already knows that has
nothing to do with this.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Oh, I was just curious again with the Missus Columbo
of it all. I know she's a real character, but
is there a fan consensus on whether or not this
woman actually exists?
Speaker 1 (30:16):
I've asked, because this.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Is a weird fucking episode now, because did he get
on a boat? Okay, the question I have is why
the fuck is Columbo on the boat if there is
no Missus Columbo, because otherwise he's literally minority report. He
is Tom Cruise, a minority report. He's just here to
solve the murder, which again, that's how perfectly fine conceit.
I'm just as they say, I'm just asking questions.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
What happened was the government knew that this guy was
on this boat, and so they faked a contest and
put oh, I'm thinking of the fifth element.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Never mind, you were talking about that m Night Shyamalan
film Trap.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Oh no, I haven't watched that one yet. Is that
called thirst Trap?
Speaker 3 (30:54):
I wish it was as Josh Harten in it.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Oooh, talk about a thirst trap. I haven't talked with
the fans as much, but every time that we've had
an interview, I think for the most part, I've asked
the interview subjects if they think that Missus Columbo is real.
I think everybody thinks she's real, and I just like
this whole thing of oh, you just missed her, but it's
very oh gosh. I don't know if you remember the
(31:19):
Bloodhound Gang, but you never saw mister Bloodhound. It was
one of those oh he just laughed. Oh he only
comes in on the second Tuesday in the month, and
today's the third Tuesday or whatever it is. So I
like these missing characters that we have. It's almost like
Charlie from Charlie's Angels, but at least with that you
have the voice.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
If that's the point of the gag, I'm here for it.
But that's my question because up until this point it's
just been a gag. Now it's like less of a
gag and more of what I would interpret to be like,
this is the framing device through which the plot is operating.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, and I had to look up what was it,
the Holy Named Society or whatever she won the contest through,
and I was like, oh, I've never heard of this
group before. Very Christian kind of stuff, and okay, if
that's your thing, that's great, and I'd love that it
was some sort of sweepstakes or contests that she wins
(32:16):
and gets to bring along the Lieutenant Columbo and yeah,
there just happens to be a murder on the boat
at the same time, and he happens to have introduced
himself as Lieutenant Colombo because they're calling him mister Colombo,
and he's so concerned. They're so concerned about their titles
that he then has to correct them and say, my
title is lieutenant. I'm not just a mister. You're I'm
(32:39):
going to call the purser captain whips my bad, I'm
going to call the ship a boat or vice versa. Okay,
if you're so concerned about words, lieutenant is my preferred pronoun.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, hell with it or whatever he says at the
end of the episode.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
I love that. Oh that's a boat. Yeah, that was fine.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Yeah, Peter Faulk in this episode, he's really good. He's great,
and yeah, I like that we see him immediately. This
is a heavy Columbo episode, which is fine by me.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
We did mention it.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
I do want to reinforce maybe cut that Vola scene
down about Hans, because that's look Volarai is. There was
a time where that song was clearly really popular in
this country. It was March of nineteen seventy four, a
year before this episode came up. Like, I just Volari
is such a weird song to be like front and
center in your episode.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
If you listen to all of the other songs that
the band is playing, it's quite a greatest hits of
lounge music. I remember at one point it's so unusual
by Tom Jones. I'm like, oh, okay, and just yeah
other songs. I'm like, yeah, I know all of these songs.
This is really what's happening at the Palace hotel ballroom
(33:57):
kind of thing. It's like, all right, get out the
old time or things. You don't really get too much
interaction with the other passengers, which I'm actually okay with.
I'm glad there weren't like the funny couple, the handsome
couple that I'm glad it wasn't an episode of the
love boat. It was just concerned about the murder the band,
(34:19):
a couple members of the band, and the captain and
his crew. I'm like, perfect, this is a even though
you're on a fucking boat or ship with thousands of people,
and these were real people that were on the ship,
like they ran this as the Colombo Cruise, and it
was like, we are filming this, you might be in
(34:41):
this episode. If you don't want to be in this episode,
do not be on the ship. So I thought that
was cool, but that they didn't have to spend that
much time with these other passengers and just concentrated on
this really tight story.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
That was the thing I mentioned about Robert Vaughan. The
only thing I really have an issue with this episode
is he feels forced into the investigation, and that's because
they don't interact with anybody else on the ship. It's
only him, and I think, to my point, I don't
think it would have worked if they had interacted with
anybody else, which is why the Robert VAUGHANOVI It all
feels a little forced. But at the same time, I
would prefer it to be. Yeah, like you said, a
(35:16):
little bit more of a tight ball of an episode
than having tentacles out into the usual bullshit these kinds
of episodes trafficking.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
There's not a lot of just funny for funny sake,
not at all, really, Larry Storage character, like none of
these like side characters walk shit. Yeah, exactly, there's none
of that stuff, and it's just all here we go,
here's the story. Other than to your point, the Valari segment,
it's like, there's not a lot of stuff I would
(35:46):
cut out of this episode. And for me, that's also
a good thing where you are cross cutting between Valari
and what's happening elsewhere on the ship, and I'm like, okay,
that kind of works. But yeah, every time you cut
back it's like, oh, we just started the chorus again.
Though I'm like, oh.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
My gosh, the fuck up. Come on, I've heard this.
How many times can I hear the same thing? Yeah,
it was a bit much. That was the one part
where I was just like, when I came back to
it the second time I watch the episode, I skipped it.
I'm not sitting here for five minutes or whatever the
hell this is listening to this over and over again.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
And I get what you're saying about Robert Vaughan and
just him being forced into it, but I like that
he becomes this sounding board for Colombo where it's just
we're thinking about this, or I'm just wondering about your
other car dealers because this and just the way he's
like laying out all of these things, it's got to
(36:46):
be somebody who does this. The whole thing with the
key cutter, It's like we were thinking that somebody had
an extra key, but really what it probably was somebody
that has the ability to cut these keys. My brother
in law he lost his car. I'm just like, this
is great, and I love that he's just there explaining
his thought process to Robert Vaughan to be like, do
(37:08):
you realize just how fucked you are right now?
Speaker 2 (37:10):
My friend even does the Curtis clipper thing where he's
and it's called a right Curtis clippers.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Oh bro, what are you?
Speaker 2 (37:18):
No, you're fucking You're fucking what you just you willingly
walked into that one, dumb fuck like he's an auto executive. Bro,
you don't do that, like you just you might as
well have just like stuck your hands down and said
cuff me here, man, like, just get it over with. Yeah,
that cracked me up so hard. I was like, what
God's name or you think he.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Marched into that? Like that little kid on the Zoom
conference call from BBC where it's the guy at the
desk and his kid comes marching in with its arms waving.
That's how you just walked right into that, Curtis Clipper, sir.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
Yeah, it was that was wild.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
I laughed really hard when he's Curtis Clippers, man, you
just fucking should not have done that. But okay, right,
but yeah, I know, I like I said, I think
that this is a good example of this show operating
at its absolute peak and sets a pretty high bar
for whatever the next episode is. And I think, honest
(38:14):
to god, this has been like the best season of
the show so far. Like every episode has been pretty great.
The Robert Conrad episode, the Dick van Dyke episode, the
last episode, the Patrick McGowan episode. Like, we're hitting some
real big hitters, and I am really enjoying watching this
show hit its stride in season four.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Next episode, though, we're gonna be talking about one called Playback,
which adds a connection to the whole Gazara Cassavetes gang.
We've got the star of a woman under the Influence herself,
Gina Rowland's Rip. She's going to be in there. As
far as I remember, She's not used very well. But
it's been a long time since I've seen playback, so
(38:57):
I'm very curious to talk about that one next month.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
That's a fucking shame if that's the case, because Jesus Christ, Yeah,
Rip is right that a woman under the Influence was
I don't need to watch that again. That's one of
the more uncomfortable things I've watched in a very long time,
and that's because of her ability to just disappear into
whatever it is she's doing. But it's a shame that
if that is the case, that's a bit of a shame.
But I'm glad that she's in it, even if it's
(39:20):
a little bit. But yeah, the John Cassavetti's of it
all continues.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Yeah, it's funny because when I think of a woman
under the Influence, I just think of that dinner or
breakfast scene, the spaghetti scene that just stuck with me
so much. Man, every single time I think about that movie,
I think about her sitting on the other side of
the table from Falk, and just the way he's getting
more and more mad at her.
Speaker 3 (39:46):
Yeah, God, that's for again.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Like, I really like Peter Falk and he's great in
the show, but the things that I've seen him in
outside of the show, namely Corky Romano, he's a great actor.
I was kidding about the quirky Rano of it all,
but Corky Romano is great. But yeah, a Woman on
the Influence is just that's some prime fulk So hopefully
they interact a little bit in the next episode, but
I guess it remains to be seen.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
And I do have to recommend if you liked the
Woman under the Influence I did Opening Night for another podcast,
Falk makes a very brief appearance in there as Peter Falk,
which is hilarious. But man, another just hell Or Rowland's performance.
She is just magical in that movie. And a great
job of directing by Kuessa.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Eddi's And what a shame she just recently passed away.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Yeah, she lived quite a life, which is good.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
Yeah, she sure did. I would agree with you on that.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
We've got two more episodes of this season and then
we'll be taking a little bit of a break and
we'll be catching up with what Levinson and Link we're
doing around this time, as well as what mister Falk
was doing around this time. I think we're going to
be talking about Griffin and Phoenix pretty soon, and then
we'll probably have to talk a little bit about murder
(40:58):
by Death, but we covered that we're on week Up Heavy,
So if people want to hear us talk about murder
by Death, definitely check out Wakeupheavy dot com. And then
I'm super excited to talk about Mikey and Nicky because
that pairs Falk and Cassavetti's as actors, and then you've
got Elaine May writing and directing that one.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
We like to go far a field sometimes, but we're
never going too far afield on this show, thankfully.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
I like to go Jamie Farrfield.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yeah, me too. That's a real smash cut that joke.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
That's a family guy cut to Jamie farr in address
exactly you can. Yeah, I know I know how humor works.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Me too, I too. Went to the school of Seth McFarland.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Until we come back and talk about playback, Chris, what
are you up to these days?
Speaker 2 (41:46):
I'm just working on audio diversions over at Weirdingwaymedia dot com,
where you can find this show and so many other shows,
including the Culture Cast, which I've spent the last decade
working on, So that's where you can find all the
things that I work on.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
And yeah, what about you, mister Mike White.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Pretty much the same thing. I've just been working a
little bit longer on my movie podcast. But not trying
to brag or anything, but I'm really proud of what
we've been doing together. Over on our patreons. If you
join either Chris's Patreon at patreon dot com slash Culture
Cast or my patreon at patreon dot com slash Projection Booth,
you're going to get at the ten dollars and up level,
(42:23):
you're gonna get a whole monthly show where we talk
about James Bond. Every month we talk about a new Bond.
I'm going to pretty soon, I think we've got Living
Let Die will be released, so that's going to be
a great discussion the exploitation version of James Bond, which
is fantastic. And then yeah, I'm super excited we're going
to be recording pretty soon about the Spy who Loved
(42:46):
me and I just finished reading that book and i
can't wait to watch the movie because I'm sure it's
going to be an exact adaptation of it.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Oh my nore about to be sorely disappointed.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
I'm back next month. I want to thank John Walker
for our opening theme and Colin Gallagher for our closing thing,
and I want to thank everybody for listening to this.
If you like the show, go on over to iTunes,
rate and review it, and please just say some nice
things about us. So we get into that algorithm and
get recommended, and now you can download Apple podcasts and iTunes.
(43:23):
However you want to say it through your and Greid
device as well. You just go to the website, bookmark
that sucker there and you're off to the races. It's
not necessarily an app, but they actually work on your
phone now, which is wild. How long have been has
podcasting been around? It's only been that long.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
It's only been.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Sixteen years, twenty.
Speaker 3 (43:43):
Years, one of years, I forget.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
I was at the podcast convention and they talked to
the podcn by mon sci Fi by Podcon. I was
there in March. I think it's twenty twenty five years. Oh,
it's twenty. Yeah, it's twenty because we because you've been
doing it a little over half and I've been doing
it exactly half of the time. So yeah, brother, what
the fuck? Twenty fourteen? And I listened to my first
(44:06):
podcast in twenty sixteen or not twenty No, that wouldn't
be right. Oh two thousand yeah, no, yeah, twenty yeah,
twenty years. So I listened to my first podcast in
two thousand and six. It was Film Spotting with Adam
Kempinar and Sam Holgren, which doesn't even fucking exist anymore.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Mine was probably two thousand and nine or two thousand
and ten, and I was probably listening to The Gentleman's
Guide to Midnight Cinema and or Outside the Cinema. I'm
big into cinema. Can you tell.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Big movie guys? These two folks here, would it be
weird if they did a movie podcast and the rest,
as they say, was history?
Speaker 4 (45:08):
So can sogno cosi none returning my pure he dip
in Jevo La money, he Lah Fetcher, the Blue, Adim Proviso, Venevo,
Daveino Rapito.
Speaker 5 (45:34):
Hey come in Java a lot and a cello infini. Boh,
can't chi man blue depends on blue belly. Checked this
(46:03):
aarde lassup turbo lab oblabo bleach.
Speaker 4 (46:07):
If your aunt of the fall of a thought of
your soup, makee rimond of your pianos pariva lontano la
juice All music adults one nab stanto, parram.
Speaker 5 (46:26):
Live oh chanchi oh never blue depends on the blue belly.
Change this Dana lassun.
Speaker 3 (47:11):
Oh can't tie.
Speaker 5 (47:21):
The yoke toy fairly checked it that aquadi because it obelly.
Jun I thought that solid I thought of soon madremand
of your piano's compari and yoky blue.
Speaker 4 (47:41):
Now you badge music A dog
Speaker 3 (47:44):
Gets one of perime.
Welcome to the Shabby Detective, yet another Colombo podcast. I'm
your host, Mike White on this episode, of course, mister
Chris Dashu my co host.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And you sucked the chrome up of my bumper hitch
or my toe hitch or whatever.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
You know what.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I'm talking about, some little basketball action, little bare Robert
Bond for everybody.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, yeah, a lot of people know him, the guy
who's a bad boy in Magnificent seven. We go right
for basketball. We're nothing but class around here.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Yeah, we're sophisticates as they would.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Say, Yeah, were the aristocrats. On this episode, we were
talking about the episod So Troubled Waters. It is the
fourth episode of the fourth season. Oh Man, my Numerology
is kicking in. It was directed by Ben Gazzara from
a story by Jackson Gillis and William Driscoll, with a
teleplay by William Driscoll. It came out February ninth, nineteen
(01:17):
seventy five, and as with every episode this season, it
is a ninety plus minutter, though in my opinion, they
don't waste a whole lot of time. Maybe a little
bit with some singing set in the stage here and yeah,
otherwise I'm curious, Chris, what did you think about Troubled Waters.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
This might be one of the best episodes of the
show we've seen so far.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Holy cow, it's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
It's solid.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I think I like Robert Vaughan. His involvement is a
little strange. It is like sideways involvement, and I'm gonna
help you solve the crimes, dude, Like this is a
little obvious. I think the framing device is strange with
Colombo's wife doesn't exist or she does exist, or what
(02:02):
is happening here? Again, we've talked about Columbo's wife before.
This is I think the first episode where Colombo's wife
is a thing, at least more so than we've ever
seen up until this point.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
I enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I think, Yeah, I don't think I needed to hear
Hoope Bokar sing volare that much.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
That was a bit much, and by a bit much
a lot. And hey, it's nice to see that even
in nineteen seventy five, they were using poppers for something
other than gay sex. So gotta love Colombo, everybody. I
was wondering that in the episode, like when Robert Bond
pops that thing under his nose.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
I was like, is this guy doing poppers or oh yeah?
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I was like, oh yeah, okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, he's preparing for something.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
There's a lot of plot to this episode, and I
think that it benefits from the amount of plot that
it has and just how intricate this murder is. And
also I know this is not the first time that
we've seen Colombo at the very beginning of an episode.
I remember Kennedy for Crime especially. We see him right
off the bat, see him here before we see pretty
(03:11):
much anybody else. It's just him on this boat, on
this mfor boat, and he gets to meet up with
our old friend Benar Fox from the British episode, the
English episode. He is now Pursher Watkins. And we get
to Patrick McNee, one of the two people from the
Avengers in here as the captain. Yeah, we meet them
(03:33):
first before we even meet Robert Vaughan. And yes we
get the setup of Columbo's wife is somewhere on this
boat and apparently McNee has seen her or he's just
pretending in order to glomm off this guy and get
him away from the real good passengers, the one that
aren't wearing raincoats in the summer. What are you doing here?
(03:56):
Left Tenant? Colombo? Why are you dress so strangely? Love
that Columba just rolls with the punch. Oh no, it's
gonna be very hot in Mexico from White, I understand.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
I do like how they called him lieutenant over and
over again. This is the overwhelmingly British episode of Colombo,
even more so than the British episode was, Like, they
weren't calling him left Tenant in that episode, and having
Patrick McNee in your episode more or less makes it
pretty goddamn British because him and Bernard Fox are throughout
the episode. Yeah, I actually enjoyed this episode of fair amount,
(04:31):
and I really enjoyed the plot of the episode. I
enjoyed where the episode went in terms of the story,
and yeah, there's a lot of ground to cover. There's
a lot of story to cover here. And even funnier,
this is an episode where the way Colombo catches him
is the first thing Columbo finds out. Oh yeah, it's
(04:52):
the first thing. But in a lot of ways. I
like this episode so much because it Columbo knows it's
Robert Vaughan, but he can't prove it until the very end.
And he has to prove it. We've seen this before
where Columbo like gets them hardcore. This might be the
first time where it's like this, this is incontrovertible. This
guy doesn't really admit to it as much as like Columbo.
(05:15):
He does admit to it at the end, but Colombo
has him dead to rights in this episode period. And
I'm not saying that hasn't been the case in a
lot of the episodes. But we've talked about it before.
I'll mention it here again. Sometimes it's not as cut
and dry as Columbo's got him. Sometimes it seems like, oh,
they might be able to wiggle their way out of
this one if they're rich enough, and not so much
(05:36):
in this one. He has to get him without a
shadow of a doubt, and he does. But it has
to go through the pistol, It has to go through
the gloves, it has to go through the amal nitrate,
has to go through just everything. There's everything that we
see gets more or less talked about and dealt with
in some way and connected to Robert Vaughan's character.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, there's also the key cutter and the pass key
that gets made, and that's crucial to Robert Vaughan's characters
Hayden Danziger. He is the head of a group of
used car salesman. I guess is what his deal is.
And he's got all these used car salespeople on this ship,
not a boat, but a ship. And yeah, I like that.
(06:20):
There's this whole thing where Danziger is being blackmailed or
potentially blackmailed by Rosanna Wells played by and I'm going
to scripup how I say her name Poope Bocar. I
know Poope in French is doll, so I'm guessing that
she's named after that. She is a singer with the
band here on the ship where you've got pianist Lloyd
(06:43):
Harrington played by our friend Dean Stockwell, who luckily gets
to stay away from any chlorinated water on this episode,
as well as the man of the hour for me,
Artie Podell played by Peter Maloney, mostly known to me
for being in the Thing and his incredible scene where
he is half transformed and he's still got the monster
(07:05):
arm and he lets out that crazy howl before he
gets flamethrowed. Great seeing them in here, and I like
what they're doing. Some of the direction here especially when
they're like, oh, we need to talk with Lloyd Harrington
and then cut to Peter Maloney going Lloyd Harrington and
I'm like, right, and that's nice. I like that.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
That was Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I'm glad you mentioned it because I would have mentioned
that as well. The direction in this episode was really
well done. It's not surprising given the fact that Ben
Gazzara is such a good friend of our dear friend,
mister Peter Falk. So yeah, look, I think this episode
is really good for a whole host of reasons. A.
It's well written, B it's well directed, and see it's
(07:46):
well acted. Robert Vaughan, I think the only issue I
overwhelmingly have with this episode is his involvement in all
of it feels a little tenuous. Columbo ran into him
the moment he got on the boat, like this dude
was fucked. Clump goes onto you before you've even done anything.
This is like Columbo is Minority Report. In this episode.
He literally meets Robert baughd before Robert Vaughan is even
(08:09):
clear to us as the guy who's going to be
murdering someone he already knows.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
And Vaughan when he's talking with his wife who's played
by Jane Greer, and he gets all snippy with her
about his gloves being missing, and at first I was like,
why is he so mad about his gloves? Then I realized, oh,
he needs these gloves for the crime. But then he's
going to get the gloves from the doctor's office or
they keep calling it a hospital even though it's two rooms, right,
(08:39):
but at least they can do an autopsy there. They
get to autopsy Rosanna and not really fine much of
anything as far as I know, but I'm guessing they're
keeping her in the freezer section for the rest of
this voyage as they go to Masatman in Mexico or
apparently I think Alcapoco might be their final destination.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Riviera Baby.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Oh yeah, that's where I like to go, right there
with kan Kun.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
That's where I'm headed next summer.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Oh wow, yeah, right there on the seven baby. It's great.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yeah, how do you feel about the setting of this episode,
because this is like that Cold Check episode that was
set on a boat. Boat episodes are a dime a dozen.
A lot of TV shows have them. X Files had one,
Colchack ad one. This show had one. I'm sure people
will chime in and tell us all kinds of boat episodes.
What do you think about a boat episode in Colombo.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
I think it's great. I really like it, especially because
Colombo one point, he forgets he's on a boat. So
speaking of the dead body or like the lieutenant, we're
on a boat here. Basically this corpse is going to
start smelling pretty soon. Oh yeah, I forgot, And then
he has to go back to the old police methods,
(09:49):
the guys literally using a magnifying glass. And you've got
two gentlemen in this cast that have played John Watson
in various and so it's so nice that we have
doctor Watson here watching Colombo as Sherlock Holmes.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Yeah, no, I you mentioned the old school detective of
it all. I like the fact that the boat setting
forces that to be part of the story more than
anything else, and because it really shows that at the
end of the day, like Colombo is a detective, Like
our show is called the Shabby Detective for a reason.
This isn't Batman via Zack Snyder detective. This is Batman
(10:30):
via Matt Reeves. Like we actually get to see Colombo
be a detective here and do detective work. And yeah,
using the old school methods. I really like that aspect
of the episode. I think that setting it on a
boat could have been a crutch that would not have
worked in a less well written show.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
But this is not that.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
This is a very This is a consistently well written show,
and I think that they realized because it is set
on a boat, they have to cram as much into
this as possible because the intro of the murder, that
has to be the point of this episode, because the
setting is not going to be It's not that it's
not interesting, but while it is a big boat, it's
(11:09):
really a small setting ultimately, like there's a lot you
can do with it, but not as much as one
would think.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
It cuts him off from the boys in the lab,
which he's never been overly reliant on the boys in
the lab, but they do help him out occasionally. Oh
what is the smudge here? Oh, that's actually shoot polish.
What did he have for dinner last Oh it was
lettuce and that didn't digest all the way. So the
time of death is off. Like those little things. He's
(11:36):
cut off from that. He has no boys in the
lab to do any sort of work. He's there doing
it himself. Doing the whole thing with the graphite for
the fingerprints and everything, which I love. And then you
also get the added benefit of, as Columbo points out himself,
you have the world's largest evidence dump where you can
(11:56):
just throw these gloves into the ocean, maybe throw the
gun into the ocean. But why didn't he throw the gun.
Why did he throw the gloves away? Why wasn't it
the gun. So you've got that as well as far
as we don't know where this evidence is going to,
and it's really a not good thing for Colombo. And yeah,
(12:17):
like I said, he has to go back to the
old school methods. I'm surprised he wasn't using like sticky
tape along with the graphite to be like, oh, there's
the fingerprints.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yeah, I was hoping for that. We didn't get any
of that, but we got.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Two thirds of the way there, really.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I Yeah, I enjoyed the aspects of this episode that
were essentially restrictive.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
To what was going on with Colombo.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
You're totally right having Colombo have like a ticking clock too,
because that's the other hole he's gonna get away essentially, right, Like, yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
If that boat docks again, he's done for because yeah,
Robert Von will just disappear.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, and he'll do it.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
He's made it clear that he's willing to just dip
out on everybody, and just because I don't know, it's
weird though. I think maybe the I understand why he
kills Roseanna Wells, but it seems a little drastic, right.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Not really. I guess he wants to keep like a
Robert Cole thing, right, Yeah, he wants to keep her
away from Sylvia so that she doesn't spoil his marriage.
I'm guessing that Sylvia is probably pretty well off because
in this position, he's probably okay as far as how
much money he makes. But it really feels like Sylvia
and I think she even says at one point, I'm
(13:30):
an older woman, and you probably think that my husband
married me for my money. You're right if he absolutely did.
But yet he wants to play around with Rosanna Wells,
the hot singer of this band, and he's probably on
an earlier cruise because obviously he gets recognized by McNee
(13:52):
and Barnard Fox as being a regular person on this voyage.
So yeah, he wants to have his cake and eat
it too. And when Rosanna starts knocking saying, hey, you
got to pay or play. He doesn't want any of
that stuff. He needs to get her out of the picture,
and I can see him doing anything that he needs to.
(14:13):
I love when he's talking with her and he's holding
her by the neck and she's, oh, that hurts. I
was hoping maybe she would have bruises on her neck.
Later on that came up post mortem to give us
one more piece of evidence as far as the size
of the hands or whatever it was. But yeah, yeah,
I can see he's very vicious and very well thought
out too. This whole thing of getting the gun and
(14:36):
getting the receipt for the gun with Lloyd's name on
it and then planting it in Lloyd's cabin. I thought
it was really nice. And I love how Colombo, though,
just completely disregards this l that was allegedly written on
the mirror by Roseanna Wells, where I love I think
it's Bernard Fox is just like, oh what about the L?
(15:00):
He's like, or did you see the lipstick? And he's
just like, oh yeah, I saw it, and it was
just like so dismissive, and then he almost has play along.
I guess we should look for people with the letter
ELA in their name and then he uses that against
Vaughan later on, whereas any of your dealers have l's
in their name that have taken this cruise before, because
obviously whoever did this knows when the band goes.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
On break and then doesn't someone say something to the
effect about the L. She would have died immediately, so
how would she have been able to put the L
on the mirror?
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Anyways?
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I like that thinking in this show where we need
to use common sense and just the facts to diffuse
the horseshit of the murder, and that's one of it. Like,
I don't know what Robert Bonn was thinking, but that's
so bullshitty to put, like what.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
An L whatever? I like it though.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I like that this episode has a lot of different
directions that it goes in. In all those directions, all
those doors have to be closed, as it were, so
that we can finally get the one solution, which is
there was just a feather on the ground, and the
feather Like, how as someone who has only seen this
episode two times now, you've been with this episode a
(16:11):
lot longer, how do you feel about it being the feather?
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I love that it's the feather. I love that he
picks up the one feather in the cabin room and
puts it in his pocket and then sees the other
feather does the exact same motion with it later on,
and it's just the simplest thing. That's the thread that
he starts to unwind and start pulling on, pulls himself
right into Robert Vaughan's room, just like, oh, I'm so sorry.
(16:35):
Didn't know anybody who was in here, And I'm like, oh, yeah,
sure you didn't.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
I loved it.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
It's great he lies so much in this episode.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
But I like that we also get to see Colombo
let others in on it because he lets the Stockwell
in on it, Patrick McNee, Bernard Fox, Robert Douglas, like
they're all in on it. Because at one point he's like,
do you think that's the person who did it? And
he's like, yeah, I do, like I do, And I
was like, whoa. We normally don't get It's not that
we don't get to see it, but this is a
(17:05):
different episode because he can't go to anybody else. These
are the people he has to work with, and I
really like that, and I like those scenes towards the
end where Patrick McNee has to be like, it has
to be explained to him, what's going on? Yeah, and
then he's oh, okay. Like the thing with the heart
like the thing with the fucking heart rate.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
The thing with the heart rate is another great avenue
that has to be explored because there's some evidence in
the camp of this guy did it, which in and
of itself it's great because we have the things that
he's trying to put out there that Colombo has to disprove,
and then the things that Colombo has to prove. I'm
saying this is a This is one of the best
episodes because it has a lot of evidence and anti
evidence that it really clears up, which a lot of
(17:45):
the episodes have not done any of this, and if
they have, they don't do it nearly as well as
this episode does.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
We talk about exercise and fatality and just how it
felt like a jump drawer of clues with the ultimate
clue being the shoes tied the wrong way. Meanwhile, you've
got this one where it's just like this piece and
they all add up and they all fit into this
wonderful puzzle. This is what a Columbo episode should be.
(18:11):
Keep your exercise and fatality. Of course, there's some funny
moments in it and all that, but I don't need it.
I need more like this where it just feels like
a ticking clock.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
This feels like a proper detective story. Yes, there are
so many of these episodes of this show that it's
not that they're bad, it's far from it. It's just
they don't put in the effort that something like this does.
And it really feels like a well oiled machine, which
is how these stories should feel when they're well written,
Like everything slides into place seamlessly, to the point where
(18:44):
yet you think Colombo's going with the gloves and then
he's like, how did you know it was me?
Speaker 3 (18:49):
It's his fucking feather.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
We had him going through three quarters and we got
him at the end. And that's how I felt that
this episode. I remembered he picked up the feather, but
I didn't think it was going to be like the
true Danu maw of the episode is the feather. But
it's so smart because again it's like how did you know?
It's not how did I catch you? It's how did
you knows? And how did I get you onto my scent? Initially,
and it's the simplest, Like you said, it's the simplest
(19:12):
of things. Ted Bundy left a wrench, this guy left
a feather. Same fucking difference.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
And I'd like that towards the end when he's explaining
quote unquote explaining things to Patrick McNee with that whole
thing with the graph fight and the gun and the
gloves and all those kind of stuff, that he is
really explaining it to Robert Vaughan. I don't know if
McNee knows this stuff or not. He's explaining it to
us the audience, but really for me, he's explaining it
(19:39):
to Robert Vaughan to be like, and this is how
I catch you. This is the uncut Gems moment, this
is how I win.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
And hey, we haven't mentioned to you, but that fucking
shirt that he is wearing in that scene, my friend,
what is that? That's Colombo being stylish for the first
time and in his entire higher life in this show,
my lower.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
It's hilarious when they come down to wake him up
because there's been a murderer aboard the ship and he's like, okay, yeah,
give me a minute, and Bernard Fox looks a little
put out and then he comes out and he's putting
out his fucking tie. I'm like, it's got to be
probably twelve thirty one o'clock a night, and you're putting
your tie on as you walk up and about to
talk to the captain and the doctor. And by the way,
(20:23):
the doctor Robert Douglas, he was both an actor and
a director. He actually comes back in season six and
directs an old fashioned murder, which I found interesting because
it's not just this whole Gazara crew that has, you know,
inroads into this that this guy was in one episode
and then directs another I thought was pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Look, Ben Gazara kills it with this episode. The direction
in this episode is great and it's not surprising, right
Like Peter Falk John Cassavetti's did really well too, it's
actually far from surprising. Peter Folk, I think, is a
quality actor, and quality actors like to surround them with
people that are going to sharpen them, as it were.
(21:04):
And I think Ben Gazara and John Cassavetti's clearly there's
a reason Peter Foulk was friends with these people, and
I think it was a good reason, because yeah, this
is genuinely a great episode of the show, Like a
genuinely great episode of the show. And I think a
lot of it does have to do with the direction
and the script writing. But everybody's great. But everybody in
(21:25):
this episode's great and everything else they've been in, or
at least the things I've seen them in, especially even
someone like Dean Stockwell, who, like we've already mentioned, finally
has a lot to do in an episode of the show.
I wouldn't say he's unfortunately he's still sidelined as the
Patsy character. But I like him in this episode. I
like him in this episode more than I do in
the last one, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah, he's got a lot more to do in this episode,
even though he's not in it for very much. Like
you said, he's got that crazy hair and that big
mustache going on. I love it. And but you get
the quality actor where he has that fight with her,
which I thought was great. Oh if you're drowning now
three at anchor, I'm like, oh, that's nice. It made
(22:05):
this big display of things to really make yourself look guilty.
That's great. And somebody like a Jack Cassidy would do
that in order to cast suspicion upon him, where Dean
Stockwell is just doing this because he's angry at this woman.
He's not causing a scene just to have an alibi.
And meanwhile, Robert Vaughan is, Oh, I've got the alibi.
(22:26):
I've got this popper. I'm going to put it under
my nose and fake a heart attack in order to
get these gloves, in order to get like a base
where I know that the nurse isn't going to come
in from eleven to eleven thirty, so I'll be okay
with this. I'm like, oh, that's really nice. And you
mentioned Culp. I think Colp and Vaughn feel like they're
(22:47):
cut from very similar cloths to me. Opios get that
moment of explosion and you're afraid he's going to explode.
Robert Vaughn is like a reptile or something where he's
just always so cold and calculate, and I just am like, Oh,
even though this guy is like essentially a used car salesman,
Columbo's really up against this guy in a pretty good
(23:07):
way because you don't know where where Robert Vaughan is
going to go with this stuff.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
And up until the last moment, I've wanted that shit
on purpose. Wow, there's no way he wiggles out of
this one. He's wiggled out of everything else, not this time, Pal.
I like that moment. But yeah, Robert Vaughan is great.
This is great in this episode. I know we were
talking about basketball at the beginning, and his role in
that is nothing like this. But I think it just
(23:33):
speaks to the quality of him as an actor that
he can do both of these kinds of things. He
murders someone in cold blood. This is a graphic episode
of Colombo on top of everything else. I don't think
we've seen anyone open back shot with blood on skin before.
There's a little bit of not graphic gore, but as
graphic as this show has gotten. He's willing to shoot
(23:55):
someone on a boat who's a real nasty dude.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
I feel, yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
And then the silencer quote unquote, with the pillow and
that being what gets them, then faking the l all
of these things he thinks are really clever. He thinks
that shooting her through the pillow is probably the most
clever thing a person could do. But that's ultimately his
undoing and just this whole They don't have feather pillows
(24:21):
in hospitals. They cause allergies.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
I'm like, oh that, I will say, though in all reality,
shooting a gun through a pillow doesn't do fuck all.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
I don't imagine. I know you always complain with there's
silencers in movies. On a handgun. I'm just like, yeah,
I know, this isn't a real thing, but it's definitely
a good movie conceit or TV conceit.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
I'm surprised that they used a gun on a boat
because that's a really loud way of killing someone. I
would have thought that Robert Vaughan would have strangled her
or something.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Well, two boats, the two guns on this boat, the
Magician's gun. And I love that he uses the magician gun.
That they set that up check off hello, and it's oh, yeah,
by the way, here's this other gun that we have,
and he's going to use that in order to get
the powder burns on the gloves and you know, recreate
what he did before. I'm like, oh, that's clever too.
(25:16):
Just another thing that they set up earlier in the
episode that comes.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Back later a lot of as our friend rich HadAM
would say, planting in payoff. Yes, yeah, this is up
there for me for some of the best, most tightly
written episodes of the show. It does a good job
of making sure that anything in everything that it has
opened the way for is addressed, handled, and then used
(25:40):
as evidence or anti evidence against Robert Vaughan.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
And I like that.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I think that's been a complaint of mine from time
to time in this show, is that the directions that
it ultimately goes are unsatisfying. In the conclusion of the
how catch him? And this one is like beyond satisfying
because everything else is ruled out or added into the mix,
and then it's this one fucking thing though, And it's
like that one thing, like you said with the hospital pillows,
(26:07):
like it's just so smart. I think the only thing
that maybe comes close was the thing with Leonard Nimoy
where he's like, oh, it's in the in my pocket.
Oh it's that level of Oh, you were so far
ahead of him this whole fucking time, right, he was
fucked the moment he ran into you on that boat
and you hadn't even killed anybody.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
And apparently there were quite a few scenes where Gazara
was not feeling well. A lot of the actors weren't
feeling well because they actually shot most of this on
an actual cruise line. It was like premiere of one
of the lines. I don't know if it was Princess
or somebody else. It actually this episode made me want
to go out and rewatch some old Love Boat episodes
(26:48):
just to see that those scenes. I don't know if
you're familiar with Love Boat, but there's this whole thing
of you get to introduce all of the characters. At
the beginning, as they're all walking up the way that
the gameplank. Maybe I don't know if that's what That's okay.
They're all coming away and oh who is this person? Oh?
Who is It's very fantasy island. There's a reason why
(27:10):
those shows get confused sometimes because it's we all come
on to the boat, we all come on to the island.
We get introduced to these people. They have the little
adventures on the boat, and then when they're done, see
I take care, where what's the state of these people
that we welcomed here an hour ago? It looks like
their marriage is saved. It looks like Robert Vaughn as Fox.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
And boy isn't he They just escort his ass off
the boat and that's that goodbye, have fun in prison.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
That's in prison.
Speaker 1 (27:39):
Oh, and poor Lieutenant Columbo still can't find missus Columbu.
I love when Bernard Fox comes to his room to say,
we have a problem. Isn't my wife she likes to party?
Is basically what he's saying. Apparently, there was originally a
scene where he walks into stateroom and there's a woman
(28:01):
with dark hair and she's brushing her hair in front
of the mirror, and you're like, oh, it's Missus Columbo.
And then she looks up and sees his reflection and goes,
what are you doing here? And he's oh, was this
fifty two S? And no, this is fifty two E
or whatever. Oh, I'm sorry that walks out. So they
were really trying to play up the Missus Columbo ness
of it. I'm glad that they didn't do that, and
(28:23):
instead it's other running gags like the whole boat slash
ship thing, and that's a nice payoff at the end.
It could have been a little bump upup, but I
actually thought it worked well.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
I think that's the ultimate question I have in this episode,
because it's the thing that I do wonder about. What
is the What is the fan consensus on Missus Colombo.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
As far as if she exists or not?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yeah, because I know that we know that there's the
show with Red from Orange is the New Black Jane
Way from Voyager, So I know that Kate Moulgrew plays
Missus Columbo in the Missus Columbo Show, which sounds like Fish.
Like we'll have to watch one episode, like I know
it's gonna be like pulling fucking teeth because Fish was
(29:08):
like pulling Fish was just eh, it's like a physical
reaction to that.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
I've seen episodes of Missus Columbo. It's definitely better than Fish,
but it's I don't know, watered down Rockford Files or something.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Better than Fish is damning something with the faintest of
fucking praise.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
A lot of the same writers show up on that,
and a lot of the same talent is behind the scenes.
But yeah, it's just it's not nearly as good. And
she's just not the character that Colombo is. She doesn't
have all of the ticks and things that he has.
And you don't feel and this is no offense to
Missus Columbo, you just don't feel it that she that
(29:48):
genius behind the shabby facade that he is, and that's
what we like about him so much, the way that
he disarms people, the way that he knows all of
this stuff but then just placates people like, oh yeah,
I'll look into people with the letter L for their
first name. And they said, he already knows that has
nothing to do with this.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Oh, I was just curious again with the Missus Columbo
of it all. I know she's a real character, but
is there a fan consensus on whether or not this
woman actually exists?
Speaker 1 (30:16):
I've asked, because this.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
Is a weird fucking episode now, because did he get
on a boat? Okay, the question I have is why
the fuck is Columbo on the boat if there is
no Missus Columbo, because otherwise he's literally minority report. He
is Tom Cruise, a minority report. He's just here to
solve the murder, which again, that's how perfectly fine conceit.
I'm just as they say, I'm just asking questions.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
What happened was the government knew that this guy was
on this boat, and so they faked a contest and
put oh, I'm thinking of the fifth element.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Never mind, you were talking about that m Night Shyamalan
film Trap.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
Oh no, I haven't watched that one yet. Is that
called thirst Trap?
Speaker 3 (30:54):
I wish it was as Josh Harten in it.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Oooh, talk about a thirst trap. I haven't talked with
the fans as much, but every time that we've had
an interview, I think for the most part, I've asked
the interview subjects if they think that Missus Columbo is real.
I think everybody thinks she's real, and I just like
this whole thing of oh, you just missed her, but it's
very oh gosh. I don't know if you remember the
(31:19):
Bloodhound Gang, but you never saw mister Bloodhound. It was
one of those oh he just laughed. Oh he only
comes in on the second Tuesday in the month, and
today's the third Tuesday or whatever it is. So I
like these missing characters that we have. It's almost like
Charlie from Charlie's Angels, but at least with that you
have the voice.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
If that's the point of the gag, I'm here for it.
But that's my question because up until this point it's
just been a gag. Now it's like less of a
gag and more of what I would interpret to be like,
this is the framing device through which the plot is operating.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
Yeah, and I had to look up what was it,
the Holy Named Society or whatever she won the contest through,
and I was like, oh, I've never heard of this
group before. Very Christian kind of stuff, and okay, if
that's your thing, that's great, and I'd love that it
was some sort of sweepstakes or contests that she wins
(32:16):
and gets to bring along the Lieutenant Columbo and yeah,
there just happens to be a murder on the boat
at the same time, and he happens to have introduced
himself as Lieutenant Colombo because they're calling him mister Colombo,
and he's so concerned. They're so concerned about their titles
that he then has to correct them and say, my
title is lieutenant. I'm not just a mister. You're I'm
(32:39):
going to call the purser captain whips my bad, I'm
going to call the ship a boat or vice versa. Okay,
if you're so concerned about words, lieutenant is my preferred pronoun.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, hell with it or whatever he says at the
end of the episode.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
I love that. Oh that's a boat. Yeah, that was fine.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Yeah, Peter Faulk in this episode, he's really good. He's great,
and yeah, I like that we see him immediately. This
is a heavy Columbo episode, which is fine by me.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
We did mention it.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
I do want to reinforce maybe cut that Vola scene
down about Hans, because that's look Volarai is. There was
a time where that song was clearly really popular in
this country. It was March of nineteen seventy four, a
year before this episode came up. Like, I just Volari
is such a weird song to be like front and
center in your episode.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
If you listen to all of the other songs that
the band is playing, it's quite a greatest hits of
lounge music. I remember at one point it's so unusual
by Tom Jones. I'm like, oh, okay, and just yeah
other songs. I'm like, yeah, I know all of these songs.
This is really what's happening at the Palace hotel ballroom
(33:57):
kind of thing. It's like, all right, get out the
old time or things. You don't really get too much
interaction with the other passengers, which I'm actually okay with.
I'm glad there weren't like the funny couple, the handsome
couple that I'm glad it wasn't an episode of the
love boat. It was just concerned about the murder the band,
(34:19):
a couple members of the band, and the captain and
his crew. I'm like, perfect, this is a even though
you're on a fucking boat or ship with thousands of people,
and these were real people that were on the ship,
like they ran this as the Colombo Cruise, and it
was like, we are filming this, you might be in
(34:41):
this episode. If you don't want to be in this episode,
do not be on the ship. So I thought that
was cool, but that they didn't have to spend that
much time with these other passengers and just concentrated on
this really tight story.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
That was the thing I mentioned about Robert Vaughan. The
only thing I really have an issue with this episode
is he feels forced into the investigation, and that's because
they don't interact with anybody else on the ship. It's
only him, and I think, to my point, I don't
think it would have worked if they had interacted with
anybody else, which is why the Robert VAUGHANOVI It all
feels a little forced. But at the same time, I
would prefer it to be. Yeah, like you said, a
(35:16):
little bit more of a tight ball of an episode
than having tentacles out into the usual bullshit these kinds
of episodes trafficking.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
There's not a lot of just funny for funny sake,
not at all, really, Larry Storage character, like none of
these like side characters walk shit. Yeah, exactly, there's none
of that stuff, and it's just all here we go,
here's the story. Other than to your point, the Valari segment,
it's like, there's not a lot of stuff I would
(35:46):
cut out of this episode. And for me, that's also
a good thing where you are cross cutting between Valari
and what's happening elsewhere on the ship, and I'm like, okay,
that kind of works. But yeah, every time you cut
back it's like, oh, we just started the chorus again.
Though I'm like, oh.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
My gosh, the fuck up. Come on, I've heard this.
How many times can I hear the same thing? Yeah,
it was a bit much. That was the one part
where I was just like, when I came back to
it the second time I watch the episode, I skipped it.
I'm not sitting here for five minutes or whatever the
hell this is listening to this over and over again.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
And I get what you're saying about Robert Vaughan and
just him being forced into it, but I like that
he becomes this sounding board for Colombo where it's just
we're thinking about this, or I'm just wondering about your
other car dealers because this and just the way he's
like laying out all of these things, it's got to
(36:46):
be somebody who does this. The whole thing with the
key cutter, It's like we were thinking that somebody had
an extra key, but really what it probably was somebody
that has the ability to cut these keys. My brother
in law he lost his car. I'm just like, this
is great, and I love that he's just there explaining
his thought process to Robert Vaughan to be like, do
(37:08):
you realize just how fucked you are right now?
Speaker 2 (37:10):
My friend even does the Curtis clipper thing where he's
and it's called a right Curtis clippers.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
Oh bro, what are you?
Speaker 2 (37:18):
No, you're fucking You're fucking what you just you willingly
walked into that one, dumb fuck like he's an auto executive. Bro,
you don't do that, like you just you might as
well have just like stuck your hands down and said
cuff me here, man, like, just get it over with. Yeah,
that cracked me up so hard. I was like, what
God's name or you think he.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Marched into that? Like that little kid on the Zoom
conference call from BBC where it's the guy at the
desk and his kid comes marching in with its arms waving.
That's how you just walked right into that, Curtis Clipper, sir.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
Yeah, it was that was wild.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
I laughed really hard when he's Curtis Clippers, man, you
just fucking should not have done that. But okay, right,
but yeah, I know, I like I said, I think
that this is a good example of this show operating
at its absolute peak and sets a pretty high bar
for whatever the next episode is. And I think, honest
(38:14):
to god, this has been like the best season of
the show so far. Like every episode has been pretty great.
The Robert Conrad episode, the Dick van Dyke episode, the
last episode, the Patrick McGowan episode. Like, we're hitting some
real big hitters, and I am really enjoying watching this
show hit its stride in season four.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Next episode, though, we're gonna be talking about one called Playback,
which adds a connection to the whole Gazara Cassavetes gang.
We've got the star of a woman under the Influence herself,
Gina Rowland's Rip. She's going to be in there. As
far as I remember, She's not used very well. But
it's been a long time since I've seen playback, so
(38:57):
I'm very curious to talk about that one next month.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
That's a fucking shame if that's the case, because Jesus Christ, Yeah,
Rip is right that a woman under the Influence was
I don't need to watch that again. That's one of
the more uncomfortable things I've watched in a very long time,
and that's because of her ability to just disappear into
whatever it is she's doing. But it's a shame that
if that is the case, that's a bit of a shame.
But I'm glad that she's in it, even if it's
(39:20):
a little bit. But yeah, the John Cassavetti's of it
all continues.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Yeah, it's funny because when I think of a woman
under the Influence, I just think of that dinner or
breakfast scene, the spaghetti scene that just stuck with me
so much. Man, every single time I think about that movie,
I think about her sitting on the other side of
the table from Falk, and just the way he's getting
more and more mad at her.
Speaker 3 (39:46):
Yeah, God, that's for again.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Like, I really like Peter Falk and he's great in
the show, but the things that I've seen him in
outside of the show, namely Corky Romano, he's a great actor.
I was kidding about the quirky Rano of it all,
but Corky Romano is great. But yeah, a Woman on
the Influence is just that's some prime fulk So hopefully
they interact a little bit in the next episode, but
I guess it remains to be seen.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
And I do have to recommend if you liked the
Woman under the Influence I did Opening Night for another podcast,
Falk makes a very brief appearance in there as Peter Falk,
which is hilarious. But man, another just hell Or Rowland's performance.
She is just magical in that movie. And a great
job of directing by Kuessa.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Eddi's And what a shame she just recently passed away.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Yeah, she lived quite a life, which is good.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
Yeah, she sure did. I would agree with you on that.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
We've got two more episodes of this season and then
we'll be taking a little bit of a break and
we'll be catching up with what Levinson and Link we're
doing around this time, as well as what mister Falk
was doing around this time. I think we're going to
be talking about Griffin and Phoenix pretty soon, and then
we'll probably have to talk a little bit about murder
(40:58):
by Death, but we covered that we're on week Up Heavy,
So if people want to hear us talk about murder
by Death, definitely check out Wakeupheavy dot com. And then
I'm super excited to talk about Mikey and Nicky because
that pairs Falk and Cassavetti's as actors, and then you've
got Elaine May writing and directing that one.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
We like to go far a field sometimes, but we're
never going too far afield on this show, thankfully.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
I like to go Jamie Farrfield.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yeah, me too. That's a real smash cut that joke.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
That's a family guy cut to Jamie farr in address
exactly you can. Yeah, I know I know how humor works.
Speaker 2 (41:37):
Me too, I too. Went to the school of Seth McFarland.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
Until we come back and talk about playback, Chris, what
are you up to these days?
Speaker 2 (41:46):
I'm just working on audio diversions over at Weirdingwaymedia dot com,
where you can find this show and so many other shows,
including the Culture Cast, which I've spent the last decade
working on, So that's where you can find all the
things that I work on.
Speaker 3 (41:58):
And yeah, what about you, mister Mike White.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
Pretty much the same thing. I've just been working a
little bit longer on my movie podcast. But not trying
to brag or anything, but I'm really proud of what
we've been doing together. Over on our patreons. If you
join either Chris's Patreon at patreon dot com slash Culture
Cast or my patreon at patreon dot com slash Projection Booth,
you're going to get at the ten dollars and up level,
(42:23):
you're gonna get a whole monthly show where we talk
about James Bond. Every month we talk about a new Bond.
I'm going to pretty soon, I think we've got Living
Let Die will be released, so that's going to be
a great discussion the exploitation version of James Bond, which
is fantastic. And then yeah, I'm super excited we're going
to be recording pretty soon about the Spy who Loved
(42:46):
me and I just finished reading that book and i
can't wait to watch the movie because I'm sure it's
going to be an exact adaptation of it.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Oh my nore about to be sorely disappointed.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
I'm back next month. I want to thank John Walker
for our opening theme and Colin Gallagher for our closing thing,
and I want to thank everybody for listening to this.
If you like the show, go on over to iTunes,
rate and review it, and please just say some nice
things about us. So we get into that algorithm and
get recommended, and now you can download Apple podcasts and iTunes.
(43:23):
However you want to say it through your and Greid
device as well. You just go to the website, bookmark
that sucker there and you're off to the races. It's
not necessarily an app, but they actually work on your
phone now, which is wild. How long have been has
podcasting been around? It's only been that long.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
It's only been.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Sixteen years, twenty.
Speaker 3 (43:43):
Years, one of years, I forget.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
I was at the podcast convention and they talked to
the podcn by mon sci Fi by Podcon. I was
there in March. I think it's twenty twenty five years. Oh,
it's twenty. Yeah, it's twenty because we because you've been
doing it a little over half and I've been doing
it exactly half of the time. So yeah, brother, what
the fuck? Twenty fourteen? And I listened to my first
(44:06):
podcast in twenty sixteen or not twenty No, that wouldn't
be right. Oh two thousand yeah, no, yeah, twenty yeah,
twenty years. So I listened to my first podcast in
two thousand and six. It was Film Spotting with Adam
Kempinar and Sam Holgren, which doesn't even fucking exist anymore.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Mine was probably two thousand and nine or two thousand
and ten, and I was probably listening to The Gentleman's
Guide to Midnight Cinema and or Outside the Cinema. I'm
big into cinema. Can you tell.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Big movie guys? These two folks here, would it be
weird if they did a movie podcast and the rest,
as they say, was history?
Speaker 4 (45:08):
So can sogno cosi none returning my pure he dip
in Jevo La money, he Lah Fetcher, the Blue, Adim Proviso, Venevo,
Daveino Rapito.
Speaker 5 (45:34):
Hey come in Java a lot and a cello infini. Boh,
can't chi man blue depends on blue belly. Checked this
(46:03):
aarde lassup turbo lab oblabo bleach.
Speaker 4 (46:07):
If your aunt of the fall of a thought of
your soup, makee rimond of your pianos pariva lontano la
juice All music adults one nab stanto, parram.
Speaker 5 (46:26):
Live oh chanchi oh never blue depends on the blue belly.
Change this Dana lassun.
Speaker 3 (47:11):
Oh can't tie.
Speaker 5 (47:21):
The yoke toy fairly checked it that aquadi because it obelly.
Jun I thought that solid I thought of soon madremand
of your piano's compari and yoky blue.
Speaker 4 (47:41):
Now you badge music A dog
Speaker 3 (47:44):
Gets one of perime.
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