10 Best Columbo Episodes
2. Try And Catch Me
Columbo (or at least the programme) seemed to have a fascination with mystery writers. Perhaps this isn't surprising, as its creators later went on to make Murder, She Wrote, which sort of replaced Columbo for most of the 1980s and beyond.
In a loose remake of Any Old Port in a Storm, Abigail Mitchell (played by the delightful Academy Award winner, Ruth Gordon) is one of the most successful and respected mystery novelists in the business; indeed, she seems to have been inspired by Dame Agatha Christie. Unfortunately, she has a nephew-by-marriage, Edmund Galvin (Charles Frank) who not only seems to be hanging around seeking to inherit her fortune, but whom she also believes to have murdered her beloved niece. Locking Edmund in her walk-in safe, Abigail jets off to New York City. In the meantime, her secretary, Veronica (Mariette Hartley) opens the safe and finds Edmund suffocated. Everyone is led to believe that Edmund was trying to steal from Abigail when he was accidentally locked in the safe (either by his own hand or otherwise), but Veronica is not convinced, and neither is Columbo.
The byplay between Peter Falk and Ruth Gordon is what makes this episode so endearing. There is a sort of friendly rivalry between Columbo and Abigail for most of the episode, during which she even throws his "just one more thing" catchphrase right back at him. This instalment also experiments with several darker scenes to demonstrate Columbo's involved thought processes. However, the most poignant sequence comes right at the end of the episode, where Columbo exposes the flaws in Abigail's plan and is faced with the prospect of arresting her. Although unrepentant at her murder of Edmund, Abigail notes that, had Columbo been assigned the task of investigating her niece's disappearance, there would never have been a need for him to then investigate Edmund's murder. That is perhaps the finest compliment that Columbo has ever received, especially from a murderer.
It is also worth noting that Mariette Hartley had previously co-starred in the 1974 episode, Publish or Perish as publishing specialist, Eileen McRae.