The Columbo Files – Death Lends a Hand Review

Hey, hey, hey, it's Chaos Queen here, and you're

listening to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hey,

it's Mistress Carrie, and you are listening to

Studio 2009. There is nothing wrong with your

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Hello, and welcome back into our studio. You

are now inside the studio of 2009, only on the

GeekCaster Radio Network. I'm, of course, TF2

and Mike. Joining me once again is that good

old Detective Dave Draper. Hello, sir. How are

you? I'm well, how are you? Pretty good, pretty

good. We are continuing on in this sleuthing

of December kind of thing with Colombo. This

will be season one, episode four overall. Kind

of thing, and these are the Colombo files here

in size. You do those nine and we're starting

at the beginning and going all the way in order.

As always, we are. telling you that the source

the main source to watch this online is to be

TV and Today we watch as death lends a hand nice

guy that death. I like his cloak I met him once

when I went over Niagara Falls in a barrel in

1992. Yeah, you know, I'm I'm a big fan of the

Final Destination movies. Yes, particularly when

I'm on the highway. I think of them often Well,

I mean, we literally use that as a noun. Yeah.

Roads of Illinois, how could you not think of...

Jesus. Find one of those trucks with like tractor

tires on it, like that's a final destination.

Yep. I've actually, well, I've actually, it's

become like a running thing when I'm driving

down to St. Louis on the regular that there'll

be some truck that's dropping something all over

the road, you know, downspout extenders, just

random bits of iron. recliners. That was fun.

Ever watch a recliner fall under the wheels of

an 18 -wheeler right in front of you? I have.

It's great. Did the truck go up or did it just

bump, bump? The truck pulverized it, but like,

you know, there are staples, there are nails.

So I was like, oh good, I get to drive over the

exposed wreckage as opposed to swerving away

from the... because there was nowhere to go because

there was traffic everywhere. It's great. I love

Driving in any kind of semi -urban environment

with other people. I love it My favorite dude,

you know, that's the problem with driving. It's

the other people that the other people. Yeah

Now one thing I didn't know that Wikipedia pointed

out to me and I'm sure you knew this but well

sure death lends a hand One an Emmy for writing

and is known for the glasses effect after brimmers

Kills Lenore. Yeah. Oh man that I hadn't seen

something like that in forever. That was so cool

I love that presentation. You just lost your

leverage. Oh And one other thing I'm also going

to tell him about the way you run your business

I'm sure you wouldn't because whether he forgives

me or not, he's gonna despise you for lying to

him And Arthur's not the right man to have for

an enemy. Good night, Mr. Trimmer. Mrs. Anna

Cutt, I want you to reconsider. Your husband

has some very powerful friends. That's right.

Now if you'll please excuse me. I cannot permit

you to do that. Well, you don't understand. It's

not your choice. Let go of me! Let go! Well,

I mentioned in the previous episode that this

one got pretty artsy. And that was that was the

artsy moment. Yes, it was. I mean, spoiler alert

for the end of the episode, it plays into the

fact it's the murderer and the aftermath is reflecting

his glasses. And yet the the thing that catches

him are her contacts. You know, so it's it all

comes back to eyewear. Yes. And glass. Like I

thought it was just like a sim because she hits

a glass table and there's shattered glass everywhere

and little bits of glass dust. Speaking of someone

who recently broke a snow globe like glass gets

freaking everywhere So I'm surprised you got

that cleaned up as well as he did Yeah, I'm surprised

there wasn't a couple of shards of glass that

Colombo would have found or kind of thing You

know, I've seen this episode before A long time

like I said in the other episode. I kept getting

it confused in my head with another episode But

I was like, so they're going to find because

she hits the glass table and the glass shatters

and it makes a big deal out of the fragments.

And I'm like, is that how they're going to get

them? They're going to find that there's bits

of glass in her hair. Because again, I had to

clean up a broken snow globe recently. So like,

you know, like I thought it was where they're

going to find bits of glass in her hair. And

nope, nope, that had nothing to do with it. Not

a bit to do with it. But nope. We'll get there.

Not at all. Yes, we will. But yeah, I love this

episode. This was fun. Because you basically

have the police, the police in Colombo going

up against, you know, private detective agency

guy with Carl Brimmer. About Robert Culp? Yes,

sir. Robert Culp. He was an high spy and he was

an high spy. He was in Greatest American Hero.

Yep. Again, another fixture of 70s television.

Oh, yeah. He was in Bonanza. He was in PT 109

Sunday in New York Alfred Hitchcock our I mean

he may have been an episode of Bonanza. I don't

think yeah He was one of the main guys and I

spy and he was yeah, he was the he was like he

was a CIA guy and um, he was a government spook

guy He wasn't the hero. He was he was the he

was a government guy. They've made a figure of

him out from ego Nice just with all the money

And it's in your basement. No. No. It's worth

all the money and I do not have that in the basement.

I would if I could get the main character had

like a little VW bug. They had the bug, they

had the hero, and then they had Robert Cobb's

character as Miko figures. I'm like aw, I wish

I had that set. I wish I had that set, but I'd

also like to feed myself for a couple of months.

So, you know, make that choice every now and

then. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, no, he was a great

foil for Columbo. He was a good one. Yeah, absolutely.

And I love the guy that, I love Ray Milland.

Ray Milland, yeah. Yeah, I love that guy. That

guy was good. That is one of those, I remember

actors like him who played that character, the

Kennecut character. Yeah. The the kind of a William

Randolph Hearst kind of character. Yeah pretty

much But but yeah like and Honestly, this is

probably the only thing I ever saw him in But

I'm sure you've seen him like probably seen him

in other things. Just don't remember he's again.

He was a big Big guy in like the 60s and 70s.

Um Yes, that's sort of the double -edged sword

Things like Columbo and like Murder She Wrote

and like Love Boat and all these shows I said

in the earlier episode. It was fun to watch people

like Spielberg and Bochco who were on their way

up, but there was also the people that have kind

of like, you know They're kind of I don't say

slumming, but they're you know, they're they're

they've had their peak and now they're kind of

like coming back. Yeah And like Raymalan was

kind of a big I don't remember the name being

a big deal. Yeah, his acting debut was in 1928

in a theater. He was a theater patron in Moulin

Rouge in 28. And he was a film director, too.

Yeah, absolutely. Film director, also he did

television. The Lost Weekend, Dial M for Murder.

Yeah, so good. So very very bogus and frogs and

frogs frogs He was in later in 78 he did Battlestar

Galactica the theatrical release of I Remember

him. He was one of the council members. Yep.

He was never work. Yep He was in seven 1976 his

ace is high I mean Again, the thing about Colombo

folks, if you haven't been listening to the podcast,

you're just joining us now. These are all older

actors and actresses. Some of them are, yeah.

The guest star tend to be older actresses, yeah,

actors and actresses. Well, because this is the

70s. This isn't like everybody had to be 20 years

old. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's so fun. Absolutely.

So, Brimmer is one of those guys that wants to

be a nice guy, but his anger... Does he? Well...

Does he? So, Brimmer is a former cop who has

set up his own private detective agency. And

it's pretty big. The agency is big. And it's

established that what he does is he takes...

The Ray Milan character is a big newspaper publisher.

Who is somehow involved there was some political

thing which they bring up the beginning that

I I forgot now but like it was he wanted like

Bremer wanted to keep tabs on this Yeah, but

Ray Milan comes in because he has a younger wife

and he's worried that she's cheating on him So

Bremer am I getting the name right Bremer? Yeah,

okay Bremer is like investigates the wife finds

out that she did have an affair But he lies to

Ray Milan and tells him that she didn't then

he goes to her and he's like so and she's actually

he puts it on like a Conference call kind of

thing. So she's listening in another room and

she's like, why did you do that? And he's like,

well, you can be my person on the inside and

give me information about what's going on in

this other thing that I want to know about and

she's like No, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna be

your spy and that's that's the and he does have

a temp It comes up later that he does have a

bad temper. Yes. So later she goes to his house

cuz they her Their beach house is near his actual

house. So she walks to his house and she confronts

him and she says, I'm not going to be your spy.

I'm not going to do all this stuff. I'm going

to tell my husband what I did. And of course,

when he finds out that you lied to him and you

took his money and you were manipulating him,

even if he divorces me, you're screwed. And he

loses his temper and he back hands her and she

goes down into a glass table, as we mentioned,

which shatters. And then there's like this whole

sequence reflected in his glasses. of him cleaning

up the mess and getting the body wrapped up,

taking her out to a construction site, dumping

her, and then he takes like 10 minutes to take

off one of her rings. I felt sorry for the actors.

I'm like, that had to hurt. Yeah, that really

had to hurt. He was working on that ring. It

was not coming off. No. It looked like she got

mugged and killed, and then the body dumped,

and then he drives off. See, that's the... I'm

glad you said it was a construction site because...

I think... I think too, but I don't know because

my note was body in the middle of the parking

lot or street or something It was muddy. It was

muddy. There was like there was like a crane

or something in the background Yeah, then it

was probably a construction site. Yeah I do love

the way, I love the music cue as Brimmer is driving

away after the murder. I thought that was really

good. As you mentioned yesterday in the other

episode with episode three, this is Columbo's

license expire thing. He gets pulled over, the

Peugeot finally like, it was in the last episode,

but it finally gets to be a bit of a character

because the tail lights aren't working properly.

He gets pulled over by a cop for the second time.

May I see your license and registration? Turn

signal, right? The right one. You know, it's

the second time I got stopped today. I'll tell

you, I'll get those things fixed as soon as I

can. You'll get them fixed now. I would, but

I'm on my way to a 187 PC. Say, are you a cop?

Yeah, Lieutenant Colombo. Well, I'm sorry, Lieutenant.

I flagged you down. Oh, that's all right. You're

just doing your job. Listen, I'll get those things

fixed. His license expires next week. Oh. Oh,

well, thanks. Say I better give you an escort.

That way you'll get where you want to go. Oh,

OK. Appreciate that. Well, listen, not too fast.

And it turns out his license is expired. Yeah.

But he points out he's a cop, so the other cop's

like, OK, well, I'll give you an escort to the

place so you don't get pulled over a third time.

Yeah. Absolutely. My wife, Counter, he talks

about how him using the reading lamp at night

in bed drives her crazy. I like how, again, as

Brimmer and Colombo were going back and forth

in the scene where Colombo figures it out, oh,

so the killer was left -handed. Well, he figures

it out immediately. The minute he meets Bremmer,

he does the whole thing with the palm reading.

He's like, my nephew is into palm reading. I

can read people's palms. And he does the other

guy, he does Ray Milan's hand first. Let me see

your hand, sir. So you're skipping a whole bunch

of stuff. There's this sequence that I love at

the crime scene when the police superior, I don't

know what his rank is, but the guy who's the

superior in the police department, he's laying

out what happened. There's the coroner standing

there, he's the guy in the little sweater vest

with the mustache. And Columbo's puttering around

trying to get a light. And he lays the whole

thing out, oh, she has a contusion on her cheek,

and she's got a thing on the back of her head,

and she probably died from the thing on the back

of her head. She got hit, and she hit something.

And then Columbo's looking at the body, and he's

like, she's got a cut on her cheek. And the guy's

like, you weren't listening to me at all, were

you? But yeah, Columbo sees that she's got a

cut on her cheek. So then later, the Ray Milan

character really wants to solve right away, because

it's his wife, and he loves her, and he thinks

she's faithful to him. And again, there's a great

scene where Columbo very gently interviews him

and gets the information he needs. Like, did

you have any enemies? Was she having an affair?

And he's like, no, I know that she wasn't having

an affair. Are you sure? Yes. And then it's actually,

ironically, it's the Ray Milan character who

brings in Bremmer to assist because he wants

to solve it immediately. And Columbo does this,

oh, I can do like reading palms. And he looks

at the guy's palm and he sees the ring. Yep.

He immediately, like that's the moment he's like,

okay, this is the guy because there's a cut on

her cheek that kind of matches the ring. And

from that point on, I think he was pretty zeroed

in. But I'm going to make a believer out of you

before I'm done. It was very nice meeting you.

Nice to meet you. Bye bye. And then a little

bit later, he mentions, oh, and it was the guy's

left handed. The guy, the guy we're after is

left handed. And I'm like, well, this is impossible

because left handed people are perfect and good

and would never do anything wrong or criminal.

Not that I'm left -handed right I am left -handed

and wonderful and it turns out Bremmer is ambidextrous,

but it's a nice bit of like Tennis of you know

back and forth. Oh the guy I'm looking for has

a left hand and then he asks Yes, he asked Bremmer

to write him a receipt for some of the evidence

he brought in which is writing Oh, you're left

-handed. Oh, well, no, actually I'm ambidextrous.

I can use either hand And then they establish

a thing about the temper, which comes up a little

bit later. He yells at one of his employees.

And the employee kind of like, yeah, he seems

like he's generally got it under control. But

when he loses his temper. But there is a lot

of nice little back and forth with the guy playing

with Colombo and Colombo playing with him. But

yeah, Colombo had him pegged very early on. Oh,

yeah. It didn't take anything. I think he got

him pegged like The first time he heard him yelling,

the first time he went off. The first time he

met him. Yeah. Like all that other stuff, all

the yelling at the employee, that was just icing

on the cake. That was just like cleaning stuff

up. And then he does, well, I mean, we're kind

of skipping around because then he has a whole

thing about like, he notices that she has a picture

with her glasses on. He's like, ah, the glasses

are missing. It's like, well, no. She doesn't

wear them anymore. She's wearing contacts. And

he's like, well, maybe the contacts are somewhere

and has the body zoomed and tells them that one

contact is in and one contact is missing. So

Bremer freaks out and he, well, like earlier,

he was trying to get to the point of the exhumation

in his car and the car wouldn't start. Yeah.

He came in like a different, cause his agency

has multiple cars. They established the agency

he founded has multiple custom made cars. That's

right. So he gets in one of the other cars and

shows up at the place. Then he hears about how

one of the contacts is missing and he had driven

her to the construction site in the trunk of

his car. But he searches his house first and

Colombo shows up for that. And then he goes to

the garage where the car is and he gets into

the trunk of his car and he's poking around and

he finds a contact lens and it turns out that

everybody's there watching him and that's how

they catch him. This is a great moment where

they catch him and he kind of pockets the contact

lens. And as they're walking him away, he pulls

out a cigarette or piece of candy, pulls out

something, and he's going to throw away the wrapper.

And they're like, grab his hand, grab his hand.

Yeah. They grab it, and they open it up, and

there's a contact lens. And as I said at the

end of the last episode, like, you know, there's

an entrapmenty kind of aspect to this, because

it's not the contact lens. Because she had both

her contacts. Columbo had lied. Yeah, he lied.

And she did have both her contact lenses. So.

I wonder how that would hold up in court. Well,

there's nothing wrong with him lying directly

to a suspect, but... I think there is, actually.

Nowadays, there is. Maybe in the 70s, you could

still put the crap out of people and get a confession

that way, but I'm pretty sure nowadays you cannot

lie to a... No, they can lie. I watched so much

True Crime, dude. They can lie. Like, literally,

I've watched Homicide Hunter with Lieutenant

Jokenda when he was on Colorado Springs Police

Department from 73 to 96. You can lie to suspects.

You can lie to criminals. You just can't place

certain things in certain... That's where he...

That's where this kind of flubs is. that contact

lens of whoever placed it or whoever did whatever

with it. That's where the no -no is. But you

can sit there and lie to a suspect. I notice

Colombo doesn't confess to actually having placed

the lens. Right. He says, who knows where that

lens came from? Yeah, I don't know. Gee, gee,

Mr. Bremer, that's a mystery there. He doesn't

tell Bremer that. He tells the other guy. He

does. And then there's a cute little thing about

like, yo, isn't it amazing that this car didn't

work and was taken to the garage at this time?

And Colombo's like, seemingly tells this random

story about how when he was a kid, they would

put potatoes in the tailpipe and the car wouldn't

start. And there's a great moment as Colombo

walks away and he's like, that's why I became

a cop, to make up for all those jokes I did as

a kid. Ray Milan starts to look at the back of

Bremer's car and then shakes his head and walks

off. I love the end of this episode for that

specific. scene you know what this place reminds

me of just seeing all these cars you know in

our neighborhood we had a bunch of jokers i mean

we were a real loud bunch of guys and we figured

out a perfect way to put a car out of commission

you take a potato you stick it in the exhaust

pipe it doesn't cause any damage but the car

won't start it was a terrible thing to do and

i got a feeling that the reason I became a cop

was to make up for all those jokes I played when

I was a kid. Because it's 13 years before Axel

Foley would put a banana in a tailpipe. I love

that scene because it's one of those things where

it's again it's a subtlety thing it's one of

those things where we learn just a little bit

about The man who is detective Columbo Like we

learned just this little nugget and it's just

a it's kind of like him winking at the audience

and it is just so fun and You know again like

the thing Columbo is you always you're always

questioning whether you're really learning anything

about him or if he's just telling a story True,

that is very very true. But I mean he's talking

he's talking to a guy that he has no reason to

play with to be fair But still, it's just something

in Columbo's character that you always kind of

wonder how much of what he's talking about is

true and how much of it is just, you know, something

like, because when he first starts to tell that

story, it seems like a random rambling. Yeah.

And then you realize, oh, he's talking about

disabling a car, which is how it got the thing.

Yeah, that is part of the fun is how much of

this is really Columbo's actual history, how

much of it is performative. And the performance

is just top -notch. Just so good. From everybody,

not just him, but as that man. They better never,

ever attempt to do a new version of Columbo.

Oh, they will. I know, I'm sure, hopefully. They'll

read Perry Mason for God's sake. They'll do Columbo.

Don't curse us, please Any other notes you have

for this one Like I said, I was confused with

another episode. So it was kind of fun. I Think

up until I saw the up until the car wouldn't

start I was still trying to figure out how everything

played out because I didn't remember it properly

Like I said, I thought there'd be glass in her

hair. Yeah, I mean there was there were there

were there were interesting there were side How

we want to put it like there's a whole thing

about he goes Colombo goes after the guy that

she had the affair with Because I'm that she

had an affair because obviously remember land

doesn't think she did. Yep And then there's there's

like a weird little Tangent where he goes after

one of the guys that works for Bremer And he

ends up like almost creepily stalking her and

her kid in the park Yeah, so very nice being

very kind. He's playing with the kid but there

is like if you're the wife it's like Who is this

dude pushing my kid on the swings? This is weird

and creepy. Right. It's weird and creepy, but

once she gets up to him and he does his, Oh,

well, ma 'am, my name is Colombo. I'm with the

police and he pulls out his badge and everything

is fine. But that moment there to me is similar

to how he cooked for the other lady in the other

case. To me, that's more of the scene in the

hospital when he's getting the coffee for Ray

Milan. Okay. Well, because he's dealing with

someone he knows isn't the killer. And Milan's

great, because he's like, obviously, as the husband,

I must be the chief suspect, so I will answer

whatever questions. You know, it's a good scene.

Because the guy's like, look, man, I'm obviously

the chief suspect, so ask me whatever you want

to ask, and I will answer it. Yep. And yeah.

Absolutely. All right, so the show didn't keep

our interest throughout. Oh, absolutely The funny

thing about this one is I was awake for about

17 hours when I watched this And I I had to I'm

working my ass off man 31 days 31 podcasts are

not gonna edit themselves I'm so sorry that you

chose to do a thing that is difficult for you.

Yes. Yes. Yes, but my point is is that I was

awake for about 17 hours. I started watching

this and all of a sudden I literally felt myself

almost slipping out of my chair and I'm like,

I gotta stop this. I gotta go to bed. So yeah,

I took a nap for a little while and came back

and finished it this morning before we did the

recording, but obviously definitely itching to

watch the next one. Would we, after watching

the first four so far, I assume this is a yes,

but would we recommend this to people? Yes, absolutely.

I mean you almost have to like because we talked

about I think the last episode It is a different

vibe. It's not a modern vibe So you have to kind

of like like you were just talking about how

you retired after 17 hours I think you do have

to approach it with the right kind of mindset

because it's not boom action boom, you know,

you know music cues and Nudity and craziness

and madness and action. It's it's it's it's more

intellectual. It's slower It's you know, there

there is calm. There's a lot of comedy there,

but it's it's not wacky slapstick goofy comedy

It's it's a little it's subtle and it's quieter

So, you know if you're in that kind of mood for

something that's a little less hectic, but if

you want if you know if you want that kind of

Frantic you're not gonna get it from Colombo

no, you're gonna have to find some of the show

for that because That's not this but this is

amazing. This is awesome. It's always death lens

a hand I am probably gonna give it a four out

of five. Oh See my problem is we're probably

gonna give like all the we're gonna have every

episode like I Mean cuz they're so good. They're

good There's but there's nothing I can knock

so it's yeah five is a fair score. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, that's the thing It's not like this isn't

this doesn't have an emote like For me, when

we're doing this for these nine episodes so far,

when we get to all nine of the episodes, the

only way an episode of Colombo is gonna get a

five from me is if it's something that rocks

me emotionally, that just makes me sing its praises

all day every day. And I know I've been doing

that, but I can still look at it analytically

and say, a little bit of thing here, a little

bit of thing there. It's still good. It's still

really good. My thing is it's like I mean there's

nothing it's a good episode. There's there's

nothing I can say like like I Mean, I hesitate

giving it the floor, but it's like but there's

no reason There's there's nothing against it

to knock it down even to 3 .5. You know what

I mean? Yeah, there's no negatives Yeah, I mean

it may not be the best episode ever but it's

still really solid like my thing I'm this is

petty and it is the entirely personal thing but

uh There is a certain character who's missing.

And once we get to that character, then we can

start talking about fives. The dog. The character's

name is Dog. Yes, the dog. It's not that dog.

His name is Dog. Okay. Oh, so it's a John Wick

thing. Got it. John Wick. I don't know if it's

a John Wick thing. Look, the dog is the best

character in the show. Next to Columbo. Come

on, now. He's a full -level bastard and Falk

didn't want him. Aww. We'll talk about that when

we get to Etude in black. Oh boy. Which is the

first episode of season two. Season two, yeah.

John Cassavetes. A long time friend of Peter

Fawkes. Oh, very cool, very cool. All right,

folks, that's going to do it for today. Thank

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season one episode five, Dead Weight. For now,

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