The Columbo Files – The Dagger of the Mind

Hey, hey, hey, it's the cast queen here and you're

listening to the Geekcast Radio Network. Hey,

it's Mistress Carrie and you are listening to

Studio 2009. All right, ready? Sure. Why not?

Dare I say, why not? Anything can happen. That's

right. What do you think I am, you lying woman?

You didn't buy those tickets today, your husband

did. What? And last weekend at Brighton. I suppose

he arranged that for us too. Not that our little

rendezvous meant very much. You so conveniently

had a headache. Roger, old boy. This is a pleasant

surprise. Lily, what a curious position. You,

you conniving pandra. You put her up to every

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Hello and welcome back into Studio 2009. Only

on the GeekCast Radio Network. I'm of course

to you and Mike, and joining me, as always, is

that good old Detective Dave Draper. Hey, Dave,

how are you? Well, how are you, sir? Pretty good,

pretty good. Today we are continuing along the

journey we started last year in 2024 with the

Colombo Files. And yeah, we're starting at the

beginning and going all the way in order. Tubi

.tv or TubiTV online is the easiest way to watch

this show unless you have the DVD sets. And today

is season two, episode four, and we are being

stabbed by the dagger of the mind. No podcasters

were stabbed in the recording of this episode.

Yet. Why do anything? See how it goes. Oh boy

All right, the dagger of the mind Sir Roger Haversham

played by John Williams. No, not that John Williams

Not that John Williams. Yeah, I I think isn't

this his this the second time? I don't remember

I remember the name came up. Yeah, I must have

Yeah, must have. I'll have to look at that in

a second. He realizes that actors Nicholas Frame,

played by Richard Basshart, and his wife Lillian

Stanhope, played by Honor Blackman, have manipulated

him into backing their theater production. Actually

reopening his theater, because he mentions that

the theater had been closed. Closed, yep. I can

tie Columbo, Knight Rider, and James Bond together

in this one episode. You know, this is going

to be a hard one, like, to be a good boy. Because

Honor Blackman. Pussy galore. Pussy galore. Pusher.

That is how I do the Sean Connery voice, is I

always start by saying pusher. That's just going

to be naughty. But yeah, sadly, she's a real

actress and she's a good actress. She's a great

actress. She was. I'm just gonna, I'm a child.

But yeah, there are a couple, you know, and Richard

Braceheart, I kind of know, weirdly, I know him

from MST 3K, because Gypsy had like a crush on

him or something. She was always, he was, he

was her favorite actor. You should always mention

him. So it's just, and he, he does a, it's funny

because, you know, obviously he's an actor playing

an actor. Yeah. And he's a real sort of there

is this nicely egotistical Jack assery to his

performance. Oh, yes, very much. Shines through

like every time like they because there's this

whole minor. It's not really a subplot, but it's

sort of a thing about this other this this folio

he has of not folio, but like a copy of another

copy of Macbeth that was owned by another great

actor. And they're like, oh, he was England's

greatest actor. And he'll go one of England's

greatest actors. He'll always kind of like get

these little and they're not digs but they're

like little they're like the reverse of digs

they're little self promoting asides when people

talk about stuff yeah which is neat and then

you know she uh i'm not i'm i'm spinning out

of control help me yeah uh richard bass heart

is just amazing he the His acting like this is

what it was crazy to me So I saw him in his later

stages in life because when he was will tonight

in Knight Rider and Knight of the Phoenix the

openings the pilot episode for Knight Rider He

wasn't so old but he was older obviously than

what he is here because that was in 1982. This

is in Whatever. 73, I believe. 73, yeah. Probably

72. 72. November 26, 72. So I had seen him briefly

in that because he's only in like the first,

but like his voice for narration when he got

all, oh my God, it's so good. Absolutely loved

it. 100%. Michael Knight, a lone crusader in

a dangerous world. The world of the Knight Rider.

Just, and in this just shows, like this role

shows how good of an actor he is. He was, he

was Ishmael in Moby Dick in 56. Oh my God. I

know that. I'm sure he had like a hell of a career.

Oh yeah. Hell of a career. between TV and film.

He was in an episode of Rawhide. He was in Alfred

Hitchcock Hour. He was in Route 66. Who wasn't,

apparently. Okay, well. Alfred Hitchcock keeps

coming up. Yep. Well, it's going to keep coming

up because another one of our podcasts on the

network, Cinema Geeks, I think they're doing

an Alfred Hitchcock Presents series on their

podcast discussing... They often pitch talk stuff.

So we're doing colombo. They're doing hitchcock.

But yeah, no, yeah night rider was literally

The last thing One of the last things that he

had done in in tv, but no this episode was just

great again I mentioned last episode i'll say

it in more detail here What I noticed about this

episode more than any other episode so far is

colombo's little ticks and the way the way Peter

Falk plays the character, the way the character

acts in certain scenes. Like, he pulled the curtain

thing, not realizing that the curtain is going

to call the butler. Oh, the little rope, yeah.

Yeah, the little rope. And then he looks into

the liquor cabinet and this, that, and the other

thing and everything else. I think he... My take

on that was he thought that he would hear the

bell. Like, he pulls the rope and then he...

Well, it's not a rope, it is like a little...

It's not a curtain and it's not a rope. It's

a little sash thing hanging from the wall You

pull it and it rings a bell somewhere else in

the house for the butler to come and he pulls

it He kind of like looks like he's expecting

a sound and then he's like, okay Well, that's

nothing and then the butler played by the book

right? Yep a He was in a lot of stuff too like

you I know he was in the second season of Buck

Rogers among other things No, he played he played

the he was the, how do I put this, the very Englishy

English guy in a lot of TV. What's interesting

about this episode is that this is one of several

to feature locations outside of the U .S. But

it was filmed both in Los Angeles and Hollywood,

although scenes with Wilfred Hyde White were

set in London due to the actor's tax problems.

All his character's scenes were filmed in California.

Really? Yeah. No, because there's like a lot

of like there's there are shots of Colombo running

around Buckingham Palace and the streets. Wasn't

surprised that they split the filming but like

I'm surprised that most of it was filmed in California.

Well, I really thought yeah Wilfred Hyde white

scenes. No, I get that but like what I'm saying

is I'm surprised Oh wait Oh his scenes were filmed

in California his scene due to the due to his

tax problems all his characters They give a thanks

to the people of they give thanks to people of

London And the credits or something to give a

thanks to England or London. Yep Yeah, absolutely

it and this one is just Yes, it's peak Colombo.

It's peak Colombo. It's almost a little more

Colombo than like You know because I mentioned

the last episode that like the question of whether

Colombo was sort of doing it as an act Yeah,

and in this one he is like from the moment you

see him. He is full on he is There's this great

sequence at Heathrow, I think, or it's London

Airport. The whole thing is they're trying to

find this great American detective. Meanwhile,

it's like a Scooby -Doo thing. He's constantly

wandering around trying to find his lost luggage.

Somehow they manage to turn around just when

he walks past and he's getting into all this

trouble because he just wants his suitcase and

he mistakes the suitcase for his suitcase. He

opens that up and stuff falls everywhere and

they're all like... They're all clueless of this

this this weird little guy is who they're all

looking for. It's great It's it was so fun Yeah,

it's definitely peak Colombo and that's why I

took so many screenshots of Peter Falk as the

character of catching various like looks of his

because it literally is use the dog's not there,

the car isn't there, but as far as seeing, I

was going to mention - His mannerisms, his behavior.

Yeah, exactly. The other thing I noticed more

than any other, normally I don't notice this

stuff, but I mean, it is what it is. Obviously,

for most people that should know, the rule in

most police stations for homicide detectives,

you will wear a suit and tie. That's the that's

the quote -unquote uniform for a homicide detective

I'm not complaining. I'm saying that to give

people listening a pretense for it most my point

is though up until this episode I Never really

looked at the rest of his outfit. It's the coat

and it's the shoes Yeah, that's all we ever really

kind of like Okay, yeah, okay. I I I I have in

the past noticed You know what he would he has

like his suit has his weird faded quality to

it. Um He has like a yellow shirt like it's I

think it's supposed to be yellow shirt. Yeah.

Yeah, I've noticed well There's an episode. I

don't know if you've gotten there where he actually

is forced to he's forced to get it He gets a

new coat. Okay Oh, yeah, he does not like the

new coat And surprise surprise he gets the old

cold bat by the end of the episode spoiler alert

But yeah, so you do get to see him in his jacket

is his non trench coat Outfit a lot in that episode.

Yeah, absolutely That's gonna be fun to to see

but yeah, no and again my my point in bringing

that up is that I never like I I just you know

assume he's wearing a suit and tie But the main

parts of the character of Columbo is the cigar,

the coat, and the shoes as far as the physical

character. And it was nice to me to see, it was

nice that I could notice all of that with his

suit and his tie and everything else in this

episode. Again, this episode to me is a very

Columbo heavy episode with the cameras and how

they filmed this because He's in a completely

different setting. He's not in Los Angeles. He's

in London. He's supposed to be learning from

New Scotland Yard and everything. No, I'm laughing

not at you. I'm laughing at the fact he's supposed

to be there to learn. I think he's supposed to

teach them, isn't he? It's like an exchange.

Spending all his time running. He constantly

jumps out of the car and does touristy things

when people aren't paying attention for two seconds.

Yeah, the synopsis says he's visiting London

to study British police techniques as the guest

of Scotland Yard, Detective Chief Superintendent

William Dirk, led by Bernard Firkes, who was

called to investigate the incident and all that.

Yeah, I guess we should sort of explain. We set

up a little bit. Is that the name? I think so.

The victim, like what happens is he's going to

shut everything down the night before the play

premieres. And the irony is the play is Macbeth

because For those of you who don't know, Macbeth

is infamous for being cursed. And actors are

not supposed to refer to it by name. They call

it the Scottish play. So it's kind of a joke

that the production of Macbeth is cursed. And

he shows up, he kind of sneaks in, which is important

to the plot, and tells him he's going to shut

everything down. He realizes he's been played

by Honor Blackman. Richard Basar. Richard Bayshart,

and they get in a scuffle and she throws like

an ashtray or something. Yeah, I didn't know

what. Yeah, it was something heavy enough to

like crack a skull. Yeah. And it was so ironically,

it was an accident. I know. I mean, she didn't

intend to kill him. So they sneak his body back

to the house, to his house, his manor house and

make it look like he fell down the steps. Yeah.

And he is like a distant cousin of Inspector

Burke's wife. And so Dirk has to call on the

household when he's got Columbo in tow. And of

course Columbo goes full Columbo the minute he

smells something's going on. He starts asking

questions, causing trouble. I think part of the

setup is that they leave a copy, a first edition

of Alice in Wonderland sitting open on a table,

like face down. And Colombo's like, isn't that

book expensive? And it's like, yes, it's actually

very expensive. It's very rare. He's like, but

isn't that going to like crack the spine? Why

would you ever do that to an expensive book like

that? And that's kind of what gets him going

about like asking questions and gets in and kind

of is very supportive. Like supportive isn't

the right word. But I mean, he, he goes along

with it. Like he, he, he thinks they're smart

questions and he, he starts asking them himself.

Yep Yeah, this one very theatrical because obviously

it's about Macbeth and Shakespeare is Set in

a theater. Yeah, right. Well, so that I'm laughing

with not at okay. I know I know I'm down I don't

know. I'm good. You'll know what I'm mocking

you. Yeah. Yeah, I know I Trust me. I know Again,

the my wife counter is just off the chain. My

wife and the English butler, my wife and I never

agree on arguments. The butler did it. There's

a brother -in -law too. I love that. He borrowed

his brother -in -law's camera and he takes all

these pictures of a parade out in front of Buckingham.

He gets in the car and he's like, Jay, I hope

I loaded the film right. It's like Columbo. I

love it. It's so Columbo. It is so very Columbo.

My favorite moment of the entire episode, it's

a real subtle thing. It's kind of later in the

episode than I thought it was, is they're walking

around outside and Big Ben starts to chime and

Columbo looks at his watch. He's like, how about

that? A clock that old and it's only a minute

off. And Dirk just goes, we must put another

penny on the governor. Like, really kind of like,

crisp. Like, oh, I'm so glad you've shown us

that our iconic thing doesn't match your cheap

little American watch. Let's put another penny

in the governor. Yeah, absolutely. But Bass Heart

as Nicholas Frame. Oh my God. Signify so we talked

about last last season in season one when we

talked about Roger Yeah in that episode Roger

was haversham. So I don't remember it was a haversham

somewhere. Yeah But Nicholas to me at the end

of this when he goes crazy and just starts acting

again Literally reminded me of Roger from the

other episode on the on the on the ski lift when

he goes nuts because That's kind of what Nicholas

does here. He just starts going back into Macbeth

and just starts quoting and this, that, you know,

thing, try to distract. Well, again, like the

thing about Macbeth is, I mean, you know the

story of Macbeth. The whole thing is he murders

his king to become king, and then he goes crazy.

Yep. So it's like the irony is the actor who

played a guy descending into madness then descends

into madness. Yes, yes. Tomorrow and tomorrow

and tomorrow. This is also one of those like

it's kind of a good thing I don't know This is

this is one of those where like I always talk

about like Columbus somewhat questionable methods

sometimes Confession and this is right up there

Literally admits he planted evidence at the end

like Dirk is like off the record like that you

he's like he's like oh there because the whole

thing is during the fight one of her not a pearl

neck, a fake pearl necklace breaks all over the

place. And there are beads everywhere. And there's

this whole thing about the guy's umbrella, because

it was given to him by Lady Astor. So they got

to swap the umbrella back and forth. And that's

really how Colombo kind of gets its focus in

on Bass Heart and Honor Blackman. But at the

end, at the London Wax Museum, and I need to

look that up, because I've always heard it was

just Toussaint's. So I don't know if they went

generic or if they just changed the name at some

point. But anyway, there's an exhibit of them

and the victim and he's got his umbrella. And

so Colombo was talking about how there are all

these little beads everywhere, one of them might

have gotten into the umbrella. And they open

up the umbrella and there's a bead and they're

all like, no, he put it there. And the guy who

runs the museum is like, no, no one touched that

umbrella but me. I'll testify to that. At the

very end, he admits that he like ... had learned

as a little kid to get the attention of a girl

he likes to like flick things when nobody's looking.

That's right. Right into like a little cup. And

it's like, dude, you planted that evidence. Like

in America, we got like constitution and laws

and rules and stuff. Yeah. Godless monarchy.

Okay, we're going to ignore the godless monarchy

all right, but. Come on, it's the only countries

that are allowed to hate anymore. Rob -a -rob

-a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob

-a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob

-a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob

-a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob

-a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob

-a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob

-a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob

-a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob

-a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob -a -rob

-a - That's right, it's a melting pot everybody

can be here and everyone is okay to be here so

yeah the planting of the evidence thing I I Don't

want to believe it, but I guess it did happen,

but I know I know he does But I'm just like come

on. It's kind of like how we don't want like

we were mentioning last time about his drinking

He's a police officer. Police officers don't

drink on duty. When you're on duty, you're not

supposed to do things that you would maybe do

off duty. If you're working, if you're a police

officer, you don't do certain things when you're

working. It doesn't make me dislike the character.

It just makes me think that, like you said, he

would have never gotten away with that. It is

like a step up in the in the blast season. There

was the one I think with Robert Culp with the

potato in the tailpipe This is like the the evolution

of that almost. Yeah a little bit I mean, you

know that the She confesses. Yeah, he goes crazy,

but she confesses and you know and and well,

okay We we skipped the part about Wilford Hyde,

right? Wilford Hyde white They they end up murdering

him Yeah, but they murder him because he blackmails

them. Yeah, because he blackmails them because

he figures out what's going on. Yeah. Okay, but

like you're not allowed to just murder people

just because they blackmail you like you go to

the police, which I can't do because he's blackmailing

them about murder. But like, you don't just go

ahead and murder somebody like this. That's never

like what I'm saying is up to a certain point,

which I think it crossed pretty early on, but

up to a certain point, they could have, you know,

It was an accident. You know, yeah, it was an

accident Accident is little cuz there was a fight

and she threw a thing and she thought she was

throwing it at him that Richard Bayshard Yeah,

he ducked out of the way Yeah, so like, you know,

there is a little sympathy there But I think

their subsequent actions kind of get them dug

in deeper and deeper and deeper up to the point

of murdering a guy Yeah framing him for the original

death. But what I'm saying is like, yeah, she

does confess to like the fact that, oh, it was

an accident, it was an accident. Absolutely.

I think it was you. No, I absolutely love, I

really dug this one. I think, I like the last

episode and I like this one too, but I like this

one more than that one. Oh yeah, this is definitely

one of my favorites. Yeah. Also, but I'm also

a big Anglophile, so I love English set things.

So, like I like the little stagehand guy who's

at the pub. Yep. And then Colombo treasure approach

him and he's all like, don't touch me. I've got

my shirt. I've got my shirt and all my trotters.

It was, um, I can't remember an Alameen. Yeah.

Um, I can't remember the, um, general's name,

but a famous English general at Alameen. Yeah.

I just, I, yeah, I, I really, this is probably

the most fun episode I've had so far. Yeah, absolutely.

I think almost like, you know, we talked about

how there was no dog, there was no car. I mean,

there's always going to be a cigar in the coat.

Like it's almost like free from everything else

Colombo got to be more Colombo Like he just he

was kind of like like without all the like natural

things kind of keeping him Almost in check. He

just kind of went wild. Yeah, it was fun Also,

like I really noticed this time more so than

I ever have because you kind of notice that Colombo

Does a Groucho Marx walk? He's kind of ideas

for your kids today a narrative walk This is

kind of bent over and he's what but there's a

scene where you kind of realize There's there's

a shot with him in Richard bass part where you

realize he's a lot taller than you think he is

Yeah, like if you you know, even then he was

kind of like hunched over a little bit His neck

was kind of stuck at an angle Yeah, but like

he's always kind of holding himself much lower

and smaller than he really is. Yeah And I think

we've talked about this before. I don't remember

off the top of my head, but I think we've talked

about this. But Peter was five foot something.

Well, yeah, I remember there's a line in a later

episode where he goes, I don't even like being

this tall. Yeah. Well, in the early 70s, five

foot something. Ain't nothing to sleaze at. Sleaze

at? Sleaze? Wow. Me English could speak. Me.

English. Good to speak. Oh boy. Anything else

with Dagger of the Mind? No, I think this is

a really super fun one. Absolutely. Zero to five.

What are you gonna give it? I'm gonna give it

a four point five. I am actually gonna give it

a five. I really dug it. I thought it was great.

I thought it was super fun. I thought it was

interesting. again, you're kind of going back

to the beginnings of Columbo with the The acting

of the prescription murder. It's not this is

not prescription murder This is not but the like

we mentioned in the beginning of the doing this

series the Colombo files here in sets through

2009 how it was more of a play and because this

is acting theater play things and it's Shakespeare

and and all that just yeah absolutely loved it

colombo was colombo uh peter was five foot six

in life i was i just looked it up myself yes

you know back in the day that's not that bad

it's not a sneeze at all right 4 .5 for dave

5 for me we are going to go to a quick podcast

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and tomorrow all right folks you're in the nine

days of the colombo files so nine straight days

colombo episodes here inside studio 2009 and

this is day four episode 134 of the podcast any

final thoughts about the dagger of the mind sir

No, I thought it was a great episode. It's a

lot of fun Richard bass heart was five nine.

So Very cool. Very cool. Absolutely. Absolutely

and somewhere in here folks whether it's at the

end of the podcast or whether you already heard

it I am definitely putting in Knight Rider clips

of Richard bass heart because that's just how

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I will be talking about season two, episode five,

Requiem for a Star. Oh, a falling star. Yeah,

a falling star, that's what it is. This is the

one where I think the killer gets away. For now,

I am TF2 and Mike with... Tomorrow, and tomorrow,

and tomorrow, and tomorrow. And tomorrow. And

tomorrow. He'll be back in the studio soon. Excuse

me. Irish whiskey before luncheon. I would have

thought perhaps that a glass of sherry and iced

amontillado would be more appropriate. Oh, no,

sir, no. Thank you very much. I really wasn't

looking for a drink. No, I was... I was just

wondering... I wonder, could you tell me, do

you know whether or not Mr. The Gentleman, Sir

Havisham... Was that the chair that he was reading

in last night? Well, as a matter of fact, that

was Sir Roger's favorite chair when he wanted

to read, yes. Oh, I see. Terrible thing, wasn't

it? Yes, very shocking. Thank you very much.

Why do you suppose he started downstairs? No

idea. Couldn't have been to get any liquor, certainly

plenty of stuff up here. Well, so it's not for

me to question my master's wishes. As a matter

of fact, he sometimes preferred to have a cup

of cocoa as a nightcap from the kitchen. You

work here? Indeed I do. I've been here for many

happy years. I thought you were a friend of the

family. Thank you very much. And you, I take

it, are the gentleman who rang the bell just

now. Well, that works. Indeed it does. Gee, I

thought it was just decoration. Boy, that's funny,

isn't it? What's funny? No, I was just wondering

if he wanted something last night, why he didn't

just ring for it. Well, if I may say so, unlike

many masters, Sir Roger was very considerate

to his staff. Perhaps you'll be good enough to

excuse me. Oh, certainly, sir. I'm sorry. I didn't

mean to hold you up. I just get curious about

these things. I guess nobody heard anything when

he phoned downstairs. Well, that's understandable.

You see, Cook's quarters are in the south wing,

and the maids also sleep there. I live in the

old cottage, and so happens that Sir Roger dismissed

us early last night. I should say not later than

seven o 'clock. But I was wondering if that's...

Ah, uh, Tam has been the butler here for over

20 years, Columbo.