Ransom for a Dead Man (1 Mar. 1971)

A brilliant tort attorney gets rid of her boring husband by faking his kidnapping and keeping the ransom. The FBI may be fooled, but not Columbo.

Director:

Richard Irving

Writers:

Dean Hargrove (teleplay), Richard Levinson (story),

Stars:

Peter Falk, Lee Grant, John Fink

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Falk	...	Columbo
Lee Grant	...	Leslie Williams
John Fink	...	Michael Clark
Harold Gould	...	Agent Carlson
Patricia Mattick	...	Margaret Williams
Paul Carr	...	Hammond
Jed Allan	...	Phil
Charles Macaulay	...	Richard
Hank Brandt	...	Attorney (as Henry Brandt)
Jean Byron	...	Pat (as Jeane Byron)
Richard Roat	...	Perkins
Norma Connolly	...	Celia
Harlan Warde	...	Paul Williams
Bill Walker	...	Crowell
Timothy Carey	...	Bert

Storyline

Leslie Williams, a brilliant tort attorney is bored by her husband, a respected member of the state supreme court. After trading on his famous name to get ahead, she tries to get her freedom by murdering him and concocts a scheme to make it appear that he's been kidnapped and held for ransom. After she pays the ransom to herself, his dead body is found. She may have fooled the FBI but Lt. Columbo, who is aided by her vengeful stepdaughter.

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Plot Keywords:

attorney | fbi | lawyer | detective | kidnapping | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 March 1971 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Barney's Beanery - 8447 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Studios, Universal TV

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor) (as Technicolor®)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although Billy Goldenberg scored the opening "Columbo" stories in 1971, his commercially released "Columbo Theme" recorded as such by Norrie Paramor and His Orchestra ("Law Beat" album, Contour Records 2870 369) did not become a regular feature of the show. The theme is first heard during the helicopter sequence of "Ransom for a Dead Man" but Goldenberg did not use it as a title theme and composed mainly fresh music for "Murder by the Book" and all his subsequent scores. The "Columbo" series never had any recognizable theme tune of its own.

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Goofs

When Columbo and Mrs. Williams are ordering drinks at the airport bar, a Boeing 747 can be seen taxiing toward them in the background. In the time it takes for Columbo to say "I'll have a Root Beer", the plane vanishes. 20 seconds later you can see the same plane taxiing farther into its parking space.

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Quotes

Lt. Columbo: I don't know how you do it.
Michael Clark: Do what?
Lt. Columbo: Work for a woman.

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Connections

Referenced in The Simpsons: Virtual Springfield (1997)

User Reviews

Middling murder-mystery with Lt. Columbo indeed resorting to a shopworn bag of tricks...

Lee Grant, smirking and narrowing her eyes like a cat about to pounce, plays a hotshot lady lawyer who kills her attorney husband and makes it look like a kidnapping-turned-homicide; Lt. Columbo, curiously on the case from the very beginning (before there is a dead body), matches wits with Grant, eventually using Lee's hostile step-daughter as a tool to uncover the truth. This early "Columbo" teleplay by Dean Hargrove, with an original story conceived by the team of Levinson & Link, gives us some fun background details on Columbo himself (he's nervous in planes, likes root beer and always orders chili at Barney's Beanery in Los Angeles), but skimps a bit on the lieutenant's investigation. Without showing us the homework involved, Columbo seems to be picking details out of the air (always the right details, naturally), and when he talks about the victim's car keys missing, or the car-seat being too close to the wheel, it's unfair to spring these details on us as afterthoughts (there's no suspense involved when Columbo does his puzzle-solving off-camera). Aside from cunning Grant--and Peter Falk doing his usual solid work--the acting here is relatively mediocre, and the cut-and-dried climax seems a little flat.