Death Lends a Hand (6 Oct. 1971)

When the CEO of a private detective agency threatens the wife of a publisher with blackmail and she threatens to expose him, he accidentally kills her.

Director:

Bernard L. Kowalski

Writers:

Richard Levinson, William Link,

Stars:

Peter Falk, Robert Culp, Pat Crowley

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Peter Falk	...	Columbo
Robert Culp	...	Investigator Brimmer
Pat Crowley	...	Mrs. Lenore Kennicut (as Patricia Crowley)
Ray Milland	...	Arthur Kennicut
Brett Halsey	...	Ken Archer
Eric James	...	Denning
Don Keefer	...	Medical Examiner
Len Wayland	...	Capt. Of Detectives
Lieux Dressler	...	Ceil Gentry
Barbara Baldavin	...	Brimmer's Secretary

Storyline

Brimmer, a short-tempered private detective, is hired by Arthur Kennicut, a prominent Los Angeles publisher, to investigate the publisher's wife's activities under suspicion of an extra-marital affair. Although his investigation discovers an affair with a golf instructor, Brimmer chooses not to tell Kennicut about it and proposes Mrs. Kennicut to act, in return for Brimmer's silence, as a "pipeline" for information involving powerful persons with whom her husband is involved. When Mrs. Kennicut refuses to cooperate and threatens to tell her husband about Brimmer's unsavory proposal, Brimmer becomes enraged and accidentally kills her. He then transports her body across Los Angeles and dumps it in an industrial area, hoping her death will look like a robbery gone awry. Enter Lieutenant Columbo, the cigar-smoking detective in a rumpled raincoat, who does not accept the murder-by-mugging theory surrounding the woman's death. When Kennicut assigns Brimmer to assist Columbo in the murder ...

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Plot Keywords:

detective | investigation | private detective | suspicion | murder investigation | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 October 1971 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Beverly House - 1011 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal TV, Universal Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

76 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The first regular Columbo episode filmed, after two pilot movies. It was the second episode aired, however.

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Goofs

When Brimmer, seated at his desk, is writing the receipt for Columbo he's writing on the folder cover in the first shot. In the second shot he's writing on a receipt pad.

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Quotes

Teddy: [Columbo's pushing Teddy on a swing] Higher!
Columbo: Higher? If I push you any higher you're going to go clear over the top.

User Reviews

One of the best "Columbo" episodes

The second official episode of the "Columbo" series ("Murder by the Book," filmed later, hit the airwaves first), "Death Lends a Hand" is also among the best. Robert Culp, who would match wits with Peter Falk's detective in several future installments, is terrific as the short-tempered head of a sophisticated private detective agency who murders a client's wife (Patricia Crowley) when she refuses to cave-in to his blackmail schemes.

Ray Milland plays the client. With the addition of a toupee, he'd return the next season as a killer in "Greenhouse Jungle."

Falk and Culp are well-matched in this clever cat-and-mouse exercise. Trivia fans might like to know that the scene featuring a crashing mirror was directed by Steven Spielberg for the "Eyes" segment of the 1969 "Night Gallery" pilot. Universal was so impressed, they added it to their library of stock footage.

Brian W. Fairbanks