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The ambitious lover and chief assistant to a top TV network programmer exacts murderous revenge when he gets promoted to a high-profile New York post and decides that she has not had enough experience to accompany him in that job.Quite a freshly plotted Columbo episode considering it was made at the tail-end of the original series; it features quite an engaging and gritty performance from Trish Van Devere as the murderess who is very good at exhibiting her character's misfiring and impatient ambition.The plot is cleverly and systematically developed: the murderess's grip on the prize job she temporarily acquire's after her lover's demise is dramatically loosened by the ironically erratic decision-making that her lover alluded to prior to his death, in line with the other harassment of Columbo's increasingly revealing investigation.The main weakness of this Columbo adventure is that it wreaks of padding to satisfy a 120 minute slot - it could easily have been done in 90 minutes: the plot is bloated with prolonged scenes that add no value to the story, particularly the misjudged sub-plot involving a trouble-stricken actress on a TV show.The circumstantial clues stack up against the murderess quite entertainingly and many of Columbo's intuitive observations are of a reassuringly high-standard, but the murder weapon scenario is rather unconvincing to say the least.A Columbo story that probably would have had a higher mark but for its damaging protractedness; nevertheless, a story that is not without its merits.
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