PLOT: Disguised as an ice cream man, the high-strung manager of a pro football team (Robert Culp) murders its young, hedonistic owner (Dean Stockwell). Susan Howard plays the callow man's wife while James Gregory appears as the coach and Valerie Harper as a call girl.
COMMENTARY: This one's otherwise known as the ice cream man episode, the block of ice murder or the cuckoo clock segment. It features Robert Culp's second of four appearances on the series; the others being "Death Lends a Hand" (1971), "Double Exposure" (1973) and "Columbo Goes to College" (1990). The latter is the only one where he doesn't play a murderer; it's his son instead.
The denouement is weak, unfortunately. (***SPOILER***) Why couldn't the manager have hanged up the phone a second or two before the clock chimed? What if the time in the manager's booth was off by a few seconds or even a minute compared to the call from the telephone booth? What if the clock sometimes failed? No matter how you slice it, it's flimsy evidence.
GRADE: B
COMMENTARY: This one's otherwise known as the ice cream man episode, the block of ice murder or the cuckoo clock segment. It features Robert Culp's second of four appearances on the series; the others being "Death Lends a Hand" (1971), "Double Exposure" (1973) and "Columbo Goes to College" (1990). The latter is the only one where he doesn't play a murderer; it's his son instead.
The denouement is weak, unfortunately. (***SPOILER***) Why couldn't the manager have hanged up the phone a second or two before the clock chimed? What if the time in the manager's booth was off by a few seconds or even a minute compared to the call from the telephone booth? What if the clock sometimes failed? No matter how you slice it, it's flimsy evidence.
GRADE: B