Goofs

When Columbo and Dr. Flemming are having drinks in the doctor's office, Columbo's hair and sideburns change shape and length from short and straight to thicker and curly and back to short indicating a haircut had been had between filming days.

The doctor leaves his anniversary party to meet Joan. She comes out of the swimming pool dripping wet and embraces him, though he is in dinner clothes. But when she moves away, his suit is not wet in the least.

When Dr. Flemming returns to argue with his wife at 1 AM, Los Angeles appears from their balcony in the light of dusk, the same lighting that appears in another scene (actually set at dusk).

Ray takes the glove off, refused by Joan, placed on couch & never retrieves it. Only one glove is thrown into the suitcase.

When Joan Hudson is under observation from outside her apartment, her silhouette is visible on the curtains as she moves about. She is clearly visible from top to toe. When the scene moves inside the apartment, the shadow of her lower half is completely obscured by a large sofa and a table.

The outline of Carol Flemming's 'body' is on the floor, but since she survived the attack and died later in the hospital, (unless that was a ruse to trip-up the suspect) there would not have been a reason to mark off where the first responders found her, since injured people are removed and transported quickly to save their lives, and not subject to being traced before they are moved. Additionally, the location of the tape was not a match to where she was initially on the floor.

Since the balcony door glass was broken after the murder there would be glass on the corpse which would be a clear sign of a setup murder. Normally the glass would be under the body of the victim, since the murderer had to enter first and then kill the victim.

Near the end, when the receptionist tries to call Miss Hudson from Dr. Flemming's office, she dials only six numbers.

Police do not allow murder victim's spouses in the room when interviewing a suspect.

During the party in the beginning, there was a cake with a vast number of sparklers. These would have begun after a minute or so to fill up the apartment with smoke, and people would have been coughing or rubbing their eyes, but since it was filmed on a soundstage they had high ceilings and industrial ventilation.

When Columbo is questioning Ms. Hudson, she asked for an attorney multiple times yet Columbo continued to question her. Not only would any information given not be admissible, it likely would jeopardize the entire case. It is worth noting that while this would have been the case in 1968 when Prescription: Murder was released on TV, the stage play that was the basis for the screenplay was from 1962, when the practice of honoring a suspect's request for an attorney was sometimes ignored. The case Miranda v Arizona (1966) resulted from a 1963 arrest where Miranda's requests for a lawyer were disregarded. While certainly a goof for a 1968 movie, it was not a goof at all (albeit certainly unethical, especially for an honest detective like Columbo) when the script was written.

When Dr Flemming and Joan Hudson leave his apartment for the airport, the telephone receiver is on the cocktail bar. When Dr Flemming returns to what is now a crime scene, and therefore nothing should have been moved, the telephone has moved to a table in the middle of the room. The apartment door does not have crime scene tape, therefore it is no longer a crime scene.

At the airport check-in, "Mrs. Flemming" is asked if she has any hand luggage to carry on and she replies; "No." Yet she clearly has a large white handbag on her arm. A handbag is not "hand luggage," even if it is the size of an overnight bag.

When Dr. Flemming is talking with Lt. Columbo in his office not only does the glass switch from his left to his right hand, but after the switch the glass is a different (smaller) glass.It is the identical glass. The original poster may be confused because the glass is shown in a close-up, or because Dr. Flemming had the bourbon bottle in his right hand moments earlier.

The telephone cord was wrapped neatly around the base of the phone at the front of it for most of the shots. When Joan goes to pick up the phone to call the cleaners, the cord is now partially across the dial on top of the phone. At the 26:30 mark. Dr. Flemming answers the phone immediately after choking his wife and leaves the cord across the phone when he hangs up.

When Dr. Flemming smashes the balcony window, his shadow can be seen on the background, revealing it to be a backdrop.

(at around 1h 16 mins) When Columbo steps back into Dr. Flemming's office to turn off the lights, the switch is already in the down position. He simply touches it without moving it, and the lights turn off. Earlier the doctor does the same thing. The light switch is down. But when he turns off the lights, he doesn't flip the switch up or down as it is already down. he touches it and the lights go off.

Stage lights are shining on the view from the balcony, also revealing the balcony view as a backdrop.

At 25 minutes and 20 seconds into movie, the front door (which is partially visible in the wall mirror between Dr Flemming and Joan Hudson) suddenly moves even though no character is touching it. Obviously it was mistakenly moved by a crew person.

At 58 minutes Columbo is recording the interview. The reels of the tape recorder are running, but there is no microphone connected to the machine or even on the table.

During the anniversary toast at the beginning, there is a round of applause by the guests after the toast. However, all the guest have champagne glasses in their hands and no one is clapping.

When Columbo clicks the pen in the hospital scene (around 37 minutes in), it sounds like a dropped coin.

Columbo grills Joan in a supposedly empty soundstage, yet there is a moving shadow behind her in a closeup.

When Gene Barry gets on the airplane, there is a gold curtain outside the plane door, as if plane's boarding takes place in a theater.

The view from the window of Dr. Flemming's apartment shows that it's on a relatively high floor. Yet no mention is made of the improbability of someone supposedly being able to access the balcony to break in.

Dr. Flemming wanted to make sure that the maid would be coming in the next day, to presumably to be the first person to discover the body. If that were the case, then the doctor should have anticipated the police meeting him at the airport to inform him of the attack on his wife.

Dr. Flemming tells his wife Carol to close the drapes, but he kills her as soon as she turns around, with the drapes still half open and her in front of the window. The murder by strangulation takes a while to be committed, giving plenty of time to onlookers fro the street below or houses across the way to witness it. This major plot hole made no sense whatsoever, as he could and should have waited for the drapes to be drawn.

It can be assumed that Joan Hudson would be considered a "struggling", or small-time actress. It isn't likely that she could afford the home she lives in. Even in the 60's this could have been a million dollar home or more.

Lt. Columbo noted that when Dr. Flemming enters the apartment, he doesn't call out to his wife. This causes Lt. Columbo to be suspicious of the doctor.

Yet, earlier, when Dr. Flemming returns to his apartment after visiting Ms. Hudson , and he knows his wife is home, he does not call out for her. He is being consistent with his character's attitude towards his wife.