Goofs

Goldie asks Columbo to turn around while she puts on her robe. As Goldie ties her belt, the belt goes across her back and around her waist. Moments later, and for the rest of the scene, Goldie's belt is no longer around her waist; it is just tied at the front.

Bo Williamson's car is specially outfitted with a silver six-gun on each door handle. It's a great touch of character, big and gaudy enough that the revolvers should be seen at considerable distance. In the longer views of the car, driving through the construction site near the beginning, the guns are missing. In fact, it might be a different gold Cadillac than the car used in closeups, because the decorative air-vents aft of the doors cannot be seen.

Just after Markham kills Williamson, he drives straight over to his ranch where it is daytime as the sun is shining, and it reflects of the windscreen as he's driving down Williamson's driveway. However, as soon as he lets himself into the ranch, it's nighttime, just as it is when he leaves about 5 minutes later.

When Markham reaches up to erase the blackboard because Columbo is too short to finish erasing it, there is a large, prominent chalk mark on Markham's left shoulder. In the conversation that follows, the chalk mark is gone.

When Elliot Markham is lecturing on Egyptian Architecture, behind him is a drawing of a cross-section of a pyramid with its passageways. When the camera zooms in on Columbo, who has just entered the lecture, and then focuses back to Elliot Markham, the passageways on the pyramid are shaped differently to what was shown previously.

When the doctor is taking Columbo's blood pressure, the doctor takes the reading while repeatedly squeezing the bulb on the blood pressure cuff. The pressure is normally read while releasing the air in the cuff and no squeezing of the bulb is required.

Columbo said he observed Williams car radio being set at 52. The lowest number setting for a broadcast radio setting is 53, or 530 in contemporary terminology.

This is a common practice in order to avoid referring to a real station.

When a motorcycle cop asks Elliot Markham for his license and registration, Markham gives the cop Lt. Columbo's police ID. Apparently, the ID with Peter Falk's photo was just reused as a prop license, rather than having one specifically made with Elliot Markham's photo and details on it.

Elliot Markham's car is a Mercedes with the number plate XSM 494. It is the same car that Ken Franklin drives in Murder by the Book (1971).

At the construction site ceremony, Elliot Markham unveils a model of the new high-rise, introducing it as what will be a 32-story building. The model has only 26 stories and is indeed a real architect's model of the already existing 26-story 10100 Santa Monica Building, right next door, which was completed in 1971, one year before this scene was filmed.

When Columbo returns to the Building and Safety office, the calendar hanging next to the clerk's desk is from 1966; this episode of Columbo was produced in 1972.

When Columbo stands next to a wall in Goldie's bedroom, it doesn't look like an expensive apartment. In the closeup, the seam between two pieces of wood can be seen, as well as bumps in the paint.

Just before Markham forces Williamson out of his car at gunpoint, Williamson is backing up rapidly, spinning the tires. As he does, the sound of tires squealing on blacktop is heard, but the car is backing up on grass, not on pavement.

At the end of the movie, no sound can be heard when Markham shuts the car trunk.

When Markham's overly enthusiastic secretary cries "Mr. Williamson!" for the second time at Bo's destruction of the architectural model, her lips mouth the words, but the sound of them is delayed until a left profile closeup immediately afterwards, when her opened lips aren't moving.

Near the 47 min mark the crew is visible moving behind Columbo in the reflection of the mirror in Goldie's bedroom.

When Markham pulls the spare tire out of the trunk of his car , it is clearly visible the spare tire has no rim.

While Markham is correct that after all the time expense and publicity for this "pointless" destruction of a building pile Columbo's supervisors wouldn't eagerly agree to do it again. But how did Markham intend to sneak the body into the now destroyed pile? Even bringing it there at night there is no one to create the foundation of the new pile where he could place the body then cover it up. The area has been completely exposed so anything that large would now be noticed.

When Markham forces Williamson out of his car at gunpoint, the camera cranes up and zooms back. For a handful of frames near the beginning of that camera move, the mic is visible at the top of the frame. The boom operator quickly pulls it up and out of the shot.

While on the construction site, Columbo is not wearing a hard hat when it clearly states any persons entering or visiting a construction site must wear a hard hat.

Midori plays a Japanese masseuse who speaks little or no English, but the actress speaks Japanese with an accent typical of an early/intermediate American learner. It would be obvious to a native Japanese speaker that the actress isn't a native speaker.

Mr. Markham's secretary asks Columbo if he is a police officer, despite the fact that he has just shown her his badge through the clear glass door of Markham's office.