Goofs

As Columbo joins Rumsford for dinner, he is given a plate with a good-sized steak, accompanied by sweetcorn, carrots and something green, all in small neat piles. A few shots later, when the assistant cadets are excused from the table, his plate is there with the steak, but absolutely piled high with peas and green beans, but no sweetcorn at all. Then when he adds bread to his plate, it has the same ingredients as the first plate.

During Colombo's supper in the school mess hall with the Colonel, Columbo's large serving of vegetables varies in size from large to small and back to large as he speaks to the Colonel.

When Haynes walks into the Commandant's office, in the long shot, there is a solid red furled flag with white stars (It is unclear of whether or not it is a General Officer's flag which would also be in error.) over the Commandant's left shoulder, but in all other shots, this flag has been replaced with the California state flag.

As cadets are filing out of the chapel row by row starting with the front row, they pass Columbo and the Commandant as they talk in the aisle. When the scene is on the Commandant, the exiting rows of cadets have passed the Commandant and Columbo and are now exiting the back rows behind the Commandant. When the scene switches back to Columbo, the cadets are exiting the rows behind Columbo and passing the two men.

When Columbo gives the matches to Colonel Rumford, he is holding his cigar and the cigar cutter in his right hand. The next shot, he is holding the cigar in his left hand and the cigar cutter seems to have disappeared. When Columbo leaves the colonel's office, the cigar cutter is not on the desk, so presumably Columbo never returned it.

Col. Rumford wears his cover (hat) indoors several times in the episode. Military hats are not to be worn indoors except in very special circumstances.

There is no need to "hang cider in the night air" to ferment it. It can be done by simply allowing the cider to sit in a jug at room temperature; therefore, the only reason for having this in the plot is to give Columbo a way of solving the crime.

Columbo has the Cannon debris tested and reads the report to Col Rumford. He says a type of Gelignite similar to C4. Co Rumford replies with the C4 is a military explosive used in artillery. C4 and Gelignite are completely unrelated and neither have been used for Firing Cannons. This would be very well understood by the Colonel.

The Cadets' military salutes are horrific throughout the episode. Several salutes involved the hand well over the eyebrow half way up the forehead. In general, the middle fingertip should just touch the corner of the eyebrow or eyeglasses and the hand tipped slightly forward.

The pristine white steps leading up to the cannon would have been singed and bloody after the murder.

While in the barracks room, Columbo reveals he was in the Army as a young man. Yet when interviewing Col. Rumford, Columbo asks him what 2200 hours means (10 p.m.). A former military man would know this. However, detectives often ask questions of which they know the answer, to gauge reactions or just to throw off suspicion.

For safety reasons, the parade ground cannon would fire a blank round. However, the round being modified by the colonel at the beginning of the episode appears to have a projectile screwed into the top. This would present a serious hazard to nearby people and property when fired.

However, when the cannon is loaded for the ceremony, the cadets are shown unscrewing the projectile head before loading, making the round inert if it were simply loaded with powder.

A white van is seen leaving the girls' school which is identified as a school bus. However, (public) school buses are uniformly painted National School Bus Yellow and have red cross over lights on the front and the rear, which the white van did not have. In this case the school in question has the appearance of a private girls school and could have a school bus of any make/design.

In Rumford's office, after Columbo gives the Colonel a match to light his cigar and he strikes it, the end of the cigar can be seen in frame a few seconds later: it remains unlit. Colonel Rumford clearly didn't try to light it.

However, it seems that he just stroke the match, heard the phone ring and decides not to light his cigar and take the call instead.

Hayes College is based in California, and in scenes in the Colonel's office, behind the Col's. desk is the U.S. flag, the California state flag, and, in the middle, South Carolina's state flag. The Citadel is in South Carolina.

Colonel Rumford, who is characterized as a stickler for military correctness and tradition, addresses both a cadet (at 0:58:12) and Lieutenant Columbo (at 1:22:08) as "mister" in stead of addressing them by their rank.

When Columbo cannot sleep in the barracks and has to make a telephone call, he gets out of bed barefoot. As he starts to walk, is heard sound of shoes on the floor. He wears laced shoes, so he couldn't have simply slipped into them as he rose.

When Columbo is speaking to the squad leader of the Cadets that are stopped that were out on a run, the reflection of several bright production lights can be seen in the glasses of the Cadet second from the right in the front row.

At about 22 mins, while Columbo interrogates Col. Rumford at the church service about blank charges and the material he found, the cadets walking by often look to the camera, some smiling, apparently because others make jokes or faces.

During the morning's cadet formation (the morning after Columbo stays overnight), the cadets present themselves in front of the Colonel for inspection. (The camera angle is shot from behind the Colonel, showing the troops from the front.) At the command "Dress right", the cadets should extend their left arms and look right, resulting in even column spacing; however, the first cadet in the column to the Colonel's left makes a mistake and places his left hand on his hip, then, realizing his error, raises his left arm up. Additionally, this cadet is the only one that has his hat on crooked. The brim is distinctly turned to the right of his face. Also, the cadet in the second row, third column from the left, has sunglasses on. This definitely is not appropriate for cadet dress formation.