Goofs

Columbo meets Mr Prince and Ms Houston at Verity's house two full days after Verity comes up missing.. Ms Houston makes a drink and gets ice out of the ice bucket on the bar. There should not be any ice remaining 48 hours later, being that she lived alone.

In the beginning, Verity Chandler is writing something in her calendar book. She writes two or three words before realizing the pen tip wasn't extended. She twists the pen to expose the tip and starts writing again near the top of the page. When she's finished, she looks at what she's just written... which is now in the center of the page.

At 35:14 the lampshade on the floor has its opening towards the door. After the scene cut at 35:17, it's turned around and faces the room.

Columbo states that the helicopter pilot has committed a crime by allowing a woman to empty an urn of ashes over the Hollywood sign. He also states that the pilot's license is in jeopardy for having done so. There are several errors here. First, while the city may have an ordinance about dumping ashes at the Hollywood sign, they have no jurisdiction to take action against the pilot's certificate, as that is a federally issued license that they are legally prohibited from touching. Second, the federal regulation 14 CFR 91.15, which concerns dropping objects from an aircraft, only requires that it must be done so that there is no hazard to persons or property on the ground, which clearly isn't the case here, so the FAA would have no interest or involvement in the pilot regarding the ashes.

Columbo says, "Yesterday was Thursday; today is October 6, 1997." Actually, October 6, 1997 was a Monday.

The sound from the helicopter (at around 16 mins) is wrong for the type/class of helicopter portrayed, which is an AS350 AStar which has a 3-bladed main rotor. The sound is that of a 2-bladed machine like the Bell 206 JetRanger.

A pager (also known as a beeper) is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays alphanumeric messages and/or receives and announces voice messages. One-way pagers only can receive messages, while response pagers and two-way pagers also can acknowledge, reply to, and originate messages using an internal transmitter.

At the end of the story, Colombo revealed the wrong body was cremated because he found a piece of metal was found in the urn amongst the ashes of a person who was known not to have this surgical metal. As a matter of fact, after cremation the ashes given to the next of kin was made by grinding (in a grinder) small pieces of unburned but charred bones. Any metallic objects such as this piece of surgical metal, gold teeth and ashes are scooped up and normally used as fertilisers.

Early in the film, Verity (Rue McClanahan) attends a funeral. She kisses the deceased, who is lying in an open casket, and leaves a red lipstick mark on his face. Immediately, the mortician's female assistant is instructed to remove the mark. When she does, the deceased's face visibly flinches as the stain is rubbed off his face with a tissue.

As Eric Prince is swapping bodies and putting Verity Chandler in the man's coffin, the chin of a mannequin can be seen and the legs hang at an usual angle that could not be a person.

Rita tells Columbo that Verity put one of the funeral home's brochures in her purse. Actually Rita was wiping Verity's lipstick from Mr Huston's face with her back to the rest of the room so she wouldn't have seen her take the brochure.

During the tap dancer's performance at the final funeral, the sound effects of the tapping doesn't match the actual dance being performed.

When Columbo meets with Sheik Yarami and his henchmen, there is a woman visible behind a table in the lower left corner of the screen.

The piece of shrapnel could have been swept into another urn by accident.

Columbo says that diamonds can't burn, but that is not true. Diamonds burn at 850° Celsius (1562°F).

Near the end, when Columbo is confronting the funeral home owner, the helicopter is seen sitting on the driveway with only its red anti-collision beacon operating. The pilot would never leave the aircraft sitting with the battery switch on, which would be required to illuminate the beacon., as it would rapidly run down the battery. In addition, the beacon would be turned off during the shutdown sequence, and would not be turned on again until engine start is imminent.