I think there were many great times when the villians got "Columbo'd" (as I call it), including the one you mention. For example:
In "Blueprint For Murder," Columbo searches the foundation of a building under construction for the body of the murder victim, and doesn't find it. This leaves the killer to think he's free and clear to hide the body there after Columbo and the police have left. Of course it's a trap, and Columbo catches the killer red-handed.
In "A Friend In Deed," a friend of a police commissioner accidentally kills his wife, and the commissioner helps cover it up. Then, the commissioner kills his own wife, and makes his friend help cover it up. When Columbo gets too close, the commissioner orders the Lt. to stick to known suspects, especially one who's M.O. seems to fit the crimes. The commissioner wants to frame this suspect, an ex-criminal, for the two murders.
Seeing that Columbo has files piled on his desk of various suspects, the commissioner looks through them until he finds the address of the ex-criminal. Then he goes to that address and plants a gun and other evidence. Meanwhile, that ex-criminal has begun extorting money from the commissioner's friend (arranged by Columbo, of course). During the second extortion attempt, the commissioner leads a group of police to arrest the man, and now the commissioner has a reason to go to the address, where he'll "find" the gun and other planted items. He and the police find those, but they also find other items - which all belong to Columbo! Columbo lives there, having moved-in recently. Because of course Columbo placed a false address for the suspect in that file, and only Columbo and whomever else saw the file would know of that address. By planting the evidence, the commissioner incriminated himself.
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mrwitticism (160)
4 years ago
In "Negative Reaction," a photographer pretends his wife has been abducted and is being held for ransom. But he really plans on killing her, which he does - framing an ex-con for it, whom he also then murders. Part of the photographer's alibi is a photo showing his wife being held hostage, with the clock in the background showing a certain time. Columbo pulls a cheap trick on the photographer by reversing the image, which changes the time shown on the clock, ruining his alibi. Columbo shows him a blow-up of this photo inside a police evidence room filled with cameras - including the one which took the photo. The photographer rightly calls out Columbo for reversing the image and says that the negative of the photo will show that this image is backwards. Unfortunately, Columbo says, he accidentally destroyed it while making the blowup, so there is no original that will back up the photographer's alibi. The photographer is outraged and thinks Columbo has done his on purpose to frame him.
BUT THEN! the photographer remembers the plate on the back of the inside of the camera will retain the original image, and he goes to the shelf to get it. Columbo asks the first cop, "Did you just see that?" The cop answers in the affirmative. Then Columbo asks the same question to the second cop, "Did you see that?" Same answer. Third cop, same question, same answer. Like the police commissioner in "A Friend In Deed," he photographer has just incriminated himself by demonstrating knowledge of something that he shouldn't have - in this case, only someone who took that ransom photo would know which camera it was, out of alllll the cameras there in the evidence room. The photographer was right. Columbo did destroy the original (or at least said he did) on purpose so that the photographer would lose his cool.
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mrwitticism (160)
4 years ago
"Make Me A Perfect Murder": When a female television network executive is passed over for a promotion, she executes a tightly-timed murder of her boss/lover as revenge and to get his job. She stashes the murder weapon, a gun, through a trapdoor at the top of the elevator before the police (including Columbo) arrive. She's going to retrieve it after the building has been searched by them. Later one evening, the exec is riding the elevator with Columbo and she happens to look up. The gun must've somehow have been dislodged from where it was because now it sits on the glass portion of the elevator's ceiling, and the shadow of the gun is VERY VISIBLE. Luckily for her, Columbo doesn't seemed to have noticed. When they reach the bottom floor, she makes an excuse to have to go back up to her office. When she gets back in the elevator alone, she gets the gun, and then disposes of it in a sewer. Of course, Columbo had already found the gun, and set the whole thing up - though this is only one of the things in the episode that Columbo uses to prove her guilty of the murder.
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