Bikel as Oliver Brandt is probably what saved this episode. His acting was really good. He had close calls, the smudge on his forehead, the gun in the wastebasket. He acted nervously, yet not noticed by Columbo, but impacted for the viewers. His anguish with his wife was really good. I almost felt sorry for the guy. He was just really good in all his scenes.
The weakness is how Columbo zeroed in on Oliver right away. We really didn't get a tipping scale shown. We see Columbo going over the clues, but we never saw that reaction which cause him to know it was Oliver. It was kind of just him. That's it.
Oliver was dumb to not get rid of the umbrella right away.
A couple of oddball characters with the secretaries were somewhat amusing.
The waitress scene was funny. Played Jamie Curtis in one of her first roles. A couple of other noticeables are Sorrell Brooks(Boss Hogg - Dukes of Hazzard), and Samantha Eggar.
Anyway, sort of fun, but the solving of the mystery itself was kind of weak. 7/10.
The weakness is how Columbo zeroed in on Oliver right away. We really didn't get a tipping scale shown. We see Columbo going over the clues, but we never saw that reaction which cause him to know it was Oliver. It was kind of just him. That's it.
Oliver was dumb to not get rid of the umbrella right away.
A couple of oddball characters with the secretaries were somewhat amusing.
The waitress scene was funny. Played Jamie Curtis in one of her first roles. A couple of other noticeables are Sorrell Brooks(Boss Hogg - Dukes of Hazzard), and Samantha Eggar.
Anyway, sort of fun, but the solving of the mystery itself was kind of weak. 7/10.