Columbo (TV Series)

Blueprint for Murder (1972)

Patrick O'Neal: Elliot Markham

Photos 

Quotes 

• Elliot Markham : [as Columbo enters]  Ah, the omnipresent constable!

• Elliot Markham : Lieutenant, anybody ever tell you you're very much like an arachnid?

  Columbo : A what?

  Elliot Markham : A tick. They're quite common but excessively tenacious. They hang on. They let go only under extreme prodding.

• Elliot Markham : Lieutenant, I want you to know I admire you.

  Columbo : Oh, really?

  Elliot Markham : You got the courage of your conviction. That's an admirable trait - misdirected as it may be.

• Bo Williamson : You really would like to see me dead, wouldn't ya? Well, I'll tell you somethin'. It wouldn't count for much.

  Elliot Markham : Well, maybe your wife will have other ideas.

  Bo Williamson : No, no. It don't mean a thing because, you see, when I die, all of my money goes into trust. Oh, Jennifer will get her share every year - you can count on that - but there won't be any cash to build cities with.

• Elliot Markham : To be absent is not necessarily to be missing, Lieutenant. I assume you understand the distinction.

• Columbo : You know, what's a funny thing about that car. Car's got a tape machine in it and the glove compartment is full of cassettes. Every one of them is country and western music. That's all. And his wife tells me this man doesn't listen to anything else.

  Elliot Markham : Nothing unusual about that.

  Columbo : No. Except the radio dial was set at 52, classical station. Turned it on, classical music.

• Jennifer Williamson : Isn't there anything you do badly?

  Elliot Markham : Yes. Lose.

• Columbo : You're a great classical music fan yourself, aren't you? I saw your record collection down in the office.

  Elliot Markham : Guilty, Lieutenant. I like classical music. Along with a few hundred thousand other people in this city.

• Bo Williamson : What're you doin' in my car?

  Elliot Markham : Waiting for you.

  Bo Williamson : Get yourself killed that way.

  Elliot Markham : Or the reverse.

• Elliot Markham : It's revolutionary in concept really because it won't be offices so much as living modules, almost cocoons where a man can coordinate his activities outside the context of mere business. In fact, if he chooses, it can become virtually a second home, a remarkable place of mobility and freedom. I don't know how the wives will feel about that.

• Elliot Markham : By the way, it's said that some of the engineers who built the pyramids were sealed up in their own creations to protect the integrity of the tomb. Fortunately, today's architects are spared that particular indignity.

• Columbo : I mean, you put a body under a building, you would find it for a hundred years.

  Elliot Markham : I'll keep that in mind, Lieutenant, in case I kill somebody.

• Elliot Markham : Are you interested in buildings or builders?

  Columbo : What do you mean?

  Elliot Markham : Well, let's look at your itinerary. You showed up at my office at my lecture, and now at my construction site.

  Columbo : Well, actually, I just happened to some have spare time.

  Elliot Markham : Perhaps you should spend your time a little more productively.

• Carl : The Lieutenant was looking for you, Mr. Markham.

  Elliot Markham : I'm sure he was.

• Elliot Markham : Let's dig it up.

  Columbo : What?

  Elliot Markham : Come on. You know you want to.

  Columbo : I don't know what you're talking about?

  Elliot Markham : Well, it's such a marvelous place to hide a body. A crew comes in and digs a hole. The hole sits there overnight. If I were a murderer, hypothetically speaking of course, it would be made to order. I'd just drive up and dump the body. The next morning the crew comes in and fills the hole with concrete. Neat, clean, foolproof.

  Columbo : Wait a minute. If you were a murderer, hypothetically like you say, you're not gonna tell this to the police.

  Elliot Markham : Why not? You'd never be able to dig it up. Besides how do you know I'm not a victim of my own bravado?

• Columbo : How much would it cost? I mean, to actually dig up pile D-3. Just for the sake of curiosity.

  Elliot Markham : A great deal more than your bank account, Lieutenant. To say nothing of the permits, assuming you got permission, which is doubtful.

• Columbo : I guess I was wrong.

  Elliot Markham : I consider that an accurate statement.

• Elliot Markham : Ahead of me all the way, weren't you?

  Columbo : Well, I kinda had a hunch.

• Columbo : Mr Markham, I think I owe you an apology.

  Elliot Markham : Is that all you have to say? Not much. Good night.