The acting is excellent, and the story pacing, scenery, and supporting cast are all also very well done. The technical skill and the great acting of Patrick McGoohan (villain), and also Peter Falk (Columbo) in this episode makes this one very enjoyable and entertaining.
But like quite a few Columbo episodes (most all of which I love anyway), something is missing here in the plot, or in the writing.
We do not get a clear motive as to why Nelson Brenner (played by McGoohan) wanted the Leslie Nelson character to be murdered (and is his name "A J Henderson" or not?). We don't get a complete picture here. But it is also never explained why Columbo even suspects Nelson Brenner to begin with, rather than the foil, Lawrence Melville (who had an assault record, and was last seen following "Henderson" right before the murder).
While Brenner was photographed earlier that day with "Henderson" at a Carnival, nothing actually places him at the crime scene later that night, and we have no clear motive. So it's a leap in logic to suspect him over Melville (who was last seen with him) which is never really explained.
And despite Columbo eventually disproving the carefully planned alibi of Nelson Brenner, it would be a standard operating procedure for him to have claimed, since he was a CIA agent, that he simply had advanced knowledge about the Chinese withdrawal from the Olympics, or that he put that in the prepared speech as a hypothetical.
As others have pointed out, Brenner confesses far too easily here, and too unnecessarily over so-called "evidence" that could be easily explained away by someone with his connections, and someone in his position. But moreover, just the lack of an alibi by itself does not even prove actual guilt of anything. Don't we need more than that? So Columbo never puts together a whole case here (crime scene evidence, the motive), and all we are left with is shadows, incomplete speculations, and an improbable CIA-operative confession.
But this is just a problem with the writing, and not with the acting and with the production, both of which are marvelous. A very enjoyable episode, but one that would have been strengthened much more with just a little tighter plot, and writing.
But like quite a few Columbo episodes (most all of which I love anyway), something is missing here in the plot, or in the writing.
We do not get a clear motive as to why Nelson Brenner (played by McGoohan) wanted the Leslie Nelson character to be murdered (and is his name "A J Henderson" or not?). We don't get a complete picture here. But it is also never explained why Columbo even suspects Nelson Brenner to begin with, rather than the foil, Lawrence Melville (who had an assault record, and was last seen following "Henderson" right before the murder).
While Brenner was photographed earlier that day with "Henderson" at a Carnival, nothing actually places him at the crime scene later that night, and we have no clear motive. So it's a leap in logic to suspect him over Melville (who was last seen with him) which is never really explained.
And despite Columbo eventually disproving the carefully planned alibi of Nelson Brenner, it would be a standard operating procedure for him to have claimed, since he was a CIA agent, that he simply had advanced knowledge about the Chinese withdrawal from the Olympics, or that he put that in the prepared speech as a hypothetical.
As others have pointed out, Brenner confesses far too easily here, and too unnecessarily over so-called "evidence" that could be easily explained away by someone with his connections, and someone in his position. But moreover, just the lack of an alibi by itself does not even prove actual guilt of anything. Don't we need more than that? So Columbo never puts together a whole case here (crime scene evidence, the motive), and all we are left with is shadows, incomplete speculations, and an improbable CIA-operative confession.
But this is just a problem with the writing, and not with the acting and with the production, both of which are marvelous. A very enjoyable episode, but one that would have been strengthened much more with just a little tighter plot, and writing.