Recap / Columbo S 02 E 03

Nothing will ever be more 1972 than that mustache.

Episode: Season 2, Episode 3
Title:"The Most Crucial Game"
Directed by: Jeremy Kagan
Written by: John T. Dugan
Air Date: November 5, 1972
Previous: The Greenhouse Jungle
Next: Dagger of the Mind
Guest Starring: Robert Culp, Dean Jagger, James Gregory, Valerie Harper, Susan Howard, Dean Stockwell

"The Most Crucial Game" is the third episode of the second season of Columbo.

Paul Hanlon (Robert Culp, in the second of three guest appearances as the murderer), is the general manager of a Los Angeles football team. He doesn't get on well with Eric Wagner (Dean Stockwell), the sleazebag young owner who is too busy binging, partying, and screwing to listen to Paul's advice. Paul also covets Eric's attractive wife Shirley (Susan Howard). So one Sunday, during a game, Paul sneaks out of the stadium in an ice cream truck, zips over to Eric's mansion, and bashes Eric in the head with a chunk of ice while Eric is swimming. Eric drowns.

The coroner writes it off as an accident caused by Eric striking his head on the diving board. But Lt. Columbo, noticing some niggling details—an ice cream truck spotted in an area that isn't in that ice cream company's territory, water splattered around the pool that isn't chlorinated—thinks otherwise.

Second appearance of James Gregory, who was the murder victim in first-season episode "Short Fuse".

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Tropes:

• Absence of Evidence: A recording of Paul's phone call to Eric seems to indicate that Paul was at the game at the time of the murder. Someone points out that Paul could have had a transistor radio (in fact, he did), but Columbo still can't prove that the recording wasn't made inside Paul's box at the stadium. That is, until Columbo realizes what isn't on the recording: the fancy clock in Paul's office, which chimes at the half hour, and should have been heard chiming 2:30.
• Accent Slip-Up: An agitated Eve Babcock slips into a different accent, one that sounds rather Eastern European. This is all Columbo needs to figure out that Babcock is actually Miss Rokoczy, the woman that he earlier heard Paul talking to on the phone.
• And Starring: Dean Stockwell gets the "Special Guest Star" credit.
• Anti-Climax: Unusual for Columbo, at the end of the episode, all Columbo has really done is prove that Paul Hanlon might not have been in his sports box at the time of Eric's death. There was an ice cream truck similar to the ones at the stadium in the area, but no one saw Hanlon driving it, nor was it seen at Eric's house. The murder weapon is melted in Eric's pool, and there's no clear motive ever given for why Hanlon murdered Eric. Even though Hanlon seems nervous before the credits roll, he admits nothing, and it wouldn't be too hard for him to claim, after he's collected himself, that the clock wasn't working at the time he made that phone call. Considering nearly all the other episodes end on a much stronger note, this is definitely one of the few episodes and solutions that could end with the killer getting away with it. Columbo has established opportunity, but means is in question and we're definitely not presented with motive at episode's end.
• Asshole Victim: Eric Wagner fits this to a tee. He's an alcoholic and drug abuser who spends his time partying into the early hours of the morning and sleeping till the afternoon. He's also a serial cheater, and has no qualms keeping it from his wife, who never seems anything less than devoted in return.
• The Cameo: Columbo tracks down Hanlon to a gym where Hanlon is watching some basketball players practice. He tells Columbo that they're pros. They are, in fact, the Los Angeles Lakers.
• Establishing Character Moment: Paul calls Eric. The camera cuts to a phone on the floor of a bedroom, then pans across all the empty liquor bottles and articles of ladies' underwear scattered around the floor. Then the camera finally gets to the bed, where a groaning Eric answers the phone.
• Finding the Bug: Columbo notices that a strange sound can be heard on the radio in Hanlon's office whenever the phone is used, realizing that this means the phone was bugged. Later, he deduces that Hanlon had also discovered the bug through the same method and incorporated it into his Fake Alibi.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Paul Hanlon is practically a living Berserk Button. It takes very little to set Hanlon off, and his anger can jump from 0 to 100 at a moment's notice. Also, he's played by the masterful seether Robert Culp.
• High-Class Call Girl: It turns out that Eve Babcock (Valerie Harper), who briefly served as Paul's secretary, actually has a second career doing this.
• Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Columbo has already zeroed in on Paul as the murderer, having tracked him to the airport and observed him making a suspicious phone call. While needling Paul, Columbo wonders aloud what could have been the murderer's motive. Cue the entrance of Eric's hot blonde widow, who greets Paul with a tearful hug. Still, this is never actually named as Hanlon's motive, and the episode ends without ever established a clear motive for Hanlon to kill Eric.
• Jerkass: Paul Hanlon. He's the murderer, and he has a short temper. About the only redeeming quality he has is that he seems to genuinely care about Eric's wife.
  • Also, Eric Wagner. He's rich, spoiled, and a frequent adulterer. He's owner of the team by default.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Walter Cunnell. He secretly sets up phone taps using a private investigator. While he's doing it to show Shirley Wagner proof of Eric's infidelity, and demonstrate that Hanlon is goading him into it, it backfires spectacularly on him in the end, and she's none too happy that all of her conversations have been secretly recorded. It doesn't help that part of his motivation is his hatred for Hanlon and Eric. While he's right in his suspicions, it's still unethical as all get out.
• Left Hanging: At episode's end, All Columbo has potentially proven is that Hanlon may not have been in the sports box at the time Eric was killed. He's got a little bit towards means, as an ice cream truck like at the stadium was seen in the area, but no eyewitness that proves it was near Eric's house, or that Hanlon was driving it. And while the episode hints that maybe Hanlon wanted Shirley Wagner and the sports empire to himself, it's never established as Hanlon's motive. While Columbo can figure out that Hanlon knew the calls were being recorded, that's still not strong evidence to convict. He has no evidence that proves Hanlon was at Eric's house murdering him, no murder weapon, and really no established motive, so when the credits roll, it's uncertain if Hanlon would really be convicted on the first bit of evidence Columbo has: the lack of a chiming clock on the tape recording. Since the episode's release, the weak gotcha has been criticized by a number of critics, and it has been cited that all Hanlon really had to do to explain the lack of the chime on the recording was claim the clock simply wasn't working that day.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: It's unclear why exactly Paul thought murder was the best way to "retire" Eric from ownership when he could have encouraged him to hire a professional to act in his stead, or pulled some strings to get the same result. Then, Eric could potentially be in a "retirement" of sorts, enjoy the good life, and perhaps go into a new venture. It seems to be at least partly because Paul really doesn't like Eric very much.
• Porn Stache: One hell of a mustache Paul is sporting.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Instead of making a thing of Eve Babcock's side job, Columbo tells her to hide her appointment book so he can pretend he doesn't know about it and focuses only on finding out what she might know about the murder.
• Rewind, Replay, Repeat: One of many episodes in which Columbo is left repeatedly playing back an audio recording while trying to figure out why it isn't really a valid alibi.
• Stock Footage: Stock footage of Super Bowl I, actually, is used for the football game.
• A Threesome Is Hot: It was 1972 so you couldn't show it or anything, but a gleeful Eric tells Paul over the phone that his date the night before brought her sister.

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