Recap / Columbo S 05 E 05

Episode: Season 5, Episode 5
Title: "Now You See Him..."
Directed by: Harvey Hart
Written by: Michael Sloan
Air Date: February 29, 1976
Previous: A Matter of Honor
Next: Last Salute to the Commodore
Guest Starring: Jack Cassidy, Cynthia Sykes, Bob Dishy, Robert Loggia

"Now You See Him..." is the fifth episode of the fifth season of Columbo.

The Great Santini (Jack Cassidy) is a stage magician currently performing at the Cabaret of Magic, with his daughter Della (Cynthia Sikes) as his Lovely Assistant. What no one, not even Della, knows is that Santini is actually Sgt. Stefan Mueller, a former guard at a Nazi death camp.

No one, that is, except for his employer, club owner Jesse Jerome (Nehemiah Persoff). Jerome found out when he was approached by a Holocaust survivor who recognized Mueller/Santini. Jerome took advantage of this information to blackmail Santini for an extortionate percentage of Santini's income. Santini has grown weary of forking over thousands of dollars to Jerome and decides to make Jesse disappear. He executes a clever scheme: he leaves the stage in the middle of his water tank escape act by slipping through a trap door, then hurries to his dressing room and disguises himself as a waiter. Then he makes his way through the kitchen and up to Jerome's office (using a wireless microphone to trick the waiter who brings him his drink into thinking he's still in his dressing room), pulls a gun concealed under a cloth napkin on a serving tray, and shoots Jerome through the heart.

Unfortunately for Santini the case goes to Columbo, who deduces that the killer must have picked the lock to Jerome's office, and then zeroes in on the person who was supposedly hidden in a box, Santini.

Second and last appearance of Bob Dishy as Sgt. Wilson (though as John Wilson instead of Frederick). Third and last appearance of Jack Cassidy, who played three Columbo murderers; he died in a house fire less than a year after this episode aired.

---

Tropes:

• Alliterative Name: Jesse Jerome.
• And Starring: Robert Loggia gets the "Special Guest Star" credit.
• Asshole Victim: Pretty much everyone at the Cabaret hates Jesse Jerome. He keeps blackmailing Santini (instead of reporting him to the proper authorities) for his own gain, not suspecting that his actions might backfire.
  Magic Store Clerk: Dear Jesse. To know him was to detest him.
• As You Know: Jerome helpfully reminds Santini that an old man from the camps recognized Santini a year ago, which is why Jerome's blackmailing him.
• Attack on the Heart: Santini kills Jesse by shooting him in whatever rotten pulp he called his heart.
• Blackmail Backfire: Jerome is blackmailing Santini for half of his income. It's a bad idea.
• Brief Accent Imitation: As part of his alibi, Santini imitates Jerome's voice while calling the kitchen to ask for a cup of coffee to be sent up to the office, so that it will seem like Jerome was killed later than he actually was. Later, when being questioned, Santini does a little world tour of the accents he can do, which includes his native German accent.
• Continuity Nod: Sgt. Wilson comes back three years later, excited to work with Columbo again. Columbo is less excited.
• Destroy the Evidence: Santini went to great pains to make sure the letter Jerome had written to the State Department revealing his true identity was destroyed. When Columbo produces another copy, Santini destroys that one too. Too bad for him Columbo made sure to have lots of extra copies made.
• Failed a Spot Check: Santini didn't bother to look at the typewriter the letter was written on. If he had, he might have noticed it used a special type of ribbon that leaves a clear negative of what had been previously typed.
• Fake American: In-Universe, Santini was born as a German. He eventually reinvented himself as an Englishman to hide his origins, then adapted a neutral American accent upon moving to the United States.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Santini faces the problem of how to get through the kitchen, on the way to Jerome's office, without being seen. He simply puts on a waiter's uniform, a wig and moustache, and sails right through, and everyone only sees the outfit and not his face.
• Hollywood Silencer: Santini kills Jerome with the iconic and deeply ridiculous Hollywood Silencer on a revolver.
• I Know You Know I Know: Columbo has already started to focus on Santini after finding out about the trick that allowed Santini to leave the stage, and after figuring out the door's lock was picked, the kind of thing a magician could do, especially since the lock was custom-made and supposedly unpickable. He challenges Santini to pick the lock on a pair of handcuffs during one of Santini's shows, which he also had modified to be harder to pick by the same locksmith that made the custom lock. After Santini succeeds, Columbo says very meaningfully, "I knew you could do it," and winks. Santini then turns to the audience and says just as meaningfully, "A round of applause for the lieutenant who tried to outwit the master!"
• Lovely Assistant: Santini's stunning daughter Della, who is dating the club lounge singer. After she leaves the club to join her boyfriend, Santini is seen interviewing a slightly older but just as beautiful lady to take over as assistant.
• Opportunistic Bastard: Jesse had the chance to give an unrepentant Nazi war criminal to the proper authorities, bringing justice and perhaps peace to Mueller's victims. Instead, the slimy parasite chose to squeeze money out of Santini. All he got as a reward was a bullet in his black little heart.
• Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat: Jerome has to mop up his bald, sweaty head after the confrontation with Santini. He seems to realize the risk he's running.
• Phoney Call: Santini's real alibi once Columbo sees through the bit about the box. One of the waiters always brings Santini a brandy as he changes in his dressing room during the break. He rigs up a microphone and a speaker and sets up a lamp with a spinning lampshade with psychedelic patterns on it to make it look like he's moving inside the room and talking to the waiter through the door while he's actually elsewhere in the building, murdering Jerome. Columbo pulls the same trick on him in the end, making it look like he and Wilson are inside Jerome's room and about to reveal that they know Santini's real identity when he enters the room while they're actually hiding downstairs, ready to surround him while he tries to make a break for it.
• Retired Monster: Santini is an ex-Nazi who went to great lengths to change his identity, before moving to the United States and becoming a gentlemanly stage magician. Jerome's blackmail threat forces Santini to slip into his old habits to remove him, and try to keep his past hidden from the authorities.
• Running Gag: Jokes throughout the episode about how Columbo is not wearing the most important part of his iconic outfit, namely, the ancient rumpled raincoat. When he shows up at the crime scene in a newer, more stylish (well, stylish in The '70s), better-fitting coat that his wife got him, a patrolman fails to recognize him. In Jerome's office Columbo complains "I can't think in this!" and takes the nice new raincoat off. Repeatedly throughout the episode, he's "forgetting" his new raincoat in various places, only for Wilson to bring it back.
  Patrolman: You look different.
  Columbo: I've had a haircut.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: When Santini overhears Columbo and Wilson talking about how they can now prove Santini is the killer, he does what Columbo killers so rarely do and tries to book it. Columbo was expecting this, having officers block him as he leaves.
• Series Continuity Error: When Sgt. Wilson made his first appearance in Season 2, he was Frederic Wilson; now he's John J. Wilson.
• Spot the Thread: Columbo realizes that Jesse's door was picked open since the position of the body and the shooting doesn't match with any idea of Jesse opening the door himself.
  • Jesse opened the door and the killer shot him: Jesse's body is too far from the door.
  • Jesse opened the door, let the killer in, then was shot: The body might be the right distance, but the body would have fallen towards the door, not away from it.
  • Jesse opened the door, saw the killer, ran away, and then got shot: The body falls where it is, but the shot would have been In the Back, not in the heart.
    • Columbo uses this to realize Jesse heard the lock and door opening, went to see what happened, and then the killer shot him.
• Stage Magician: Santini plays this trope arrow-straight, with the tux, top hat, and cape, and doing stuff like producing birds out of nowhere.
• Technicolor Science: For some reason, the lab tech evaluating the door lock for pick marks needs to work in a room with exotic flasks and beakers bubbling with yellow liquid.
• Too Dumb to Live: Jerome clearly didn't assess the risks of blackmailing a man who was once the sergeant of an extermination camp.
• Verbal Irony: George the stagehand expresses a dislike of Mr. Jerome and says to Santini, "Could you make him disappear?" George doesn't know that Santini is plotting to kill Jerome that very night.
• The Watson: Sgt. Wilson is even dumber in this one than he was in his first appearance in "The Greenhouse Jungle". When Columbo says he suspects Santini, Wilson says Santini couldn't have done it, because he was in the box. Santini even calls Wilson "Dr. Watson" at one point.
• Who Murdered the Asshole: Wilson believes this to be in play, considering how much of a worm Jesse Jerome was. Columbo figures out Santini is the killer quickly...and the viewer knows the trope isn't present because we saw who did it.