Recap / Columbo S 06 E 02

Episode: Season 6, Episode 2
Title:"Old Fashioned Murder"
Directed by: Robert Douglas
Written by: Peter S. Fischer (story), Peter Feibelman (teleplay)
Air Date: November 28, 1976
Previous: Fade In to Murder
Next: The Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case
Guest Starring: Joyce Van Patten, Jeannie Berlin, Tim O'Connor, Celeste Holm, Peter Feibelman

"Old Fashioned Murder" is the second episode of the sixth season of Columbo.

The Lytton family owns and operates a museum of antiquities. Ruth Lytton (Joyce Van Patten) has dedicated her life to the museum, never marrying and having no children, although her niece Janie (Jeannie Berlin) is as close to her as a daughter. Her brother Edward (Tim O'Connor) is not nearly as dedicated to the family business as Ruth is; in fact, he wants to close the museum and sell the building, as it's been losing money for years. Ruth and Edward's sister (and Janie's mother) Phyllis (Celeste Holm) is a checked-out alcoholic who is likely to go along with whatever Edward wants.

Faced with the ruin of her life's work, Ruth chooses murder. She ropes Milton Schaeffer, the museum security guard (Peter Feibelman) in a complex plot where Milton will steal some artifacts from the museum, fake his own death, and then skip the country, while Ruth collects the insurance money. But her real goal is revealed when she kills Milton in the museum, kills Edward when he comes to investigate the noise, setting up a fake Mutual Kill scenario.

Of course Columbo is not fooled, noting curious details like how the lights were out in the room where the two men were shot, how Milton was strangely well-dressed for burglary, and how he put a particular amulet in his pocket while putting the rest of the artifacts in his bag...

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Tropes:

• Artistic License – Law: One of many Columbo episodes where Columbo the homicide detective is called in before there's proof of a homicide (Milton is missing).
• Broken Bird: Once upon a time, Ruth was a vibrant young woman filled with bliss and love and hope, as evidenced by her portrait. But then her sister eloped with her fiancé for kicks and had a child with him. Since then, the experience has left her a withdrawn, serious and subtly bitter old maid who throws herself into running her museum.
• Creator Cameo: A rare instance of this on Columbo. Peter Feibelman, who wrote the script, also appears as Milton Schaeffer.
• Deadpan Snarker: Columbo, in a scene where Phyllis is very upset at the lieutenant for coming to the Lytton mansion with a search warrant.
  Phyllis: I'll have you disbarred for this — whatever that word is.
  Columbo: Yes, ma'am. "Fired", I think, is the word you want.
• Deceased Fallguy Gambit: Performed by staged Mutual Kill scenario after Ruth does the murders. Ruth tries to frame the guard Milton for burglary-murder and make it appear he died in a gun fight with Edward with the later fatally shot too.
• Drives Like Crazy: A Running Gag in the series, seen here when Columbo arrives at the murder scene and rear-ends the squad car parked in front of him.
• Faint in Shock: Phyllis, prone to hysterics, tends to faint often. Ruth sarcastically predicts Phyllis will faint when she hears Columbo say the word "homicide", and sure enough she does.
• Foreshadowing: Ruth, desperate to save every nickel in the museum's budget, always makes sure to turn out the lights. This turns out to be a major piece of evidence indicating that the Mutual Kill was bogus—the lights were out in the room, and it's unlikely that either Milton or Edward bothered to turn them off as they were dying.
• The Gambling Addict: This is the leverage Ruth uses on Milton. He's a gambling addict, he's badly in debt, and the people he owes money to are looking for him.
• Gilligan Cut: Telling Ruth he'll need to question Phyllis, Columbo says, "She won't faint again, will she?" Cut to him trying to get through to Phyllis as she recuperates on a divan.
• Graceful Loser: When Ruth finally realizes that Columbo has got her, she calmly asks him to take her by the arm and escort her out, and the chivalrous Columbo agrees. This is partly a Call-Back to Phyllis insisting she never leaves a room until she has a man to escort her, and partly out of gratitude as Columbo basically agreed not to push too hard on the murder of Janie's father if Ruth confesses to her two recent murders.
• Lady Drunk: Phyllis spends most of her time swilling bourbon and engaging in emotional histrionics.
• Like a Son to Me: Janie is basically the daughter that Ruth never has, which makes it all the sadder when Ruth tries to frame her for murder after Columbo rips the Mutual Kill story apart.
• Mutual Kill: Or so Ruth wants it to look like, staging the scene so it will appear that Edward and Milton shot each other.
• Oh, Crap!: Ruth's reaction to Columbo's question about who turned the lights off after her brother and Milton had apparently killed each other.
• Old Maid: Ruth, who never married. As the story eventually reveals, she's quite bitter about it—decades ago she was engaged to Janie's father, only for Phyllis to steal him away and marry him.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: When Ruth shows up unexpectedly at the museum, Milton asks "what are you doing here?", right before she kills him. Edward then does the same thing, setting up Ruth's one-liner.
  Edward: What are you doing here?
  Ruth: Oh, I do wish everyone would stop asking me that. (shoots him)
• Reflexive Response: Because Ruth is desperately trying to save money everywhere she can so that she can keep her beloved museum afloat, she unintentionally turns the lights off to save electricity after making it look Edward and Milton killed each other, which is the first thing that makes Columbo suspicious.
• Rewind, Replay, Repeat: A frequent Columbo trope. In this episode Columbo is repeatedly listening to the recording that Edward, who was doing museum inventory, made for himself right before he was killed. It turns out to be the clincher: Edward lists as one of the artifacts a gold belt buckle that Ruth claimed was stolen two weeks prior.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Columbo goes to interview the hairdresser who did Milton's hair. The hairdresser refuses to submit to questioning and basically forces Columbo to get his hair done in order to ask his questions. The next couple of scenes feature an embarrassed Columbo sporting a fancy upswept hairdo rather than his usual unkempt, tousled hair.
• Sibling Triangle: Revealed in the backstory, as Ruth admits she was once engaged to the man who eventually married Phyllis. It turns out she murdered him too, by poison some twenty-odd years ago.
• Special Guest: Celeste Holm, a quarter-century removed from All About Eve, gets Special Guest Star credit.
• Spotting the Thread: Columbo's first clue that things aren't as they seem is that, despite the fact that the room where the murders took place has not been disturbed since the last two people in it apparently killed each other at night, the lights had been turned off.
• Unwitting Pawn: Milton thinks he is to break in and steal artifacts, so Ruth can get the insurance money. Her actual plan is to shoot him when he breaks in as part of a Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit so she can shoot her brother and frame him.
• Wham Line: It's one thing for Columbo to hear that once upon a time, Ruth was going to be happily married to the man she loved, while fate gave her sister that marriage instead. But he practically chokes on his beverage when he learns Phyllis actually stole that happy marriage from Ruth by eloping with Ruth's fiancé.