Recap / Columbo S 10 E 04

Leon Lamarr's alibi will soon be ripped and torn by Columbo.

Episode: Season 10, Episode 4
Title:"Death Hits the Jackpot"
Directed by: Vincent Mc Eveety
Written by: Jeffrey Bloom
Air Date: December 15, 1991
Previous: Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star
Next: No Time to Die
Guest Starring: Rip Torn, Jamie Rose, Gary Kroeger

"Death Hits the Jackpot" is a 1991 Columbo TV movie.

Freddy Brower (Gary Kroeger) is a photographer whose life isn't going particularly well at the moment. First, he's broke. Second, he's going through a nasty divorce and squabbling over money and debts with his wife Nancy (Jamie Rose). His life turns around in an instant, however, when he finds out that he has won a $30 million lottery.

Thing is, because Nancy hasn't yet signed the divorce papers, she's legally entitled to half of Freddy's lottery winnings. Freddy doesn't want to share the wealth. He approaches his uncle, wealthy jeweler Leon Lamarr (Rip Torn), for help. Leon comes up with a suggestion: he will claim the ticket as his own, and collect the winnings. Then he'll give the money to Freddy, minus a 10% commission fee for himself. Gullible Freddy agrees to this deal, unaware that Leon has just found out that his own finances are also in dire straits, and his creditors are starting to close in on him. Not only that, but Leon is also having an affair with Nancy.

Leon would rather not give his nephew the entire cut, and eventually decides to kill him. He strings Freddy along for a while, collecting the money as per their deal. Then, on Halloween night, Leon goes over to Freddy's apartment, hits him on the head, drowns him in the bathtub, and stages the scene to look like an accident. He also has Nancy call his house via Freddy's phone as he's receiving guests for a fancy costume party to set his alibi.

Unfortunately for him, the investigating officer is Lt. Columbo, who wonders why Freddy, who was struggling to make rent, was getting ready to buy a $175,000 sports car, and why he had a fridge stocked with bottles of expensive champagne. Additionally, unbeknownst to Leon, Freddy sold an expensive watch that Leon gave Freddy as a gift for rent money, and replaced the original with a $100 knock-off. The imitation isn't waterproof and Freddy would likely know this, so Columbo finds it strange that Freddy would wear it during his alleged bath.

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Tropes:

• The Alleged Car: Columbo's ancient Peugeot is backfiring louder than usual this episode, and at one point the door jams. The salesman at the fancy sports car dealership sneers in disgust when Columbo pulls up in his old jalopy.
• Alliterative Name: Leon Lamarr.
• Answer Cut: Freddy, pretending for the benefit of his friends that his uncle is the lottery winner, says "What would I do with all that money?" The camera then moves to show a brochure for a $175K sports car that Freddy is interested in.
• Asshole Victim: Downplayed, while Freddy isn't completely unlikable, he tries to take advantage of his divorce to burden Nancy with half of his debt, going back on their agreed-on contract in the process. When he confides with his uncle Leon to hide his $30m lottery winnings from Nancy, it feels like a Karmic Death since Freddy consorts with someone willing to murder to get out of bankruptcy and turn their life around.
• Authentication by Newspaper: When Freddy approaches Leon to explain his problem, he presents proof that he's the lottery winner in the form of his ticket and the newspaper in which the winning numbers have been published.
• Bait-and-Switch: When Leon is done killing Freddy and dressing up to leave the apartment, Nancy enters it. She looks around at the scene, having apparently caught him in the act. ...and shares a passionate kiss with Leon.
• Batman Gambit: Columbo still has basically nothing on Nancy, so he calls her in to be present for Leon's arrest and makes sure to say "thank you for your cooperation" so Leon will think she ratted on him. Then he congratulates her on getting all the money, followed by Nancy squealing with joy, followed by an enraged Leon throwing her under the bus by telling her role in the murder to Columbo.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The episode opening seems to suggest there will be a murder by Nancy or Freddy over a Divorce Assets Conflict combined with the lottery winnings but it turns out that Leon is the one to commit the murder after Freddy confides with him and Nancy is actually working with Leon as an accomplice.
• Crocodile Tears: When Columbo asks why Nancy hadn't signed the divorce papers, she says she still loved her husband and starts crying. She believes Columbo swallowed it completely; Leon tells her correctly that Columbo probably saw right through it.
• Divorce Assets Conflict: A fatal one. Freddy, who was haggling with Nancy over debts he incurred before their marriage, wants to keep the $30 million jackpot to himself.
• The Dog Bites Back: Throughout the episode, Nancy has been making it a point to badger and prod Leon for either money or sex, and acts rather nasty when he delays one or both. Towards the end, the last straw is when she throws Leon under the bus once he's suspected of murder, and celebrates that she'll be the sole beneficiary of his lottery money. Not willing to let this little gold digger have the last laugh, Leon does what anyone else would've done and exposes her for being an accomplice to the whole scheme, much to her outrage.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Columbo has one of these when he realizes that the winning numbers match to the focal length settings on Freddy's camera.
• A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: Freddy is parted with his money and his life, all because he tried to keep the whole thirty million to himself, rather than split the winnings and divorce on mutually pleasant terms. Freddy was also going to buy a $175,000 sports car and had already splurged on expensive champagne, indicating his windfall wouldn't have lasted.
• For Doom the Bell Tolls: A heavy grandfather clock starts tolling 9 pm right after Columbo tells Leon that the jig is up and Columbo has him.
• Foreshadowing: When Freddy is watching the talk show where Leon is appearing, the host says about the ticket, "You realize what that means? He doesn't have to share the money with anybody! Except, maybe his wife. Unless he wants to sleep in the bathtub tonight."
• Foot-Dragging Divorcee: Nancy is stalling when it comes to signing the divorce papers, which is the reason why Freddy wants to keep his lottery winnings from her.
• Greed: Freddy tries to a scheme to keep all the money instead of settling for $15 million, and gets killed as a result.
• Halloween Episode: Leon sneaks out of his own costume party on the night of October 31, wearing a cloak as if it were a costumer sneaks over to Freddy's apartment, and kills him. This turns out to be a Chekhov's Gun as Leon's claim that Freddy was coming to the party is undermined by the absence of a costume in Freddy's apartment.
• Have You Told Anyone Else?: Leon asks Freddy, "Who else have you told about your windfall?" Freddy thinks he's concerned about keeping the secret from Nancy but of course Leon is already hatching a murder plot.
• Hollywood Drowning: Leon holds Freddy's head under the bathwater once Freddy starts waking up. It takes maybe under a minute for Freddy to drown for good.
• Humble Hero: As a Foil to the antagonists who greedily grasped for the lottery money and lost for it, Columbo comes out of the experience with a wiser understanding of what's important. Rather than buy Mrs. Columbo something expensive for their silver anniversary, our hero instead decides a simple yet meaningful outing would suffice to show his love to his wife.
• Idiot Ball:
  • Freddy lets greed and pride get the best of him. Rather than part with half his winnings and end his marriage on potentially positive terms, he jumps through hoops to keep the $30M for himself by confiding with Leon. As a result, he's murdered by Leon & Nancy's murder scheme.
  • Why didn't Leon at least bring a Halloween costume to Freddy's place, to make the story about Freddy attending the party seem more credible?
• Laser-Guided Karma: Leon ends up losing the money he was hoping to keep all for himself when it is discovered that Freddy was the rightful owner of the winning lottery ticket, and thus Nancy became the rightful owner upon his death. Nancy ends up also getting busted as an accomplice when Leon rats her out in revenge. It's even possible that Leon is beginning to ponder murdering Nancy, since he's using the same stalling tactics with her as with Freddy, but this isn't confirmed.
• Like a Son to Me: Leon lies and says that Freddy was "like a son to us" when he was orphaned in his teens after his parents died in a plane crash.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: A common Columbo trope. Leon hits his nephew over the head, drowns him in the bathtub, and stages the scene to make it look like Freddy slipped and fell.
• Meaningful Name: The episode's title "Death Hits the Jackpot" alludes to how Freddy is now dead and the winning lottery ticket is actually in Freddy's name but Nancy is a beneficiary. At the end however, Nancy and Leon are likely going to prison after ratting each other out, and it's doubtful they're going to be able to keep the cash or at least enjoy it due to their premeditated murder conspiracy and the punishment it entails.
• Mock Millionaire: Leon projects the outward appearance of being wealthy, successful and well-respected, but in private, is actually dead broke.
• The Mistress: Nancy is this for Leon, who is married. The film is vague but it's heavily implied that they were lovers before the lottery business, and that Nancy went to Leon when she was suspicious about Freddy.
• New-Age Retro Hippie: Freddy's neighbors are a bunch of retro hippie kooks who do wacky stuff like play the guitar and recite poems at funerals, or sit around and sing "Where Have All the Flowers Gone", or keep chimps as pets.
• Off-into-the-Distance Ending: Columbo and another detective, walking off after Leon and Nancy have been arrested, while Columbo muses about what to get his wife for their anniversary.
• Phoney Call: The other part of Leon's alibi for the murder involves Nancy pretending to be Freddy and calling Leon's house, to establish that Freddy died after 8 pm. Leon has a fake conversation on the phone for the ears of the servant who gives him the phone.
• Plot Hole: It's not really clear why Nancy didn't just refuse to sign the divorce papers and thus collect $15 million, rather than conspire with Leon to murder her husband to get the same amount of money.
• Roommate Com: Freddy has an endless supply of wacky neighbors who keep dropping in after his murder. One of them keeps a pet monkey. This monkey ends up being crucial because the pet left a fingerprint on a medallion that Leon was wearing.
• Sore Losers: When Leon is finally placed at the scene of the crime, Columbo brings Nancy into the room for his Batman Gambit by announcing that she is the rightful owner of the lottery money because she was married to Freddy at the time he won. Leon decides to turn on her and confess that she was the one who called him to falsify a call from Freddy. She becomes very irate at this point and then ready to assault him.
• Shoddy Knockoff Product: Leon makes an unintentional blunder by moving Freddy to his bathtub with a $100 knockoff watch on his wrist. He does this to create a stopped clock and falsify evidence. Columbo finds it puzzling that he has the watch on while in the bathtub. Turns out that Leon thought it was the genuine article (which was waterproof) he gave Freddy as a gift a year ago, but Freddy secretly sold it off for rent money.
• Stopped Clock: Leon smashes Freddy's watch in an effort to establish a time of death for later, when Leon was back at his party. It backfires when Columbo finds out the watch is a counterfeit that isn't waterproof, meaning Freddy had no reason to wear it in the bath.
• Taking You with Me: When Nancy throws Leon under the bus and pretends she's the worthy, innocent beneficiary of the lottery money, he gleefully returns the favor to his accomplice and reveals she had a hand in Freddy's murder. You certainly can't inherit money you wrongfully murdered for, and Leon's making sure this applies to Nancy as well.
• Wham Shot: The kiss between Leon and Nancy. It's what alerts the audience that not only did Nancy know this was going to happen, but that she was in on it all along.
• Your Costume Needs Work: Inverted. When Columbo shows up at the Halloween party in his standard cheap suit and rumpled raincoat, the guests assume that he's dressed as an eccentric millionaire.

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