MovieChat Forums > Columbo (1971) Discussion > Some Victims were Just Asking for IT!

Some Victims were Just Asking for IT!

posted 7 years ago by [email protected] (5497)
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First of all, no one deserves to be murdered. But some of the victims on Columbo were just "askin' for it".

I was recently watching "Murder by the Book', a favorite of mine starring Jack Cassidy who plays an author who is upset that his writing partner is breaking up the partnership.

He stops by the little country store he shops at when he stays at his vacation home. The store owner, Lily La Sanka has an obvious crush on him. She spies out the window to see what lady he is with THIS time. Turns out it was his writing partner who is assumed to be murdered while in his office miles away in L.A.

So, Mrs. La Sanka tries a little blackmail. Really, $15,000 was not a big deal of cash to the author Ken Franklin. But a blackmailer WAS a big deal.

So she's NOT at all suspicious when he shows up with the cash and two bottles of champagne for a cozy, " intimate" dinner? Duh, how dumb can you get? All of a sudden he has a romantic interest in her? And she aint suspicious?

If she was intent on blackmail, well... take the cash and disappear that day. Don't invite a murderer into your home for a private dinner! He had no hesitation about killing a longtime friend and business partner. Why would he hesitate killing you?

In 'Death Lends a Hand', Patricia Crowley is being blackmailed by the head of a private investigation agency. Her husband had his much younger wife followed.

Turns out she did have an affair, but the head of the agency will keep her secret if she agrees to give him information about her husband's clients.

Well she won't be blackmailed. She is going to come clean to her husband. But WHY in the world would she visit her blackmailer, all alone, at his home late at night to inform him of this? Another, 'duh, how can you be so dumb'? moments.

The guy had no problem with blackmail, but she threatens to expose him and his other dirty dealings. So she expects to walk out of his house alive?

It's hard to feel sorry for some characters when they bring their demise on themselves.

[–] AngularTurnip (3333) 7 years ago

Or how about in "Lovely But Lethal" where Viveca Scott's secretary, who's been feeding her employer information about her rival David Lang and who also is nursing something of a crush on Scott, decides she's going to blackmail her employer?

[–] AngularTurnip (3333) 7 years ago

[–] [email protected] (5497) 7 years ago

I didn't remember Viveca Scott's secretary. I had to watch some of the episode to refresh my memory. It wasn't one of my favorites.

But I have NO excuse for not remembering Gene Stafford. "An Exercise in Fatality" is one of my top ten favorites!

Yes, Gene could have avoided becoming a fatality if he had exercised a little restraint. I mean, he should not have confronted Milo with what he knew. He should have let his lawyers do it!
He was eager to let Milo know that he, Gene, knew what was going on. But it would have been safer to wait until he had all the evidence in hand and several witnesses in the room.

[–] avortac4 (3452) 2 years ago

"...f he had exercised a little restraint."

Exercised? Clever.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

You also have Gene Stafford in "An Exercise In Fatality" who taunts his business partner Milo Janus at length about how he's going to bury him because of his crooked business dealings. At one point, Gene's in his office, burning the midnight oil, building a case against Milo, when in walks Milo. Milo uses the excuse he has a master key to all his franchises (though that still doesn't explain what they hell he's doing there at that hour). The average person would be thinking that something is not right and high tail it out of there. Gene instead continues to boast about how Milo's world is going to come crumbling down once he's through with him ... I'm sure you can predict what happens next.

---

I always figured that Gene Stafford should have been wearing a sign around his neck saying "KILL ME." And when Stafford continues to taunt Janus even though its night, the gym is closed and they are all alone....its almost like a death wish.

I suppose the reality is...in real life, business partners figure they CAN taunt their crooked partners endlessly without getting killed. Stafford probably figures that Janus will keep denying things all through a trial and pre-trial discovery -- he doesn't bank on murder.

Great dumb final line for Stafford, though: After Conrad warns Stafford that the coffee his is drinking will kill him, Stafford replies: "I'm going to live a long life..."

Conrad's line is a perfect foil: "I'm afraid not." And the murder begins...one of the more brutal killings in a Columbo, I might add, well in accord with Robert Conrad's tough guy reputation.