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<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 276527" data-attributes="member: 23">It all hinged on a phone call Hanlon had made to his victim minutes before killing him. He knew his victim&#039;s phone was tapped and so was giving himself an alibi by saying he was at his office, when in reality he was in a payphone round the corner from the victim&#039;s home.In a nutshell, Columbo visited Hanlon at his office and played him the recording of the call, synchronising it with the time the original call was made. At a certain point, the clock in Hanlon&#039;s office loudly chimed the half hour - a sound absent on the recording - which proved that the call wasn&#039;t made from his office as he claimed.It is a really clever piece of writing, and I like the way it turned around many scenarios I&#039;ve seen on TV and film where a sound in the background gives away the guilty person&#039;s location. All the same, there&#039;s just nothing definitive about it. There are a thousand reasons the clock might not have chimed, and a million places Hanlon could have been, so it&#039;s not the coup de grâce the writing and performances suggest.Yes. I&#039;ve still a lot of episodes to watch, but at the moment I&#039;d be inclined to think of it as one of the best of the middle ranking episodes. The cinematography, locations, cast and some fun little character moments means it probably has a good rewatch value. It&#039;s just a shame it didn&#039;t deliver on perhaps the episode&#039;s most important moment: the Gotcha.I&#039;m looking forward to seeing the return of the former two. And it&#039;ll be great to see the Patrick McGoohan ones as well, as I know he directed most of his episodes (and a couple of others) and even co-wrote.Yes. Something that came across to me in this episode was that there was a lot of conflict between them very early on. There wasn&#039;t so much of the usual cat and mouse slow burn, which made it feel notable. They both had one another&#039;s numbers quite quickly. I think this is another reason why the Gotcha needed to have been a solid one, because it also lacked the element of surprise for the killer when Columbo proved himself a shrewd detective.Definitely. I read somewhere that Peter Falk regularly ad libbed in his scenes -&nbsp; Columbo noticing and admiring an unrelated ornament mid-sentence for example&nbsp; - to keep things fresh, and also to throw off the person with whom he&#039;s working. This way their character&#039;s confusion or frustration was more real. I&#039;m not sure of the details, but I do find myself guessing which moments were ad libbed as I watch.I feel a bit sad that both are behind me now.It&#039;s amazing. Like the scene at the Hollywood Bowl, it looks very impressive and gives the series such a sense of scope and scale.I can fully understand why you&#039;d use that moment as a screensaver.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 276527, member: 23"] It all hinged on a phone call Hanlon had made to his victim minutes before killing him. He knew his victim's phone was tapped and so was giving himself an alibi by saying he was at his office, when in reality he was in a payphone round the corner from the victim's home. In a nutshell, Columbo visited Hanlon at his office and played him the recording of the call, synchronising it with the time the original call was made. At a certain point, the clock in Hanlon's office loudly chimed the half hour - a sound absent on the recording - which proved that the call wasn't made from his office as he claimed. It is a really clever piece of writing, and I like the way it turned around many scenarios I've seen on TV and film where a sound in the background gives away the guilty person's location. All the same, there's just nothing definitive about it. There are a thousand reasons the clock might not have chimed, and a million places Hanlon could have been, so it's not the coup de grâce the writing and performances suggest. Yes. I've still a lot of episodes to watch, but at the moment I'd be inclined to think of it as one of the best of the middle ranking episodes. The cinematography, locations, cast and some fun little character moments means it probably has a good rewatch value. It's just a shame it didn't deliver on perhaps the episode's most important moment: the Gotcha. I'm looking forward to seeing the return of the former two. And it'll be great to see the Patrick McGoohan ones as well, as I know he directed most of his episodes (and a couple of others) and even co-wrote. Yes. Something that came across to me in this episode was that there was a lot of conflict between them very early on. There wasn't so much of the usual cat and mouse slow burn, which made it feel notable. They both had one another's numbers quite quickly. I think this is another reason why the Gotcha needed to have been a solid one, because it also lacked the element of surprise for the killer when Columbo proved himself a shrewd detective. Definitely. I read somewhere that Peter Falk regularly ad libbed in his scenes - Columbo noticing and admiring an unrelated ornament mid-sentence for example - to keep things fresh, and also to throw off the person with whom he's working. This way their character's confusion or frustration was more real. I'm not sure of the details, but I do find myself guessing which moments were ad libbed as I watch. I feel a bit sad that both are behind me now. It's amazing. Like the scene at the Hollywood Bowl, it looks very impressive and gives the series such a sense of scope and scale. I can fully understand why you'd use that moment as a screensaver. [/QUOTE]

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Who played JR Ewing?