Nothing new here. A snob kills his protégé. The lieutenant suspects him for no reason other than he doesn’t seem to trust rich, successful, tall sophisticates. Then the crumpled detective seeks out the minutest clues, and voila, the criminal is caught. Hey, if you think I just gave away the ending, where have you been since 1971 when Columbo first came on the screen scene? Did you think the bad guy was going to get away with murder? Or, Heaven forbid, that the tenacious Lt. Columbo may be hounding the wrong suspect? Now, wouldn’t that be refreshing. The successful, classy suspect would be caught, tried and incarcerated. Then one of Columbo’s underlings discovers that the Lieutenant got the wrong guy. Now, that would be good TV, but it’s never gonna happen, my friend.
TV trivia: Did you know that Bing Crosby was first approached to play Columbo? In his sixties and very wealthy, Der Bingle declined, saying it would interfere with his golf.