Just One More Thing: Blueprint For Murder

Notes and screenshots for Blueprint For Murder: Originally broadcast on February 9, 1972, starring Patrick O'Neal as assassinating architect Elliot Markham, Forest Tucker as his Texan target, Janis Paige as the ex-wife with the inside scoop, cameos from character actor John Fielder and recurring extra John Finnegan, and, of course, Peter Falk as Columbo.

"An architect kills a Texas millionaire and hides his body, and makes it look like he left the country, in order to keep his visionary construction project financed. But the victim's ex-wife believes her ex-husband has been murdered."

-IMDB Summary

"The Season One finale, “Blueprint for Murder,” stars Patrick O’Neal as an architect whose big upcoming project is placed in jeopardy due to a minor funding issue. What issue? Well, a Texas tycoon’s (Forrest Tucker) young second wife has agreed to devote a huge chunk of the galoot’s fortune to the project and he’ll have nothing of it. So, the architect’s only way to keep the development alive is to kill the tycoon by… uh… well… we never find out exactly. Which is weird, right? It’s just one of many off parts of a solidly okay episode that prevent it from possibly becoming one of the good ones. Peter Falk directs for the only time and he’s good! Really! There are just some odd things here and there that don’t quite gel. Mallory Ortberg (Dear Prudence) returns to the show to sort it all out and talk about how much we all loved the Texan’s ex-wife, Goldie."

-RJ's episode summary

Listen to the original podcast episode here:

Episode 58: Carnegie Hall and Nashville, They Don't Mix with our guest Mallory Ortberg. 

Blueprint for Murder

Season 1, Episode 7

Director: Peter Falk

Writers: Steven Bochco, William Kelley, Richard Levinson

An early-enough episode that the formula still enjoys some meddling, prior to being firmly established. The off-screen murder of Forrest Tucker’s Texas oilman is a rarity in the series. 

For my part, having adapted to the formula, I wondered if the invisible nature of the violence might play a part in the mystery. It didn’t, but not for any lack of forethought, is my feeling -- like I say, without the formula yet being totally established, it didn’t seem notable enough to make a plot point.

With that being said, of course, the mid-episode twist of the bloodied hat being discovered on the Williamson estate was enjoyably unexpected.

The story behind this episode, by the way, is that Levinson and Link were in the mood to teach their ambitious young star a lesson by assigning him, for his directorial debut, an almost impossible task: Filming on and around a construction site. 

The schedule for such a shoot is far more intense than the average shot, but if they expected Falk to wilt, balk or ask for help, they were clearly mistaken. I don’t doubt that Falk learned a little humility in the course of filming, but he also did a superb job and likely taught a more important lesson than he was intended to learn.

For the record, I have classical and country-western discs in my car. They mix just fine, thank you.