Just One More Thing: Now You See Him

Notes and screenshots for Now You See Him: Originally broadcast on February 29, 1976, starring Jack Cassidy as stage magician and Nazi renegade The Great Santini, Nehemian Persoff as the victim Jess Jerome, plus appearances by Bob Dishy, Robert Loggia, Thayer David and, of course, Peter Falk as Columbo.

"A popular stage magician murders the employer who's been blackmailing him under threat of revealing his past as a Nazi prison camp guard, making it look like a contract killing. Columbo must trick the master trickster to reveal the truth."

-IMDB Summary

"Yes, we talked about “Now You See Him” way back on our seventh show, but we felt it was worth revisiting with a more, shall we say, open-minded guest. The episode features Jack Cassidy creeping it up as a creep magician/ex-Nazi SS officer who kills the creep magic club owner who’s blackmailing him over his evil past. Also- Columbo has a new coat! Robert Loggia’s in charge of the kitchen! There’s a hidden Hollywood legend! Lots of other stuff we never got to when we tried talking about the episode with that first guy! Since it’s the world of magic illusion, we brought back our resident expert, Leigh Beadon (techdirt.com), to discuss."

-RJ's episode summary

Listen to the original podcast episode here:

Episode 45: That’s Very Good. The Magician Did It. with our guest Leigh Beadon.

Now You See Him...

Season 5, Episode #5

Director: Harvey Hart

Writers: Michael Sloan

Of the three famously recurring murderers on Columbo, Cassidy is easily my favorite. I love Culp unconditionally (As a kid, I used to creep out to the tv room at 1:30 in the morning to watch The Saint and I Spy coming out of one of the cable superstations) and his villains always drip frustrated guilt, and MacGoohan is naturally engaging on every level, but ohhh Jack Cassidy. Working his jaw like a demonically possessed ventriloquist's dummy, all that impatience and arrogance, the beaming charisma, everything about him screams "beautiful sociopath."

Of course, he was a troubled, manic-depressive alcoholic in real life, and even in these flippant TV murder mystery performances, he brings that tension around. There are two great scenes which are nothing more than Falk and Cassidy batting back at each other with gestures and forced conversation - both in the stage area of the club, once when Columbo watches him set up a card trick and again during a performance  - and I think I rewatched them a half dozen times apiece.

Given that I'm a huge Superman nerd, it's probably no surprise that my favorite Cassidy role remains his performance in It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman, the somewhat notorious Broadway musical based around the Man of Steel. Cassidy originated the role of cynical, nihilistic gossip columnist and rival for Lois Lane's affections Max Mencken, and along with his fellow villain Abner Sedgwick (originally played by Michael O'Sullivan) gets easily the best songs in the whole show. 

Anyway, also enjoyed the presence of some comic bits in this episode, such as the running gag of Columbo trying to ditch his new coat, and a pretty interesting (if convenient) bit of forensics ... nah, lots of fun in this one, a good episode.

Next episode: Last Salute to the Commodore