Just One More Thing: How to Dial a Murder

Notes and screenshots for How to Dial a Murder: Originally broadcast on Apr 5, 1978, starring Nicol Williamson as a guy with a cool house, Kim Catrall as a victim waiting to happen, Ed Begley Jr as the dog cop, Tricia O'Neil as some kind of upper class dog-minatrix and, of course, Peter Falk as Columbo.

"A behavioral psychologist whose wife died under suspicious circumstances trains his two Doberman dogs to kill her lover using the command word 'rosebud' through a telephone. Lt. Columbo is investigating."

-IMDB Summary

"In “How to Dial a Murder,” Nicol Williamson plays Dr. Eric Mason, a behavioral psychologist looking to exact revenge on his business partner, who may have had an affair with the doctor’s late wife. This revenge takes the form of having trained dogs viciously tear the partner apart after hearing the phrase, “Rosebud,” all while Dr. Mason listens with pleasure over the phone. Quite a guy. Columbo sees right away that these dogs couldn’t be the sole culprits and sets out right away to ensure that they aren’t the only ones going to the pound. Author Glen Erik Hamilton (Every Day Above Ground) returns to analyze the episode, as well as posit the idea of a “Sinister Six” for Columbo villains. Who’d be in that? Let us know!"

-RJ's episode summary

Listen to the original podcast episode here:

Episode 49: How Did We Get from “Murder” to “Word”? with our guest Glenn Erik Hamilton.

How to Dial a Murder

Season 7, Episode #4

Director: James Frawley

Writers: Anthony Lawrence, Tom Lazarus

A thunderously cinematic episode which throws Columbo out of his typical surroundings, although not his comfort zone. Nicol Williamson undoubtedly commanded a significant share of the stage and spotlight, being an outsized personality both as an actor and a human being. He and Falk put on something like a clinic in their scenes together, especially with Columbo having pegged  Williamson’s Dr.Mason as the murderer seemingly before the crime was even committed.

(Just to reiterate my theory, as per the podcast: I think Columbo had Mason pegged as the murderer in the otherwise-apparently accidental death of Mason’s wife, and this second conveniently located death clinched the case for him. Either that, or he’d previously encountered Mason’s bullying, arbitrary self-help course and pegged him for a scam artist – so when he hears Mason’s assorted excuses and assumptions, he knows in advance that he’s lying and probably has a reason to lie).

One of the more unusual scenes in Columbo history takes place in this episode, with our favorite rumpled detective finding himself in a legitimate Old West ghost town (or the studio equivalent thereof, anyway), complete with tumbleweeds. And yet, Columbo seems no less at home in these surroundings as he does in fancy mansions, dirty alleys, Barney’s Beanery or a thousand other southern California locations where his investigations take him. Columbo is a constant, whatever the surroundings.

As the nest-to-last episode of the original series, “Dial a Murder” has a few elements of the 90s episodes peeking in. At this point, the show has been around long enough for Columbo to play and control situations – he’s too familiar to audiences to play the naif convincingly. Even if the murderers buy it, the audience can’t. There’s also loads of unnecessary nostalgia, which replays itself in the Nineties with frequently-dipped toes in the waters of noir cinema. But neither of these are necessarily bad, they’re just elements which are accentuated in the later run of the show.

We probably didn’t give Kim Cattrall enough credit, particularly as she justifies the nostalgia element. She has the forceful fragility of a classic Hollywood starlet, which certainly would have been what attracted the film-obsessed Mason to her. To that end, it might have been interesting to see her portrayed more along the line of Dorothy Comingore’s Susan Alexander Kane and contributing to Mason’s downfall, to complete the theme. 

Below, some of the fine guest stars in the episode How To Dial a Murder : Kim Cattrall as the bear-hugging ingenue Joanne Nicholls, Ed Begley Jr as Officer Stein, the elegant Tricia O’Neill as Miss Cochran and Laurel & Hardy (uncredited good boys)

Next episode: The Conspirators