Our automated overlords informed me that the original airdate was March 4, 1973, almost a full 7 years before I was born. But great art really does stand the test of time.
It seems to me that the popularity of murder mysteries--and Columbo, that's never a mystery at all--has led us in a certain way to be desensitized to the brutality of murder in the real world. On the other hand, Columbo is better than most in this regard. Laurence Harvey, who played "Emmett Clayton" (the murderer) portrayed a wretched character, who has very little to redeem him. The victim, "Tomlin Dudek," played by Jack Kruschen as a likable, friendly Eastern Bloc chess champion who comes out of retirement to play a match against Clayton. Clayton has only ascended to his height of popularity by the voluntary retirement of Dudek, whom he has never beaten. They hilariously shut down a French restaurant nearby their hotel by playing a chess match with the restaurant condiments on a checkered table cloth. Clayton doesn't win this one, or a previous friendly game at the hotel.
Clayton decides to kill Dudek because he will never be as famous as Dudek as long as they are both alive, and he's apparently decided he'll never beat Dudek fair and square. I think Dudek is probably Czech, though they never say. It sounds Czech, and he's way too likable to be a Soviet from the Rodina. (Sorry.) Herman Wouk writes that the former Czechoslovakia maintained unusually warm relations with the US especially because of American assistance in repelling Nazi aggression and retaliation during World War II (historical background in the novel, "The Winds Of War.").
Clayton lures Dudek back to the hotel with a pretense that he's been foolish with an Eastern/Czech girl. Could Dudek write a note explaining that Clayton is sorry that he misled her, but he can't continue the putative relationship? Dudek is sympathetic, because he's portrayed as older than Clayton. He even supposes that Clayton's relative youth explains his recklessness in matters of romance and sex. Young people are like that, he muses.
It's a little unclear why Dudek would follow an apparently distressed Clayton toward the basement, but he does so. And Clayton pushes him down a laundry chute that leads to a trash compactor. Oh, by the way: Clayton is deaf. This becomes important to Columbo deciphering the particulars of the crime.
Dudek doesn't die immediately, which potentially sets up a scenario where Clayton has to finish killing Dudek before he wakes up and tells the police that Clayton tried to kill him. Sadly, Dudek succumbs to his injuries before any of that can take place. In fact, Clayton impersonates Dudek to set up a cab ride to the airport, in order to create the appearance that Dudek was running away from his match with Clayton. He even uses the forlorn note to the young woman as "evidence" that Dudek was afraid of losing the chess match to Clayton.
This is one of the few episodes that is legitimately sad, because Dudek had no obvious character flaws. He's unfailingly kind to Clayton in the early scenes. He respects Clayton's talents; he defends Clayton's character to Clayton's ex-wife, who now hates him. I always feel the immorality of the murders; I always understand the wrongness of it. But usually, the victims are often unsympathetic, the easier to establish the grudging respect between Columbo and the killer. In this episode, Clayton is human trash. If he were real, and I weren't Catholic, I'd put him in the electric chair or gas chamber twice. I always long for Clayton to change his mind and not go through with the murder. In any case, a truly great episode it is.
In personal news, I am still terrible at chess. I'm trying to improve, but it's not a liberal arts kind of game, and I'm 46 years old. What a pity.
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