Home → Episodes → A Case of Immunity

The case

The killer

Héctor Elizondo as Hassan Salah and Sal Mineo as Rachman Habib

The victim

André Lawrence as Youseff Alafa and Sal Mineo as Rachman Habib

Guest cast

Héctor Elizondo, Sal Mineo, Barry Robins, Brioni Farrell, Kenneth Tobey, Dick Dinman

Columbo is an inverted mystery: the murder opens the film and the killer is known from the first minutes. What you are watching for is how he proves it — see how the character works.

4:40

The murder

Hassan Salah is the chargé d'affaires of the Legation of Suari in Los Angeles, and he is running a conspiracy against his own government from it. Rahmin Habib, the legation's security officer, discovers the plot and has to be removed before he can report it.

Salah kills him inside the legation building and then stages a break-in: the body positioned as though Habib disturbed a burglar, papers scattered, a window forced from the inside to look forced from without. On foreign soil, with foreign staff as the only witnesses.

The immunity is the whole point. Salah cannot be arrested, cannot be compelled to answer, and knows it from the first minute. He treats the investigation as a diplomatic inconvenience to be managed rather than a threat.

Hassan Salah runs the Legation of Suari and is running a conspiracy against his own government out of it. The plot is at the stage where discovery means execution at home rather than prosecution abroad.

Rahmin Habib, the legation's own security officer, finds the evidence and prepares to report it. Salah kills him inside the building and stages a break-in: papers disturbed, a window forced, a body positioned as though it interrupted a thief.

The immunity is the point. He cannot be arrested, cannot be compelled to answer, and knows it from the first minute — so he treats a homicide investigation as a scheduling inconvenience.

How Columbo gets him

This is the only Columbo where the murderer's defence is jurisdictional rather than evidential, and the film takes that seriously: the lieutenant is repeatedly and correctly told that he has no authority in the building he is standing in.

The physical case comes together anyway. The staged burglary is wrong in the usual ways — too tidy, too complete, a window that was opened rather than broken — and the timeline depends on Salah being where his own staff say he was not.

The solution is political rather than legal. Columbo cannot prosecute, so he assembles the evidence for a different audience: the visiting head of state, to whom Salah's conspiracy matters far more than one dead security officer. The arrest, when it comes, is not made by the police.

This is the only Columbo where the defence is jurisdictional rather than evidential, and the film takes it seriously: the lieutenant is repeatedly and correctly told he has no authority in the room he is standing in.

The physical case comes together regardless. The staged burglary is wrong in the usual ways — too complete, too tidy, and a window forced from the inside.

The solution is political. Unable to prosecute, Columbo assembles the evidence for a different audience: the visiting head of state, to whom one dead security officer matters far less than a conspiracy.

8:17

Worth knowing

• Héctor Elizondo plays Salah with genuine dignity, which the script needs: the character has to be plausible as a diplomat rather than a caricature.
• The episode is one of the few in which Columbo hands over rather than closes — the killer is removed by his own government, not by the LAPD.
• Sal Mineo appears in one of his last roles before his death in 1976.
• Héctor Elizondo plays Salah with genuine dignity, which the script needs — the character has to work as a diplomat rather than a caricature.
• Sal Mineo appears in one of his last roles before his death in 1976.
• Broadcast in October 1975.

Verdict

An interesting variation on the format, held back slightly by a plot that has to explain a lot of international politics in ninety minutes.

The last scene is one of the strangest in the series: Columbo watching a man be taken away by people whose motives have nothing to do with justice, and knowing that is the best outcome available.

An interesting variation, slowed slightly by how much international politics it has to explain in ninety minutes.

The final scene is among the strangest in the run: Columbo watching a man be taken away by people whose motives have nothing to do with justice, and understanding that this is the best available outcome.

What the people who made it said

Quotes are in the speaker’s own words — from a transcript of the recording, or from the printed source. Players open at the right minute. Everything is shortened; the full version is in the source.

Familiar faces

Actors who turn up in the series more than once — sometimes in very different parts.

• Mike Lally as Police Photographer8 episodesalso in Requiem for a Falling Star, Double Exposure, Mind Over Mayhem, Swan Song, A Friend in Deed and 2 more
• Bob Harks as Chauffer4 episodesalso in A Stitch in Crime, Any Old Port in a Storm, Now You See Him
• Bill Zuckert as Captain August3 episodesalso in Negative Reaction, Murder in Malibu
• Harvey Gold as Coroner3 episodesalso in Negative Reaction, Forgotten Lady
• Cosmo Sardo as Party Guest3 episodesalso in Double Exposure, A Friend in Deed
• George Skaff as Haj Kura2 episodesalso in Make Me a Perfect Murder
• Jay Varela as Captain Ortega2 episodesalso in Candidate for Crime
• Ben Frommer as Cook2 episodesalso in A Friend in Deed
• Joe Pine as Party Guest2 episodesalso in Swan Song
• Murray Pollack as Captain Jamison2 episodesalso in A Friend in Deed

Cast data from TMDB, including uncredited bit parts. All the familiar faces →