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The case

The killer

Donald Pleasence as Adrian Carsini

The victim

Gary Conway as Rick Carsini

Guest cast

Donald Pleasence, Robert Walden, Gary Conway, Joyce Jillson, Robert Ellenstein, Julie Harris

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.

9:17

The murder

Adrian Carsini makes wine, and it is the only thing about him that is not a performance. The estate loses money; his palate is world class; his half-brother Ric, who owns the place, intends to sell it to a corporation that will fill the bottles with something drinkable and profitable.

The murder is almost domestic. Carsini strikes him during the argument, then locks the body in the airtight wine cellar and leaves for a conference in New York. Without air conditioning, over a hot weekend, the cellar does what he needs it to do — and, as he well knows, destroys the entire vintage stored inside it. He sacrifices the thing he loves most to hide the killing.

He then stages a diving accident, dumping the body offshore with scuba gear, so that a man who could not swim well appears to have drowned doing something reckless. The plan is thorough and, crucially, it costs Carsini something. Almost no other Columbo murderer pays a price up front.

The estate loses money and Adrian Carsini does not care, because the wine is the only thing about him that is not a performance. His half-brother Ric owns the place and intends to sell it to a corporation that will fill the bottles with something profitable.

The argument turns physical and Carsini kills him, then locks the body in the airtight wine cellar and leaves for a conference in New York.

The cellar does what he needs over a hot weekend without air conditioning — and destroys the entire vintage stored in it. He sacrifices the thing he loves most to hide the killing, which is a price almost no other Columbo murderer pays.

How Columbo gets him

The relationship between Carsini and Columbo is the reason people rank this episode first. The lieutenant knows nothing about wine and says so; the winemaker, unable to resist an audience with genuine curiosity, teaches him. By the last act Columbo can hold a glass properly, and the education has been entirely mutual — each has been studying the other the whole time.

The evidence trail runs through temperature. A cellar without cooling over a heatwave ruins wine; ruined wine has to be disposed of; disposal leaves records, deliveries, complaints. Columbo follows the loss of the vintage rather than the loss of the man.

There is also the question of the diving accident, which requires the victim to have been a diver, and the small matter of a corked bottle that should not have been opened. The lieutenant's questions are all about the estate, never about the death.

The relationship is why this episode tops most lists. Columbo knows nothing about wine and says so; Carsini, unable to resist genuine curiosity, teaches him. By the last act the lieutenant can hold a glass properly, and the education has been mutual.

The evidence runs through temperature. A cellar without cooling over a heatwave ruins wine; ruined wine must be disposed of; disposal leaves deliveries, invoices and complaints. Columbo follows the loss of the vintage rather than the loss of the man.

There is also the diving accident, which requires a victim who could dive, and a corked bottle that should never have been opened.

6:42

Worth knowing

• Donald Pleasence's performance is the most quoted in the series; he plays a snob who is also, unmistakably, an artist.
• The last scene — the two of them sharing a bottle before the arrest, Columbo pouring correctly for the first time — is regularly voted the best moment of the entire run.
• The episode is one of very few where the murderer's motive is neither money nor self-preservation but the preservation of a standard.
• Donald Pleasence plays a snob who is also, unmistakably, an artist — the performance is the most quoted in the series.
• The final scene, in which the two share a bottle before the arrest and Columbo pours correctly for the first time, is regularly voted the best moment of the entire run.
• Broadcast in October 1973.

Verdict

If the series has a masterpiece, this is it. The plot is sound, but what elevates it is the mutual respect: Carsini is a murderer and a monstrous snob, and by the end you understand exactly what he was protecting and why he thought it was worth a life.

Falk plays the arrest as a genuine sadness. He has spent ninety minutes learning from this man, and the last thing he does is offer him a drink.

If the series has a masterpiece, this is it. The plot is sound, but what lifts it is mutual respect: Carsini is a murderer and a monstrous snob, and by the end you understand exactly what he was protecting.

Falk plays the arrest as genuine sadness. He has spent ninety minutes learning from this man, and the last thing he does is offer him a drink.

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.

• Vito Scotti as Maitre D'6 episodesalso in Candidate for Crime, Swan Song, Negative Reaction, Identity Crisis, Murder, A Self Portrait
• Bob Harks as Bar Patron4 episodesalso in A Stitch in Crime, A Case of Immunity, Now You See Him
• Robert Donner as Drunk3 episodesalso in Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health, Undercover
• Regis Cordic as Lewis2 episodesalso in Candidate for Crime
• John McCann as Officer2 episodesalso in The Conspirators
• George Gaynes as Frenchman2 episodesalso in Etude in Black
• Walker Edmiston as Auctioneer2 episodesalso in Dagger of the Mind

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