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Dagger of the Mind
Russian title: Из любви к искусству · Russian version
Two theatrical stars kill the critic who is about to end their careers — by accident, in a scuffle — and then discover that disposing of a body is considerably harder than either of them can manage. The only Columbo filmed in London.
Editor’s rating — 6.5 out of 10.
- Number
- 13 of 69
- Aired
- November 26, 1972
- Running time
- 92 min
- Director
- Richard Quine
- Writer
- Richard Levinson & William Link / Jackson Gillis
- Music
- Dick DeBenedictis
The case
- The killer
- Richard Basehart as Nicholas Frame and Honor Blackman as Lillian Stanhope
- The victim
- John Williams as Sir Roger Haversham and Wilfrid Hyde-White as Tanner
- Guest cast
- Richard Basehart, Honor Blackman, John Williams, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Bernard Fox, Arthur Malet
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.
The murder
Nicholas Frame and Lillian Stanhope are the most celebrated acting couple in England, currently rehearsing Macbeth, and currently at the point where celebrity has outrun talent. The producer Sir Roger Haversham has seen the rehearsals, hates what he has seen, and intends to close the production and say why in public.
The confrontation happens in the theatre and goes wrong in seconds. Haversham is struck, falls, and dies — not by design but by the ordinary physics of an argument between people who are not used to being contradicted. What follows is entirely deliberate.
The pair decide to move the body to his home and arrange a fall down the staircase. Then, discovering he is not quite dead, they finish the job properly. This is the film's real subject: two people who begin as manslaughterers and talk themselves, scene by scene, into being murderers.
Nicholas Frame and Lillian Stanhope are the most celebrated acting couple in England and are currently rehearsing a Macbeth that is not working. Sir Roger Haversham has seen it, intends to close the production, and intends to say why.
The confrontation in the theatre goes wrong in seconds. He is struck, falls and dies — not by design but by the ordinary physics of an argument between people unused to being contradicted.
Everything after that is deliberate. They move the body home, arrange a fall down the staircase, and — discovering he is not quite dead — finish it properly. The film's real subject is two people talking themselves into being murderers scene by scene.
How Columbo gets him
Columbo is in London on an exchange with Scotland Yard, which gives the episode its running joke — a rumpled American asking English policemen where a man might get a cup of coffee — and gives the killers a reason to underestimate him even more thoroughly than usual.
The staged fall does not survive contact with the body. The injuries are inconsistent with a staircase, and the timeline of the death does not fit the evening the couple have described. But the real crack is psychological: Frame and Stanhope are performers, and they cannot stop performing grief at each other in front of a witness.
The lieutenant works them separately, which is the standard move against a pair, and lets each begin to suspect that the other will fold first. By the last act they are not defending themselves against Columbo, they are defending themselves against one another.
Columbo is in London on an exchange with Scotland Yard, which gives the episode its running joke and gives the killers an extra reason to underestimate him.
The staged fall does not survive the body. The injuries are wrong for a staircase and the timeline does not fit the evening described.
The real crack is psychological. Frame and Stanhope are performers who cannot stop performing grief at each other, and the lieutenant works them separately until each is defending himself against the other rather than against him.
Worth knowing
- Richard Basehart and Honor Blackman play the couple, and both are having an enormous amount of fun with characters who are permanently on stage.
- The London setting was a genuine location shoot, unusual for a series that almost never left California.
- Wilfrid Hyde-White appears as the butler, and his scenes with Falk are among the funniest in the run.
- Richard Basehart and Honor Blackman are both plainly enjoying characters who are permanently on stage.
- The London shoot was a genuine location trip, unusual for a series that almost never left California.
- Wilfrid Hyde-White appears as the butler; broadcast November 1972.
Verdict
Broader and stagier than most, and the change of country makes it feel like a holiday episode — which it more or less was. The pleasure is in the two killers, who are ridiculous and genuinely frightening in roughly equal measure.
The double act also solves a structural problem the format usually has: with two murderers, Columbo does not need to break a wall, only to find the seam between them.
Broader and stagier than most, and the change of country makes it feel like a holiday — which it more or less was. The pleasure is two killers who are ridiculous and genuinely frightening at once.
The double act also solves a structural problem: with two murderers, Columbo does not need to break a wall, only to find the seam.
Familiar faces
Actors who turn up in the series more than once — sometimes in very different parts.
- Wilfrid Hyde-White as Tanner 2 episodes also in Last Salute to the Commodore
- Bernard Fox as Purser Watkins 2 episodes also in Troubled Waters
- Walker Edmiston as Gardener 2 episodes also in Any Old Port in a Storm
Cast data from TMDB, including uncredited bit parts. All the familiar faces →