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The case

6:21

The murder

There is no murderer, which is why this film sits oddly in any list of the series. Andy Parma — Columbo's nephew, the son of his late sister Mary — is marrying Melissa Hayes, and Melissa is taken from the hotel between the ceremony and the reception.

The abductor is Rudy Strassa, a man with a fixation and a plan, and the film follows the standard structure of a kidnapping thriller rather than an inverted mystery: the audience knows who has her, and the question is whether she will be found alive.

It is the only episode in seventy films where Columbo is racing to prevent a death rather than proving one has occurred.

The film opens on a wedding, which is already unlike anything else in the series, and the tone is closer to a police procedural than to the show's usual chamber duel. Andy Parma is marrying Melissa Hayes; Columbo is at the ceremony as family.

Melissa is taken from the hotel in the gap between the ceremony and the reception. The abductor, Rudy Strassa, is shown to the audience early, but there is no murder — the crime is in progress and the victim is alive.

That single change removes the show's engine. There is no killer to be visited repeatedly, no plan to be picked apart, and no arrogance to be exploited. What is left is a search with a clock on it.

How Columbo gets him

The personal stake changes everything. This is the one film where the lieutenant has no distance at all — the victim is family, and Falk plays him without any of the deflection or comedy the character normally uses as armour.

It is also the only appearance of any Columbo relative on screen. Andy Parma is the single member of the enormous, endlessly mentioned family that the series ever shows, which makes the episode significant regardless of its quality.

The procedure is straightforward police work: timelines, hotel staff, vehicles, the geography of where a person can be taken in a limited window.

Falk plays the whole film without armour. The apologetic manner, the fumbling, the digressions about his wife — all of it goes, because the person in danger is his nephew's wife and the performance would be obscene.

It is also the only time the series shows a member of the family it has spent thirty years describing. Andy Parma is established as the son of Columbo's sister Mary, who has died before the events of the film.

The procedure is straightforward and well handled: hotel staff, vehicles, the geography of the window in which a person can be moved. The break comes from a sound on a recording, which is at least a method the character has used before.

Worth knowing

• Based on an Ed McBain novel, which is why the structure is a police procedural rather than a howcatchem.
• The only episode featuring a member of Columbo's family; his sister Mary is established as having died before the events of the film.
• Andy Parma is played by Thomas Calabro, later of Melrose Place.
• Adapted from an Ed McBain novel, which explains the procedural structure.
• Thomas Calabro, later of Melrose Place, plays Andy Parma — the only Columbo relative ever shown.
• Broadcast in March 1992.

Verdict

Not a Columbo episode in any meaningful sense, and a decent thriller in its own right. If you want the format, skip it; if you want to see the character with his defences down, it is essential.

It also settles a long-running question by showing, for the only time, that at least one of the relatives he keeps mentioning is real.

Not a Columbo episode in any structural sense, and a competent thriller on its own terms. If you want the format, skip it.

But it is essential for anyone following the family question: after decades of anecdotes about brothers, cousins and uncles, this is the one film that puts a relative on screen and confirms at least part of the story was true.

Familiar faces

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

• David Byrd as Bailey2 episodesalso in Murder, A Self Portrait

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