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The Greenhouse Jungle
Russian title: Смерть в оранжерее · Russian version
An orchid grower stages the kidnapping of his own nephew to get at the boy's trust fund, then turns the fake abduction into a real murder when the plan begins to slip. The episode that introduces Sergeant Wilson, the eager assistant nobody asked for.
Editor’s rating — 7.5 out of 10.
- Number
- 11 of 69
- Aired
- October 15, 1972
- Running time
- 70 min
- Director
- Boris Sagal
- Writer
- Jonathan Latimer
- Music
- Oliver Nelson
The case
- The killer
- Ray Milland as Jarvis Goodland
- The victim
- Bradford Dillman as Tony Goodland
- Guest cast
- Ray Milland, Bob Dishy, Bradford Dillman, William Smith, Arlene Martel, Robert Karnes
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
Jarvis Goodland has spent years living comfortably off money that is not his. His nephew Tony is about to come into a trust fund, and Goodland has been quietly drawing on it to fund the greenhouse and the collection of orchids that constitute his real life. When the accounts are examined, the shortfall will be obvious.
The scheme starts as fraud rather than murder. Goodland persuades Tony — who is broke, unhappily married and easily led — to fake his own kidnapping so that the pair can split a ransom drawn from the trust. Tony agrees, because Tony agrees to most things.
Then the nephew starts talking about telling his wife, and the fraud becomes something else. Goodland shoots him at the supposed ransom site and leaves the body where a kidnapping gone wrong would leave it, expecting the police to spend their time looking for a criminal who never existed.
Jarvis Goodland has been living off his nephew's trust fund for years, and the accounts will not survive an examination. Tony is about to claim the money, which makes the examination inevitable.
The scheme begins as fraud. Goodland persuades Tony — broke, unhappily married, easily led — to fake his own kidnapping so they can split a ransom drawn from the trust.
It becomes murder when Tony starts talking about telling his wife. Goodland shoots him at the supposed ransom site and leaves the body where a kidnapping gone wrong would leave it.
How Columbo gets him
The episode gives Columbo a partner for the first time: Sergeant Wilson, a young officer who has read the manuals, admires the lieutenant enormously, and is consistently, confidently wrong. Their scenes work because Wilson keeps announcing the obvious conclusion while Columbo quietly declines to reach it.
The kidnapping story fails on its economics. Goodland is the one who reported it, the one who handled the ransom and the one who benefits, and the ransom itself was drawn from money he had already spent. Columbo does not accuse him of anything; he simply keeps asking about the greenhouse, the plants, the watering, the soil.
That patience is the method here. Goodland is a fussy, fastidious man whose entire identity is bound up in his orchids, and he cannot resist correcting a policeman who admires them incorrectly. Every correction narrows the ground the lieutenant is standing on.
Sergeant Wilson arrives, and the pairing works because he keeps announcing the obvious conclusion while Columbo quietly declines to reach it. He has read the manuals and is confidently wrong throughout.
The kidnapping fails on its economics: Goodland reported it, handled the ransom, benefits from it, and the money came from funds he had already spent.
The lieutenant never accuses him of anything. He asks about the greenhouse — the plants, the watering, the soil — and lets a fastidious man correct him until the ground narrows.
Worth knowing
- Ray Milland, an Oscar winner for The Lost Weekend, plays Goodland with the exact quality the part needs: a man more attached to plants than to people.
- Bob Dishy's Sergeant Wilson returns later in Now You See Him, where the character is inexplicably given a different first name.
- Directed by Boris Sagal, who would return for two more episodes across the run.
- Ray Milland, an Oscar winner for The Lost Weekend, plays Goodland as a man more attached to orchids than to people.
- Bob Dishy's Sergeant Wilson returns in Now You See Him, where the character is given a different first name.
- Broadcast in October 1972.
Verdict
A comfortable, well-made episode that is mostly memorable for what it adds around the edges: Wilson, the greenhouse, and the first real sense that Columbo enjoys company as long as it is not competent.
The murder itself is one of the least premeditated in the series, and Milland plays the panic underneath the fussiness better than the plot strictly requires.
A comfortable, well-made hour, memorable mostly for what it adds at the edges: Wilson, the greenhouse, and the sense that Columbo enjoys company as long as it is not competent.
Milland plays the panic under the fussiness better than the plot strictly requires, which is what keeps it watchable.
Familiar faces
Actors who turn up in the series more than once — sometimes in very different parts.
- Arlene Martel as Gloria 3 episodes also in Double Exposure, A Friend in Deed
- Ray Milland as Jarvis Goodland 2 episodes also in Death Lends a Hand
- Bob Dishy as Frederic Wilson 2 episodes also in Now You See Him
- Robert Karnes as Grover 2 episodes also in Candidate for Crime
Cast data from TMDB, including uncredited bit parts. All the familiar faces →