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Try and Catch Me
Russian title: Попробуй поймай меня · Russian version
An elderly mystery writer locks her nephew-in-law in a walk-in safe and lets him suffocate, because she is certain he murdered her niece. Ruth Gordon plays her as the most likeable killer in the series, and the film knows it.
Editor’s rating — 9 out of 10.
- Number
- 41 of 69
- Aired
- November 21, 1977
- Running time
- 70 min
- Director
- James Frawley
The case
- The killer
- Ruth Gordon as Abigail Mitchell
- The victim
- Charles Frank as Edmund Galvin
- Guest cast
- Ruth Gordon, Mariette Hartley, Charles Frank, G.D. Spradlin, Mary Jackson, Marie Silva-Alexander
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
Abigail Mitchell writes bestselling mysteries and has spent a year believing that her niece's death in a boating accident was not an accident. The police found nothing. She is certain the husband, Edmund Galvin, did it, and she has decided that the absence of evidence is a problem she can solve herself.
She invites him to her house, sends him into the walk-in safe on an errand, and closes the door. The safe is airtight and the house is empty for the weekend. Then she goes away, makes herself conspicuous, and waits.
It is the most premeditated murder in the run by a considerable margin, and the most sympathetic. Abigail is not protecting money or reputation. She is administering a sentence that no court would deliver.
Abigail Mitchell has spent a year certain that her niece's drowning was murder and that Edmund Galvin, the husband, did it. The police investigated and found nothing, which she has treated not as an answer but as an obstacle.
The plan is the most premeditated in the series. She invites Galvin to the house, sends him into the walk-in safe on an errand, and closes the door. The safe is airtight, the house is empty for the weekend, and she has arranged to be conspicuously elsewhere.
She is not protecting money or reputation. She is carrying out a sentence that no court would deliver, and the film never asks the audience to think she is wrong about the underlying crime.
How Columbo gets him
Columbo likes her immediately, and the film is largely about how uncomfortable that becomes. She is funny, generous, and interested in his work; she gives him signed books and cooks for him. She also lies to him fluently, and he knows it from the first hour.
Because she writes mysteries, she has anticipated most of what he will do — which turns their scenes into a genuine contest between professionals. She keeps telling him how a detective would think, and he keeps not thinking that way.
The evidence problem is real: a man locked in a safe by accident and a man locked in a safe on purpose leave the same body. What Columbo has to establish is not what happened but who was in the house, and Abigail's public alibi is very good.
Columbo likes her immediately, and the film is largely about how uncomfortable that becomes. She feeds him, gives him signed books, asks about his work — and lies to him fluently from the first hour.
Because she writes mysteries for a living, she has anticipated most of what he will do. Their scenes are a contest between professionals, with Abigail explaining how a detective would think and Columbo declining to think that way.
The evidence problem is real: a man locked in a safe by accident and a man locked in on purpose leave the same body. What has to be established is who was in the house.
Worth knowing
- Ruth Gordon, an Oscar winner for Rosemary's Baby, was seventy-nine and plays Abigail with total control of every scene she is in.
- The episode is one of very few in which the victim is unambiguously worse than the murderer, and the script never softens that.
- Dog appears, and Abigail is the only murderer in the run who is kind to him.
- Ruth Gordon was seventy-nine and had won an Oscar for Rosemary's Baby; she controls every scene she appears in.
- Dog appears, and Abigail is the only murderer in the run who is kind to him.
- Broadcast in March 1977.
Verdict
One of the best of the later classic run, and the clearest test of what Columbo actually believes. He does not think Abigail is wrong about her niece. He arrests her anyway, and the film asks you to sit with that.
Her last line — asking whether he would have done the same in her position — is the only time a murderer gets the final word.
One of the best of the later classic run, and the clearest test of what Columbo actually believes. He does not doubt that Galvin killed her niece. He arrests her anyway.
Her last question — whether he would have done the same in her place — is the only time a murderer is given the final word, and the film does not answer it.
Familiar faces
Actors who turn up in the series more than once — sometimes in very different parts.
- Jerome Guardino as Sergeant Burke 4 episodes also in Forgotten Lady, Make Me a Perfect Murder, Murder, Smoke and Shadows
- Mariette Hartley as Veronica 2 episodes also in Publish or Perish
Cast data from TMDB, including uncredited bit parts. All the familiar faces →