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Tag: Nicholas Colasanto

Murder is Bad, but Suicide is Sadder

Episode Card_S01E03 (Ep 3)

Mallory Ortberg (the-toast.net) joins Jon and RJ to discuss “Etude in Black,” which features John Cassavetes as an orchestra conductor who murders his mistress/concert pianist. It’s up to Columbo to unravel how and why the maestro staged the woman’s death as an apparent suicide. Also involved- his long-suffering wife, Blythe Danner; her very, very wealthy mother, Myrna Loy; a precocious neighbor kid; and a drunk, hothead trumpeter.

Also discussed (among other things):

– Mallory’s wonderful essay, The Case For Making Columbo America’s Doctor Who.

– That time Cassavetes, Falk and Ben Gazarra went on The Dick Cavett show in 1970 and were kind of drunk jerks.