Patrick Mcgoohan both guest stars & directs "Ashes To Ashes", in my opinion, the last really outstanding Columbo episode. Playing mortician Eric Prince he murders a former lover & gossip columnist Verity Chandler played by "Golden Girl" Rue Mclanahan. Resenting being dumped by him years before she threatens to make public some dirt she has learned about his past. Whilst attending a funeral she confronts him in his funeral home about what she intends to do. "You burned me once baby, now I'm going to burn you", she tells him. In fact, after murdering her Mr. Prince burns her by cremating her & gives the urn containing her ashes to a woman whose husband has just died. Her husband had served in Vietnam & the urn containing his real ashes are disposed of later by our murderer. After Verity has gone missing Columbo is called in to investigate her disappearance & soon suspects that the mortician was somehow involved. The urn containing the real husband's ashes also contain metal fragments of shrapnel from injuries sustained in Vietnam, (which were not destroyed during the cremation process), & it is these that help Columbo nail the mortician. Mcgoohan was such a great actor that whatever role he played he was always convincing & when undertaking to play an undertaker, (if you will pardon an obvious pun), he is entirely believable. Most of us Columbo fans think the two best guest actors were Jack Cassidy who played in three episodes & was always suavely villainous along with Patrick Mcgoohan. Jack Cassidy (father of pop star David Cassidy) died in 1976 in a house fire &, surely, would have appeared in more Columbo's but for the tragedy. Patrick Mcgoohan was a close friend of Peter Falk & appeared in four (three of which he directed). I wouldn't like to choose a favourite but between the two of them they made some great Columbo episodes.
Review of Ashes to Ashes
