Double Shock

Episode aired Mar 25, 1973
Not Rated
1h 14m

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

2.9K

YOUR RATING

Peter Falk and Martin Landau in Double Shock (1973)

Cop Drama Police Procedural Crime Drama Mystery Thriller

A smarmy TV chef and his identical twin brother, a rigidly proper banker, are suspects in the electrocution of their rich uncle.A smarmy TV chef and his identical twin brother, a rigidly proper banker, are suspects in the electrocution of their rich uncle.A smarmy TV chef and his identical twin brother, a rigidly proper banker, are suspects in the electrocution of their rich uncle.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

2.9K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
One of the very few "Columbo" cases where the viewer does not know the identity of the killer until Columbo reveals it at the conclusion.

Goofs
(at around 1h 7 mins) When Martin Landau is playing both twins on the same screen, one in a blue suit and one in a brown suit, they both follow Columbo out of the room. Martin Landau is in the blue suit and seconds later followed by a double in a brown suit, who looks like he's squeezed into the suit two sizes too small and wearing an wig.

Quotes
Columbo: Mrs. Peck? Mrs. Peck, I made a very poor introduction of myself to you, I know that. I'm a stranger in your house that you love and I'm here to do something that's not very pleasant, so I don't expect you to like me but I have feelings too, Mrs. Peck. Now, I'm sorry about being untidy. That's something that I can't control. That's a fault of mine that I-I, I don't know, I just can't correct that, and I've tried many years. I'm just very untidy. That's my nature, but I've never been un... I-I-I've never been rude to you, Mrs. Peck, and-and i-if you keep on treating me like an enemy just because I'm here trying to find who killed a man that you worked for for thirty-three years, well, then... well, then I think you're a very unfair person.

Connections
Featured in Pioneers of Television: Crime Dramas (2011)

User reviews40

Review

Featured review

6/10

A pair of potential perpetrators

Guest villain in this Columbo story is Martin Landau. The victim in this case is Paul Stewart who is Landau's uncle and tight controller of the family purse strings. Stewart is also going out with Julie Newmar who is an overage flower child and Landau is worried that the family fortune will go to her and with good reason.

Nothing left to do but kill Stewart and this is accomplished by dropping an electric mixer into Stewart's bath electrocuting him. Then we have Stewart's body dried up and semi-dressed and put him on an electric exercise machine to make it look like he died of a heart attack there.

The rub in this episode is that Landau is playing a dual role. The charismatic host of a cooking show who spends money like it was going out of style and an uptight banker who has a not so secret gambling problem. Stewart's money will bail both of them, especially banker Landau out of considerable debt.

There are a couple of other substantial roles in this story. One is Tim O'Connor the family attorney who's had a good income from handling the affairs of Stewart and wants to keep right on doing it. The other is Jeanette Nolan who Peter Falk irritates the hell out of. She's a most uptight housekeeper and Columbo spilling his cigar ashes on her immaculate floor drives to distraction. She also hates having any interruption of her television shows. But the disruption of that service is an important clue for our rumpled detective.

Scenes with Nolan and Falk are the high point of this good Columbo story.