Nelson Hayward (Jackie Cooper) is running for senate as a man tough on crime. His campaign manager Harry Stone (Ken Swofford) demands the candidate dump his mistress (Tisha Sterling) and backs up the demand with threats to expose the politician's shady past. But Stone approves of the candidate's publicity-minded lie that anonymous killers are threatening the politician's life, little guessing that Hayward will murder him and blame it on these invented assailants. Hayward sets up a tricky alibi for himself that includes a surprise birthday party for his wife (Joanne Linville). No one guesses the truth except that annoying Italian cop in the rumpled raincoatour redoubtable Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk).<br /><br />Except for comic scenes included to pad the running time, this is a top-notch "Columbo" episode. The dialoguefrom a script credited to four writers, not counting the story creditis particularly sharp, especially in the scene where Cooper turns the tables on Columbo and insists on giving him his undivided attention; this time it's the suspect interrupting our clever detective with irrelevancies. Swofford, Linville and Sterling all give sterling support; and Jackie Cooper makes a splendid villaina charming but unscrupulous politician with a wrinkled but handsomely boyish face that makes him look like a mortified schoolboy in the last scene.