About thirty minutes into the film, I thought this was one of the weakest "Columbo"s ever because it had the usual beginning (a murder happening, then Columbo coming, inspecting everything and interrogating the main suspect) squared! It was boring because I thought I knew everything already.<br /><br />But then there was a surprising twist that turned this episode into a most exciting one. Suddenly, many characters were involved, I started to guess with Columbo and the ending was just like Agatha Christie's Poirot endings are.<br /><br />The film is full of irony, and looking back, I must admit that the whole episode is great work of the writers because the ordinary first part is a mere tool for creating this irony, creating a huge fool-the-audience-scenario. Don't turn your television off before the end!