Columbo

John Cassavetes who plays as Alex Benedict in the movie gives a fine performance. His shock and surprise at learning that his talented pianist has committed suicide is well acted; ensuring Columbo is aware of this.

I did not particularly like the scene where Alex steals his own E-type Jaguar from the garage in order to reach his mistress to murder her. This did not really feature at a later stage of the movie.



The flower left at the scene of the murder showed predictability of how Columbo would finally solve the case.

Alexs' arrogance in the movie is reminiscent to his role in Rosemary's Baby.

The script hints at a certain predictability when the possibly incriminating carnation is retrieved from the murder scene by the murderer in front of Columbo, but it is a testament to the cleverness of the script-writer that the resolution is is more substantial than anticipated.



In other respects, the script does not sufficiently expand on certain areas of the plot; Columbo never directly mentions a precise motive for the crime, nor is it clear as to why Columbo becomes suspicious of the actual murderer when the incriminating evidence is used much later on. One other slightly negative thing is that the circumstantial pieces of evidence are not as spectacular or as numerous as some of the other quality episodes.