History Recap / ColumboS10E12

Chandler recaps how Prince, an immigrant from England, tried acting in Hollywood. The acting bug didn't work out for Prince, so he got a job in a Hollywood mortuary. The mortician, Arthur Haverland, took a liking to Prince, who became his protégé and business partner. Along the way, Prince took advantage of his job and examined bodies for telltale traces of confidential affairs to sell to Chandler, who also became Prince's lover. Eventually, they broke up. Today, Chandler wants revenge for being dumped unceremoniously, so she boasts that she is revealing how Prince stole a diamond necklace from Dorothea Page's body to buy into a mortuary and finance even more mortuaries. Chandler reveals that she hasn't "told a soul" and will be broadcasting on Sunday at 8:00, headlined "Grisly Undertakings on Sunset Boulevard". Prince, on the spur of the moment, picks up a mortician's tool and, when Verity turns her back, bashes her in the head with it.

Prince loads Chandler's body into his cremation oven, incinerates it, and gives the ashes to the family of a war hero turned actor named Chuck Houston. Prince then drives to Chandler's home, deletes the story about him on her computer, replaces the story with a fake by setting the computer clock back to an earlier time and stages an abduction/robbery to make it appear that Chandler was taken hostage.

Chandler recaps how Prince, an immigrant from England, tried acting in Hollywood. The acting bug didn't work out for Prince, so he got a job in a Hollywood mortuary. The mortician, Arthur Haverland, took a liking to Prince, who became his protegee and business partner. Along the way, Prince took advantage of his job and examined bodies for telltale traces of confidential affairs to sell to Chandler, who also became Prince's lover. Eventually, they broke up. Today, Chandler wants revenge for being dumped unceremoniously, so she boasts that she is revealing how Prince stole a diamond necklace from Dorothea Page's body to buy into a mortuary and finance even more mortuaries. Chandler reveals that she hasn't "told a soul" and will be broadcasting on Sunday at 8:00, headlined "Grisly Undertakings on Sunset Boulevard". Prince, on the spur of the moment, picks up a mortician's tool and, when Verity turns her back, bashes her in the head with it.

* AssholeVictim: Prince may have stolen from a corpse in the past, but Vivian wasn't exactly making herself anymore popular than him. She kisses Chuck Houstin's corpse on her way to see Prince, gloats to him how she's going to expose him for stealing jewels off a body, and even rubs it in his face that she's not even doing it out of integrity: [[NotGoodWithRejection she just wants to get back at him for dumping her]]. So her death isn't very tragic, to say the least.

** Mistaken for Chuck Houston's ashes, Vivian's ashes are (illegally) spread over the Hollywood Sign. Even though it wasn't her intention, she now gets to be one with the show business industry she faithfully served.

* TooDumbToLive: Vivian decides to gloat to Prince about how she intends to broadcast all his dirty secrets to the world...in a crematorium. Perhaps the easiest possible place to kill someone and then dispose of the body. She also completely voluntarily reveals no one else knows, so the truth would die with her.

* AssholeVictim: Prince may have stolen from a corpse in the past, but Vivian wasn't exactly making herself anymore popular than him. She kisses Chuck Houstin's corpse on her way to see Prince, gloats to him how she's going to expose him for stealing jewels off a body, and even rubs it in his face that she's not even doing it out of integrity: [[NotGoodWithRejection she just wants to get back at him for dumping her]].

** Mistaken for Chuck Houstin's ashes, Vivian's ashes are (illegally) spread over the Hollywood Sign. Even though it wasn't her intention, she now gets to be one with the show business industry she faithfully served.
** Chuck Houstin (a famous and successful actor and war-hero[[HappilyMarried beloved]] by his grieving wife) has his ashes mixed with that of a man who's his exact antithesis: a man who failed at many things in life, among them [[AwfulWeddedLife his married life]] and joining the army.

* BludgeonedToDeath: Eric kills Verity by grabbing one of his mortician's tools and smashing her in the back of the head. He gives her one blow with it when she's on the ground just to be sure.

Chandler recaps how Prince, an immigrant from England, tried acting in Hollywood. The acting bug didn't work out for Prince, so he got a job in a Hollywood mortuary. The mortician, Mr. Haverland, took a liking to Prince and Prince became his protegee and business partner. Along the way, Prince took advantage of his job and examined bodies for telltale traces of confidential affairs to sell to Chandler, who also became Prince's lover. Eventually, they broke up. Today, Chandler wants revenge for being dumped unceremoniously, so she boasts that she is revealing how Prince stole a diamond necklace from Dorothea Page's body to buy into a mortuary and finance even more mortuaries. Chandler reveals that she hasn't "told a soul" and will be broadcasting on Sunday at 8:00, headlined "Grisly Undertakings on Sunset Boulevard". Prince, on the spur of the moment, picks up a mortician's tool and, when Verity turns her back, bashes her in the head with it.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: If you look closely enough, you can see Rue [=McClanahan=] get swapped out with a dummy when the gas extractor hits her.

* ActorAllusion: Prince was born in England, and came to Hollywood hoping to catch his big break in acting, before he ended up going to work as a mortician. This is more or less similar to [[Creator/PatrickMcGoohan Patrick McGoohan]] drifting into theater and eventually television and film, except his character failed and became a mortician instead.

* ActorAllusion: Prince was born in England, and came to Hollywood hoping to catch his big break in acting, before he ended up going to work as a mortician. This is more or less similar to [[Creator/PatrickMcGoohan Patrick McGoohan]] drifting into theater and eventually television and film, except his character failed and became a Mortician instead.

* ActorAllusion: Prince was born in England, and came to Hollywood hoping to catch his big break in acting, before he ended up going to work as a mortician. This is more or less similar to [[Creator/PatrickMcGoohan Patrick McGoohan]] finding his way into acting, except his character failed and became a Mortician instead.

* LimeyGoesToHollywood: Prince was born in England, and came to Hollywood hoping to catch his big break in acting, before he ended up going to work as a mortician.

* MurderByCremation: Easy to execute given that Prince owns funeral homes, albeit the kill is delivered by blunt force trauma. Even easier to execute since Chandler waited for him in his morgue.

Eric Prince ([=McGoohan=]) is owner of the Haverland-Prince Funeral Home. Eric receives a call from gossip reporter Verity Chandler (Rue [=McClanahan=]), his former lover who requests a private chat. She assures him that his next funeral service will not be interrupted but that they'll both have their own (figurative) funeral service in private. As it turns out, Chandler is going to go public about some skeletons in Prince's closet on the show ''Hollywood Heartbeat'' and wants to tell Prince in person to rub it in. Unfortunately for her, she chooses to gloat to him in his morgue where there are no witnesses observing them.

* TooCleverByHalf: Prince, given he knew about Houston's history, should have considered that the grenade shards from Houston's body would have been suspicious ending up in someone else's urn. If Prince had taken the time to later separate the metal from the ashes, he would have at least bought some extra time before getting caught. He also takes the trouble to concoct a phony story on Chandler's computer and forge the time stamp rather than simply deleting the original, but Columbo notes that anyone can forge the time, making it meaningless. Not to mention, the phony kidnapping scene raised more questions than answers like why Chandler would arrive home and forget to feed her puppies, and why Chandler would put on her evening lipstick if she was home for the night. Additionally, the lip print on her alcohol glass from the night before doesn't fit with her supposedly arriving home to rest the next evening. If Prince simply crammed Verity and Chuck Houston into the same coffin, burned them both, and did nothing else, he would almost definitely get away with it, and simply need to dispose of the extra ashes.

* UnexpectedlyDarkEpisode: Naturally due to the subject matter of a Mortician who take advantage of their equipment to commit murder. Eric Prince {{Lampshades}} this to Columbo by discussing the need to have a good sense of humor in his business, and even answering Columbo's inquiries about funeral plans for him and Mrs. Columbo. Even the music during the murder is of a more dismal key than usual.

Guest Starring: Creator/PatrickMcGoohan, Sally Kellerman, Creator/RueMcClanahan]

Eric Prince ([=McGoohan=]) is owner of the Haverland-Prince Funeral Home. Eric receives a call from gossip reporter Verity Chandler (Rue [=McClanahan=]), his former lover who requests a private chat. She assures him that his next funeral service will not be interrupted but that they'll both have their own (figurative) funeral service in private. As it turns out, Chandler is going to go public about some "skeletons" in Prince's closet on the show "Hollywood Heartbeat" and wants to tell Prince in person to rub it in. Unfortunately for her, she chooses to gloat to him in his morgue where there are no witnesses observing them.

Chandler recaps how Prince, an immigrant from England, tried acting in Hollywood. The acting bug didn't work out for Prince, so he got a job in a Hollywood mortuary. The mortician, Mr. Haverland, took a liking to Prince and Prince became his protegee and business partner. Along the way, Prince took advantage of his job and examined bodies for telltale traces of confidential affairs to sell to Chandler, who also became Prince's lover. Eventually, they broke up. Today, Chandler wants revenge for being dumped unceremoniously, so she boasts that she is revealing how Prince stole a diamond necklace from Dorothea Page's body to buy into a mortuary and finance even more mortuaries. Chandler reveals that she hasn't "told a soul" and will be broadcasting on Sunday at 8:00. Prince on the spur of the moment picks up a mortician's tool and, when Verity turns her back, bashes her in the head with it.

When Columbo investigates Chandler's home, it is discovered that Chandler failed to feed her puppies which doesn't add up because it seems highly unlikely that Chandler would forget after arriving home. Columbo finds it puzzling that effects (from the night before), such as an alcohol glass with evening-shade lipstick, were left out when Chandler was apparently staying home for the night to type a (forged) document and would have no need for cosmetics, suggesting she never actually made it back home the next night. It is also later discovered that Chandler's pager also cut out at a specific time, suggesting it was destroyed.

* NeverFoundTheBody: Prince attempts this by cremating Chandler's body, but a mixing up the ashes between urns ends up being his undoing due to many inconsistencies from switching around body ashes.

* {{Paparazzi}}: Sheik Yarami who currently owns the Dorothea Page mansion does not like people photographing his mansion, hence why his guards are initially rough with Columbo when he goes to investigate why Chandler photographed the mansion.

* TooCleverByHalf: Prince, given he knew about Houston's history, should have considered that the grenade shards from Houston's body would have been suspicious ending up in someone else's urn. If Prince had taken the time to later separate the metal from the ashes, he would have at least bought some extra time before getting caught. He also takes the trouble to concoct a phony story on Chandler's computer and forge the time stamp rather than simply deleting the original, but Columbo notes that anyone can forge the time, making it meaningless. Not to mention, the phony kidnapping scene raised more questions than answers like why Chandler would arrive home and forget to feed her puppies, and why Chandler would put on her evening lipstick if she was home for the night. Additionally, the lip print on her alcohol glass from the night before doesn't fit with her supposedly arriving home to rest the next evening. If Prince simply cramed Verity and Chuck Houston into the same coffin, burned them both, and did nothing else, he would almost definitely get away with it, and simply needs to dispose of the extra ashes.

* FailedASpotCheck: Prince got sloppy with the ashes of Chuck Houston and added his grenade shards along with his ashes into an urn meant for another person. This ends up being his downfall at the end.

** Another case where Columbo is called before a homicide has even been verified. {{Lampshaded}} by the sergeant explaining that this is a missing person's case and Columbo is inappropriate for this mystery.