Title: It's All in the Game
Directed by: Vincent Mc Eveety
Written by: Peter Falk
Air Date: October 31, 1993
Previous: A Bird in the Hand...
Next: Butterfly in Shades of Grey
Guest Starring: Faye Dunaway, Claudia Christian
"It's All in the Game" is a 1993 Columbo TV movie.
Lauren Staton (Faye Dunaway), a good-looking middle-aged woman, and her daughter Lisa Martin (Claudia Christian), a good-looking young woman, are both dating the same guy, a professional gambler and scumbag gigolo named Nick Franco. They are both aware of this, which is why they are conspiring to murder him. Nick leaves Lauren's fancy party, supposedly to rejoin a poker game, but really to go have sex with Lisa. What Nick doesn't know is that Lauren and Lisa are laying a trap. Lauren pretends to lie down with a headache and instead sneaks out of her party. She goes to Nick's apartment, and lies in wait. When Nick and Lisa enter the apartment, Lauren shoots Nick through the heart, with a silenced gun.
Lauren and Lisa spring into action. They stage the scene to look like Nick interrupted a robbery in progress. They put an electric blanket over Nick to hold off cooling of the body and obscure time of death. (This trick was also used 22 years earlier in Season 1 Columbo episode "Suitable for Framing".) Lauren goes back to her party and makes sure that she is seen, then leaves for Nick's apartment at 2 am as the party is breaking up. She pretends to forget her key, which requires her to ask the superintendent for help, which is why they are together when Lisa fires an unsilenced gunshot through the open patio window. Lisa then makes her escape through the patio with the gun and blanket. Lauren's alibi is established, and with no one having any idea of Lisa's presence in America (she's from Italy), much less her connection to Nick, the two women seem to be in the clear.
Naturally, they don't count on Lieutenant Columbo. He notices the usual niggling details—the heat being on in the apartment, despite the fact that it was 98 degrees when Nick left that afternoon, and the ice in Nick's fridge having melted for no obvious reason. He begins to zero in on Lauren, who as Nick's (public) girlfriend is the only person with a motive if it wasn't robbery. Lauren, once she figures this out, responds by coming on very strongly to Columbo, attempting to seduce him in order to distract him from the case.
The only episode of Columbo written by Peter Falk.
Tropes:
- And Another Thing...: A Columbo trademark, here lampshaded. Columbo arrives at Lauren's mansion. She grins and says "You've come to tell me, 'Just one more thing'."
- Asshole Victim: Nick Franco is a two timing gigolo who is cheating on his lover with her own daughter. Not only that, he is using violence to keep said daughter in line, and seems likely to carry out his threats. On top of everything else, he's the type to skim money off others when they're not looking. So when he dies, it just means one less scum-bucket to worry about.
- Call-Back: The women use an electric blanket to make it look like Nick was shot later than he really was.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Lauren has to light one up before finally confessing to Columbo.
- Corpse Temperature Tampering: Wealthy socialite Lauren Staton and her daughter Lisa Martin conspire to murder their abusive, two-timing lover Nick Franco. Lauren commits the actual murder, going to Franco's apartment and shooting him. Lisa then stays in the apartment, keeping the body warm for several hours with an electric blanket until Lauren returns with the building manager. While they're knocking on the door, Lisa fires a shot into the air, then flees through the patio.
- Dating Catwoman: Columbo and Lauren meet for dinner, she kisses him, he brings her flowers, she buys him a tie. It's never seriously suggested that Columbo will cheat on Mrs. Columbo, but he does seem to develop a fondness for Lauren, which is part of the reason why he lets Lisa off the hook.
- Domestic Abuse: Nick is caressing Lisa. He pulls her dress over to expose an ugly scar where her neck joins her shoulder.Nick: I hate looking at that. (Beat) Don't make me do it again.
- Ethnic Menial Labor: The maid who clean's Nick's apartment is from El Salvador. She and Columbo have a little trouble communicating but the maid helps him uncover a vital clue.
- Fresh Clue: It's around 12 when Lauren shoots Nick, but she and Lisa use an electric blanket to stop his body from cooling off, to fool the cops into thinking Nick died at 2 am, when Lauren has an alibi. (Like in "Suitable for Framing" the episode does not mention how mottling would still give the game away.)
- Headbutt of Love: Lauren and Lisa do this at the end of their clandestine meeting in the restroom. This, along with each of them saying "I love you," suggests that they are lesbian lovers. The Reveal is very different.
- Idiot Ball: Lauren and Lisa were foolish to not consider that the cops would look at Nick's phone records and find the calls to Lisa's apartment. And then Lisa sticks around for no particular reason. Really, Lisa should have gone straight to the airport and gotten the first plane to Europe after Lauren shot Nick.
- Instant Death Bullet: Nick looks surprised and then falls over dead, like most Columbo victims.
- Let Off by the Detective: One of only two instances in the entire run of Columbo where Columbo does this. In the first, "Forgotten Lady", Columbo lets the killer off the hook because she has a brain disease which will kill her in weeks and also has caused her to forget the crime. This episode is a straighter example. Columbo has discovered Lisa and is pretty sure that she and Lauren worked together to kill Nick. However, he still doesn't have any firm evidence against either of them. Lauren, the one who pulled the trigger, confesses, in return for Columbo letting Lisa go. Columbo helps by strongly suggesting that Lisa go home right away.
- Love Triangle: Lauren and Lisa, both Nick's lovers, who get together to kill him.
- Mama Bear: As the ending reveals, Lauren reveals to Columbo that her killing Nick was motivated by this trope. Nick seduced her daughter Lisa in order to get to Lauren and her money. When Lisa tried to call him out, he strangled the poor girl, gave her a nasty cut on the neck, and threatened he would outright kill her if she tried anything. Thankfully, she found the courage to come to her mother with the whole story, and the two of them cooked up a plan. Lauren went along with it to personally make Nick pay for threatening her daughter's life.
- Never My Fault: "I hate looking at that. Don't ever make me do that again." Need we say more?
- No Name Given: Per Columbo tradition. Lauren, in the middle of relentlessly hitting on Columbo, asks "What's your first name?" He smiles and answers "Lieutenant".
- Not a Morning Person: A Running Gag throughout the series was that Columbo needed his sleep and didn't do well if he was woken up too early. In this case, having arrived at Nick's apartment at 2:30 am, Columbo is still wearing his pajama top and pesters all the cops at the scene for coffee.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Nick enters the apartment and flicks the light switch but it doesn't work. He hears a noise. He says "Lisa?" Lauren says "No, it's the other woman" and shoots him.
- The Reveal: It's vaguely implied that Lauren and Lisa are lovers, seeing as how they each say "I love you" and do a Headbutt of Love. The ending reveals that in fact, Lisa is Lauren's daughter.
- Revealing Hug: If there were any doubt at all that Lisa was fully on board with the plan to murder Nick, the empty, dead-eyed stare she gives when he hugs her is definite proof.
- Sexy Backless Outfit: Lauren wears a very revealing dress for the party.
- Staged Shooting: Lauren shoots Nick with a silenced pistol. Two hours later, as part of the plot to establish Lauren's alibi, Lisa fires off a shot with an un-silenced pistol, to make sure the superintendent hears it.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: Even though it borders on Bittersweet Ending, everyone except the victim gets exactly what they want in the end. Lauren is content knowing her daughter is free, Lisa can move on with her life, and Columbo closes the case with a clear conscience that Mrs. Columbo is still his only love.
- Symbolically Broken Object: A more positive variation. When Lauren is finished telling Columbo the story of how she and her daughter plotted to kill Nick, Columbo tears the picture of Lisa in half. This is meant to signal to Lauren that he won't tell a soul of Lisa's involvement in Nick's murder.
- Take Me Instead: Lauren surrenders herself in the end so that Columbo doesn't involve Lisa in the arrest.
- Verbal Irony: Lauren pretended she had a headache to excuse herself from the party. After she returns a guest says "Headache gone?" Lauren answers with a meaningful "All gone," Nick now being dead.
