An Exercise in Fatality
- Episode aired Sep 15, 1974
- TV-PG
- 1h 38m
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
2.7K
YOUR RATING
A health club owner murders one of his franchisees. Lt. Columbo is on the case.A health club owner murders one of his franchisees. Lt. Columbo is on the case.A health club owner murders one of his franchisees. Lt. Columbo is on the case.
Pat Harrington Jr.
- Buddy Castle
- (as Pat Harrington)
Collin Wilcox Paxton
- Ruth Stafford
- (as Collin Wilcox)
Ernesto Macias
- Fred
- (as Eric Mason)
J.R. Clark
- Harry Lassiter
- (as J. R. Clark)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaColumbo meets Milo at the same beach where Jim Rockford lives in The Rockford Files (1974). He walks down to meet him past the restaurant outside Rockford's trailer. Also, Gretchen Corbett, who plays Milo Janus' secretary, played Jim Rockford's lawyer (and sometimes girlfriend).
- Goofs(at around 18 mins) Just after Columbo arrives at the crime scene, on his way to to Stanford's office, he walks down a corridor. In the end room, a chair is visible in the distance. Somebody is hiding behind it and ducks down as Columbo approaches.
- Crazy creditsDuring the end credits, the usual theme music is not heard. In its place is a jingle for the fictional Milo Janus fitness club.
Featured review
Conrad kills
I say the summary line in more ways than one, as Robert Conrad is the main guest star and arrogant killer, and he excels at performing both of them. He plays Milo Janus, who runs several health clubs, and even has a cheesy theme song/commercial for the spas, although the song may be the worst recorded jingle in the history of jingles. Janus is as shrewd as they come, as he does things his own way basically, and when someone calls him out on it, he gets himself murdered by Janus. The victim, a man named Gene Stafford(Philip Bruns), makes the stupid mistake of telling Janus to his face that he's going to tell the authorities about some shady business practices, so of course, he's going to get himself killed. This is one of a few pet peeves of mine about Columbo; too many people tell others how bad they are and threaten to expose them, and too many killers show no remorse when questioned by Columbo himself. Look for familiar faces in Gretchen Corbett(Jessica Conroy) and Pat Harrington(Buddy Castle), but the real star is Conrad, who is great in every scene and very arrogant. The ending was a bit underwhelming, as Columbo uses a shoe trick with laces as evidence that Janus killed Stafford, although I seriously doubt that his speculations would hold much water in court, and you know that Janus could afford an expensive attorney. It was a relief that Janus didn't confess like most killers do on this show. I still recommend this episode, especially for the performance of Conrad and for the different type of setting than usual.
helpful•40
- stones78
- Nov 26, 2012
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Geld, Macht und Muskeln
- Filming locations
- Paradise Cove - 28128 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, California, USA(Columbo running w/ Milo on the beach)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content