Columbo: Agenda for Murder

PLOT: A slick attorney (Patrick McGoohan) murders a blackmailer who threatens his political aspirations, making it look like a suicide. Columbo smells something fishy and targets the underhanded lawyer. Denis Arndt plays his buddy, a congressman with hopes of becoming Vice President.

COMMENTARY: McGoohan appeared as the antagonist in two prior episodes, "By Dawn's Early Light" (1974) and "Identity Crisis" (1975) and would return for the forthcoming "Ashes to Ashes" (1998). There's just something about his chemistry with Peter Falk that almost guarantees a quality installment, and so it is here. It's one of the better latter-day segments.

GRADE: B+/A-

I love watching the actor Patrick McGoohan...he was just terrific in shows like "The Secret Agent" and "The Prisoner". But he was also really good in various TV shows as guest stars...and I particular loved his several appearances on "Columbo". This being said, I was not completely in love with "Agenda for Murder" as it was his weakest appearance on the program. Now it isn't bad....but the finale seemed a bit too easy and hard to believe.

Oscar Finch (McGoohan) is a very important mover and shaker--the sort of guy who is good at pulling strings and he has a strong future in politics. However, out of the blue, a man from the past threatens to derail so much Oscar has built for himself. So, he does what any sociopath would do...he kills the guy. However, Oscar is no dummy....he meticulously plans the killing and it appears to be foolproof. Of course, being on "Columbo" you know it isn't.

Watching this with my wife was a big plus, as she writes thrillers and knows a lot about crime...perhaps too much! So, when they used very tenuous dental evidence in this one, I told her this was ridiculous....and she said that in the early 90s it was believed to be an exact science and folks WERE convicted using it. However, she also admitted that in recent years, they've come to realize that it is NOT an exact science and isn't as reliable as they'd assumed. So, perhaps some of my gripe is simply about the misuse of such evidence...not in the writing of the show. Still, the ending DID seem very abrupt and anti-climactic. Enjoyable, of course, but not among the better episodes....which is generally the case with these later "Columbo" episodes.

Orson Welles once said that Patrick McGoohan should had been a big movie star. Born in New York of Irish parents, he grew up in Yorkshire. McGoohan conquered British television at an early age with two hit shows, Danger Man and The Prisoner.

He turned down the role of James Bond as well as other romantic or action leading roles because apparently he would have it stipulated in his contract that he would not kiss the leading lady. He did not want to be unfaithful to his wife in any shape or form, an attitude that would had hurt his film career.

McGoohan won an Emmy for his role as lawyer and political campaign manager Oscar Finch who is on a political ticket to Washington and Attorney General. McGoohan also directed this episode.

21 years earlier Finch had used his influence to have the District Attorney to get rid of vital evidence for a crook. His longtime friend Paul Mackey, now on the Vice President ticket was involved in the event. The crook is in trouble again and wants Finch to use his influence again. Finch cannot afford to put his and Mackey's future in jeopardy.

In an intriguing segment we see Finch doing some things with lots of foil, a gun and some gunpowder. His plan is to make the murder look like a suicide. However Columbo is not so sure, he notices that the dead man sent some jokes from his fax machine, not a sign of a desperate man at the end of his tether.

This episode benefits from McGoohan's performance, cool, calculated even with a hint of sarcasm. There is an effortless interplay with Peter Falk as both previously appeared together in other Columbo stories.

However the film's denouement with chewing gum, cheese and teeth marks leaves it rather unsatisfying.

At face value, "Agenda for Murder" seems pretty average: the typical Columbo-esque villain is a businessman who commits a simple murder to keep some professional skeletons in the closet. The crime is simply executed, without the usual bells and whistles of a complicated alibi or execution.

Patrick McGoohan, however, is brilliant. In "Braveheart" he chewed the scenery as the evil King. In this Columbo episode, he's a high-priced attorney vying for the position of U.S. Attorney General. He's efficient, wealthy, pompous ("If you can answer that question, Lieutenant, you're a smarter man than I"), intelligent, and underestimates Columbo by a long shot. McGoohan played different shades of the same role in other Columbo outings (a domineering commander of a military school, a secret government agent, and a suave funeral director), but he's at his best here.

Peter Falk as the Lieutenant is also top form - watch the scenes between Falk and McGoohan closely and you'll see how Columbo slowly manipulates Oscar Finch from a self-confident businessman into a man who is inwardly afraid of his own shadow but must keep his stern outward demeanor. As was mentioned in other reviews, their game of cat and mouse is a delight to watch, rivaled only by Falk's performances with William Shatner in "Fade in to Murder" and "Butterfly in Shades of Grey."

The episode is abound with clues that will make the viewer slap his head and exclaim "Why didn't I think of that?" Particularly clever are the faxed jokes and the drop of blood. I do think, however, that Finch was far too clever to mess up and leave behind the final clue that proved his guilt - he was, after all, a criminal attorney!

This episode is a must for new Columbo fans (after "Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health") and, should a distribution company ever decide to release the newer episodes on DVD, "Agenda for Murder" should be on the top of the list.

The effervescent Patrick McGoohan plays a Columbo murderer for the third time (and does a directorial turn to boot), as he depicts the hitherto untouchable lawyer, Oscar Finch, whose past comes back to haunt him in the form a notorious racketeer, Frank Staplin, who threatens to expose a 21 year old scandal in which Finch bribed the District Attorney at the time, Paul Mackey (who is now running for Vice President) to discard vital evidence that would have had severe consequences for Staplin.

McGoohan's performance deservedly won him an Emmy - McGoohan encapsulates the "charm" of a Columbo villain effortlessly with a crisp, precise and purposeful portrayal, tinged with a mild eccentricity, ensuring that his scenes with Falk have a razor-sharp entertainment value.

The script-writer, Jeffrey Bloom, also ensures that the vital commodity of humour is inserted at several well-timed moments in this TV movie, and like the 1973 episode from the original Columbo series "Candiadate for Crime", Columbo's intrusions with key personnel become increasingly antagonising as the presidential campaign reaches it's climax.

Satisfying as a whole, the episode is really only guilty of losing some its initial zest and pace around its mid-section when some of the investigation becomes a little drawn-out as the discussion of the clues becomes deliberately selective and individualised.

The resolution is totally unexpected and it astounds the murderer and viewer in equal measure: a devilishly clever element to a largely solid, well-made adventure for Columbo, which is probably one of the most polished stories of Columbo's latter-day movies.