The Shabby Detective: Yet Another Columbo Podcast
· Season 7 · Episode 8 · Latest episodeMurder by Natural Causes (1979)
How many push-ups can you do?
Between Columbo seasons, Mike and Chris dig into another Richard Levinson and William Link production: Murder by Natural Causes (1979), directed by Robert Day for CBS. Hal Holbrook stars as Arthur Sinclair, a stage mentalist whose heart condition makes him an inviting target: his younger wife Allison (Katharine Ross) and her lover, struggling actor Gil Weston (Barry Bostwick), cook up a plan to literally frighten him to death with a staged home invasion. Naturally, nothing goes as planned. Arthur's lawyer George (Richard Anderson) has his own designs on Allison, and the film piles on twist after twist — the kind of nested double-crosses Levinson and Link built entire careers on.
Holbrook and Ross had already played off each other in They Only Kill Their Masters, and Bostwick brings a slippery, vain energy to Gil that makes his scheming both funny and pathetic. Mike and Chris talk through how the film's chamber-piece structure (four characters, one house, one long night) squeezes maximum tension from minimal sets, how it fits the "TV movie as filmed stage play" tradition Levinson and Link mastered, and why the finale's final line lands as one of the great mean little punchlines in their catalog.
Between Columbo seasons, Mike and Chris dig into another Richard Levinson and William Link production: Murder by Natural Causes (1979), directed by Robert Day for CBS. Hal Holbrook stars as Arthur Sinclair, a stage mentalist whose heart condition makes him an inviting target: his younger wife Allison (Katharine Ross) and her lover, struggling actor Gil Weston (Barry Bostwick), cook up a plan to literally frighten him to death with a staged home invasion. Naturally, nothing goes as planned. Arthur's lawyer George (Richard Anderson) has his own designs on Allison, and the film piles on twist after twist — the kind of nested double-crosses Levinson and Link built entire careers on.
Holbrook and Ross had already played off each other in They Only Kill Their Masters, and Bostwick brings a slippery, vain energy to Gil that makes his scheming both funny and pathetic. Mike and Chris talk through how the film's chamber-piece structure (four characters, one house, one long night) squeezes maximum tension from minimal sets, how it fits the "TV movie as filmed stage play" tradition Levinson and Link mastered, and why the finale's final line lands as one of the great mean little punchlines in their catalog.
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About this show
An episode-by-episode critical rewatch of Columbo (Peter Falk), examining the character and his creators. Currently in its sixth season of coverage.
Hosts
- Mike WhiteHost
- Chris StachiwHost
All episodes (57)
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38:03Season 7 · Episode 8Murder by Natural Causes (1979)
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37:00Season 7 · Episode 7Uncle Marin, The Billionaire (1979)
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43:31Season 7 · Episode 6Mrs. Columbo
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33:13Season 7 · Episode 5The Conspirators
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40:11Season 7 · Episode 4How to Dial a Murder
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38:48Season 7 · Episode 3Make Me a Perfect Murder
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42:19Season 7 · Episode 2Murder Under Glass
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45:23Season 7 · Episode 1Try and Catch Me
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1:05:28Season 6 · Episode 48The Storyteller (1977)
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1:29:14Season 6 · Episode 48Rollercoaster (1977)
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42:32Season 6 · Episode 47The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case
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27:07Season 6 · Episode 46Old Fashioned Murder
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47:13Season 6 · Episode 1Fade in to Murder
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31:30Season 6 · Episode 1Griffin & Phoenix (1976)
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48:30Season 5 · Episode 16Last Salute to the Commodore
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31:37Season 5 · Episode 15Columbo Explains the Seventies
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40:12Season 5 · Episode 14Now You See Him
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37:09Season 5 · Episode 13A Matter of Honor
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31:39Season 5 · Episode 12Identity Crisis
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26:25Season 5 · Episode 11A Case of Immunity
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26:50Season 5 · Episode 10Forgotten Lady
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59:01Season 4 · Episode 8The Gun (1974)
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1:00:37Season 4 · Episode 7The Execution of Private Slovik (1974)
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36:09Season 4 · Episode 6A Deadly State of Mind
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38:07Season 4 · Episode 5Playback
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