1. Forgotten Lady (1975): Janet Leigh is Grace Wheeler, an aging former movie star, now married to a wealthy doctor, Henry Willis (Sam Jaffe). John Payne is Ned Diamond, her long time song and dance partner. The pair is fashioned after Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. When Henry refuses to finance her return to the spotlight, Grace coldly kills him in his sleep, and tries to pass it off as a suicide. Her butler, played by Maurice Evans, believes she was in the screening room the entire time, watching one of her classic films. This is the only episode where the murderer is not arrested as Diamond falsely confesses, to save Grace, knowing that she is dying of a brain disease she herself is unaware of. Columbo goes along with the ploy, and by the time Diamond is cleared, Grace would have passed away after spending her last days living happily in the past.
2. A Case of Immunity (1975): Hector Elizondo is Hassan Salah, the chief diplomat of the Legation of Swahari, an Arab nation with a new young king. Hassan enlists Rachman Habib, played by Sal Mineo, to help him stage a robbery at the Legation; the real aim is to murder the head of security. Hassan pins the murder on the now absent Habib, who as part of the plan has gone into hiding. Columbo quickly unravels the truth, but finds himself stymied by the fact that Salah has diplomatic immunity and cannot be arrested. Columbo gets Salah to confess the murder with his monarch in the next room listening. To stay in this country rather than face Middle Eastern justice, he waives his immunity from prosecution. The King himself offers a warning: "In case you are thinking of rescinding your waiver of immunity, we will be waiting to welcome you home."
3. Identity Crisis (1975): Patrick McGoohan is back as the villain, this time as CIA operative Nelson Brenner, who is really a double agent. The Agency sends an operative, codenamed "Geronimo" (Leslie Nielsen), to cut a deal with Brenner's alter ego. Geronimo recognizes Brenner as a double agent from the past and puts the squeeze on him. Brenner must kill Geronimo before he can reveal his secret. In the course of his investigation, Columbo finds himself blocked at every turn by a man accustomed to keeping secrets secret. But not even a visit from the Director of the Agency, portrayed by David White, can deter the determined Lieutenant. McGoohan directed the episode as well as starring in it. Note: The name used by the Director of the Agency on his identity card bluntly reveals him to be "Phil Corrigan" — from the Secret Agent X-9 comic strip! (McGoohan also uses the "Be seeing you!" line so prevalent in episodes of The Prisoner.)
4. A Matter of Honor (1976): Ricardo Montalban is Luis Montoya, a former matador renowned throughout Mexico for his courage in the ring. Retired from bullfighting, he raises the bravest bulls in the world. His long time assistant and friend, Hector Rangel, sees a chink in Montoya's armor when they must face a bull that has gored Hector's son. Montoya realizes, that to protect his own reputation, he must kill his lifelong friend, which he does cleverly using the same bull and a small amount of tranquilizer as the murder weapon. Surely nobody would dare to question the word of Luis Montoya. Well, nobody that is except Columbo, who just happens to be in Tijuana for the weekend when the murder takes place. The local chief of police recognizes Columbo as the man who solved the mystery on the cruise ship the year before and enlists his help in solving this crime as well.
5. Now You See Him (1976): Jack Cassidy returns for a third bout as a murderer. This time he is the Great Santini, a magician extraordinaire. It turns out however that he is also Stefan Mueller, formerly a Nazi SS prison guard. Jesse Jerome (Nehemiah Persoff), owner of the Cabaret of Magic, the club where Santini is headlining, discovers the secret and blackmails Santini. If Santini refuses to pay, Jerome promises to turn him over to the Immigration Department. Santini conjures up a murder. A true magician, Santini commits the murder in the middle of his famed water tank escape act, thereby giving himself what he believes to be an airtight alibi. But then, Santini has never matched wits with Columbo before. Sgt. Wilson is back to lend a hand, and is actually instrumental in solving the case. Robert Loggia portrays the club's maitre d' and Jerome's partner Harry Blandford.
6. Last Salute to the Commodore (1976): Someone has killed Commodore Otis Swanson (John Dehner), a retired ship builder who would rather sell his business than let his son-in-law Charles Clay continue to run it. It looks as though the deed was done by Clay, played by Robert Vaughn, the cruise ship murderer from a prior Columbo episode. But when he turns up dead as well, the mystery deepens with surprises that even Columbo would not expect. This episode departs from the normal Columbo format in that we do not know whodunit until the end of the show. Sgt. Wilson is gone, presumably promoted after his pivotal role in capturing Santini, but Columbo has a new sidekick, Sgt. 'Mac' Albinsky. Diane Baker portrays the Commodore's alcoholic daughter Joanna, and Wilfrid Hyde-White is his lawyer Kittering. Patrick McGoohan took his third turn behind the camera to direct this episode.
By Richard Moody, Greg Ross & Tanya Ross
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