Last Salute to the Commodore is the sixth and final episode of the fifth season of Columbo and the thirty-seventh episode overall. It first aired on May 2, 1976 and was directed by Patrick McGoohan, marking the first episode that he directed but did not star in. Instead Robert Vaughn makes his second appearance opposite Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo.
Last Salute to the Commodore strays farthest from the Columbo formula than any other 1970s episode, as the prime suspect in the initial murder is murdered himself, causing Columbo to find himself all but entrapped in the middle of a classic whodunit. The ensemble of suspects include Diane Baker, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Fred Draper and Joshua Bryant.
Final clue/twist: When Columbo holds what he says is Commodore Swanson's pocket watch to every suspect's ear, only Swanny disputes it, saying "'Tisn't" when he hears it ticking. The watch was broken at the time of the murder to create a false time frame, and only the murderer would have known the watch no longer works. (Clay's motive for covering up the murder is because he thought the killer was his wife due to planted evidence by Swanny; he was killed when he realized who the real killer was)
Due to the manner in which this episode breaks the Columbo mould, Last Salute is often considered one of the worst episodes by fans.
Trivia[]
The relationship between commodore and far younger counterculture woman appears to have been a parody of the then-relationship between pediatrician Benjamin Spock, who liked to sail,[1][2] and his counterculture-minded second wife Mary, who was widely presumed to be a gold-digger who married Spock in 1976 with the intent of trying help him appeal to younger audiences and make him seem more hip. At the time of their marriage, Spock's Freudian pediatric book The Common Sense of Baby and Child Care, which was previously a popular household commodity from 1946 to mid-to-late 1960s, was in fact struggling to attract younger audiences.[3] Despite his opposition to Vietnam War being cited as a major factor for these sales decline, other factors were cited as well, such as changing cultural attitudes regarding child-rearing. For example, Spock had also refused to exclude jazz as a children's hobby from his book,[4] despite the fact that jazz had in fact become overshadowed by rock-and-roll, including among many in the counterculture portion of the younger generation at the time.
| Columbo (season 5) |
|---|
| 1."Forgotten Lady" 2."A Case of Immunity" 3."Identity Crisis" 4."A Matter of Honor" 5."Now You See Him" 6."Last Salute to the Commodore" |
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1968/07/11/archives/pediatrician-to-the-world-benjamin-mclane-spock.html
- ↑ https://www.sfgate.com/magazine/article/Sailing-Through-Life-Menlo-Park-educator-on-her-2733505.php
- ↑ https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/17/specials/spock-obit.html
- ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/22/weekinreview/word-for-word-dr-spock-time-change-baby-advice-evolution-child-care-icon.html