The Most Crucial Game is the third episode of the second season of Columbo and the twelfth episode overall. It first aired on November 5, 1972 and was directed by Jeremy Kagan. In addition to Peter Falk as Columbo, the episode stars Robert Culp (in his second of appearances in the series, in three of which he plays the murderer), Dean Stockwell and Valerie Harper.
In The Most Crucial Game, the manager of a football team sneaks away during a sports game to bump off the team's owner, who lacks ambition and is holding them back. Columbo is less than convinced that the supposed accident really took place.
Cast[]
- Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo.
- Robert Culp as Paul Hanlon, the general manager of the Los Angeles Rockets football team who has big plans; plans he is willing to kill for to make a reality.
- Dean Stockwell as Eric Wagner, the owner of the team, having inherited it from his father. Hanlon kills him in his own swimming pool so as to prevent him from dragging the team down.
- Valerie Harper as Eve Babcock, a call girl posing as a secretary in order to spy on Eric on behalf of a private eye.
- Val Avery as Ralph Dobbs, the private investigator who hired Eve; he was in turn hired by Walter Cannell.
- Dean Jagger as Walter Cannell, Eric's attorney who was attempting to expose him as a philanderer.
- Susan Howard as Shirley Wagner, Eric's wife. Well, widow.
- James Gregory as Coach Rizzo, the Rockets' coach.
- Don Keefer appears as the deputy coroner. He also appeared in the previous Culp episode Death Lends a Hand.
- Dick Enberg as the radio announcer for the Rockets.
Columbo (season 2) |
---|
1."Étude in Black" 2."The Greenhouse Jungle" 3."The Most Crucial Game" 4."Dagger of the Mind" 5."Requiem for a Falling Star" 6."A Stitch in Crime" 7."The Most Dangerous Match" 8."Double Shock" |