Prescription: Murder story
Dr. Ray Flemming, a psychiatrist, murders his wife and persuades his mistress Joan Hudson, who is an actress and one of his patients, to support his alibi by impersonating her. Final clue/twist: Columbo stages the suicide of Flemming’s mistress, then urges him to confess now that the love of his life has killed herself for him. Flemming mocks Columbo's words, saying he never cared deeply for Joan and would have gotten rid of her eventually, anyway. Joan, listening in, agrees to testify against Flemming. Directed by: Richard Irving. Story by: Richard Levinson and William Link, based on their play.
22 total · 2 choice · 9 major · 11 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| how to murder someone and get away with it | choice | Psychiatrist Dr. Ray Flemming murdered his wife with the help of his mistress and made it look as if the victim had been strangled by a burglar. He would have gotten away with her crime had it not been for the meddlesome Lt. Columbo. |
| spouse murder | choice | Psychiatrist Dr. Ray Flemming murdered his wife with the help of his mistress and made it look as if the victim had been strangled by a burglar. He would have gotten away with her crime had it not been for the meddlesome Lt. Columbo. |
| appearances can be deceiving | major | Witnesses and villains alike are caught off guard by Lieutenant Columbo's bumbling façade, which invariably proves to conceal a laser-focused mind. Ray psychoanalyzed Columbo thusly: "You never stop do you? The insinuation, the change of pace. You're a bag of tricks, Columbo, right down to that prop cigar you use. I'm going to tell you something about yourself: You say you need a psychiatrist; maybe you do and maybe you don't. But you are the textbook example of compensation... adaptability. You're an intelligent man, Columbo, but you hide it. You pretend you're something you are not. Why? Because of your appearance. You think you cannot get by on looks or polish, so you turn a defect into a virtue. You take people by surprise. They underestimate you, and that's where you trip them up. Like coming here tonight." |
| extramarital affair | major | The story turns on Ray offing his wife ostensibly to be with his young, ginger haired mistress, Joan. |
| feeling tied down in a relationship | major | Dr. Ray Flemming had had all he could take of his wife and would much rather be with his mistress, but at the same time he didn't want her to file for divorce and leave with half the money. thus he murdered her. |
| husband and wife | major | Ray and Carol Flemming. The story turns on Ray strangling Carol to death so that he could be together with his mistress, Joan, without going through a scandal mired and financially ruinous divorce. The story opens with Ray and Carol celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary at home in the company of many friends. Columbo shared some anecdotes about his own wife: she considers him to be forgetful, the pair were thinking of taking a vacation, and she'd prefer he smoke a pipe over those smelly cigars. |
| law enforcement | major | It was up to the sharp-witted, but shabbily dressed homicide detective Lt. Columbo to prove that the psychiatrist Dr. Ray Flemming had strangled his wife in cold blood and made it look like she was killed by a burglar. |
| man and mistress | major | The story turns on Ray offing his wife ostensibly to be with his young, ginger haired mistress, Joan. |
| medical occupation | major | The villain of the story Dr. Ray Flemming was a psychiatrist. He was shown practicing his craft at his clinic. He indulged Columbo by psychoanalyzing a hypothetical murderer, i.e., himself. |
| pride goes before a fall | major | A recurring motif was Dr. Flemming's self-assured conviction that, thanks to his immense intellect, there was no conceivable way a mere police investigator could find him out. Lt. Columbo later pointed out that while Dr. Flemming might indeed outgun him in the brainpower department, Lt. Columbo's lengthy experience with murders counted for a lot more. |