Lovely but Lethal story
Cosmetics queen Viveca Scott has developed a seemingly magic wrinkle remover, but her former lover, Karl Lessing, a chemist for her company, knows the formula and intends to sell it to Scott's rival, David Lang. Lessing refuses to sell it back to her at any price, and when he taunts Scott, she bludgeons him to death and covers up her tracks as best she can. Lang's secretary, Shirley Blaine, has been giving information to Scott about his operation, and, knowing about Lessing's negotiations with Lang, she attempts to blackmail Scott. So Scott kills her too. Final clue/twist: Columbo notices Viveca itching and, as he suffers in the same way, he realizes they both have poison ivy and must have contacted it from the same source. Scott suspects the wrinkle remover is responsible for her itching. However, Columbo tells her the poison ivy was actually on the slide of Lessing's microscope, shards of which they both touched – he while examining the crime scene, while she could only have done it around the time that Lessing was killed. Directed by: Jeannot Szwarc. Story by: Myrna Bercovici, Jackson Gillis.
20 total · 12 major · 8 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| betrayal | major | Karl betrayed his boss and former lover, Viveca, by blackmailing her over a secret chemical formula only he knew. David Lang was betrayed by his own secretary who was supplying a rival with confidential information. |
| blackmail | major | Karl tried to blackmail Viveca into giving him money, partnership, and maybe marriage. Shirley tried to blackmail Viveca into giving her a cushy executive job. |
| boss and employee | major | Karl was employed at Viveca's firm as a chemist, but double crossed her and tried to blackmail her. Cosmetics company owner David Lang was betrayed by his secretary, Shirley, who was angling for a cushy executive position from his rival. |
| coping with aging | major | The gracefully aging Viveca Scott was the public face for the cosmetics company she owned and ran. In her person was symbolized the struggle to keep one's beauty through the use of cosmetics. Her company was developing a miracle cream that would be coveted by aging women around the world. |
| greed for riches | major | Various people wanted to get rich, by fair means or foul, off of the supposed miracle cream that made wrinkles literally vanish. |
| how to murder someone and get away with it | major | Viveca hatched a clever plot to do away with her blackmailer Shirley: She put a somatic drug or poison in a cigarette and gave it to Shirley just before Shirley was about to drive, causing Shirley to have a fatal accident. |
| law enforcement | major | The bumbling but sharp-witted homicide detective Lieutenant Columbo was tasked with solving the following murder mystery: Who had battered a corporate chemist to death with his own microscope? |
| rejuvenation technology | major | A novelty of the story was the miracle cream that made wrinkles literally disappear for a day. |
| rivalry | major | Cosmetics company owners Viveca Scott and David Lang were rivaling for who would bring the miracle wrinkle remover cream to market. Their attitudes toward one another at the fashion show made the competitive nature of their relationship clear. |
| the business world | major | The viewer is show how the rivaling cosmetics company owners, Viveca and David, were both using every dirty trick in the book to be first to bring a miracle wrinkle remover cream to market. |