Interesting Trivia: The young cadet who put the bottle of cider out was Bruno Kirby. After Bruno finished this episode, he went on to play the young Peter Clemenza character in The Godfather II the same year. Bruno was an exceptionally talented actor, who excelled at comedy roles as well as dramatic ones. Bruno was also the son of Bruce Kirby, who frequently played Columbo's sidekick. Sadly, Bruno passed away from leukemia at age 57.
I like this episode because Columbo uses his wits to catch the bad guy, unlike the other episodes where he uses his 44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun on the market that "could blow your head CLEAN OFF" as he likes to say, as well as "Do I feel lucky" and "Go ahead, make my day." He's a lot nicer in this one and doesn't get chewed out by his boss. Also they also keep calling him Callahan in the other episodes instead of Columbo which I don't get why
This episode was actually shot at a military academy in North or South Carolina I read somewhere. So it is a good point, how did the crew get his car to the other side of the States? Maybe they filmed that part when he is with his car in Los Angeles? Greetings to you from a Columbo fan in Hamburg Germany 🇩🇪😊
Now you give me the mental image of Columbo making Number 6's life difficult...or Columbo accidentally revealed that Number 6 IS actually Number 1 way too early.
@@SMAXZOI prefer the idea that Number 1 is Columbo, and that The Prisoner resigned to hide his connection to a murder and the whole show was Columbo's way of getting him to confess.
I think Columbo is probably the best US TV show ever (from the ones I have seen here in Britain). It came out before I was even born but since I discovered it I grew to absolutely love it!
Love the episodes with McGoohan, the over the top authoritarian attitude makes it all the better when Columbo manages to dismantle it. Btw, the "bugle boy" in this episode was Robert Clotworthy, who is now the narrator for Ancient Aliens for almost 15 years. EDIT: It was Boodle Boy, not Bugle Boy.
If you're talking about the term used in this clip, I think he said "boodle boy," which is basically a personal assistant/servant to a commandant, according to a quick web search. It seems to be a very niche term; I can't tell if it's actually used in the military or if it was just created for this episode. ("Boodle" itself is a term for money with a connotation of illicitness/bribing.)
@@NerdOnTheStreet Ahh okay, i couldn't properly hear what he said, so i Googled on what i thought he said. And "Bugle boy" actually popped up in military terms, as the bugle is a trumpet they use in the morning (the famous wake up tune), and he was the one that was up the earliest. But yeah it could be a niche thing. EDIT: i just Googled the Boodle Boy term and yeah, i see the Columbo episode being mentioned specifically for making this term known to the public. I remember now that i initially Googled "Budle Boy", as i for some reason did not think of it being written with double O instead of a U. I see it in my search history, and Google thought that i was maybe looking for "bugle boy" and that is how i got there. I was kinda in a hurry when i Googled it then, and when i wrote the reply to you, but now after taking some time, i also had the obvious realisation to IMDB Robert Clotworthy, and he is actually listed as "Boodle Boy - Jonathan Miller) for that Columbo episode. So.. yeah, i could've spared myself that confusion if i had just gone to IMDB in the first place, but yeah. I guess it still is a bit of a niche term, but you're right it definitely was boodle boy.
At the end: Captain Loomis- Well boys, what do you have to say for yourselves? Cadets- We’re sorry sir! Not only did we ferment cider, we caused the Colonel to get caught. That Columbo guy never would’ve caught him if it weren’t for us! Captain Loomis- You boys are promoted!
True. I don't think the Colonel was popular with the cadets, or indeed Captain Loomis. Too much of a disciplinarian. Loomis was much more of an easy going next in command.
Patrick McGoohan was a great actor and was excellent in all of the episodes of Columbo he was in. Such a wonderful voice and he knew how to use it to full effect like when he played Long Shanks in Brave Heart.
Ever since I first saw this episode I wondered what a "Boodle Boy" was. So I looked it up and the definition I got was "a Boodle Boy is a young man attending a military school who is assigned to be the Commandant's personal servant, as punishment or because the Commandant has taken a personal interest in his training"
Why was the cider hung in the window? I'd have thought it was for the sun to warm it up and speed up fermentation - but it was hung while still dark out.
It’s a method of concentrating the alcohol content of the cider. By hanging it outside at night, mainly on a cold night, the water component in the cider will begin to freeze and separate from the alcohol component. In the morning, any ice crystals can be removed and what remains is a more concentrated alcohol. During the day, the jug can be kept somewhere warm, with more apple juice or sugars added to continue the fermentation.
This was one of McGoohan's two Columbo roles (the other being Agenda for Murder) he won an Emmy for. All four of his appearances were great, but this - his first - was the stand-out. Yes, he was the standard strict military school head in public, but with Columbo alone you got to see a real man - he's not a power hungry opportunist abusing his authority, but a guy who genuinely wants to help his country by running Haynes Military Academy the way he does, but his narrow-minded black and white views have twisted him into something worse. His comment to Columbo that he longs for the day people stop hurting each other so the two of them are no longer needed is surprisingly poignant for a character like him, and Columbo allowing him to issue a final set of orders at the very end was a touching sentiment. Solid episode and the start of a wonderful relationship between Falk and McGoohan.
He's like the Inspector in Les Miserables: so rigid and rulebound that he he forgets the whole point of law--to see that justice is done. He really is an awful man--he murders a man in cold blood and tries to frame an innocent kid for it--but he's oddly sympathetic because he's so utterly convinced he's right, even if utterly insane. His whole life revolves around preserving order: without it and the academy, his whole life is empty, which he confesses to Columbo in his office. In his demented mind, he had to do what he did--it was existential.
I always loved how Columbo would slide over the bonnet of his talking car and his orangatang side kick was hilarious. Still remember the episode when they foiled the carnival owner who was dressed as a ghost to scare away debt collectors. It kinda jumped the shark when they introduced the tiny martian only Columbo could see...but still great TV.
I always find it fascinating how the US and the UK have different names and terms for the same thing. We call it “Hood,” while UK calls it “Bonnet.” I just find it interesting haha
@@donaldboyer8182 Whoosh. But yes, that's a nightrider, TJ Hooker, scooby doo, flintstone and Every which way but loose reference. I was being silly for my own comedic entertainment. . .
Were Patrick McGoohan and Peter Falk friends? Became close friends with Peter Falk after working with him on "Columbo". In fact, Falk spoke of McGoohan in very high regard --more than any other person (not just actor) in the series, calling him the "most underrated and under-appreciated talent on the planet".
I have rewatched my favs MANY times, I rewatched this just yesterday. I think it is a tie between the most repeat criminals, Patrick, Robert and Jack, RIP fellas.
Columbo came off as soft and fluffy, even when he was relentlessly hunting the murderer, circling him/her, waiting for the opportunity to go for the jugular. And then he would not let go until the murderer bled out.
Yes, but that's one of the clever points of the "Gotcha". He was so dedicated to his military philosophy of discipline in the training and education of his young cadets, that he couldn't resist disciplining them here for making the alcoholic cider. His own character flaw did him in. He was unable to think 100% like a murderer from start to finish, which is necessary if you truly hope to get away with it.
@@jamesfeldman4234 Right You are !!! He couldn't help himself and that's what gave him away.If he could think like a murderer , he would have kept the Cider thing to himself.
How would he see what he was doing if it was pitch dark? I don't think a military academy would have had had night vision goggles back then in general use. So he had to do it sometime when it was just bright enough to see what he was doing, but before reveille was called and the entire academy woken up.
Hello! The great Bruno Kirby…Definitely a great actor who we lost way too soon,as we lost Peter and Patrick too soon as well…God Bless them all! As we read some interesting trivia earlier from a very knowledgeable writer, While Bruno was filming this excellent Columbo episode, “By Dawn’s Early Light” in between scene breaks from Columbo,Bruno was indeed studying and memorizing his lines for the wonderful “Godfather 2” scenes. Bruno even asked Peter Falk and Patrick McCohan to watch him (Bruno) do some of his scenes for “The Godfather 2” film. How neat! I watch The Godfather 1,2,and 3 quite frequently,and The Godfather 2 is my favorite, as I see and enjoy Bruno Kirby and Robert De Niro work together in The Godfather 2 scenes they portray. So neat,and,very very special!
Around noon I was recounting this episode to a friend of mine who is making mead in his dorm; he was ruminating on ways to stash it from authorities and welcomed collaborators, so I regaled him this tale.
So captain loomis phones up the commandant and tells him he has seen the cider. He gets there and columbo asks him when he first saw it. So instead of tellling Columbo that captain loomis made him aware of the cider situation he instead decides to confess that he saw it the previous week. Does not make sense at all unless the commandant was very dumb
@@nicholasschroeder3678 indeed I have, ( thanks for the sarcastic response)but the question remains why would he incriminate himself? I am talking about when loomis phones him up to tell him the cider is hanging up and The commandant mentions that he first saw the cider hanging up the previous week (to columbo). Not a wise move when he knew fine well it was around the time he was tampering with the cannon. He basically confessed when he didn't have to
@@mikerusby Before Columbo was even on the scene, he notices cider hung out of the window as he was tampering with the cannon. If he was really smart he wouldn't have drawn attention to the cider and instigated a search for it. Columbo was always going to put two and two together, as the cadets informed him the first time the cider was hung in the window was the night before the cannon was due to be fired.
@@martinfinn1550 I agree, I saw that bit and in that scene he did not seem 'that' bothered about it. I have this theory that at the end he maybe felt a bit guilty. OR as others mentioned, maybe he could just not let the misdemeanour go, given his nature
@@mikerusby I really wasn't trying to be sarcastic. As you'll recall, Columbo is woken up in the dead of night by the Colonel's maniacal search for the cider, and it's then that Columbo confers with the cadets. How Columbo intuits that the cider could break the case is anyone's guess, but the Colonel already knows that Columbo knows that he HAS seen the cider. To deny that he's seen it beforehand would be a baldfaced lie. The Colonel initially tries to finesse it, he doesn't straight out confess, but he knows that Columbo knows, and he essentially gives up at that point. As for why the Colonel stupidly makes an issue of the cider in the first place--not realizing that it might pin him to the seen of the crime--it's his hyperanal nature (noted by someone else above)--he just can't let a rule, however stupid and trivial, go. His compulsion to enforce the rules--ALL OF THEM--24/7 even overrides self-preservation. It is his order and rules that give meaning to his otherwise empty life. That's what makes him a bit sympathetic and tragic: he kills an innocent man, and frames an innocent boy, because his conception of a meaningful life depend on it.
McGoohan 1 is merely a warm-up for Columbo, compared to McGoohan 2, 3, and 4, where you are dealing with a clever conniving double agent, a brilliant knowledgeable lawyer, and a dark-humoured undertaker who knows how to get rid of evidence. #1 doesn't put up much of a struggle, does not play with the Lieutenant's head, and is by far the most respectful.
Columbo says that you'd have to be standing directly behind the cannon to see the window, i.e. up on the platform. But at 5:24 Loomis is on the ground and can see the window. Hm.
to echo @derekbrou - This is a most unusual episode because Columbo is very strategic to equalize what's good and bad, unlike the other episodes where he expertly engages on his army training to kill foreign bad guys within 30 seconds. I like how he takes his time and even involves the students here, instead of gutting through bone and cartilage in close-fighting. Also they keep calling him McCall in the other episodes and the coloring is very contrasty and shiny instead of this more realistic patina which I don't get why.
@@venlocity2 To Columbo he was the obvious suspect but for a different reason, beginning with why he didn't identify the piece of the rag immediately. Do you mean somebody would check the barrel to see if there was a cleaning rag in it just prior to firing? If that's the case he obviously didn't know that since he stuffed the rag in the barrel hours before it was fired.
@@martinfinn1550 oh I understand that, but I mean even with a basic investigation not done by Columbo. If a single person is responsible for inspecting a cannon to make sure nothing goes wrong, when something goes wrong the first person that gets looked at is that responsible person.
@@venlocity2 Cadet Springer had the responsibility of cleaning the cannon the night before it was due to be fired. But it turned he was off the campus that night seeing his girlfriend. So who would they look at then? Columbo's suspicions of the Colonel were heightened when he discovered somebody had replaced the normal charge with high explosive, resulting in a far greater explosion. They didn't use C-4 explosives at the academy, so somebody high up in rank must have brought it in.
That is a lot of effort for not that much cider for a lot of people. Unless its extra potent or something would that many fit teenage boys even get drunk off of the whole thing?
Patrick McGoohan". Nnnn, the only episode I didn't like was "This and no further" episode. The "I'm a spy" episode is not one of my favorites. This one IS a favorite.
I though the later episodes were contrived and too 'friendly'. The spy one for example was not that great. This was probably the best McGoohan epsiode, though the funeral home one was ok
Patrick McGoohan was not in the "This far and no further" episode. That episode was called "The Conspirators" and the murderer was played by a New Zealand actor called Clive Revill playing an Irish gun runner, and putting on a fake Irish accent in it.
Mr Colombo you are needed immediately at Barack Obama's Mansion seems that his cook has had an unfortunate accident on a paddle board and has passed away. Barack Obama has a bruised and bloody left hand he initially claimed he wasn't there and then it turns out he actually was there. We know from past experience that you won't leave or drop the case until you find out everything that happened.
They went for 75 minutes but they had to condense them to under 10 minutes by taking out unnecessary and repetitive content because the old TVs couldn’t hold anything over 10 minutes. The mondo Columbus shows are very short always less than 10 minutes because of the primitive mondo TVs they had back then. The old old old TVs could not hold more than 10 minutes of show as they used CRT Catholic Ray Tubs technology and non Dylan Mulvaney CLT or Claw Technology. No harm no fowl. They tried Dylan Mulvaney to shorten the shows advertising and tried to produce a non racist TV set with Motorola involvement with flypaper control and Dylan Mulvaney CEO.
This is the problem I have with Columbo, it's in the title of this video "Columbo Uses the Military Students to Trick His Suspect" - so literally entrapment which would be thrown out by any LA judge. I have a feeling this case would have never gone to court, and the army would have made a deal with the local DA and it would have been settled as a court martial
