Columbo is the most iconic television detective to have graced the screen. His masterful takedowns always stump the villains. None was better than this scene from an episode in season 1.
During the final scene of “Suitable for Framing,” the unfortunate Edna Matthews is disheartened at the prospect of going to jail for the murder of a loved one that she didn’t commit.
When the police come to search her house, the true villain Dale Kingston happily awaits the discovery of the evidence he’s planted to secure poor Edna’s sentence. And then Columbo walks in.
Kingston tries to convince Columbo to go home, but the clever detective insists on staying. The police uncover some stolen paintings in Edna’s linen closet. It seems like the end of Edna Matthews.
But wait! Columbo instructs the officers to dust the paintings for fingerprints. He has absolute confidence that Dale Kingston is the real murderer, and this will prove his theory correct.
Dale blubbers on about how his fingerprints are all over it because he helped his uncle move them. Columbo has no case, so why does Dale still look so nervous?
In the ultimate reveal, Columbo states they are looking for his own fingerprints. When Dale accuses him of planting them, Columbo is one step ahead and pulls gloved hands out of his pockets.
