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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 274950" data-attributes="member: 23">Death Lends A Hand / Dead Weight continued Meanwhile, over in Dead Weight, Helen Stewart (Suzanne Pleshette - best known to me as Annie Hayworth from The Birds and Karen Walker’s mother from Will & Grace) witnesses retired Marine Major General Martin Hollister shooting to death his accomplice in embezzlement. Helpfully, the young Colonel killed has done a lot of the work for Hollister in taking a lengthy leave after which he was planning to go AWOL anyway. By the time investigations are underway, the body is hidden - first in a secret compartment at his home, then it’s dumped at sea.After learning of a witness who saw the shooting from a boat on the river outside his home, Hollister investigates, learns Helen’s identity and then turns up at her home. Something that took a little suspension of disbelief was Helen responding to Holllister’s harassment by falling for him. It was done over the course of several scenes, so there was a bit of a build-up, but it still felt like a stretch. I suppose she’s a graduate of the same hopeless romantic school as Lilly La Sanka (and, indeed, Annie Hayworth). Helen’s unsupportive, disbelieving, critical mother Nora Walters, who approves of the good Major General, is played by Helen Reid best known to me as Aunt Lil “If only there was a man to take Michael in hand, Ray” Trotter. I didn’t recognise her until I DuckDuckGoed her name afterwards, and was very surprised to learn it’s the same actress. In Columbo I found her animated, engaging and likeable - three attributes I wouldn’t apply to Lil. And the banter between Nora and Helen was great fun, with Nora running down everything from Helen’s poor boating skills (she complains of whiplash after they dock) to her failed marriage (she accuses her daughter of being paranoid when her husband was running round with other women). The fact that she undermines her daughter at every opportunity also goes some way to explaining why Hollister is able to so easily take advantage of Helen and gaslight her into doubting herself over what she saw. Pleshette is great in this episode. I was surprised how young she looks compared with in The Birds which was made before this (though not that long. It’s only eight years, even though I always think of The Birds as a mid-Fifties film). I think it’s a combination of the more vibrant casual clothes and the longer hair. She’s also completely convincing in the role of someone who is a far less confident kind of character than I suspect Suzanne herself would have been. Thankfully, there are also moments of fire and she’s not averse to the occasional quip and put-down in rebutting her mother or keeping Columbo at bay. There’s something of the Valene Ewing to her: the bad choices in the man department; the overbearing mother; the self doubt; the sweet, uncertain smile in the face of potential danger. She even sported a mullet. Speaking of things Knotsian, the young Colonel’s body later surfaces, next to a boat named Art’s Landing, somewhat foreshadowing the name of the series in which Suzanne’s cousin would become a regular. continued...</blockquote>

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