nelson hayward ( jackie cooper ) be run for senate a a man tough on crime . his campaign manager harry stone ( ken swofford ) demand the candidate dump his mistress ( tisha sterling ) and back up the demand with threat to expose the politician shady past . but stone approves of the candidate publicity mind lie that anonymous killer be threaten the politician life and little guessing that hayward will murder him and blame it on these invented assailant . hayward set up a tricky alibi for himself that include a surprise birthday party for his wife ( joanne linville ) . no one guess the truth except that annoy italian cop in the rumpled raincoatour redoubtable lt. columbo ( peter falk ) . except for comic scene include to pad the running time and this be a top notch columbo episode . the dialoguefrom a script credit to four writer and not count the story creditis particularly sharp and especially in the scene where cooper turn the table on columbo and insists on give him his undivided attention while this time it the suspect interrupt our clever detective with irrelevancy . swofford and linville and sterling all give sterling support while and jackie cooper make a splendid villaina charm but unscrupulous politician with a wrinkled but handsomely boyish face that make him look like a mortified schoolboy in the last scene .