Gil Mellé - Death Lends a Hand (1971)

Music clip culled from the season 1 television film of "Columbo" entitled "Death Lends a Hand" in which company head and investigator Brimmer (actor Robert Culp) slaps and kills by accident the wife (actress Pat Crowley) of old publisher Mr. Kennicut and gets rid of the body from his house to a junkyard. To illustrate this highly-visual scene, composer Gil Mellé injects a wide array of musical styles from musique concrète to electronic music and jazz.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Gil Mellé
• Robert Culp
• Columbo
• Death Lends A Hand
• 1971
• Seventies
• Crime
• Detective
• Television
• Electronic Music
• Musique Concrète
• Jazz
• Soundtrack

[OhhhMyAxels]

I really like the theme they used when Columbo first appears in this episode. It was played throughout the first season for him, and I don't know what it was called or where to find it.

[Dixonium]

Probably my favorite murder scene in the whole of the "Columbo" canon. And the music is both terrifying and hypnotic. This was brilliantly, beautifully done.

[fucheduck]

Gil Melle is a versitlie incdientalist and can use his music in many ways from cool jazz to creepy to atona chaos and madness like this scene is. Probably every filming studio wanted his service I had no idea how many series/movies he had done.

[stephenm6100]

the image of the aftermath of the killing where brimmer tries to cover it up was a brilliant touch of filming.but columbo put that seed of doubt in his brain.RIP peter and robert.

[edbingey]

Amazing sequence, brilliant music.

[krelllabs]

Re L Simon, I meant to add that the other episode in which appeared is STITCH IN CRIME.



[krelllabs]

@hamletmiss If you are referring to the clerk to whom Columbo spoke, that is not Chase. His name is I believe Leonard Simon, who appeared as an OR doctor showing Columbo some ghastly operation and discussing stitches. He does bear a fair resemblance to Chase, though.

[Santi66]

Congrats for your videos.

Can you post the music on the latest minutes of this film?

Thank you in advance

[romanscott]

Thanks for paying tribute to this sequence. I had just watched the whole episode and had a funny feeling there was something special about the direction, something that should be recognized in cinema history. So I googled it and found your clip. The reflections in glasses are a haunting and effective expression--makes me wonder if this has been quoted or used in other films?

[hamletmiss]

Interesting Piece of Trivia - According to IMDB, and I checked it out myself on Netflix, you can spot a 28-year-old Chevy Chase playing a DMV clerk three-quarters into this episode. Here's an irony that most people don't know: Chevy actually had a dramatic stint before going full-time comedic, when most comedians try to go dramatic later on. Chevy would go dramatic in 2006 on "Law and Order" and he did that well.