Prison bird Tommy Brown seduced 16-year-old backing vocalist Mary Ann 3 years ago and pretended that he was walking the path of the righteous. In fact, he has long wanted to master family money and stop being on the sidelines, tired of supporting the Lost Souls Crusaders religious enterprise with his country music and star status. His wife Edna, a saint and the head of the church of Lost Souls, uses the hero Johnny Cash as a cash cow, knows about this affair and blackmails her husband.
His crime is not one of those that can be forgotten over the years and he may find himself on a bunk again. So it’s better for him not to show off, but to behave well, especially since the temple is on the way. Being pressed against the wall, Tommy wants to solve the problem once and for all, but not any way, but with the help of a plane crash. His insidious plan can fool anyone, but not Lieutenant Colombo. Here is briefly the plot of Swan Song (1974), the seventh episode of the third season of the famous TV series Columbo.
In the ecstasy of gospel music...
There are a couple of notable musical numbers here – at the beginning, Cash performs the gospel I Saw The Light by Hank Williams, and then, according to the story of Sunday Morning Coming Down by Kris Kristofferson, sitting on the lawn surrounded by frivolous girls of socially low behavior.
Johnny Cash partly plays himself, despite the fact that he certainly did not commit such crimes as his character. Tommy Brown deceives everyone, but still he cannot be called a completely deceitful and two-faced person. He is absolutely honest in his commitment to the values professed by rock stars – he loves music and young girls. He loves to sing, loves to be the center of attention, loves to be a star. He loves his music – he listened to I Saw The Light 3 times for the movie, sang Sunday Morning 2 times.
Such an eloquent "caught red-handed" look
It may seem that Johnny Cash is an unimportant actor, it catches your eye, but his character Tommy Brown himself also plays in this story, and sometimes does it clumsily. In general, Cash is all right with talent, it was clear from the first film Five Minutes To Live (1961), and was confirmed in the Shootout (1971), where his partner was Kirk Douglas, who noted the acting level of the musician. And with the Cache there is a 100% hit, he is a guest star and even then a man of legend.
I got a lot of pleasure from the presence of Cash, and of course from Peter Falk, a detective who pretends that he is “just on duty” and he just needs to “follow the formalities” and make a report for his superiors, nothing that he is from homicide. Such an easy character, balancing on the edge of comedy and seriousness. Falk and Cash turned out to be a convincing duet.
"And then I'd like you to write a long, long list of things I could do for you for being so kind to me."
The ending is ambiguous, the finale is open: it is unclear what decision Colombo will make, because his wife is a fan of Brown, and he himself is fascinated by the music and charisma of the artist. This is the swan song of the Man in Black.
“Someone who can sing like that can’t be an absolutely bad person!”
– that’s what Colombo says.
Watch TV Series Columbo: Swan Song online (VK)
