[profh0011]

I figured, I'm starting in on all 69 episodes, I might as well give this its own thread!


PRESCRIPTION: MURDER   (1968)
The Psychiatrist, The Heiress & The Actress   (9 of 10)

A psychiatrist who married for money plots with his much-younger girlfriend to murder his wife while he's supposedly out of the country. But when he returns, he finds a rather odd police detective who tells him "Someone tried to kill your wife." "TRIED?" And from that instant (if not earlier!), the detective already suspects the husband is the culprit, and plays a slow, but RELENTLESS "game" to build a case, try to get a confession, and then finally, goes after the girlfriend.

On 7-31-60, THE CHEVY MYSTERY SHOW aired "Enough Rope", an ususual murder story by 2 of the most brilliant mystery writers since Agatha Christie, Richard Levinson & William Link, in which the audience saw the crime, then got to watch the detective solve it. It introduced to the world the character of "Lt. Columbo", as then played by Bert Freed. Based on the short story "May I Come In", published as "Dear Corpus Delicti" in an issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, the story featured a police lieutenant then named "Fisher". I mention this purely for historical purposes; the teleplay is available for viewing in the archives of the Paley Center for Media in New York City and Los Angeles. Why it's NOT available on DVD by this time is an infuriating mystery itself!

On 1-2-62, the story was adapted again into a stage play, "Prescription Murder", which starred Thomas Mitchell as Columbo. Sadly, Mitchell passed away during the play's short run!

Then on 2-20-68, it was adapted again as a TV-movie on NBC-- this time with Peter Falk, who apparently said it was a role he would "kill" for! WHO KNEW that, before it was all over, Falk would star in no less than 69 COLUMBO TV-movies?

I came in at the end of the first season, and became a regular viewer after that... all the way to the end. But this film (and the follow-up, which served as the actual "pilot"-- or, "2nd pilot", if you will), I never saw until the early 1980s, which was quite typical for me concerning TV pilots aired long before many regular series episodes began airing. As many have noted, here, Columbo is neater, less dishevled, and less "brain-damaged" in his outward behavior.

According to Wikipedia, Columbo was partially inspired by Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Crime And Punishment" character Porfiry Petrovich, as well as G. K. Chesterton's humble cleric-detective Father Brown. Other sources claim Columbo's character is also influenced by Inspector Fichet from the French suspense-thriller film LES DIABOLIQUES (1955). I find that interesting, because the latter film was also apparently the main source for Roger Corman's 1961 "Poe" film, PIT AND THE PENDULUM. Before Falk first played Columbo, over in England, actor Patrick Troughton also played a similar character when he took on the lead role on DOCTOR WHO. Troughton's "Doctor", like Falk's "Columbo", used an outward demeanor that was goofy-looking and goofy-acting to hide a DANGEROUSLY-brilliant intellect. Simply put, the bad guys NEVER know what they're up against!

Gene Barry (WAR OF THE WORLDS, BAT MASTERSON) begins a long tradition of 60s TV heroes playing villains and murderers in the 70s. I always hear that actors find playing villains more fun and interesting, so this show must have been immensely attractive to become a guest-star on.

Nina Foch is the domineering wife, who, like in countless Christie stories, you just KNOW is going to be murdered. Honestly, if two people fall out of love, why can't they just be civilized and go their separate ways-- instead of threatening to take ALL the money AND ruin their spouse's career and reputation? You hate to say it, but SHE HAD IT COMING.

William Windom (STAR TREK, MY WORLD AND WELCOME TO IT) is "Burt Gordon" from the D. A.'s office. You'd think a guy in his position would want to see a killer caught, no matter who it might turn out to be, instead of letting personal friendship cloud his judgement. As soon as he agrees to have Columbo removed from the case, the Lieutenant just KNOWS he's on the right track!

I'd just like to mention Ena Hartman as the Nurse / Receptionist when Falk, Barry & Windom converge at the hospital. She only has a brief scene, and the way it's shot, you NEVER get a clear view of her FACE! But my attention was caught my her very-pretty voice, and I had to look her up to see who she was. While her career was short, she did 26 episodes of DAN AUGUST with Burt Reynolds. That would be enough to make me want to check out that series!

This film is incredible to watch. It starts out slow and quiet. But as it continues, step by step, scene by scene, it gets more interesting, FUNNIER, and more INTENSE. I have to admit, I kinda got bored with COLUMBO by the late 70s... but not here! It's easy to see why this became so popular.

It took 3 more years before Falk returned in "Ransom For A Dead Man", followed 6 months later by the debut of THE NBC MYSTERY MOVIE series. COLUMBO: The Complete Series (ALL 69 episodes!) are available in one 2018 package for far less than I would have expected. After spending decades tediously videotaping things myself off the air, it's still sometimes a SHOCK to be able to get all this at once, so easily. (I plan to watch the entire series in sequence with the rest of the NBC MYSTERY MOVIES, as many as I can get ahold of! As a friend of mine once said, "It gives you something to keep busy.")

[profh0011]

COLUMBO:  Ransom For A Dead Man   (1971)
The Kidnapping That Never Was   (8 of 10)

A man comes home to find his wife waiting for him-- with a gun. Next thing, she dumps the body over a cliff, then sets up an elaborate charade to make the FBI think her husband's been kidnapped! Only one officer from the local police along for the ride suspects otherwise... Lt. Columbo. Soon, he has an ally in the woman's step-daughter, who tells him her father's 2nd wife "never loved him", and only used him to build her own career as a lawyer. The main problem, as he puts it, is, he "wouldn't want to convict her on the wrong evidence". He finally puts his belief that the woman has NO conscience to use GETTING hard evidence.

3 years after "Prescription: Murder", a 2nd COLUMBO pilot aired, and this time, a regular series resulted as part of the new NBC MYSTERY MOVIES. Dean Hargrove, who was responsible for 11 of the best episodes of THE MAN FROM UNCLE, joined the proceedings for his 1st of 3 COLUMBO stories. I've seen his name as producer on so many of my favorite mystery series, including MADIGAN, McCOY, FATHER DOWLING MYSTERIES, the PERRY MASON revival movies, it's surprising he did so few of these!

Unusually for this show, Columbo turns up only 14 minutes in. I was keeping an eye on my stopwatch to see when the BADGERING would begin-- it was not until the 48 minute mark! Before that, one of the FBI men warned him that if he began hounding the widow, he would "take it upstairs". Proving just how cool HE could be, Columbo told him, "This is not just a kidnapping; this is a murder now... and I kinda figure that's my department. I'll see ya 'round." OOH! From that moment, I found myself repeatedly laughing out loud at certain developing points in the story.

Lee Grant (IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT) is "Leslie Williams", one of the most cold-blooded murderers I've ever seen on this series-- and that's really saying something! At one point, when it's clear the Lieutenant is smarter than he acts, she takes him up in a small 2-seater plane (having heard during the ransom drop-off that he was obviously uncomfortable flying) and takes the plane through several aerodynamic twists and turns. I found this hilarious, as it was obvious she was SCREWING with him, trying to rattle his cage so he couldn't think straight. I suspect that only strengthened his already-existing suspicions. Watching that scene, I found myself thinking, "They couldn't get FAYE DUNAWAY, huh?" Crazy thing-- until tonight, I NEVER noticed just HOW MUCH she looked like Polish actress Ingrid Pitt. I bet SHE would have killed for the chance to play a COLUMBO murderer.

Patricia Mattick (who apparently had more of a career on stage than on screen) is "Margaret Williams". Her outburst at the cemetery during her father's funeral leads Columbo to take her into his confidence, especially when she looks him up at his favorite diner eating chili. After, her increasing outbursts against her stepmother, which involved producing a fake set of car keys, and later, re-enacting the shooting, left me with NO doubt that Columbo put her up to it! I really liked her, and felt if I knew her I'd probably ask, out of curiosity, if I could see what she looked like without those "granny glasses".

Other familiar faces for me were Harold Gould as an FBI man (I swear, I had a pharmacist who looked exactly like him), Paul Carr (VOYAGE, STAR TREK, BUCK ROGERS) as another Fed, Charles Maculey (HEAD, STAR TREK, PERRY MASON, BLACULA-- I must admit, I didn't recognize him, but then, that's normal for him), and Timothy Carey (HEAD) as the diner cook.

As with so many 70s pilots, I never saw this until long after the series went into syndication. As it happens, Philly's Channel 3 ran it one night as a "special event"-- UNCUT, with only ONE commercial break right in the middle! If only all the shows I videotaped over the years were that easy to do. Even so, what a charge to get it on DVD. I noticed this time that the lettering font was different from that used in all the later episodes. This was only the 3rd time I've seen this, but so far, I'm finding myself enjoying these MORE than I ever did in the old days. I hope that continues. I have a LONG way to go this time around!

[profh0011]

COLUMBO:  Death Lends A Hand
The High-Tech PI and the Accidental Death   (8 of 10)

A newspaper mogul hired a high-tech PI to find out if his much-younger wife is cheating on him or not. He gets a "clean bill of health"-- but the PI is lying, and by with-holding this, hopes to force the (no-longer cheating) wife to spy for him on her husband's political dealings. When she refuses, in a burst of rage he accidentally KILLS her... then has to get rid of the body. No carefully-conceived murder this time!

Columbo turns up at the 15 minute mark, driving his old, beat-up 1959 Peugeot 403 Cabriolet with a smile on his face (no wonder, Peter Falk just got himself a regular TV series!) when he's pulled over for a broken tail light. On finding out the driver is a police detective, the motorcycle cop decides to give him an escort to his murder investigation, to avoid further traffic problems. The widower is impatient to get results, and so unknowingly hires the same man who actually killed his wife, to "help"! But from the moment Columbo lays eyes on the guy, his spirits perk up, as he no longer has NO leads. From that point, it's just a countdown to when and how the Lieutenant will NAIL the killer.

I swear, I'm enjoying this series more than I ever did in the 70s. One of the most entertaining moments is when Columbo interviews the golf pro the dead woman had an affair with, claims he wants a "lesson", then hits a ball so hard and so far, before saying "I could never learn this game." YEAH, RIGHT.

This was in fact the 3rd COLUMBO filmed (after the 2 pilots), and 3rd in a row written by creators Richard Levinson & William Link; but for whatever reason, NBC opened the 1971-72 season with the 4th one. As a result, Robert Culp (THE OUTER LIMITS, I SPY, THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO) became the 4th murderer in broadcast order. As other have noted, dirtector Bernard Kowalski & composer Gil Melle (THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN) gave this more of a polished "feature film" look and feel than usual, even by NBC MYSTERY MOVIE standards. As the plot progresses, Culp's short-tempered PI works harder and harder to prevent the Lieutenant from solving the case, including making him a job offer at three times his current pay. (If he wasn't already suspicious, that would have destroyed any doubts.)

Ray Milland (THE UNIVITED, THE PREMATURE BURIAL) plays the husband of the dead woman, who gives Columbo a free hand to do whatever it takes to find the killer. I wondered if he had a cold while filming this, as in the early part of the episode, I couldn't recognize his voice, and wondered if he hadn't been DUBBED.

Pat Crowley (who I always remember from THE MAN FROM UNCLE pilot) plays the murdered woman. It's the strangest thing, but until tonight, I've always confused her with actress Kathleen Crowley-- it appears they're not even related (unless they are, one's from Pennsylvania, the other, New Jersey).

At the end, Columbo reveals to the widower that a prank he and his friends used to play as kids led to him becoming a police officer-- to make up for all his early mischief. That same prank led directly to his nailing the killer this time!

[nzumel]

COLUMBO:  Death Lends A Hand
The High-Tech PI and the Accidental Death   (8 of 10)

A newspaper mogul hired a high-tech PI to find out if his much-younger wife is cheating on him or not. He gets a "clean bill of health"-- but the PI is lying, and by with-holding this, hopes to force the (no-longer cheating) wife to spy for him on her husband's political dealings. When she refuses, in a burst of rage he accidentally KILLS her... then has to get rid of the body. No carefully-conceived murder this time!

...

This is one of my favorite Columbo episodes. Robert Culp is always great, and Ray Milland is much better in this than he is in Greenhouse Jungle.

[profh0011]

I came in at the end of the 1st season originally.  I'm sure I saw this one many years later, but I suspect it was butchered.  I'm still freaking out over being able to get all 69 movies for so cheap.  And I'm not JUST watching COLUMBO, because for the first time I'm able to relive watching the entire MYSTERY MOVIE schedule.

I deliberately watched "Death Lends A Hand" out of sequence, because I read it was the 3rd one filmed.  And something I never noticed before, the first 3 stories they did, all written by the same guys, they were ALREADY "playing" with the format so as not to keep doing the same format EVERY story.  That wouldn't last... but my favorite season has always been season 11, when Falk became co-exec producer.  EACH story was "different"-- and when they got around to doing a "normal" one, THAT was suddenly "different" from all the previous ones that year.

My first exposure to Robert Cult was actually walking in halfway thru "Demon With A Glass Hand".  Those idiots at ABC moved THE OUTER LIMITS to Saturday nights opposite JACKIE GLEASON, which killed the ratings.  Somehow, it took me until around 1980 or so to actually see "Demon..." from the beginning.  And I still don't have a copy of it in my collection.  In the back of my mind, I plan to get the entire series on DVD... in fact, I want to go after it before I upgrade STAR TREK.  (There's so many connections between those 2 shows... especially the early, gloomy episodes Gene Roddenberry produced himself in season 1.)

[profh0011]

COLUMBO:  Murder By The Book
The Writer and The Publicist   (5 of 10)

A murder mystery writing team breaks up when one of them decides to go off on his own, leaving the other guy in the lurch. As it turns out, the man striking out on his own has been doing most-- IF NOT ALL-- of the writing, while the other mostly (ENTIRELY) handed publicity. Re-using an idea they'd discussed years earlier, the publicist lures his partner to a remote cabin, then actually shoots him dead while the guy is on the phone calling his wife! She calls the cops, sends them to her husband's office, which has clearly been ransacked, but, there's NO body, and NO sign of murder. Lending sympathy to the wife (who doesn't realize she's now a widow), Columbo drives her home, and while making her a soufle, meets the now-ex-partner, and, typically, almost instantly becomes suspicious that, YEAH, this guy's the murderer. But for most of the story, all he has are theories and suppositions.

The 4th COLUMBO produced (but aired 3rd), this was the 1st written by someone other than the creative team of Richard Levinson & William Link. Future HILL STREET BLUES creator Steven Bochco supplies the screenplay, while future superstar Steven Spielberg directs. Many rave about both their efforts here, but it seems quite a few are pointing out GLARING, GAPING plot holes. Myself, I can't say I noticed anything special about the directing, but I did notice the plot holes. First and foremost, when the writer calls his wife from the cabin, pretending he's at the office, HOW is it possible nobody checked the phone records? Even without "caller I. D." or having every phone listed on my computer, the location of the murder should have been obvious to any police officer checking on it within 5 minutes. Why don't I just skip the rest of the details, and say that Bochco got way better over time.

Jack Cassidy plays the arrogant, egotistical, smarmy, narcissistic publicist who, despite Columbo's claims that it was a classic, really did botch the murder... and did an even sloppier job on the 2nd murder, getting rid of a blackmailing witness. The heroine of the writing "team"s novels is a "Mrs. Melville", an obvious nod to Agatha Christie's "Miss Marple", and a 2nd (or 3rd) murder done to cover up the 1st is a recurring schtick in many of her stories (notably DEATH ON THE NILE). The painting of the fictional lady reminded me of actress Margaret Rutherford, who played Jane Marple in 5 different movies in the early 60s. I generally like Cassidy, but somehow his character mostly annoyed me in this one.

Martin Milner (ROUTE 66, ADAM-12) plays the writer who becomes the murder victim. Rosemary Forsyth plays his wife-turned-widow. My favorite part of the story was when the "real" Columbo, the brilliant guy who's not pretending to be an idiot, gets together with her to get her talking about the two men, in the hope that something, anything, might help him find one piece of hard evidence he needs to nail the guy who killed her husband. I knew she was familiar, but couldn't place her. It was that VOICE. Checking her resume, I found she'd played "Joyce Armor" in the 2-part 4th-season opener of WKRP IN CINCINNATI. No wonder she was familiar. I must have seen those episodes at least 50 times apiece.

Hoke Howell has a very minor cameo as a police sergeant. I'll always remember him for playing the same security guard in 2 very different episodes of LOST IN SPACE made 2 years apart! (He's got a really distinctive face.)

I read that the house Cassidy's character lived in was used in countless TV shows. I can't be sure, but it seems to me it appeared this same year in the McCLOUD episode "Someone's Out To Get Jennie". Those brick walls really looked familiar!

Apparently there was a running joke behind-the-scenes that the 2 ex-partners in this, writer Jim Ferris (Milner) and publicist Ken Franklin (Cassidy) were based on the writing team of Levinson & Link. I don't believe it. Those guys were legendary, together for decades, and the most brilliant mystery writers since Christie. No, I saw another parallel, and the period this episode was done makes it a real possibility that I'm right. For ten years during the 1960s, writer & artist Jack Kirby was trapped by circumstances in the terrible situation of having all his writing credits AND MONEY stolen by his "editor", Stan Lee. In 1970, Kirby finally got a contract at another publisher, guaranteeing him pay for the writing he was doing. His former boss, who was never "creative" before of after that ten year period, spent the rest of his life not only getting rich off his undeserved reputation, but also, repeatedly BAD-mouthed his former "partner", while always claiming he "had no idea" why the guy left him. YEAH, RIGHT.

[profh0011]

COLUMBO: Dead Weight
The Embezzling Retired General (6 of 10)

A war hero-turned-arms manufacturer has been ripping off the Federal Government, and his partner in crime informs him the Feds are investigating. The younger man, fearful of getting caught, decides to run, but the retired General, not wanting any chance of being connected in the embezzlement scheme, decides on the spur of the moment to kill the man, then get rid of the body. But by chance, a woman sailing by his house sees the murder and calls the police. When Columbo arrives, there's no body, no murder weapon, and no immediately-apparent motive. When the General locates the woman and begins to break down her confidence in what she saw-- coupled with the woman's horribly-abusive, narcissistic mother incessantly tearing her down, her resolve begins to give way. But then the body turns up, having been dumped in the bay... and a lot of pieces begin falling into place.

For the 2nd time in the series (in fact, in broadcast order, the 2nd story IN A ROW), we have an abrupt murder instead of a planned-out, calculated one. (I guess that's what NBC gets for running the 2 previous stories in the reverse order. In fact, based on production credits, I suspect this may have been filmed after the NEXT one!) Myself, I like that this early in the run, they're still "playing" with the format (even as they did much later in Season 11 and after), so that not every story has the exact same structure. Writer John T. Dugan's 1st of only 2 episodes, judging by the IMDB, is over-run with goofs and logic problems. Oh, well, nobody's perfect. I mainly know him from the 2nd-season STAR TREK story "Return To Tomorrow", though he also did 25 episodes of ADAM-12, 7 of KUNG FU and 18 of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE.

Eddie Albert (GREEN ACRES) is "Maj. Gen. Martin J. Hollister", a man so cool and confident he figures he can get away with anything, even NOT getting rid of the murder weapon, which was a proud part of his career and winds up on display in a museum exhibit commemorating his military service. Albert was one of many stars of 60s TV shows who no doubt wound up having fun playing baddies in the 70s, including here, and on a later McCLOUD.

John Kerr (PIT AND THE PENDULUM) is "Col. Roger Dutton", who's shot dead OFF-camera, leaving the audience to wonder what happened to his corpse. An amusing moment is when Columbo arrives and sees a coffin-size wooden crate being nailed up, and the murderer says, "That would be a little too obvious, wouldn't it?" (But as soon as he then drew the Lieutenant's attention to the bedrooms in the opposite direction of where he was looking, I suspected WHERE the body was actually hidden. I was right!)

Suzanne Pleshette (THE BOB NEWHART SHOW) is "Helen Stewart", the witness who's so relentlessly beaten down by her mother's harping and insults, on top of already losing confidence in herself from going through a divorce, that she becomes far-too-easy prey when the General begins stalking, then complimenting, then dating her. (How creepy can you get?)

Kate Reid (THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN) is "Mrs. Walters", a determined, shrewish harpy so nasty, so vile, she made the murdering General seem like a nice guy by comparison. I've had so much personal experience with various people with "NPD" (Narcissistic Personality Disorder) that I get deeply offended and incensed whenever I recognize the behavior on film or TV. No, there was nothing "fun" about her or her behavior.

Also in the cast were Val Avery as the man renting sail boats, and Timothy Carey as "Bert", who tells Columbo he has "the best chili in town".

The scene where the General takes Columbo out for a "test drive" of his boat was so similar to when Lee Grant took him up in a one-man plane, that I figured writer Dugan had watched the previous episodes for ideas.

I liked the fact that the General NEVER actually admitted his crime at the end. A really smart criminal would know to say NOTHING.

I suppose one might say this story was a bit ahead of its time. The plot involving government military contracts would crop up again only 4 NBC Mystery Movies later, in the McCLOUD episode, "Somebody's Out To Get Jennie". This sort of thing is so horrifically-rampant these days, The Pentagon has actually FAILED multiple audits in a row. One of these days... that needs to STOP.
     (12-4-2023)

[profh0011]

COLUMBO:  Suitable For Framing
The Corrosive Art Critic   (7 of 10)

For only the 2nd time in the series (after "Ransom For A Dead Man"), the story OPENS with the murderer shooting his victim dead. An egotistical art critic kills his rich uncle, and with the help of a young art student, sets up an alibi to make it look like it happened later than it actually did. It turns out, the killer learned his uncle had changed his will to leave his entire art collection to his EX-WIFE-- and so he sets about trying to frame HER for the killing, with the idea that if she's convicted, he'll get the paintings after all. But the man is SO obnoxious-- especially dealing with Columbo-- how can the Lieutenant possibly suspect anyone else? And, when the killer uses his lawyer to "pull strings" and have Columbo taken off the case (even as happened in "Prescription Murder"), that's practically a confession in our hero's one good eye.

Ross Martin (THE WILD WILD WEST) is "Dale Kingston". I have to agree with several other reviewers who said he was one of the most arrogant murderers this series ever saw, and you just can't wait to see him NAILED for not one but two murders, plus, trying to frame a sweet, innocent lady.

Don Ameche (TRADING PLACES) is "Frank Simpson", the well-meaning family lawyer who foolishly allows himself to be conned into taking part in what he doesn't realize is a frame-up job.

Kim Hunter (DEADLINE-USA, PLANET OF THE APES) is "Edna Matthews", who NOBODY suspects of anything, despite having an obvious motive. She's the kind of nice, endearing sort of middle-aged lady that I'd love to have someday as a home care client.

Barney Phillips (THE TWILIGHT ZONE) is "Captain Wyler", Columbo's boss, who seems so familiar it's a shock to see this was his only appearance on the show.

Vic Tayback (STAR TREK: "A Piece of the Action") is Sam Franklin, an eccentric artist who Kingston shows utter contempt for. An amusing scene is when Columbo is trying to get some info from him while avoiding looking at the man's obviously-NAKED young female model. (Funny, that sort of thing never bothered me when I was in art school.)

This is probably a cleche, but it strikes me that COLUMBO as a series may have been as popular as it was, because you had normal people watching characters in every episode who were OBSCENELY-RICH, wallowing in their wealth and power, get TAKEN DOWN every episode by a guy they always mistook for an uneducated schlep. This episode's finale, involving finger-prints, put the BIGGEST smile on my face. "But I thought..." "We KNOW what you thought."

I suspect, judging by the producer credits, that this episode was filmed before the previous one, "Dead Weight".

[profh0011]

COLUMBO:  Lady In Waiting
“It was an ACCIDENT!”   (6 of 10)

Well no it wasn't. A repressed woman decides to murder her brother, who announces he's standing in the way of her marrying the man she loves. She plans it all out in advance, even daydreams of exactly how it will go. Except, it DOESN'T. He comes in through the wrong door, she shoots him dead BEFORE setting off the burglar alarm, her boyfriend arrives moments later, her brother left a LATE-edition of the newspaper in the living room he supposedly didn't walk through... It occured to me, the instant her brother walked in, she should have calmed down, waited, and planned to murder him at a later date. Too bad she didn't. Columbo arrives, and after that, well, the ending was inevitable, wasn't it?

Susan Clark (MADIGAN, COOGAN'S BLUFF) is "Beth Chadwick", the 2nd woman murderer in the series (after Lee Grant). They must have gone to some length to make her look plain and average early in the story, after the murder she gives herself quite a make-over, in more ways than one. Her fiance comments it's like she's become an entirely-different person, and she eventually becomes openly-hostile to Columbo's incessant appearances with not-so-trivial questions that never seem to end.

Richard Anderson (THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN) is the domineering brother who goes too far and winds up shot 3 times for it. Some people in real life do seem to spend years practically begging to be murdered, but it's still not a good idea to actually do it.

Richard Bull (VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA) and Garry Walberg (QUINCY M. E.) are 2 homicide cops who show up after the shooting but are never seen again. Marcia Wallace (THE BOB NEWHART SHOW) is an astrology nut who tells Columbo that Chadwick will definitely get off, based on the positions of the stars. Jon Lormer (PEYTON PLACE, STAR TREK) is the judge at the inquest.

Leslie Nielsen nearly steals the show as "Peter Hamilton", Chadwick's fiance who angrily raced to the house determind to confront her brother, only to find him DEAD when he got there. One would almost expect most cops to suspect HIM of the killing, and indeed, he asks if Columbo suspects he & Beth planned it together. After, he has more discussions with Columbo than she does, and with his friendly demeanor, anyone walking in halfway thru might mistake HIM as the killer. I've seen him in so many things over the decades, and frankly, this was one the most-relaxed performances I've ever seen him give, right up there with NIGHT TRAIN TO PARIS (if you haven't seen that, by all mean, check it out!). He got so much better after FORBIDDEN PLANET.

[profh0011]

COLUMBO:  Short Fuse
I've heard of exploding cigars before, but this is ridiculous!   (5 of 10)

A spoiled, self-centered, egotistical and highly-erratic heir to a chemical company, is about to be pushed out by his uncle-by-marriage, who's had enough of trying to clear up his nephew's endless screw-ups and scandals. So he concocts a box of Cuban cigars set to explode one minute after they're opened, puts them in his uncle's car, and has a night on the town with his uncle's secretary to have an alibi when the inevitable happens. But before anyone finds what's left of the car, his uncle and the man's combination chauffer-private eye, his aunt calls the police because her husband's gone missing... and they send their "best man" to investigate... Columbo. (What, you were expecting someone else?)

All the company politics involved in this story I found over-complex and boring. But the murderer is so bizarre, exagerated and over-the-top in his attitude and behavior, he gets the wheels spinning in Columbo's head, while everyone else merely assumes the car that went over a cliff was due to an exploding gas tank. There's so much insistence that it couldn't have been a murder, it had to have been an accident, that, when the climax arrives-- and Columbo actually CONS the killer into believing it WAS an accident-- and that he's holding the UNEXPLODED box in his hands-- it actually kinda makes sense, if just barely. I've seen enough people with NPD to know, a lot of them are that unstable.

Roddy McDowell (BATMAN: "The Bookworm Turns") is "Roger Stanford", an overgrown child playing at being an adult, who really could not keep his mouth shut every time Columbo was around, practically telling the Lieutenant what he did when the detective merely had suspicions. His total freak-out at the end was absolutely the highlight of the episode.

Anne Francis (FORBIDDEN PLANET) is the secretary Roger is having a secret affair with. Did he ever care, or was she just a tool to get at his uncle? (Probably) Still very attractive here, she seems to be playing a character much-younger than her then-age of 40.

James Gregory (STAR TREK: "Dagger Of The Mind") is "David L. Buckner", who runs the company for his owner-wife, and used his former-PI chauffer to dig up dirt on his incessantly-troubling nephew, which results in both of them getting blown to pieces on a dangerous mountain road. Gregory had an outstanding role (as "General Ursus") in the only original PLANET OF THE APES movie that McDowell did not appear in. I always remember him for the line, "The only GOOD human, is a DEAD human!" Well, he certainly ended up dead in here.

Ida Lupino (THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES) is "Doris Buckner", owner of the company, who's convinced her fears about her nephew were unfounded... just before Columbo NAILS the punk.

William Windom (STAR TREK: "The Doomsday Machine") is "Everett Logan", next in line to run the company, until Roger convinces his aunt he was working against her and her husband. When Roger flips out, Everett clearly realizes (without any words being said) that he's no longer fired. (Windom had previously played one of Columbo's superiors in the pilot, who was misled into trying to remove Columbo from an investigation-- which only made the Lieutenant MORE suspicious.)

In a callback to the 2nd pilot, when Columbo was seen to have a fear of flying, here we see him suffering from a serious fear of heights while riding in a cable-car through very high, dangerous-looking mountains. I can only figure that he took that first ride deliberately, to try to overcome said fear, knowing he'd probably need to take a 2nd ride later. (In Jules Verne's "Journey To The Center Of The Earth", Professor Lindenbrook has his nephew Axel climb to the top of the tallest church steeple in a town, several times, to help him overcome a similar fear of heights, knowing he'll have to face even worse when they begin a descent into a volcano crater.)

At the climax, in a very-unusual scene, Columbo, without any real, hard evidence for once, instead plays a psychological game with his prey, loudly proclaiming nothing's wrong, as a way of convincing the killer that any moment, everyone in the cable-car could get blown to bits. Peter Falk apparently said he didn't care for this one, but I found the ending not only tense, but extremely-enjoyable to watch. As it happens, way back in January 1972, this was the very first COLUMBO I ever turned on-- just at the climax, in fact-- while waiting for NIGHT GALLERY to come on at 10 PM. That one scene got me HOOKED on the whole series, and I rarely missed an episode after that.

[kevinwright]

About to start a Columbo rewatch from the first episode.

So many fantastic episodes that I'm looking forward to watching again for the first time in years. I'll have to stay strong and not jump to forward to favourites.

[profh0011]

What I really wish is that somebody would put "The Chevy Mystery Show" episode "ENOUGH ROPE" from 7-31-1960 out on DVD, as it features Bert Freed as Lt. Columbo.

It was redone as a stage play in 1962 with Thomas Mitchell, then again in 1968 with Peter Falk, who said it was a role he would "kill" to get.

I guess it would have been too much to ask for it to be included in the complete box set.


I'm almost through the 1st season, but, of course, what's taking me so long is, I'm watching the entire season of the NBC Mystery Movie-- Columbo, McCloud AND McMillan & Wife!  One episode per week.  What a blast to be ABLE to do this!  (It wouldn't have been possible, really, until the McCLOUD box set came out recently-- the 1st season had not been available INTACT in this country for 50 years.)

I've already got a bootleg MADIGAN box, and in a couple weeks I'm planning to go after the BANACEK box (as well as a bootleg box of COOL MILLION-- which I have never seen before.)  And I gotta figure out which of several different bootleg boxes of HEC RAMSEY to go after.

It's unfortunate that too many of these short-lived series have never had "official" releases.

[SuperScrounge]

I was just watching a YouTube video on what happened to the Night Gallery paintings after the show was cancelled, and apparently a number of them were used as set dressing on various episodes of Columbo. (I imagine other shows/movies as well.)

So something to keep an eye out for I guess.

[profh0011]

There's a 2nd season McCLOUD, "Somebody's Out To Get Jennie", which featured a large painting of a man with a blank face.  In an attempt to frighten the artist, someone dresses up like the painting, stands in front of it, and then, "walks out of the painting".  The shot was used as part of the promo.  It looked just like a NIGHT GALLERY scene.  Of course, that year, NIGHT GALLERY was on right after the NBC Mystery Movies.

COLUMBO was the last of the original series I got hooked on, and it was a night when I turned the TV on early to catch NIGHT GALLERY, saw the last 10 minutes of a COLUMBO, and from that point on, watched COLUMBO regularly!  (It was the Roddy McDowell episode.)

[profh0011]

COLUMBO:  Etude In Black
The Cheating Conductor   (6 of 10)

A symphony conductor who married his wife because her mother ran the orchestra is cheating on her, until his mistress demands he get a divorce or she'll cause a scandal, which would get him fired from his position. So he sets up an alibi, sneaks off, murders her, and makes it look like suicide. Too bad he dropped a carnation at the scene of the crime, which he realizes only when he's performing on live TV! When Columbo shows up to investigate, he sees the man pick up the flower from the floor, but we never learn for certain if Columbo SAW it there before that moment, or not. Meanwhile, I rather expected Columbo to check the mileage on the man's car almost a half-hour before he admits he did. The big surprise was when he asks the help of a young girl living next door if she can identify the man she saw leaving the scene of the crime, and when she does, it's SOMEONE ELSE! I didn't really find the relentless sparring harrassment amusing this time out. My favorite moment is when Columbo has a car mechanic who specializes in foreign cars look at his ancient Peugeot, and the man says, "There are limits!"

Dean Hargrove, veteran of THE MAN FROM UNCLE and fresh off the 2nd "oddball" season of McCLOUD, takes over as Producer of COLUMBO. And right from the start, someone decided, at the last minute, to expand this episode from the usual 90-minute format to 2 hours. BIG MISTAKE. I don't mind long stories, but stories PADDED-OUT after-the-fact are always a problem, and this one is no exception. A great number of the NBC Mystery Movies suffered when NBC decided a couple years later to make them all fit a 2-hour slot, but I'd guess at least some of them were written that way from the start. According to the trivia section here at the IMDB, Hargrove wound up writing the extra half-hour, and, overseas, this was actually broadcast in its original 90-minute format, and those who've seen that consider it the superior version. Too bad that wasn't included as an extra on the DVD.

John Cassavettes (DEVIL'S ANGELS, TEMPEST) is "Alex Benedict", the usual arrogant, egotistical, narcissistic murderer who's less likable than usual. He gets really fed up with Columbo's incessant appearances, though he calls him a "genius detective" after he's been NAILED for his crime.

James Olson is "Paul Rifkin", a trumpet player deeply upset by the death of the woman who, until Benedict came along, he was very much in love with.

Myrna Loy is "Lizzy Fielding", owner of the orchestra, who reveals to Columbo that NOTHING is more important to her (apart from her daughter), and that anyone even remotely causing a scandal would be fired-- EVEN her son-in-law.

James McEachin has a small role as "Billy Jones", Benedict's assistant, who has to straighten things out when their star pianist fails to show up for a concert scheduled to be televised live. A year later McEachin got his own short-lived Mystery Movie series, TENAFLY, and then in the late 80s became a fixture on the PERRY MASON revival-- no doubt thanks to Hargrove.

Dawn Frame is "Audrey", next door friend of the murdered woman, who taught her "how to handle men". It's somewhat amusing when Columbo is trying to be polite with her, while she keeps looking for ways to stay in control of their conversation. Among other things, she harrasses the Lieutenant about how to treat his dog, not knowing that he only just rescued the guy from the pound the day before! Frame only had a short career in Hollywood, but she really stood out in her brief scenes here.

Charles Macauley has a cameo as "Durkee", a friend of Lizzy Fielding. Like McEachin, he also became a regular on the 80s PERRY MASON revival.

I wish I could say I enjoyed this more, but then, they can't ALL be favorites. My bigger problem tonight was having to use a pair of pliers to bend part of a spindle in the Universal  Pictures Home Entertainment DVD box to prevent cracking the disc while trying to remove it from the box. I love this 2018 box set, all 69 movies in one place, but the spindles holding the discs in place are simply the WORST I have seen in 5 years of collecting DVDs and Blu-Rays. The McCLOUD and McMILLAN & WIFE boxes (both from VEI) use SLEEVES instead. MUCH better!

[profh0011]

Some comments I posted on a friend's page on FB:

I got hooked near the end of the 1st season. I'm sure I watched the reruns of those I missed after that. I continued watching all the way until NBC cancelled the "Mystery Movies" for the 2nd time. (They actually cancelled the whole thing, then changed their minds and did one more year. That's why the production staff & writing on McCLOUD changed and took a nosedive, that's why 3/4ths of the cast of McMILLAN & WIFE left-- and when they came back for one more season, one of them was said to have been KILLED in a plane crash-- UNFORGIVABLE.)

Columbo lasted one more year after the Mystery Movies ended, but, that season, the new films were aired at random times, and as a result, I don't think I saw any of them until they went into syndication.

In February 1989, ABC revived COLUMBO as part of their new "Mystery Movies" cycle, and I began TAPING the show. That 1st new year was TERRIBLE. See, over the course of the 70s, Columbo's "dumb act" had increased to where it was too convincing. Watching, you'd forget he was smart. This was a lot like Tom Baker on DOCTOR WHO. The early 70s were good, the mid-late 70s weren't so good, and another part of that was PADDING stories out to 2 hours instead of 90 minutes. When ABC revived it, it was even worse.

UNTIL... the 2nd new season... when Peter Falk took over as CO-EXECUTIVE producer. I made up my own index of the show recently, and was shocked that when ABC brought it back, there were 9 PRODUCERS involved. Can you say... "creation by committee"? Over the next decade, that number SLOWLY shrunk down to 3. That must have been an awful lot of DEAD WEIGHT dragging the show down when it started.

When Falk took over, he began "playing" with the format, so that every story didn't feel like the EXACT SAME STORY every time. Of the 6 stories they did that year, each was VERY different, and the final one, the only "normal" one, FELT "different", by comparison to the other 5. Suddenly, after so many years, COLUMBO finally became one of the my favorite shows!!!!! Never saw that coming.

I recently bought the complete series on DVD-- 69 tv-movie in one box (for less than a dollar a film). And I was genuinely surprised that, in its first season, they had been "playing" with the format, just like 2 decades later. But when series creators Richard Levinson & William Link (who had become producers at the start of the 1st season-- with the 3rd episode) LEFT at the start of season 2, and Dean Hargrove came on, it BEGAN to get a bit monotonous. I'm sure many fans will disagree with me, but, this is how it struck me for the bulk of the 70s when I watched the show first-run.

All the same, I'm very much looking forward to seeing them all again NOW.

Speaking of DOCTOR WHO... it was said Tom Baker started out imitating Patrick Troughton. A BAD imitation, I'd say. His "dumb act" was WAYYYY too convincing. When I first saw Troughton's stories from the late 60s, I was blown away. The writing & production wasn't all that great, but HIS ACTING was. It's said Troughton was the BEST ACTOR to ever star on the show. I agree. Troughton's "dumb act" is VERY similar to Columbo's. The difference is, as soon as he's out of range of the baddies... his whole personality changes drastically, and you see that this guy is DANGEROUSLY intelligent. I LOVE it when you see Columbo's REAL personality come out, when he's away from the murderers. They started doing that a lot in the 90s episodes. Probably a big part of why I loved them so much.

[The Australian Panther]

  When I first saw Troughton's stories from the late 60s, I was blown away. The writing & production wasn't all that great, but HIS ACTING was. It's said Troughton was the BEST ACTOR to ever star on the show. I agree.   

Troughton was 'my' Doctor, [and also Paw Broon's, I gather] The first I saw in the Role and therefore the template for the character.
However, Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee were all industry veterans, of considerable experience both on the screen and the stage.
I was disappointed with Pertwee's WHO, not with him, but because of the changes in the show.
The budget was dropped, so the decision was made to keep him earthbound and also not journeying through time. Limited the character somehow. Although, looking back at those episodes now, they stand up.
Tom Baker's long tenure established the character in the wider public mind, so crucial.
Davidson, Baker and McCoy were also consummate actors but they never had the luxury of defining 'their' Doctors - resulting in much frustration for them. Baker, in particular, could have been superb in the role if he had been let loose. He is at his finest in an episode of BLAKES 7 where he plays the villain.
Baker was fired from the role, because he was associated with John Nathan-Turner.

Peter Davison argued in 2018 that the decision was more to do with the executives wanting to get rid of Nathan-Turner, saying: "I was upset about what happened, really – because, first of all, it wasn't to do with Colin, I know that. It was to do with other issues. The power structure in the BBC had changed and they didn't want John Nathan-Turner around is the truth of it."[15]   

 
All of these actors went on to other memorable roles. As did Paul McGann, Eccleston, Tennant and Smith.
My second favorite Doctor, I suppose, is Peter Capaldi. Capaldi had well and truly proved himself as an actor before WHO, in roles like Cardinal Richelieu in the superb series, The three Musketeers.
I Wasn't all that keen on some of the plot-lines during his tenancy tho.   
Matt Smith was the youngest Doctor and the most inexperienced actor.
The last two Doctors I haven't watched and probably never will.
Oh, and Peter Davidson is David Tennant's father-in-law!
cheers.       
   
 

[profh0011]

You know they often say your first is your favorite?

In my case, I saw-- in order-- Peter Cushing, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Richard Hundall, William Hartnell, Colin Baker, Patrick Troughton, and THEN Sylvester McCoy...

McCoy became my FAVORITE.  The writing was inconsistent, but he was so damned good.  Legend has it, when his back was up against the wall, JNT threw up his hands and specifically went looking for "a Patrick Troughton type".  I'd say he FOUND him!

[profh0011]

COLUMBO:  The Greenhouse Jungle
The Unloved Kidnap Victim Case   (7 of 10)

A rich but weak-willed man's wife is cheating on him, and so his scheming uncle conceives a plot to fake a kidnapping in order to "break" his trust fund and get enough money to win his wife back, while also buying off her current boyfriend. But once the money's acquired & paid... the uncle kills his nephew so HE can keep it all.

This is the 2nd time in the series that a kidnapping was involved in the first act, but neither time was there a real kidnapping! And yes, it's odd how Lt. Columbo was assigned to this case when he's in Homicide. I guess they just weren't killing enough people in L. A. that week.

Bradford Dillman (ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES, THE ENFORCER) is "Tony Goodland", who takes all of his Uncle's advice without once suspecting murder was part of the plan from the beginning.

Sandra Smith (STAR TREK: "Turnabout Intruder") is "Cathy Goodland", who freely admits she and her husband live separate lives, and whom Columbo compliments by telling her she's not a hypocrite... moments before he breaks up her current love affair. (OOH, NASTY!)

William Smith (Andy Sidaris' SEVEN) is "Ken Nichols", the hunky boyfriend who is said to "get a tan for a living", who is unfazed and amused at Columbo's antics... until the Lt. Passes on the rumor that Tony offered him $50,000 to get out of his wife's life.

Arlene Martel (STAR TREK: "Amok Time") is "Gloria West", Tony's former secretary, who says he's the only man she ever met who "only wanted to talk". When she gets the idea that the wife may have done in Tony, and she confides it to his Uncle, she has NO IDEA how close she came to becoming a 2nd murder victim!

Bob Dishy makes his 1st of 2 appearances as "Sgt. Wilson", a real go-getter assigned to help Columbo on the case. On hearing this, Columbo comments on his boss, "I guess he wanted to expose me to modern police methods." I laughed myself silly when he said this, as I was sure he was being sarcastic.

Ray MIlland (THE UNIVITED, THE PREMATURE BURIAL, THE PYJAMA GIRL CASE) is "Jarvis Gooodland", who, with the bank, is in charge of Tony's trust fund, and a fanatical horticulturalist, who takes "arrogance" to entirely new levels. Not only does he think he's smarter than anyone else, he also demanded Columbo explain why he's around more than any previous murderer that I can recall. Sgt. Wilson mentioned at one point "We're dealing with amateurs here", in reference to getting rid of a murder weapon, and the guy was RIGHT. If Jarvis knew what he was doing, he would have bought a brand-new gun, used it ONLY for the crime, and dropped it in the Pacific right after... NOT tried to frame the wife with it.

As an aside: a glass-walled structure for growing plants IS a "greenhouse". A SOLARIUM is used for people, NOT for plants! (I looked it up!) So he's not even right when he's trying to act superior. TSK!

Odd bit of trivia: Robert Karnes plays "Det. Grover", only 2 WEEKS after Ken Lynch made his debut as "Sgt. Grover" on McCLOUD.

[profh0011]

COLUMBO:  The Most Crucial Game
The 'Accidental' Swimming Pool Murder Case   (8 of 10)

A highly-agitated manager of a football team gets into an argument with the young owner, and minutes later gets into an argument with the team's coach. You know, if this was an Agatha Christie murder mystery, before long, HE would be the murder victim. But, as this is a COLUMBO, I just knew that, sure enough, he would turn out to be the murderer. And the young owner, who has no interest in running the business his late father left him, turns out to be the victim. The phone calls were to set up his alibi (that he was calling from his office at the stadium during a game), while he disguised himself as an ice cream truck driver, borrowed said truck from the stadium, went to the young owner's house while the guy was in the swimming pool, and then-- I thought this was so clever-- bashed his head in with a large piece of ICE, which he then tossed into the pool where it would melt, thus eliminating the murder weapon.

But of course, things go wrong after that. This is a COLUMBO, of course, they always do! But the Lieutenant really had to wrack his brains on this one. As soon as he noted that water splashed near the pool didn't have chlorine in it, he was off and running. But what a long road he had to travel to break the killer's alibi, so that all his other clues and suspicions would all tie together neatly.

Robert Culp (THE OUTER LIMITS) is "Paul Hanlon", the manager. Culp makes his 2nd appearance as a murderer on this show, this time playing a character even more short-tempered than he was the season before. And for the whole story, I kept thinking that the moustache he was wearing made him look like he would have made a perfect villain in a western!

Dean Stockwell (THE DUNWICH HORROR) is "Eric Wagner", the young owner who's tired of Hanlon always calling him "kid", and threatens to fire him if he does it one more time. He has no idea Hanlon is planning to murder him, until he sees that piece of ice heading for his face.

James Gregory (BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES) is "Coach Rizzo", who doesn't know if he's coming or going with Hanlon, and never suspects their phone argument was a ruse to set up an alibi. Rizzo shows real caring and concern for Wagner, and I have to say this may be one of the most sympathetic characters I've ever seen Gregory play!

Dean Jagger (X THE UNKNOWN) is "Walter Cunnell", the murdered man's attourney, who was so concerned about his client's welfare, he had 2 different phone lines bugged illegally, trying to dig up evidence against the team's manager.

Valerie Harper (MARY TYLER MOORE) is "Eve Babcock", a hooker who briefly moonlighted as a secretary, and without once admitting anything, proves a key link in the chain of evidence Columbo is slowly trying to piece together.

The climax of this really held my attention. Columbo had been listening to recordings of some phone conversations, trying to find any clue that could help him break Hanlon's alibi. And then at the very end, he figured out what he was missing. See the episode to find out what it was! I really enjoyed the HELL out of this one! COLUMBO was always my least-favorite of the 3 initial NBC Mystery Movies, so it's wonderful to be reminded of just how good it was in its early seasons.

[profh0011]

COLUMBO:  Dagger Of The Mind
The Insane Accidental Death Cover-Up Case   (4 of 10)

Two married, over-the-hill, out-of-work Shakespearean actors, scheme to convince an older rich backer to finance their production of "Macbeth", via the woman having an affair with the man, allegedly behind her's husband's back. But when he learns the truth, the night before the play is set to open, he announces he's pulling the plug on the whole thing, and that he will personally see to it that neither of them ever work in any theatre in England again for the rest of their lives! Naturally, an argument breaks out... but when the man is accidentally killed by being hit in the head with a thrown blunt object... to ensure the play opens on time, they decided to MOVE the body, and make it look like he died from a fall in his own home.

It gets WORSE from there!

Columbo arrives in London, invited by Scotland Yard to study modern police techniques (wait a minute, where have I heard this nonsense before?), and it just happens the man assigned to take him all around London is a relative of the dead man. So... OF COURSE... he begins noticing little things and asking all sorts of questions. The coroner (sure enough) figures out the body was moved... and then the couple go OUT of their way-- repeatedly-- to try and steer the police away from the idea that he MIGHT have been murdered... and of course, every thing they do just makes it worse. I don't believe I have ever seen any killer on COLUMBO go to such ANNOYING, IDIOTIC lengths to cover up a crime that wasn't actually a murder... until, of course, the man's butler figures out what's going on, tries to blackmail them into a simple thing like a steady job... and they actually do murder HIM to keep him quiet. OY!

Richard Basehart (VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA) is "Nicholas Frame", a ham actor if there ever was one, whose accent is so variable that it makes me think he's supposed to be playing an American living in London, not an actual Englishman. I've read that he used to specialize in "unstable" characters, and he certainly gets to play another one here-- especially when he apparently has a nervous breakdown right at the end of the story.

Honor Blackman ("Cathy Gale" of THE AVENGERS!) is "Lillian Stanhope", still middle-aged gorgeous, but desperate about her career, and whose antics in this get more ridiculous with every passing scene. I was not only getting really aggravated watching her and her husband's behavior in the story, but really had to shake my head at the end, when she yells out, "IT WAS AN ACCIDENT! He didn't mean to do it!" -- when SHE was the one who threw the make-up bottle that killed her lover. (Never mind, that this doesn't cover the ACTUAL murder of the butler late in the story.)

Wilfred Hyde-White (MY FAIR LADY) gives quite possibly the single BEST performance in this episode, as "Tanner", the butler. He's classy, polite, well-spoken, and only begins to get annoyed when Columbo wakes him up for the 2nd time in the middle of the night. Perhaps that's what drove him to a minor case of blackmail to maintain steady employment. At any rate, EVERYONE else in this story is guilty of really bad over-acting-- including Peter Falk!

The entire rest of the cast (barring John Fraser, all of whose scenes were filmed in London as part of the story's "travelogue" segments) were made up from Hollywood's "British Colony"-- English actors who've lived in Los Angeles for most of their careers, where the bulk of the story was shot. This is similar to how most of most episodes of McCLOUD are shot in L. A., with only limited location shooting being done in Manhattan, or wherever else that show's stories happen to be set. Bernard Fox, John Williams, Richard Pearson, Harvey Jason, Ronald Long, John Orchard, Walker Edmiston, and the ubiquitous Arthur Malet, who strangely gives one of the most EXAGGERATED, ridiculous "British" accents in the entire episode. (I'd just like to toss out-- there is NOTHING wrong with Dick Van Dyke's accent in MARY POPPINS-- as he's one of the "magic" people, technically, his character isn't even REALLY English-- so I wish people would stop knocking it. But Malet's accent in this IS really terrible, and he IS English!)

Like so many fictional detectives, sooner or later, the hero finds himself going overseas. And most of them seem to start in London. Charlie Chan did it in his 9th movie. Warren William's "Michael Lanyard" / "The Lone Wolf" did in his 7th movie. McCLOUD went to Paris in his 7th episode, but then made it to London in his 16th. Columbo got to London in his 13th movie. And the contrived reason for it was swiped right out of the McCLOUD series.

That would be bad enough. But Columbo, up to this point, generally has been putting on a "stupid" act when he's around murder suspects. When he isn't, we get to see the "real" Lieutrenant, who, while eccentric, is genuinely brilliant. In this episode, however, he goes through the entire story acting like he's BRAIN-DAMAGED. His behavior, right from when he arrives at the London Airport, is more annoying than all of his annoying behaviors in all the prevous episodes COMBINED. How on Earth did an episode this bad get made, this early in the run? I've been genuinely delighted at how much I've been enjoying re-watching the series from the beginning, for the first time in 50 years. But this episode is a sore spot, and makes me worry that things began to go off-kilter earlier than I remembered.

[profh0011]

COLUMBO:  Requiem For An Aging Star
A Murder Mystery of Charlie Chan Proportions   (8 of 10)

An aging movie star learns her secretary of many years is planning to marry a gossip columnist known for blackmailing people. When his car blows up in what looks like arson-- and the person inside turns out to be her secretary-- it appears the secretary was murdered by accident! However, once Columbo is on the case-- and appears genuinely star-struck by a woman he's been in love with as a fan for decades, and one he's seen nearly every one of her movies-- things get more and more complicated as they go.

Anne Baxter (ALL ABOUT EVE, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS) is "Nora Chandler", a woman with a long Hollywood career and a complex history. It seems her first husband gave her a house to live on on studio property, before he disappeared at sea and was never seen again. Despite various financial difficulties for both herself and the studio, she refuses to sell the bungalow, which the current studio boss cannot understand and which Columbo finds puzzling. She's also playing a viscious cat-and-mouse game with the gossip columnist, who's trying to squeeze her over an incident where she embezzled money from the studio.

Mel Ferrer (BRANNIGAN) is "Jerry Parks", who is convinced Nora tried to kill him, and figures he can now squeeze far more money from her, provided he can keep the police in the dark as to what's going on.

Kevin McCarthy (UHF) is "Frank Simmons", Nora's current husband, who keeps threatening Columbo if he doesn't stop harrassing Nora with his rambling insinuations.

Pippa Scott is "Jean Davis", the secretary who winds up blown up in a car explosion caused by Nora. Midway thru the story, Columbo comes to believe she may NOT have been killed by accident, but may in fact have been the intended victim all along! But figuring out the motive proves more difficult than usual for the Lieutenant.

In the end, when Columbo confronts Nora and tells her he's there to arrest her, he winds up going into far more detail than usual explaining his thought processes and how so many different pieces slowly, painfully came together for him to complete his case. And it turns out the murder was actually to cover up a PREVIOUS murder that occurred 13 years earlier-- the sort of thing that Warner Oland's "Charlie Chan" wound up running across more than once in some of his earliest cases. Of the various NBC Mystery Movie series detectives, Columbo was the one who always reminded me a bit of Chan, as they were both always so excessively-polite, their thought processes were often very complex, and their names both started with a "C".