[gregjh]

Have you watched Étude in Black yet? That's probably my favourite episode. There's just something about the build up, acting and dialogue in the "suppose it was you" scene that made me realise the writers and Peter Faulk were true geniuses.

[profh0011]

COLUMBO:  Lovely But Lethal
The Cosmetics Queen   (6 of 10)

The head of a cosmetics firm that's been losing money pins her hopes on a new formula, but when it's stolen by one of her chemists, a one-time boyfriend of hers, she fails to negotiate with him, and, in a fit of rage, hits him on the head with a heavy microscope. Not what you'd call a well-planned-out murder, HMM?

For the rest of the episode, Lt. Columbo increasngly drives her up a wall, has her demanding to be left alone, and finally shocks her when he announces he's arresting her for murder.

Vera Miles (TARZAN'S HIDDEN JUNGLE) is "Viveca Scott", the strong-willed owner of a large company who let her emotions get in the way of logic.

Martin Sheen (APOCALYPSE NOW!) is "Karl Lessing", a chemist who not only stole from his employer, but went too far and practically asked to be murdered.

Vincent Price (HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL) is "David Lang", Viveca's main rival who intended to buy the stolen formula from Karl until he learned of his murder. I agree with those who say he should have had more screen-time in this story.

Sian Barbara Allen is "Shirley Blane", Lang's secretary who's also paid by Viveca to spy on him, learns too much, and decides to try blackmail.  That doesn't end well!

Gino Conforti, Bruce Kirby, John Finnegan and Richard Stahl round out the cast.  I'd say this episode was merely average, and may have been the point where the show began to get too "forulaic" for my tastes, compared to much of the 2 previous seasons.

[profh0011]

Have you watched Étude in Black yet? That's probably my favourite episode. There's just something about the build up, acting and dialogue in the "suppose it was you" scene that made me realise the writers and Peter Faulk were true geniuses.

I'm doing all these in order!  Scroll back to the beginning of Season 2 for my review.

[gregjh]

Have you considered ordering some DVD boxes with better quality spindles or sleeves to replace the ones that aren't up to par? You could probably get something like that online very cheap.

[profh0011]

COLUMBO:  Any Old Port In A Storm
The Wine Expert   (6 of 10)

A company that manufacturers high-class wine becomes imperilled when the man who owns it learns his half-brother-- who owns the land it's on-- decides to SELL to a low-class rival company.  While the older brother has run the firm down financially in his quest to buy expensive rare wines for his personal collection, the younger brother wishes to take the money and enjoy his life. 

So first, the older brother SNAPS and clobbers his younger sibling-- then leaves him tied up in a vault for several days to die-- and finally dumps his body in the ocean, trying to make it look like a scuba-diving accident.

Too bad he didn't take the weather into account while he was establishing an alibi in New York City at an auction.  Not only did the younger brother's car not have a hint on it that it rained while it was supposedly parked near the ocean.  Worse-- he left the vault's refrigerator turned off during a heat wave-- resulting in his entire expensive wine collection being ruined (even if he was one of the only people who could ever have tasted the difference).

Donald Pleasence (HALLOWEEN) is "Adrian Carsini", normally a very-refined, even snobbish individual, who turns out to be capable of abrupt violent mood swings when circumstances provoke him.  He spends half the episode wondering why Columbo is even asking questions, when it appears his brother died in an accident.

Gary Conway (LAND OF THE GIANTS) is "Enrico Guiseppe Carsini", who never got along with his older step-brother, and winds up being murdered by him when he comes between Adrian and the only thing in the world the guy loves-- his wine.

Dana Elcar (DARK SHADOWS, 2010) is "Falcon", one of Adrian's friends, who is surprised when Adrian uncharacteristically allows him to let a bottle "breathe".

Vito Scotti AND Monty Landis, two iconic character actors from the 60s (both were on THE MONKEES and BATMAN, among countless other things) are the Maitre'D and Waiter, respectively, at the high-class restaurant where Columbo winds up getting the PROOF he needed that Adrian murdered his brother.

I might have liked this more if it hadn't been stretched out from 90 minutes to 2 hours (1:34:38 without commercials)-- something that happened far-too-often the longer the NBC Mystery Movies went on.

[profh0011]

COLUMBO:  Candidate For Crime
The Padded Political Murder   (5 of 10)

A candidate's manager spreads the false story that the man's life is threatened by an assassin. He also strongly advises the man to ditch his girlfriend, as it would be better for his career to be seen as "happily married". The candidate tricks his manager to pose as him and go to his beach-house, while, unknown to him, the candidate has set up a birthday party for his wife as an alibi.  He shoots the man dead, then adjusts a wrist-watch to set the alleged time of the murder.

Everything went fine until Columbo finds out it was the manager, not the candidate, who was killed.  From then on, the rest of this terribly over-long story (clocking in at 1:37:53) is painfully padded out beyond all all belief or tolerance.  I confess, I've been enjoying re-watching COLUMBO from the beginning for the first time in over 50 years more than I ever imagined.  But this episode is an prime example of why I got increasingly annoyed and bored out of my mind, the longer the 70s went on.

Not only is Columbo's incessant rambling going on and on longer than ever before, making him not only infuriating but at times seemingly brain-damaged, but the killer makes the same mistake nearly all of them did.  The guy just WON'T stop engaging with the Lieutenant, repeatedly trying to "explain" seemingly trivial points of the investigation, insisting on trying to "help" when saying nothing or telling Columbo it's HIS job, why doesn't he do it himself would have been the better option.

Worst of all is when, at the climax, he winds up HANDING Columbo the EXACT evidence he needed to NAIL him to a wall, evidence that simply would not have existed if the killer had just sat on the sidelines and DONE NOTHING.

Jackie Cooper (TREASURE ISLAND), Joanna Linville (STAR TREK: The Enterprise Incident), Tisha Sterling (COOGAN'S BLUFF), Ken Swofford (THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN), Vito Scotti (MASTER OF THE WORLD), Jack Riley (THE BOB NEWHART SHOW), Katey Sagal (MARRIED WITH CHILDREN) and Davis Roberts (countless bit parts) make up the cast.

I thought the ending was brilliant, but the full HOUR or so in the middle just got interminable. The worst part had to be when the traffic inspection cops pulled Columbo over the check his car.  It had NOTHING to do with the story! 

It took 5 writers to do this thing???  I wonder how many of them were hired just to do rewrites and expand it for a 2-hour time slot?
   (3-24-2025)

[profh0011]

COLUMBO:  Double Exposure
The Sublimnal Message Murder   (7 of 10)

A marketing genius who makes educational films, has a sideline of using a young model to help him blackmail married clients.  When one of those people threatens to expose him, he murders the man while a group of the man's employees are listening to him narrate a film in a projection room.  Things go wrong not only when Columbo begins investigating, but also when the man's projectionist figures out how he did it, and comes to him with a blackmail proposal, instead of going to the police with what he knows!  Sure enough, you have a 2nd murder, but in the end, the man's own methods lead Columbo to NAILING him. (Why don't these killers just keep their mouth shut and hide in a corner until the heat blows over?)

Robert Culp (THE OUTER LIMITS) is "Dr. Bart Kepple", who gets his victim to eat very salty caviar, then inserts a subliminal message into the film being run to inspire the man to go to the lobby for a drink of water, where he's shot dead. His noteriety, particularly 5 different books he wrote that Columbo borrows from the library, proves his eventual undoing.

Robert Middleton ("Mayor Anton Cermak" on THE UNTOUCHABLES) is "Vic Norris", who first becomes the target of blackmail, then is murdered when he threatens to expose it.

Chuck McCann (DRACULA DEAD AND LOVING IT) is "Roger White", the projectionist who catches Kepple tampering with a security monitor, leading him to attempt blackmail. BAD idea!

Louise Latham (McCLOUD: Encounter With Aries) is "Mrs. Norris", who finds out her husband was having an affair behind her back, before then finding out he was murdered, and while she has no witness, Columbo believes she's innocent because her alibi is just so bad.

Arlene Martel (STAR TREK: Amok Time) is "Tanya Baker", the model used to blackmail clients.  It appears her part was cut after the episode's initial run, and Universal Pictures is notorious for LOSING film edits (her scene is NOT on the official DVD release).

Danny Goldman (YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN) is the photographer who helps Columbo create his own subliminal imagery.

George Wyner (HILL STREET BLUES) is the film editor who explains "subliminal imagery" to the Lieutenant.

Richard Stahl (the 2nd-ever episode of WKRP IN CINCINNATI) is the ballistics man who Columbo tells to go home as they're trying to figure out how to nail their suspect.

This was another one of those episodes where not only did Columbo's RELENTLESS badgering get on my nerves, but the murderer's repeated ANSWERING questions that should be the Lieutenant's job to figure out himself also really got on my nerves.  The best part was, this was one of the 90-minute stories, so it got over a lot faster than if it had been padded out even further to a 2-hour time slot. And the finale was worth seeing, even if half of what led up to it had me shaking my head in dismay.