Grace Wheeler is an ageing musical star who wants to revive her stage career, but when her wealthy husband refuses to fund her show, he has to pay a higher price. Can Columbo stop being star-struck long enough to solve the case ?
The unusual feature of this Columbo thriller is that it's the only one I can think of where he chooses not to nail the killer at the end (she's gradually losing her marbles and dying of an aneurysm). The murder plot is as gripping as ever, but the real enjoyment in this story comes from the superb performances by Leigh and Payne as a latter-day Rogers and Astaire. Leigh, for my money the greatest American actress of the fifties and sixties, is stunning in this; she's dazzlingly beautiful, she dances, she's ultra-glamorous one minute and cracking up the next. She's also playing considerably older than she actually was at the time. It's a hypnotic, selfless, memorable performance, by one of the few Hollywood stars not afraid to debunk their image. Payne, the veteran star of many B-feature musicals and westerns, is also excellent as her concerned, protective former partner and paramour. This is a terrific TV movie, and probably the only Columbo film where the guest stars outshine Falk. Walking My Baby Back Home, the film-within-a-film that is crucial to the plot, is a real musical from 1953 starring Janet Leigh.
The unusual feature of this Columbo thriller is that it's the only one I can think of where he chooses not to nail the killer at the end (she's gradually losing her marbles and dying of an aneurysm). The murder plot is as gripping as ever, but the real enjoyment in this story comes from the superb performances by Leigh and Payne as a latter-day Rogers and Astaire. Leigh, for my money the greatest American actress of the fifties and sixties, is stunning in this; she's dazzlingly beautiful, she dances, she's ultra-glamorous one minute and cracking up the next. She's also playing considerably older than she actually was at the time. It's a hypnotic, selfless, memorable performance, by one of the few Hollywood stars not afraid to debunk their image. Payne, the veteran star of many B-feature musicals and westerns, is also excellent as her concerned, protective former partner and paramour. This is a terrific TV movie, and probably the only Columbo film where the guest stars outshine Falk. Walking My Baby Back Home, the film-within-a-film that is crucial to the plot, is a real musical from 1953 starring Janet Leigh.