"Columbo" How to Dial a Murder (1978)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

James Frawley

Writers:

Tom Lazarus (teleplay)
Anthony Lawrence (story)

TV Series:

"Columbo" (1971)

Original Air Date:

5 April 1978 (Season 7, Episode 4)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Dr. Eric Mason is a self-controlled man and he teaches how to get control over one's own life. His wife...

Plot Keywords:

Dog | Doberman | Animal Attack | Dog Training | Crime Investigation

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys.

Cast

Peter Falk	...	Lt. Columbo
Nicol Williamson	...	Dr. Eric Mason
Kim Cattrall	...	Joanne Nicholls
Joel Fabiani	...	Dr. Charles Hunter
Frank Aletter	...	Dr. Garrison
Tricia O'Neil	...	Mrs. Cochran - the dog trainer
Ed Begley Jr.	...	Officer Stein
Fred J. Gordon	...	Technician

Runtime:

Germany:70 min | USA:73 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:11 (2007) (DVD) | Denmark:15 (2007) (DVD) | Sweden:15 (2007) (DVD) | Finland:K-18 (2007) (DVD) (self applied)

Company:

Universal TV

Quotes:

Lt. Columbo: Most people could sit and listen to somebody talking about their personality for hours - Lord knows *I* could.

Movie Connections:

References The Lucky Dog (1921)

My favourite Columbo episode

Many who look at my reviews would probably know from my IMDb reviews that I am a huge Bollywood fan and also a fan of the James Bond movies but one thing people wouldn't know about me is that I am a huge fan of Columbo. This is the first time I am reviewing a individual episode rather than an entire series. Ever since I was a young child I loved the fact that this is unlike most mystery shows of it's kind because it reveals the murderer within the first half hour and the rest of it is about how the murderer gets caught. Another thing that separates Columbo from other mystery shows is that the detective(Peter Falk) is sometimes shown as a bit of a buffoon at times.

How to dial a murder is easily my favourite Columbo episode. In this episode a man(Nicol Williamson)seeks revenge on a friend for having an affair with his wife. He achieves that by training his dogs to attack whenever he says the word "Rosebud". To ensure that he doesn't become a suspect himself he makes sure he is not in the house when the murder takes place. While he is out he phones his friend who is at his house and asks him to say "Rosebud" and he gets mauled and killed by the dogs. Naturally Columbo is investigates the matter and he is caught at the end.

There are some references to Hollywood in this Columbo episode. The word Rosebud as most film buffs was featured in Citizen Kane. The two dogs are called Stan and Laurel after the famous comedians. The title of the episode I find it quite similar to the Alfred Hitchcock classic Dial M for Murder. As an episode it follows the usual Columbo route, the killer thinks he has committed the perfect murder only to slip up on the most minor of details and how Columbo at first starts to befriend the killer before finally exposing them.

What sets this episode apart from other episodes is that when the killer is finally exposed the killers decide to hand themselves whilst in this episode Nicol Williamson sets his dogs on Columbo by saying Rosebud only to find out the dogs have been detrained and instead of attacking him they start to lick him. Despite the familiarity I find Columbo episodes so remarkably fun to watch and are a damn sight better than mystery shows of today.