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Columbo: Season 7, Episode 3Make Me a Perfect Murder (25 Feb. 1978)An Emmy-winning TV executive kills her lover (who is also her boss); Lt. Columbo is on the case. Director:James Frawley |
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Title: Make Me a Perfect Murder (25 Feb 1978)
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Cast
| Episode cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Peter Falk | ... | ||
| Trish Van Devere | ... |
Kay Freestone
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Laurence Luckinbill | ... |
Mark McAndrews
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James McEachin | ... |
Walter Mearhead
(as James Mc Eachin)
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| Ron Rifkin | ... |
Luther
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| Lainie Kazan | ... |
Valerie Kirk
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| Bruce Kirby | ... |
TV Repairman
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| Kip Gilman | ... |
Jonathan
(as Kenneth Gilman)
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| Patrick O'Neal | ... |
Frank Flanagan
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| Milt Kogan | ... |
Dubbing Chief
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Dee Timberlake | ... |
Madge
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Don Eitner | ... |
Pete Cockrum
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Morgan Upton | ... |
Ames
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| Joe Warfield | ... |
Al Staley
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George Skaff | ... |
The Producer
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Plot Summary
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Storyline
Kay Freestone is a West Coast TV executive whose boss, Mark McAndrews, is also her secret lover. When he gets promoted to a position in New York, he dumps her - and even denies her the job he's leaving. Her consolation prize is a new Mercedes. She's more interested in the gun he drops on the bed - after he jokingly invites her to shoot him. Joking or not, she takes him up on it. Later, he's found shot to death in his office. Kay seems to have been in the projection room when it happened. She was screening her pet project - a violent TV film called "The Professionals" - for her superiors. When our rumpled, redoubtable Lt. Columbo investigates, he learns this Emmy-winning producer can commit a bloody act just as well as film it. Written by J. Spurlin
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Details
Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
25 February 1978 (USA) See more »Company Credits
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IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Sound Mix:
MonoColor:
Color (Technicolor)Aspect Ratio:
1.33 : 1
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(uncredited)
Traditional American ballad sometimes credited to Percy Montrose (1884)
Sung by Peter Falk as part of opening medley
See more »
Did You Know?
Trivia
George C. Scott appears as an uncredited TV studio technician. Scott was the husband of main guest star Trish Van Devere. See more »Goofs
In this movie, the image of Columbo's car, sitting in the parking lot, can be seen reflecting off the glass of the CNC building as Kay enters it, before she commits the murder. See more »Quotes
Columbo: [to Kay] Interesting, isn't it how you can work out these small details out if you just think about it... like you have a tiny voice whispering in your ear trying to tell you who did it.See more »
Soundtracks
"Oh, My Darlin' Clemintine"(uncredited)
Traditional American ballad sometimes credited to Percy Montrose (1884)
Sung by Peter Falk as part of opening medley
See more »
The ambitious lover and chief assistant to a top TV network programmer exacts murderous revenge when he gets promoted to a high-profile New York post and decides that she has not had enough experience to accompany him in that job.
Quite a freshly plotted Columbo episode considering it was made at the tail-end of the original series; it features quite an engaging and gritty performance from Trish Van Devere as the murderess who is very good at exhibiting her character's misfiring and impatient ambition.
The plot is cleverly and systematically developed: the murderess's grip on the prize job she temporarily acquire's after her lover's demise is dramatically loosened by the ironically erratic decision-making that her lover alluded to prior to his death, in line with the other harassment of Columbo's increasingly revealing investigation.
The main weakness of this Columbo adventure is that it wreaks of padding to satisfy a 120 minute slot - it could easily have been done in 90 minutes: the plot is bloated with prolonged scenes that add no value to the story, particularly the misjudged sub-plot involving a trouble-stricken actress on a TV show.
The circumstantial clues stack up against the murderess quite entertainingly and many of Columbo's intuitive observations are of a reassuringly high-standard, but the murder weapon scenario is rather unconvincing to say the least.
A Columbo story that probably would have had a higher mark but for its damaging protractedness; nevertheless, a story that is not without its merits.