"Columbo" Sex and the Married Detective (1989)

Director:

James Frawley

Writers:

Richard Levinson (creator) &
William Link (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Columbo" (1971)

Original Air Date:

3 April 1989 (Season 8, Episode 3)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

When a successful sex therapist with a best selling book and a hit TV show is crushed to learn her business partner/lover is cheating on her, she plots appropriate revenge.

Plot Keywords:

Sex Therapist | Therapist | Murder | Courtesan | Psychologist

Cast

Peter Falk	...	Columbo
Lindsay Crouse	...	Dr. Joan Allenby
Julia Montgomery	...	Cindy
Peter Jurasik	...	Dr. Simon Ward
Ken Lerner	...	Dr. Walter Neff
Marge Redmond	...	Helen Hendrix
Stephen Macht	...	David Kincaid
Dave Florek	...	Norm
Harry Johnson	...	Charlie
Pierrino Mascarino	...	Tuba Player
Stewart J. Zully	...	Sergeant Burke
Leeza Vinnichenko	...	Cleaning Woman
Susan Gibney	...	Madge
Peter Wise	...	Ozzie
Michele Lamar Richards	...	Airline Clerk

Runtime:

Germany:90 min | USA:120 min (including commercials)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:L | Sweden:15 (2007) (DVD) | Norway:15 (2007) (DVD) | Denmark:15 (2007) (DVD) | Finland:K-18 (2007) (DVD) (self applied) | Finland:S (1989) (VHS) | Germany:16

Company:

Universal TV

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Equipment can be seen moving back and forth in a reflection from the desk of Dr Joan Allanby, in the scene where Allanby is in her office with David Kincaid just after the start of the film.

Quotes:

Dr. Joan: Do you think less of me?
Lt. Columbo: Ma'am, I'm just a policeman. Judging people... that's all up to someone else, but I have to say that I've enjoyed our talks very much, and I think I do understand.

I simply enjoyed watching it.

The '80's Columbo movies aren't really known as the best one within the series but this movie forms a good and enjoyable exception. No big surprises, since the movie is directed by James Frawley, who always knew how to make a good and entertaining Columbo movie.

It's also a movie with one of the best Columbo movie-titles. Sex and Columbo in one sentence is of course something completely strange, funny and interesting, before you even start to learn what this movie is all about. When a successful sex therapist learns that her lover is cheating on her she murders him. The fact that Columbo's main suspect is a sex therapist brings the lieutenant in some awkward and embarrassing positions, which of course works out well for the movie its amusement level. It's also a surprising sensual movie for a Columbo movie entry. Normally the movies are quite tame, old '30's movie- and TV style, with its romance.

The movie has a good build up and is also otherwise fine constructed. Despite the fact that the Columbo character shows up fairly late into the movie, the movie isn't among one of the worse ones, like normally so very often is the case when Columbo first enters so late into the story.

Lindsay Crouse played a fine role opposite Peter Falk. She gives away a good performance and her character is a good one. She is an actress who mostly acts in television projects and isn't too well known, despite the fact that she in 1985 received an Oscar nomination for her role in "Places in the Heart", in which she starred together with Ed Harris, Sally Field, John Malkovich and Danny Glover.

It was simply a pleasant movie to watch, due to its pace, story, settings, the very much present humor, characters and performances and directing from James Frawley.

8/10