Undercover (2 May 1994)

Lt Columbo investigates men and women who are being killed over pieces of a photo they have, that shows where 4 million dollars in stolen money is hidden.

Director:

Vincent McEveety

Writers:

Richard Levinson (creator), William Link (creator),

Stars:

Peter Falk, Ed Begley Jr., Burt Young

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Falk	...	Columbo
Ed Begley Jr.	...	Irving Krutch
Burt Young	...	Mo Weinberg
Harrison Page	...	Detective Sgt. Arthur Brown
Shera Danese	...	Geraldine Ferguson
Edward Hibbert	...	Bramley Kahn
Kristin Bauer van Straten	...	Suzie Endicott (as Kristin Bauer)
Albie Selznick	...	Detective McKittrick
Joe Chrest	...	Mercer
Robert Donner	...	Zeke
Hank Garrett
Tyne Daly	...	Dorothea McNally
Penny Santon	...	Lucia
Marla Adams	...	Sheila Byrnes
Marianne Muellerleile	...	Nurse Hilda

Storyline

Cigar-chomping Lieutenant Columbo's investigation into the odd death of two men flings him headlong into a mystery revolving around the long-lost loot from an unsolved bank heist. Insurance investigator Irving Krutch asks for Columbo's assistance in tracking down the pieces of a photograph that will reveal the location of the hidden millions. To do so, Columbo must go undercover in various guises to obtain the pieces from the various people who now possess them. But in the course of the investigation, more than one of these people will be murdered, and Columbo can't shake the feeling that Krutch is somehow responsible for the entire bloody business...

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Plot Keywords:

investigation | insurance investigator | crime solving | crime investigation | police | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 May 1994 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal TV

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min 93 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This was Tyne Daly's second appearance in a "Columbo" episode.

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Connections

Follows Columbo: Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health (1991)

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Soundtracks

"This Old Man"
Traditional children's song

User Reviews

Luke-warm new Columbo series entry

A 1994 Columbo story that goes out of its way, even by modern Columbo standards, to remove the entrenched shackles of the style and execution exhibited in the original series.

The puzzling plot involves a piece of a black and white photograph found at the scene of a double murder in an apartment. An insurance investigator later comes forward providing Columbo with a ripped piece of paper partly showing the names of people who possess the other pieces of the photograph, which when wholly assembled, will identify the whereabouts of a hidden loot stemming from a bungled robbery a few years ago.

Undoubtedly, plenty of energy and ambition was plunged into this Columbo adventure at the conception stage, but the plot's positive properties are undone by a script which drags it's revelations around with it rather mundanely rather than inserts them with conviction. Also, the characters also lack a certain lustre and fail to raise the profile of the whole episode.

Columbo's donning of disguises means that he is hardly in his trademark mac and for die-hard fans this is a little hard to stomach, despite Falk's obvious self-pleasure in diversifying his character on screen.

Not a total washout by any means and mildly entertaining in its own way, the identity of the culprit (revealed about 5 minutes from the end) is however unsurprising and moreover, there is absolutely no opportunity for a battle of wits between Columbo and murderer, which was the hallmark of the original series.

A warning to all fans of the old 70's Columbo series: extreme broad-mindedness (or amnesia) might allow you to partially enjoy this episode, but it simply builds up the plot and fails to sustain it's intensity.