pssc6 Reviews

Columbo: The Greenhouse Jungle (1972) Season 2, Episode 2

Middle-of-the-road episode

[7/10 · 13 February 2011]

Not one of my favourites, but it's not bad.

One thing that surprised me was that Mrs Goodland doesn't recognise Jarvis's voice on the phone when he pretends to be the kidnapper - he doesn't make much effort to disguise it.

The two photos of Tony that his wife and Gloria have are almost identical, except for the fact that in Gloria's, he is smiling, whereas he looks more morose in Cathy's. And they both appear to be autographed, for reasons I don't fully understand - do they idolise him that much? I remember Arlene Martel (Gloria) playing a jeweller's assistant in A Friend In Deed.

There is less focus on Columbo himself in this episode than in others, and I'm not sure that's a good thing. A fair amount of the screen time is taken up by Gloria, Cathy, Cathy's beau and Wilson. I love Bob Dishy as Wilson, who later appeared in Now You See Him, but I also understand why he doesn't become a regular character (not that I would have minded) - it would have transformed the formula too much. His thoroughness and enthusiasm are quite comical (he goes as far as buying his own camera equipment for the job) and provide a stark contrast with Columbo's apparently slapdash, old-fashioned and absent-minded approach. By jumping to the obvious conclusions and missing crucial factors, he also drives home the point about Columbo's well-hidden intelligence. He also builds up quite a rapport with Jarvis, unlike Columbo, by ingratiating himself with the murderer.

There are parallels between this episode and Ransom For A Dead Man, which also features a fake kidnapping, but unusually, the murder is quite late in coming this time around.

Columbo's moralistic streak and family values come to the fore when he looks very uncomfortable around Ken, Cathy's lover. He also does his best to drive a wedge between them by telling Cathy that Ken would have left her in exchange for $50,000.

The ending is flat and unsatisfying as the "evidence" is less than compelling. As another reviewer points out, Jarvis could have claimed that Cathy had switched the guns. Although Cathy and Tony led more or less separate lives, I might have expected Cathy to be a little more upset or shocked about Tony's death, and I'm surprised that Jarvis doesn't even pretend to like Tony, as that makes him a more obvious suspect right from the start.

Oh, and Ray Milland's wig is very good, especially for the early 70s.

Columbo: Make Me a Perfect Murder (1978) Season 7, Episode 3

Far from being a perfect murder, but some redeeming features

[7/10 · 9 February 2011]

Despite a few flaws, I did enjoy this episode, mainly thanks to Trish van Devere.

Columbo's car accident doesn't help matters. It seems to serve two purposes: to facilitate a couple of poor attempts at humour (he thinks Kay is offering to help him with his neck when she offers to help with his investigation), and so that Kay can give him a massage. She also practises her art on a member of the film production crew and Valerie... but what's the point of this talent of hers? I found myself sympathising with Kay despite her (at times) ruthless and self-serving nature. Her toughness and ability are admirable, there is a stillness about her persona, I love her soft diction, and she shows just enough niceness to be likable. The Valerie Kirk subplot shows us a side of her that we don't see when she's in the office. Kay's understanding contrasts with Luther's lack of empathy, and Valerie appreciates Kay's softer touch.

Columbo just irritates me this time around. First, singing in the car with such gusto before his accident; then misinterpreting what Kay and Flanagan say to him (he assumes Flanagan is talking about his neck when he wishes him good luck - even Columbo isn't so absent-minded as to misunderstand that one, surely?!) Even when he's semi-naked for his massage, he carries on smoking that ever-present cigar. Why does he get Kay to "re-enact" the killing by having her stand where the killer stood and stretching out her hand? It seems he's building up to something, but it goes nowhere. I also dislike the very slow, deliberate speaking style he adopts in these later seasons, and the "button freak" scene is gratuitously long. The joke about the dog being interested in TV shows (because if he wasn't, he'd be all droopy and listless) is a tired old number borrowed from Try And Catch Me. Then there's the "maybe a new pair of shoooooes" line...

Not sure why Mark (the victim) has to grope his crotch when taking the call from Flanagan about his promotion. He's a little patronising to Kay ("You don't make decisions. You make guesses - there's a difference") and indifferent, though not really nasty enough to give Kay a strong reason to go as far as killing him. I don't really buy the "woman scorned" motive, and her line to Mark just before she kills him ("Finished?" "Yes. Finished") isn't terribly memorable. Something a bit more vengeful or pointed would be more satisfying.

The tape that she plays while committing the murder does help increase the tension when the security guard (Michael Lally in yet another walk-on appearance) delays her return to the projection booth. I also liked the scene where Kay retrieves what she thinks is the murder weapon from the lift, it ekes out the tension nicely. But why on earth does she wait so long before disposing of this crucial piece of evidence? She has ample opportunity to remove both it and the glove from the building, but leaves them both lying around for Columbo to find.

The "glasses clue" doesn't work for me. The murderer could easily have been a stranger; Mark could have fallen asleep while reading, or he simply might not have had time to put his glasses on (perhaps the killer could have sneaked up on him when he was dozing off), so I can't share Columbo's certainty about that one.

This is the third episode featuring reels of a film being changed or fixed during a murder (the others being Double Exposure and Forgotten Lady). Were they running out of ideas by this point? All in all, I found this an enjoyable episode but thought the dice were loaded just a little too heavily in Columbo's favour, and Falk's performance is less inspired than in previous seasons.

Columbo: Étude in Black (1972) Season 2, Episode 1

Potential not fully realised

[6/10 · 8 February 2011]

Given the friendship between Falk and Cassavetes, I'm a little disappointed that some of the interplay between them is less entertaining than it could be at times, especially during the scene where Columbo asks Benedict how much he pays in taxes, how much his house his worth, etc. which seems totally irrelevant and is just plain boring except for one amusing line (Benedict: "Can I ask YOU a personal question?" after Columbo has been interrogating him about his assets), as is the scene where the dog is having an injection, where Columbo speaks ridiculously fast for no apparent reason. Why does Columbo ask Benedict for his autograph? That left me expecting the murderer's handwriting to become a crucial clue, but it never does, so I'm baffled as to why Columbo makes that visit to the killer's home at all.

The character of Jenifer Welles (interesting spelling of the first name) seems so clingy, manipulative and irritating that I found myself almost willing Benedict to kill her off. This is the second episode where the victim is killed while playing a piano (the first being the far superior Suitable for Framing). The moment when the carnation becomes visible in the conductor's sunglasses is slightly surreal and wholly unnecessary.

The upstart Audrey ("she used to tell me how to handle men") reminds me of the boy genius in Mind Over Mayhem. Why is it that when Columbo meets children, they seem to be even smarter than he is?

Is the fact that Columbo never comes up with a name for the dog supposed to mirror his own "lack" of a first name? How prophetic that one of the ideas he comes up with is Beethoven, 20 years before the film of the same name came out.

There are two major flaws for me in this episode. First, Columbo doesn't actually see Benedict pick up the carnation from the floor in Welles' house. He only turns round when Benedict is holding it and about to put it back on. Perhaps he already knew it was there, but we are shown no evidence of that. Secondly, at the very end, Columbo has to rely on Janice's remembrance of the fact that Benedict didn't replace his carnation in the dressing-room after the concert. How on earth can she be so certain that he didn't put it back on then? I might expect Columbo himself to have a memory as good as that for minor details, but not a witness. I also find her attitude of "I could have stood for anything except murder..." (how big of you) rather inconsistent given that she clearly had a very big problem with his womanising ways, or at least her suspicions about them. I don't believe she would have stood for an affair.

The ending is decidedly dark, with Benedict's behaviour becoming just a little wacky when he realises the game is up, brandishes his baton menacingly and winks at his wife (?!) Once again, Columbo ends up comforting the wife. This shows us his humanity, yet we also see a moment of uncharacteristic sarcasm directed at an innocent witness (Paul), when the latter says he never asked Welles the name of her lover ("Oh, sure... I mean, why would a guy ask his girl the name of the other man?") Columbo also resorts on two occasions to his old standby line "I happened to be in the neighbourhood", which just gets a tad irritating when repeated too many times (it first cropped up in the final scene of Murder by the Book).

There is another brief glimpse of Michael Lally, who appears early on as a mechanic. Pat Morita, who was Mr Miyagi in the Karate Kid films, puts in an appearance as a servant. James McEachin, who plays William, later starred in Make Me A Perfect Murder (Season 7).

Columbo: Publish or Perish (1974) Season 3, Episode 5

Interesting, well-crafted plot and script

[9/10 · 6 February 2011]

On the whole, an entertaining and well-written episode with clever ideas (a murderer who makes it look as though he has been framed, and the lock-changing) and another classy performance by Jack Cassidy.

Some of this episode's notable features include the freeze-frame shots in the opening sequence and, later, the triple-screen sequence showing what Greenleaf and Kane are doing in the minutes leading up to the murder. Greenleaf's barely-concealed distaste for Kane, with his obsession with explosives and the army, is highly amusing, as is the completely unconcerned expression on Greenleaf's face as he watches Kane collapse after the latter imbibes poisoned champagne.

What lets the episode down a little is Greenleaf's carelessness just before the murder takes place, and a contradiction between two scenes. The idea of making it look as though he was framed is a clever one, but having gone to the trouble of planning the "frame-up" meticulously, he then makes an open threat against Mallory's life in front of witnesses at Geoffrey Neal's party ("My dear friend, if you do you will die"). When Columbo visits the writer's agent (Eileen McRae), she tells him that Greenleaf didn't know about Mallory's new book (Columbo: "But still, the book would still belong to Mr Greenleaf, wouldn't it?" Eileen: "You've got a lot to learn about the publishing business, Lieutenant. Riley Greenleaf didn't know anything about the book, Alan never talked to him about it and never would.") This contradicts what Greenleaf had said in front of her the night before ("His new book belongs to me and I've got him on the contract"), so what McRae tells Columbo isn't true, and she should have known that. Why on earth doesn't she give Columbo this crucial piece of information? Greenleaf makes another curious slip when Columbo visits him at his home. Realising that he has been "framed", Greenleaf - who supposedly doesn't know about Mallory's new book - hands Columbo a motive: "Alan walked out on me, took his book to another publisher, and I suppose in anger, I killed him." If he wanted it to look as though Kane had framed him, he didn't need to give himself a strong motive for killing Mallory, especially since Kane wouldn't have known that Mallory was planning to go to a new publisher. Again, it's hard to reconcile this careless error with the thorough planning that goes into the first murder. The fact that Greenleaf's car "accident" coincides to the minute with the murder is also a little obvious.

A couple of other oddities: no autopsy is performed on Kane after his death, yet Columbo frequently orders them in other episodes even where the cause of death seems to be obvious. This means that the poison, which would have been an important clue, goes undetected. Also, Greenleaf phones Kane from his office to set up their final meeting - another unwise move given that the phone company records could have been checked, but mysteriously, this too goes undetected. One also has to wonder how Greenleaf had initially planned to kill Kane, as he only spots "How to Blow Anything up in 10 Easy Lessons" by chance. He takes a huge risk in relying on the spaced-out war veteran's guidance. A terrible, very obvious edit mars the brief scene where Columbo talks to the locksmith outside the latter's shop.

There are several reminders of other episodes. In the opening scene, Greenleaf uses the phrase "tribute to American ingenuity", which is repeated verbatim in Double Exposure. The two piano pieces played at Neal's party also feature in several other episodes including A Stitch in Crime, Lady in Waiting and Ransom for a Dead Man, and the music played while Greenleaf watches a film likewise features in other episodes, including The Most Crucial Game (scene where Columbo visits Eve Babcock, aka Regoczy, at her apartment). This scene reminds me of the scene in Double Exposure where Columbo comes to tell Bart Keppel about the murder of Roger White, as once again, the murder is watching a film while being told about the second murder in an episode. Michael Lally puts in just the briefest of appearances, at the end of the scene where Greenleaf leaves the car park where he had his car accident. One final little coincidence is the fact that typewriters and champagne feature in all three of Jack Cassidy's episodes.

Columbo: Candidate for Crime (1973) Season 3, Episode 3

Entertaining episode that just leaves a couple of question marks

[8/10 · 22 January 2011]

An entertaining episode, though it left me with a couple of questions that are now bothering me, as the great man himself would say.

What is Hayward's motive for killing his campaign manager? Stone insists that the politician's affair with Linda, his wife's secretary, has to end but never threatens to blackmail Hayward over it. One also wonders how devoted Hayward is to Linda. They have few scenes together, and the affection Hayward shows her is unconvincing - especially towards the end, when he finagles her into claiming that she found the fake death threat that he planted. Could the real motive have something to do with the "bodies" that Stone claims to have buried for Hayward? Or is this just a curious figure of speech? The meaning of this reference is unclear to me, but it leaves me wondering whether some kind of blackmail threat is implied. Surely not, as Stone claims to want Hayward to be a "happily married senator" after he is elected. Stone's controlling, rude nature encourages sympathy with Hayward, though the smirk of enjoyment on Hayward's face as he shoots Stone keeps this sympathy in check somewhat.

The way the guard backs down so easily when persuaded to go and buy Hayward some cigars, leaving him unprotected after threats have supposedly been made on his life, is just a little difficult to believe, though perhaps it is an indication of Hayward's charm and skill in manipulating people.

Also, why does Columbo not ask Hayward directly why he didn't invite Stone to his wife's birthday party? That could have been an awkward question. Instead, he puts this question to Linda, who isn't even Hayward's secretary.

Jackie Cooper is on fine form as the charming, no-nonsense senatorial candidate. Unlike many Columbo murderers, Hayward manages to conceal his irritation right up until the end and the interaction between the murderer and the detective is highly engaging, with Hayward offering several good ripostes to Columbo's questions.

Michael Lally puts in a customary appearance as a member of Hayward's entourage as the candidate is about to record a political broadcast. There is a reminder of an early Columbo episode: the piano music playing in the background at Mrs Hayward's birthday party is the same piece that features in the opening scene of "Prescription: Murder" at Dr and Mrs Fleming's anniversary party. One of the two police officers who flags Columbo down for a car inspection also appears in An Exercise in Fatality as the janitor who cleans the gym floor that the victim was killed on.