PLOT: A jilted assistant executive for TV (Trish Van Devere) murders her lover/boss (Laurence Luckinbill), but is she clever enough to fool Columbo? Patrick O'Neal plays a top executive, James McEachin a projectionist and Lainie Kazan a struggling performer.
COMMENTARY: This is a longer installment at 1 hour & 37 minutes and so it includes stuff you won't usually observe on the show, like a subplot about an aging song-and-dance actress (Kazan) who can't take the pressures of show biz any longer, as well as a lengthy sequence revolving around Columbo and the murderess having an unlikely meeting at her dilapidated childhood home.
Van Devere is lovely and you can see in her eyes when the seed of murderous hate is firmly planted. She makes for an interesting character study as you put the pieces of the puzzle together (she's an opportunist who uses her allure to get ahead, plus take note of her curiously overinvolved relationship with the performer). Meanwhile Luckinbill is likable, intelligent and handsome as her boss/lover. He of course played Sybok eleven years later in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" and was exceptional in the role.
While this episode focuses on the work of TV execs, "Murder, Smoke and Shadows" (1989) focuses on a Spielberg-like director's perspective. The projectionist sequences are reminiscent of similar scenes in the much later "Inglourious Basterds" (2009).
GRADE: B+/A-
COMMENTARY: This is a longer installment at 1 hour & 37 minutes and so it includes stuff you won't usually observe on the show, like a subplot about an aging song-and-dance actress (Kazan) who can't take the pressures of show biz any longer, as well as a lengthy sequence revolving around Columbo and the murderess having an unlikely meeting at her dilapidated childhood home.
Van Devere is lovely and you can see in her eyes when the seed of murderous hate is firmly planted. She makes for an interesting character study as you put the pieces of the puzzle together (she's an opportunist who uses her allure to get ahead, plus take note of her curiously overinvolved relationship with the performer). Meanwhile Luckinbill is likable, intelligent and handsome as her boss/lover. He of course played Sybok eleven years later in "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" and was exceptional in the role.
While this episode focuses on the work of TV execs, "Murder, Smoke and Shadows" (1989) focuses on a Spielberg-like director's perspective. The projectionist sequences are reminiscent of similar scenes in the much later "Inglourious Basterds" (2009).
GRADE: B+/A-