This is a fantastic Columbo as there is so much going on.
At first the crime seems to be about the murderer wanting to keep her role as a curator for a loss making museum despite her brother, the museum trustee, wanting to close the museum down.
However what unravels next is that Ruth Lytton (played by the brilliant Joyce van Patten) is quietly seething with rage with her whole family - especially revealed in an intriguing scene between Columbo (played by the legendary Peter Falk) and Janie (played by Jeanie Berlin) within the confines of a police cell!
In fact, Jeanie Berlin plays her part to perfection - the suppressed young woman who is more than a little conflicted in her relationship with her mother (played with panache by Celeste Holm).
Some of the criticisms of this movie on this site seems to miss the whole family psycho drama plotline which - without giving anything away - is brilliantly encapsulated in the final scene.
Those who say the pacing is too slow are missing how Columbo has to unpeel the deaths of two men to reveal a decades long story regarding a long lost lover!
I won't say anymore as it will spoil the surprise!
Needless to say this Columbo is one to watch!
At first the crime seems to be about the murderer wanting to keep her role as a curator for a loss making museum despite her brother, the museum trustee, wanting to close the museum down.
However what unravels next is that Ruth Lytton (played by the brilliant Joyce van Patten) is quietly seething with rage with her whole family - especially revealed in an intriguing scene between Columbo (played by the legendary Peter Falk) and Janie (played by Jeanie Berlin) within the confines of a police cell!
In fact, Jeanie Berlin plays her part to perfection - the suppressed young woman who is more than a little conflicted in her relationship with her mother (played with panache by Celeste Holm).
Some of the criticisms of this movie on this site seems to miss the whole family psycho drama plotline which - without giving anything away - is brilliantly encapsulated in the final scene.
Those who say the pacing is too slow are missing how Columbo has to unpeel the deaths of two men to reveal a decades long story regarding a long lost lover!
I won't say anymore as it will spoil the surprise!
Needless to say this Columbo is one to watch!