muratmihcioglu Review of Murder, a Self Portrait

Columbo: Murder, a Self Portrait (1989) Season 9, Episode 1

Burn on Picasso with a weak alibi

[7/10 · 10 November 2023]

That's an interesting episode for a few reasons:

• The killer and the women around him are colorful characters with.personal differences

• Peter Falk's wife Shera Danese is in the cast once again, making the experience a bit more interesting for us Columbo buffs

• The painter seems to be loosely inspired by Picasso, Gaugin and certain other famous artists who had had rough patches with the women in their lives

• Also on a visual level, the setting is colorful, bright and inviting, adding freshness to the classical taste

• As the story involves also a cold case, Columbo solves not one but two murders by use of a Lynch-esque setting, which, via black-and-white dives into psychotherapic sessions, also borrows from Hitchcock's Spellbound

• The youngest lover of the painter is really hot. I'm both sad and surprised she hasn't done much film work later

• We see a portrait of Columbo being.painted, which again, adds value to the episode for extra points of trivia.

However, the murder plot always matters. And I don't get how such a weak alibi could help anyone. Leave out the fact that what the killer pulls is visibly and technically possible with an exit route any detective can observe - How could he know he wouldn't be seen while committing the murder? How could he ensure someone else wouldn't catch him exit the bar from the rear window? And also, how could he rely solely on the bartender? What if he died of a heart attack shortly after he committed his crime? What was gonna be left?

If one is trying to fabricate a false alibi, that should be a smarter one involving more people.