Columbo
Mystery Movie Collection
Our rating: 4 out of 5
Rated: PG
reviewed by:
Charity Bishop
I was in a pet shop the other day and happened to glance down into a pen
full of basset hounds. At the exact same moment, my father and I pointed
and exclaimed, "Columbo's dog!" Peter Falk in that role has become
something of a legend around our household, since for many years we have
gathered around the television together to watch the eccentric detective
sleuth out murders in his wrinkled trench coat, cigar ever at the ready.
Some of my favorite-ever films are included in this series.
Famous psychic Elliot Blake (Anthony Andrews) has been using his mental
skills to live a lavish lifestyle at the expense of a psychic research
institute. Asked to prove his prowess in the field for a secret branch
of the US government, Blake runs amuck of his former mentor, with whom
he developed many of his fraudulent tactics. His old friend has been
hired to disprove Blake's talents, little realizing that he's about to
wind up on the short end of one of his own magic tricks. Decapitated by
his own guillotine, Lt. Columbo (Falk) is called in to investigate. It
does not take him long to figure out who is responsible, and then the
fun begins as he attempts to trap Blake into a confession. Columbo is
not like your average murder mystery. There is no "whodunit," only the
brilliance of watching the detective figure it out and pin the murder on
the guilty party. The smallest detail can be an enormous clue, and
there's always something the criminal has overlooked.
This collection of five made-for-television films include a series of
wonderful guest stars. Fisher Stevens, Lindsay Crouse, Robert Foxworth,
Patrick Bachau, and Fionnula Flanagan all play a role, while the
mysteries themselves are complex and fascinating. The irony of having
Andrews star in "Columbo Goes to the Guillotine" is not lost on me,
since only a few years earlier he became well known in England for his
depiction of The Scarlet Pimpernel, whose greatest passion was saving
the heads of the French aristocracy from just such evil justice. In
"Murder, Smoke, and Shadows," we get a glimpse behind the scenes at a
movie studio, which accumulates in a magnificent scene that makes use of
illusions. "Sex and the Married Detective" explores the dangers of
fantasy, while "Murder, A Self Portrait" has a brilliant sequence of
memories that intersperse with the storytellers.
Each of them have a unique premise, but all of them follow the same
basic format: we watch a murder being committed, then watch Columbo link
the pieces together and close his nets in on the person responsible.
Whether it's missing paint spatter or a trick of the light, he's always
got something up his sleeve. All of the stories are well filmed and
beautifully acted, but most of them have mild content concerns, and
blood spattered crime scenes. "Guillotine" involves a psychic, but he is
eventually disproved and his tricks revealed. A man is graphically
electrocuted in "Smoke," and a body is blown up in "Deceptions." A woman
is drugged and then drowned (unseen) in "Self Portrait." Most of the
episodes reference affairs, and/or casual sexual lifestyles, but the
worst is in "Sex and the Married Detective." The main character is a sex
therapist and talks quite bluntly about her profession, both on the
radio and with her clients. She comes back to the office one night to
find her partner frolicking with her secretary in the "therapy room."
Dressing up like a hooker, she lures him into some foreplay before
putting a bullet in him.
"Murder, A Self Portrait" is a complicated story of a painter with three
women in his life -- his current wife, his ex-wife, and his model, all
of whom he is involved with. There are various nude paintings in his art
room, and his model is shown a couple of times in different poses (her
bare back is seen). But even with their faults, all of the episodes kept
me fascinated. It's the quirks that make them so memorable, from
Columbo's frequent mentions of his never-seen wife, to the beloved
basset hound simply named "Dog" who is pampered, petted, and taken
everywhere he goes. It's hard to forget the detective who made rumpled
fedoras popular again.
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