Wear your hazmat suit! We're blogging film and television.
The world of art
is turned upside down when a television art critic uses an electric blanket and California probate law to get his fingerprints on his uncle’s expensive collection. However, his uncle’s ex-wife, has her own ideas what to do with all the paintings. From the initial season of Columbo, its “Suitable for Framing”.
Chess is never merely a game, my friend.
Produced in 1973, “The Most Dangerous Match” was the closest thing to a cold war episode seen in Columbo. An American chess master and grand champion is matched against a kindly, old gentleman coming out of retirement who, in his own right, is still considered the world’s best. See how a classic game of chess, played with salt and pepper shakers, can crack the best of us.
“Lovely but Lethal”,
stars a femme fatale. Viveca Scott is ruthless defending her cosmetics empire from corporate raiders, spies, and blackmailing secretaries. Lt. Columbo steps into the dangerous world of beauty products where young people are dropping dead.
“Death Lends a Hand”,
where Lt. Columbo looks for a left-handed man. This episode was Robert Culp’s first appearance in Columbo. Culp plays an ex-police officer, who could have made captain, living a better life as an investigator. He deals in information, secrets, and blackmail. When a scheme to get an informant into the home of a powerful newspaper kingpin goes south, Lt. Columbo comes along to put him away.
“Sex and the Married Detective”,
is one of the series best psychological thrillers. Witness Dr. Joan Allenby fall from a respected author and radio talk show host of sex therapy to a cold blooded murderer. Struggling between two personalities, Dr. Allenby maneuvers from Lt. Columbo’s investigation before he gets too close to the truth and the humiliating motive. From the ABC years, the episode includes a bonus scene of Columbo playing the tuba.
“Columbo Likes the Nightlife”,
goes deep into the culture of rave clubs, urban investments, and an out of work actress. But it’s better known as the last Columbo episode ever made.
A mean lady,
stages a false kidnapping and ransom plot to do away with husband to take control of her life and his law firm. Coy, manipulative, and without a conscience she runs circles around the police until Lt. Columbo comes stumbling into the investigation. Watch the first series’ femme fatale in the Columbo’s second pilot, “Ransom for a Dead Man”.
Do you want to play a game?
It is 1974 and war games simulate the strategies when the cold war goes hot. In an institute of brilliant scientists, one can still find the darker traits of humanity; jealously, envy, and wrath. Lt. Columbo takes a look into the future with alternative fueled automobiles, artificial intelligence, and super computers. It’s “Mind Over Mayhem”.
“Columbo Goes to the Guillotine”,
marks the return of Columbo to crime fighting after years of absence. Our favorite detective in a rumpled raincoat is facing a new, mysterious breed of criminal – psychics. Mind reading, mental deception, and murder headlines the opening episode of season 8, the return of Columbo.
Columbo’s “Playback”,
may not be one of the best but it does sport advanced technology. In an episode ahead of its time, a high-tech executive and innovator becomes too smart for his own good. Armed with a pistol and a video recorder he is out to rewrite both the past and the future. Fortunately, Lt. Columbo is old school and teaches the smug executive a lesson.
