You know what this is like? It's like a story that has been lying around for twenty years or so and the producers of "Columbo" have run out of ideas and somebody has a brainstorm and says, "Let's adapt this thing we aren't using anyway and stick Columbo in as the principal detective." Peter Falk does his best with a routine detective yarn but he's lost most of his charm. For one thing, it's a little depressing to see him older and slower than in early episodes. Of course that's not Falk's fault but, still, it jars the viewer's sensibilities.
Another thing is that Falk is no longer "Columbo" as we know him. He's forced to go undercover and play several different characters. His bum, prowling the seedier parts of Los Angeles, only convince us that the writers have no idea whatever of what the life style of the poor is. Falk wears a fedora, for instance. The writers were much better with the relatively high-end milieus of the early stories. They knew how screenwriters and producers lived. They do not know how the poor live, or even what they look like.
Columbo must carry a gun in this episode. He gets bopped on the head and knocked out for as long as the script requires, a convention in every second-rate private eye story from the 1930s.
The formula is dropped. Nobody commits a clever murder, followed by the raggedy, working-class Columbo being called in to unravel it. A splashy minor performance by Tyne Daly, who manages to be good in spite of it. And Columbo has a partner here, who gives perhaps the best performance in the movie. The chief villain, Ed Begley, Jr., has virtually nothing to do.
It's pretty sad. The charm and wit of the original plots is completely lacking.
Another thing is that Falk is no longer "Columbo" as we know him. He's forced to go undercover and play several different characters. His bum, prowling the seedier parts of Los Angeles, only convince us that the writers have no idea whatever of what the life style of the poor is. Falk wears a fedora, for instance. The writers were much better with the relatively high-end milieus of the early stories. They knew how screenwriters and producers lived. They do not know how the poor live, or even what they look like.
Columbo must carry a gun in this episode. He gets bopped on the head and knocked out for as long as the script requires, a convention in every second-rate private eye story from the 1930s.
The formula is dropped. Nobody commits a clever murder, followed by the raggedy, working-class Columbo being called in to unravel it. A splashy minor performance by Tyne Daly, who manages to be good in spite of it. And Columbo has a partner here, who gives perhaps the best performance in the movie. The chief villain, Ed Begley, Jr., has virtually nothing to do.
It's pretty sad. The charm and wit of the original plots is completely lacking.