 [Larger view] | Columbo - The Complete First Season
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 Columbo-Great from the "get-go"! | |
| Many successful television series start out slowly and then reach their peak after several episodes or in a second season.
This is not the case with Columbo. As you can see already in the original movie "Prescription: Murder" (which was NOT the pilot, "Ransom for a Dead Man", was), Peter Falk and the writers already had the character down pat:, the references to the wife, the need to look for a pencil, the rumpled look, the modest demeanor, etc (actually the old Peugeot 403 convertible hasn't yet made it appearance!). An earlier reviewer states that "Prescription: Murder" is unusual because Columbo gets angry in it, but it should be pointed out that he gets angry in later episodes as well, such as "Stich in Crime" and "Exercise in Fatality". The actual pilot "Ransom for a Dead Man" is one the most outstanding episodes of them all, and here we see the first story in which "high-technology" or some other speciality comes into the story, in this case, aviation and automatic telephones. Lee Grant is outstanding as the seductive, yet poisonous murderer of her well-meaning husband. Jack Cassidy makes his debut in the first regular season episode("Murder by the Book") as a writer. He was one of the best of the murderers and ended up appearing in three episodes. The young Steven Spielberg directed this episode in a very unique way (note the unusual camera angles and lighting). These are the best of the first season. A couple of the episodes ("Dead Weight" with Eddie Albert and "Lady in Waiting" with Susan Clark) are not as good as the others, but on the whole, it is worth seeing all of them. Actually, unlike most multi-year series which tend to run out of steam, some of the best episodes are in the later seasons so I hope all the seaons will eventually appear on DVD. | |
| Columbo's Flashlight Man Uncovered! | |
| Possibly my favorite TV show of all time! As an artist, my personal favorite episode has to be 'Suitable for Framing', which was the first time I had seen a body kept warm with an electric blanket to conceal the time of death, and the coolest, most ingenious conclusion of the entire series! The haunting music of the original series, a ghostly violin and an echo of typewriter, as if from the author as he composed the story, was awesome!
I would love to see a slew of special features included, but considering the average price of a TV show season pushes $60-$100, I'm satisfied to have the shows stand alone. More often than not, the features only bare a single viewing, or aren't that special; the stars have moved on with their lives and reveal little of real interest. Last, but not least, the infamous 'Flashlight man', mentioned in Marty McIntire's review, was from the weekly, parent "anthology" series, entitled 'Mystery Movie', which alternated between 'Columbo' and shows like 'McCloud' (Dennis Weaver), 'McMillan and Wife' (Rock Hudson and Susan St. James), and later, 'Hec Ramsey' (Richard Boone), a western dealing with the birth of modern crime detection, such as bullistics, etc. | |
 As with many first seasons, sometimes uneven - and no extras | |
| Columbo is probably my favourite television sleuth. The combination of smart writing and great performances (mostly) highlight this package of early Columbo episodes, including a very young-looking Peter Falk in the first Columbo movie included in this set (produced 3 years before the rest of the shows on the disc). As you might expect, there is some variation in Peter Falk's characterisation of Columbo, as the writers and actors had not settled on his final personality until the middle of this first season.
For those that don't know Columbo, every episode follows the same basic path. The viewers know how the villian committed the murder - the mystery is not how the murder was committed, but what little slipup the murderer made that Columbo will discover. Early episodes seem to "cheat" a little bit - a new piece of evidence is introduced near the end seemingly out of nowhere. That's not to say that we always know exactly what's going on - for example, we don't know what happened to the body in "Blueprint for Murder" until Columbo discovers it. Likewise we don't know what happened to the murder weapon (a gun) in "Dead Weight." The fun is not so much trying to figure out how the murder was committed (which is what happens in most murder mystery shows) but rather how Columbo figures out the crime. So why only 3 stars? Well, basically because the early episodes (even the Steven Spielberg-helmed "Murder by the Book") are not as good as later episodes would be. The performances aren't always the greatest - "Dead Weight" is the low point in that respect. Alternatively, there are some great performances (some by notables such as Robert Culp and Leslie Neilson - in his pre-"Airplane" days). Unfortunately, there are no extras of any kind - I guess we should be happy that shows this old are available at all on DVD. The shows themselves are eminently watchable, and have aged well. The visuals are crisp and the sound is pretty good. So pick up a copy of this DVD, because many of the shows (especially the later ones) are among the greatest detective stories ever penned for television. |
