Columbo

When a high-flying woman TV executive is both dumped and passed over for promotion by her boyfriend, she has murder on her mind and Columbo has a case to solve.



Another well-made and well-acted Columbo mystery, although not one of the best. Its only drawback is the script, which is thin on motive and heavy on padding (Kazan is good as a musical star with stagefright but the subplot involving her is redundant). Van Devere is terrific as a new model businesswoman of the time; elegant, intelligent, calm but ruthless, and a great match for the dazzling Falk. As is often the case, despite the clever detail of the murderer's alibi (in this case changing a reel in a projection-booth whilst the killing took place) the best scenes are the comical ones - lots of shenanigans involving a neck-brace, a TV repair-shop scene with Columbo regular Kirby, and a delightful bit of horsing-around with a TV broadcast console. Great TV fare.