Product Details

• Actors: Peter Falk, Jack Cassidy
• Directors: Steven Spielberg
• Format: NTSC, Collector's Edition
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B0007KWR5E
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #31,364 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars SEASON ONE, EPISODE ONE, April 10, 2007

By	wdanthemanw "wdanthemanw" (Geneva, Switzerland) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

After two pilots, Columbo: Prescription for Murder aired in February 1968 and Columbo Collector's Edition: Ransom For A Dead Man aired in March 1971, the first episode of Columbo, MURDER BY THE BOOK, was finally broadcasted on Sept. 15th, 1971. It's also possible to watch this episode in the DVD standard by purchasing Columbo - The Complete First Season.

I was somewhat anxious before watching MURDER BY THE BOOK because I feared that the pleasure I had, during the seventies, to watch Columbo on TV was only associated with my teen years and hadn't pass the test of time. How was I wrong ! The quality of this episode is undeniable, even measured according to our actual standards. Steven Spielberg, who directed MURDER BY THE BOOK, was already yeasty in his direction. He managed to create a suspense drama during the first 15 minutes of the episode while everybody had already understood, since the first 15 seconds of MURDER BY THE BOOK, that Jim Ferris would be murdered by Ken Franklin. The suspense simply lied in the fact that we didn't know how Ferris would do it. Spielberg, with a few Hitchcockian scenes, compelled us to successively believe that Franklin was meant to die poisoned, drowned and shot to death.

Peter Falk is perfect and Jack Cassidy, as the villain, also top-notch. A special mention though to Barbara Colby who, in the role of the blackmailer Lilly LaSanka, shines in all the scenes she appears in.

A VHS for your library.