Customer Reviews

Columbo Collector's Edition (Prescription: Murder)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When Peter Falk as Columbo utters the words, "Uhhh, just one more question...", we know he is on to his prime suspect. And what's more, the suspect knows it too!

"Prescription Murder" aired in 1968, was the pilot movie for the enduring and fun "Columbo" series. The audience, always knowing, right from the beginning who the murderer was of each episode, had the fun and pleasure of watching Coulmbo unraveling the mystery, as he made squirming paranoids out of the main suspects, who usually started out as cool and collected, with intricate plans and never thinking they left a trail.

In each episode, there was always great guest stars. The biggest star usually being the perp. In "Prescription Murder", it is Gene Barry,(who had his own hit series in the 60's, on which he was the cop, in "Burke's Law"), a prominent psychiatrist who devises and carries out what he thinks is a fool proof plan to murder his wife(she had all the money, of course). Columbo dogs him from the get go, and you begin to wonder just who is analyzing who in the Dr. Vs. Dectective dialouge! At one point after being gnawed away at by Columbo's innocent little questions, Barry tells him, "You know, you are like a sly little elf, who should be sitting under a toad stool somewhere!"

It's always a wonderful cat and mouse game, and this pilot epsiode should get you rehooked on this fabulous series. William Windom also stars as Barry's buddy, and happens to be a D.A, that makes things just a little tougher(but of course, not impossible) for our guy Columbo.

If you really love this fabulous series, this vintage episode along with the 8 other greats of the first season, including "Murder By The Book", directed by Steven Spielberg, is sold in a beautiful DVD set, and is probably the best way to go for fans. (Seasons 2 and 3 are also out now).

Get a clue...with Columbo!...enjoy...Laurie

The first TV pilot of COLUMBO, PRESCRIPTION: MURDER, was broadcasted on Feb. 20th, 1968, more than three years before the broadcasting of the first episode. It's also possible to see this pilot in the DVD standard by purchasing Columbo - The Complete First Season. Gene Barry, the first mean guy who ever confronted Columbo, is mostly appreciated by movie buffs because he starred in two Samuel Fuller films : Forty Guns and China Gate.

We have to accept it: there is a huge difference between this pilot and the Columbo episodes of the first season. For example, PRESCRIPTION: MURDER looks a lot more like a stage play and still belongs to the TV world of the sixties. But there are also in it a few sparkles that announce the grandness of the first episodes. I'm specially thinking here about the scene when Dr. Ray Flemming, a psychiatrist, dissects the way and the recipes Columbo uses with the suspects. This scene alone is worth the 99 minutes of this TV movie.

A VHS for the Columbo buffs.

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.

The Columbo series represented the best in TV entertainment. The episodes are timeless, always great to watch. Too bad there are no reruns on TV right now.

The Columbo series represented the best in TV entertainment. The episodes are timeless, always great to watch. Too bad there are no reruns on TV right now.

The first episode of this fourth season, AN EXERCISE IN FATALITY, was broadcasted in september 1974. It's also possible to watch this episode in the DVD standard by purchasing Columbo - The Complete Fourth Season. This is the second Columbo episode directed by Bernard L. Kowalski after Columbo Collector's Edition: Death Lends A Hand, and the third and last episode written by Larry Cohen after the brilliant Columbo Collector's Edition: Any Old Port In A Storm and CANDIDATE FOR CRIME.

In this episode, Lt. Columbo must confound the health club owner Robert -Milo Janus- Conrad who murdered Gene Stafford, a man who was about to reveal Milo Janus's frauds. Janus is one of the rare murderers Lt. Columbo doesn't regard with esteem. Hatred is almost tangible between the two characters as soon as they meet.

A VHS to keep in your library.

The seventh episode of this first season, BLUEPRINT FOR MURDER, was broadcasted on Feb. 9th, 1972. It's also possible to watch this episode in the DVD standard by purchasing Columbo - The Complete First Season. Two well-known Hollywood actors star in this episode, Forrest The Abominable Snowman Tucker and, of course, one of the best villains of the first season : Patrick Q&A O'Neal.

In my opinion, BLUEPRINT FOR MURDER, directed by Peter Falk himself, is the best episode of this first season. A superior script, a very smart and somewhat appealing bad guy and interesting supporting roles like both Mrs. Williamsons, everything contributed to the high caliber of this episode. It was also the first time that the viewer wasn't favored in relation to Columbo when the investigation starts. Ok, we know from the start on that Elliot Markham killed Bo Williamson but we didn't see the crime and we don't really know where Markham hid Williamson's body. Hence, we better understand Columbo's despair when he can't find Williamson's corpse beneath the piles of the building.

A VHS to keep in your library.

The fifth episode of this first season, LADY IN WAITING, was broadcasted on Dec. 15th, 1971. It's also possible to watch this episode in the DVD standard by purchasing Columbo - The Complete First Season. The director of this episode, Norman Lloyd, was also a gifted actor who notably played in Charles S. Chaplin's Limelight (2 Disc Special Edition) and Alfred Hitchcock's Saboteur.

LADY IN WAITING still stays nowadays as one of the best episodes of the first season thanks to Susan Clark's praiseworthy performance as Beth Chadwick, the first feminine murderer encountered by Columbo during his TV career. I also appreciated the unusual 20 minutes long "before the murder" scenes and the fantasised murder Beth imagines before her brother's arrival. Norman Lloyd's decision to film this phantasm as if the characters were blurry and out of focus was risky but effective. Great job.

A VHS to keep in your library.

Airdate February 9, 1972. This is another great 5 star Columbo episode. This episode is written by Steven Bochco and directed by Peter Falk, himself. It involves the building construction industry and the possibility that a murder victim might be buried beneath the piles.