Product Details

• Actors: Peter Falk, Gene Barry, Katherine Justice, William Windom, Nina Foch
• Directors: Richard Irving
• Format: Collector's Edition, NTSC
• Language: English
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0007KWR5Y
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #901 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uhhh..Just One More Question...., May 18, 2005

By	L. Shirley "Laurie's Boomer Views" (fountain valley, ca United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

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

3.0 out of 5 stars PILOT NUMBER ONE, May 10, 2007

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

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.