"Just One More Thing..." - The COLUMBO Discussion Thread

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  • Posts: 6,682
    "COLUMBO: "
    "KILLER: "
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,727
  • Posts: 6,682
    Columbo catching up with the times!

    I must get back to watching those Columbo episodes I haven't seen. I've got a list and everything. List's right here. See? It's in my handkerchief.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,727
    mattjoes wrote: »
    Columbo catching up with the times!

    I must get back to watching those Columbo episodes I haven't seen. I've got a list and everything. List's right here. See? It's in my handkerchief.

    Yes, fun to see the good lieutenant tackle 21st Century issues. The contemporary world was something he always tried to keep up with.

    Which ones haven't you seen, @mattjoes? I've seen them all a few times over; some a good few times over! I should be able to guide you to the best episodes you've left to see. :)
  • BirdlesonBirdleson Moderator
    edited November 2021 Posts: 2,161
    I guess it only makes sense, but until I came onto these boards I had no idea that COLUMBO had any fans overseas. It was good to find out. I've loved it since i was young. My mother was a big fan from the start.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited November 2021 Posts: 17,727
    Birdleson wrote: »
    I guess it only makes sense, but until I came onto these boards I had no idea that COLUMBO had any fans overseas. It was good to find out. I've loved it since i was young. My mother was a big fan from the start.

    Yes, it had a big export market and was certainly very popular in the UK where it was shown around the same time I believe. My late father was a fan of the show too so maybe that's where I got the bug, not that I needed any encouragement!

    In fact, Peter Falk mentions in his memoir that he arrived in some remote village once in the developing world and the people there knew him as Lt. Columbo as they saw the show on the village TV.
  • edited November 2021 Posts: 6,682
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    Which ones haven't you seen, @mattjoes? I've seen them all a few times over; some a good few times over! I should be able to guide you to the best episodes you've left to see. :)

    There actually are quite a few I haven't seen, some in the 70s and some in the 90s. I will watch them all, however. I just want to get some movies out of the way before returning to Columbo. I've got all the seasons on DVD.

    One that I want to see is Make Me a Perfect Murder. I've seen a good chunk of it but not the whole thing. The interplay between Trish Van Devere and Peter Falk is superb. I also have to watch the first one with George Hamilton. And, yes, No Time to Die!

    Columbo is such an exciting show to me, as much as a Bond film. No action whatsoever, but the intellectual cat-and-mouse game can be just as thrilling.

    Outside of Columbo, I also want to watch Griffin and Phoenix starring Falk and Jill Clayburgh, an actress whose work I've wanting to see. I think I've only seen her in Silver Streak.


    Birdleson wrote: »
    I guess it only makes sense, but until I came onto these boards I had no idea that COLUMBO had any fans overseas. It was good to find out. I've loved it since i was young. My mother was a big fan from the start.

    I remember the 90s episodes aired on Thursdays at 11 pm here in Chile. That's how I first got to know Columbo. I remember Columbo Goes to College, A Bird in the Hand and the second George Hamilton episode as the earliest episodes I saw.
  • edited November 2021 Posts: 6,682
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  • Fire_and_Ice_ReturnsFire_and_Ice_Returns I am trying to get away from this mountan!
    Posts: 23,104
    mattjoes wrote: »
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    Great poster I would frame that.
  • Posts: 6,682
    Those are major words, thank you, @Fire_and_Ice_Returns.
  • Fire_and_Ice_ReturnsFire_and_Ice_Returns I am trying to get away from this mountan!
    edited November 2021 Posts: 23,104
    mattjoes wrote: »
    Those are major words, thank you, @Fire_and_Ice_Returns.

    One thing that is missing from my movie room full of memorabilia is a Columbo framed poster (not including my Cigar Box set which is hidden on a shelf).
  • Posts: 6,682
    mattjoes wrote: »
    Those are major words, thank you, @Fire_and_Ice_Returns.

    One thing that is missing from my movie room full of memorabilia is a Columbo framed poster (not including my Cigar Box set which is hidden on a shelf).

    What other memorabilia do you have? Columbo or otherwise.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,727
    mattjoes wrote: »
    3lQWfPD.png

    7H0BP3z.png

    Did you make that, @mattjoes? It's very impressive. One of my favourite Columbo episodes and the one from Jack Cassidy that I enjoy the most.
  • Posts: 6,682
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mattjoes wrote: »
    3lQWfPD.png

    7H0BP3z.png

    Did you make that, @mattjoes? It's very impressive. One of my favourite Columbo episodes and the one from Jack Cassidy that I enjoy the most.

    I did! Thank you. This poster is a "sequel" of sorts to the one I did for Death Lends a Hand. I think I will make more in the future.

    Agreed on all counts about Now You See Him.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited November 2021 Posts: 17,727
    mattjoes wrote: »
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    mattjoes wrote: »
    3lQWfPD.png

    7H0BP3z.png

    Did you make that, @mattjoes? It's very impressive. One of my favourite Columbo episodes and the one from Jack Cassidy that I enjoy the most.

    I did! Thank you. This poster is a "sequel" of sorts to the one I did for Death Lends a Hand. I think I will make more in the future.

    Agreed on all counts about Now You See Him.

    Ah, yes! I remember Columbophile used your Death Lends a Hand poster on Twitter a few years ago and I pointed out that you were the artist. I thought the style looked familiar! Death Lends a Hand is my favourite Columbo episode. I'm a big Robert Culp fan. A great, quite underrated actor in my book.

    Now You See Him would be in my Top Ten Columbo episodes. In fact, it's really the only Season 5 episode I would class as excellent. There was a lot of experimentation during that season and the only other episode I really like from that period is A Case of Immunity.
  • Fire_and_Ice_ReturnsFire_and_Ice_Returns I am trying to get away from this mountan!
    edited November 2021 Posts: 23,104
    mattjoes wrote: »
    mattjoes wrote: »
    Those are major words, thank you, @Fire_and_Ice_Returns.

    One thing that is missing from my movie room full of memorabilia is a Columbo framed poster (not including my Cigar Box set which is hidden on a shelf).

    What other memorabilia do you have? Columbo or otherwise.

    Mainly James Bond and DC comics related items, years ago I used to deal in antiques and collectables. I have tried to go minimalist though certain things I will keep hold off. A Columbo poster would look great in my movie room.
  • BirdlesonBirdleson Moderator
    Posts: 2,161
    Mainly James Bond and DC comics...

    My life as young main in a nut shell.
  • Fire_and_Ice_ReturnsFire_and_Ice_Returns I am trying to get away from this mountan!
    edited November 2021 Posts: 23,104
    Birdleson wrote: »
    Mainly James Bond and DC comics...

    My life as young main in a nut shell.

    I had a much larger collection than I have now though in my 20's I went through a phase of disgarding items which I continue to regret 20 years later, some items I should never have got rid off mainly Fleming Books I had multiple copies of every novel, boxes full of them.

  • BirdlesonBirdleson Moderator
    Posts: 2,161
    All my childhood possessions were gone by my 20s, through moves, divorce, floods.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,727
  • Fire_and_Ice_ReturnsFire_and_Ice_Returns I am trying to get away from this mountan!
    edited January 2022 Posts: 23,104
    Dragonpol wrote: »

    Some great names there, Lloyd was very memorable in Hitchcocks Saboteur, certainly during the fantastic set piece atop the Statue of Liberty, excellent film. I forgot Norman Lloyd was in Columbo, the the series of films has a phenomenal guest cast list.

    Willian Smith of cause played Conan's father to fellow body builder Arnie in Conan the Barbarian and Bond allumini Frank McRae starred with Arnie in The Last Action Hero.

    Jessica Walter talented actress she was the original bunny boiler minus the bunny in Play Misty for Me, one of the best films in that genre.

    Dean Stockwell if I remember correctly was a child actor though for my generation most remembered as Al in Quantum Leap and Married to the Mob with Michelle Pffiefer.
  • edited January 2022 Posts: 6,682
    A couple of observations on By Dawn's Early Light (I'd like to write a more substantial piece at a later point):

    - I love the long opening shot, with the camera slowly closing in on Rumford from behind as he prepares the cannon shell...
    - ...and the fact they make us wait for the title of the episode so long, displaying it when it only when it matches what we are seeing on the screen.
    - When Columbo and Rumford talk in the courtyard of the empty building, the checkerboard pattern on the floor brings to mind a game of chess, which is reminiscent of the intellectual duel the two are engaged in, and which coincides with what Rumford said before: "Logic is the battlefield of adulthood."
    - I noticed Rumford perspiring at certain moments: at the beginning, when tampering with the shell, and later when talking with Columbo. I thought this was meant to suggest he was nervous, but I expected Columbo to mention it and he never did.
    - Rumford's dedication to excellence and attention to detail prove to be his undoing, when he notices the cider while preparing the murder, and acts upon this information.
    - Rumford is a very neat, impeccably dressed and presented person, but perhaps apart from their very first moment together, he never really looks down on Columbo for his shabby appearance. If anything, without him ever outright stating it, it's reasonable to think he comes to like the Lieutenant's own dedication to excellence. To some extent, this is represented in the scene in which Rumford grows comfortable enough with Columbo to open up to him while they share a cigar. And in the process, both Columbo and the audience get an explanation of why he did what he did.
    - Not an ounce of regret from Rumford after being caught. Absolute conviction in his actions. Patrick McGoohan was very good at playing roles like these.
  • echoecho 007 in New York
    Posts: 5,921
    Just watched the one with William Shatner as the egotistical actor, and it reminded me how good he is in this kind of role.
  • BirdlesonBirdleson Moderator
    Posts: 2,161
    Shatner is great. Go back and watch him in JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961). He’s a young actor playing against a Who’s Who of international legendary film stars. And he holds on in every scene.
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    Posts: 45,489
  • Posts: 6,682
    A fine moment. One of my favorites along with the steamed hams incident.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited January 2022 Posts: 17,727
    mattjoes wrote: »
    A fine moment. One of my favorites along with the steamed hams incident.

    It's good to know that Homer's a Columbo fan as well as an Octopussy fan. He's got such consummate good taste in popular culture. ;)
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited February 2022 Posts: 17,727
    I believe this is @mattjoes's favourite Columbo episode. I really like it too. One of the better episodes of the newer ABC run of Columbo. Not seen this promo for it before:

  • Posts: 6,682
    That's correct, @Dragonpol, it's my favorite episode. The promo sells it as "Columbo vs. TV crime fighter", which is a pretty cool premise, of course.

    I love the last shot of the episode, which is the same as the promo.

    The title is long but amusing in its understatement.

    I've still got my dubbed copy of the episode taped from TV in the nineties. It's missing the first 10 minutes but I bought the DVD to get the rest of it.
  • Posts: 15,785
    I love the George Hamilton episodes.
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