Tyne Daly follows up her performance in "Columbo A Bird in the Hand" where she was a drunken lush with a performance as a drunken prostitute. Young is amusing, Page does OK with the unenviable role of Columbo's partner. ![]() Begley is OK but hardly a good foil for Columbo. Falk seems to enjoy playing the different roles and getting to be tough etc and that helps the film but I still didn't think it was a good idea to move away from not only the formula but the character himself. Columbo fans will probably find it difficult to get past the fact that he is such a different person here than normal he plays bad cop, he puts on accents and he plays Italian stereotypes like it was going out of fashion it is all a far cry from the cat n' mouse stuff while his brain whirrs along in the background. What it does lack though is mystery and the steps just feel flat and be more about the undercover gimmick rather than the plot. This change isn't great but it does still produce a so-so story that moves along well enough despite having nothing of the original Columbo about it. I assume that the changes are down to the influence of Peter Falk as executive producer for the series no matter how much I enjoy it, it must be a bother to him to be stuck with one performance in one character in one formula. So with the title clearly telling me that things are very different from normal I must admit to approaching this film with a certain amount of trepidation. The last couple of "new" Columbos that I've watched have messed around with the formula with, at best, mixed results. With Columbo's Italian background, Krutch suggests that Columbo help out by going undercover and trying to recover all the elements and recover the cash. ![]() Stumped by what it all means Columbo and his partner listen with interest when an insurance investigator tells them that the photograph in question will lead to a stash of stolen cash. The only thing not clear is the motive as all Columbo can find is a section of a photograph that has been neatly cut out. ![]() Columbo is called to a clear-cut case of double homicide in a dead end apartment block, where a robber has been shot at the same time as stabbing the owner in the neck.
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