As a series, Columbo was pretty good. Even the less impressive episodes were better than a lot of what's on TV, then and now. But this first episode -- really a TV movie -- is by far the best.
For starters, it has a crisp, colorful production that is as good as any theatrical film of the time. In fact, it's hard to believe it wasn't. Compare the look to, say, Frank Sinatra's The Detective or Richard Widmark's Madigan. This is simply a high-quality film, certainly much more than the TV movies that soon followed and became a staple of 1970s television.
Beyond that, though, the character of Columbo is better defined. He's not the rumpled, borderline-dementia-addled homeless guy he is for much of the series. Instead, he's a shrewd, careful man often one or two steps ahead of the villain. The snobbery presented by the bad guy here -- the almost impossibly elegant Gene Barry -- has less to do with Columbo's demeanor than he's a small, underpaid civil servant with a far lesser pedigree. It makes for a more accurate representation of real life snobbery.
Barry sets the tone for the villains that come after, too. Urbane, polished, and crafty, he is a thinking man's criminal. That is, he not only believes he has it all figured out, he does. It's not the plot that undoes him but the execution that relies on his girlfriend who makes mistakes and couldn't possibly have predicted the introduction of Columbo to the game.
The earliest Columbo episodes, such as Murder by the Book, retain many of these qualities, but Columbo would drift more and more toward Mr. Magoo-ish caricature as the series wore on. Characters do evolve, but it's interesting to imagine how much more memorable this great series would be had they kept Columbo acting and looking as good as it does with this first movie.
For starters, it has a crisp, colorful production that is as good as any theatrical film of the time. In fact, it's hard to believe it wasn't. Compare the look to, say, Frank Sinatra's The Detective or Richard Widmark's Madigan. This is simply a high-quality film, certainly much more than the TV movies that soon followed and became a staple of 1970s television.
Beyond that, though, the character of Columbo is better defined. He's not the rumpled, borderline-dementia-addled homeless guy he is for much of the series. Instead, he's a shrewd, careful man often one or two steps ahead of the villain. The snobbery presented by the bad guy here -- the almost impossibly elegant Gene Barry -- has less to do with Columbo's demeanor than he's a small, underpaid civil servant with a far lesser pedigree. It makes for a more accurate representation of real life snobbery.
Barry sets the tone for the villains that come after, too. Urbane, polished, and crafty, he is a thinking man's criminal. That is, he not only believes he has it all figured out, he does. It's not the plot that undoes him but the execution that relies on his girlfriend who makes mistakes and couldn't possibly have predicted the introduction of Columbo to the game.
The earliest Columbo episodes, such as Murder by the Book, retain many of these qualities, but Columbo would drift more and more toward Mr. Magoo-ish caricature as the series wore on. Characters do evolve, but it's interesting to imagine how much more memorable this great series would be had they kept Columbo acting and looking as good as it does with this first movie.