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Except for Peter Falk, who is as good as ever in his Columbo role, all the other cast members fail to play their role convincingly. It was like watching a bad soap. Maybe the director of this episode, Walter Grauman,is partly to blame for that ?

Weak plot, lots of continuity mistakes, lots of camera shadows on people, stretched-out phone ringing, car following and walking scenes that hampers the flow and reveal a thin scenario. This episode could have lasted at most an hour, instead of stretching it to an hour and a half.

Also, the attempt at moving away from the usual Columbo recipe by not showing how the murder took place is only confusing and not helping the story telling.

All in all, one of the very few very bad Columbo episodes, fortunately.

"Murder in Malubu" is among the worst episodes of "Columbo"...and it's a shame because I like the shows. But the writing was just terrible and the story made little sense.

Theresa Goren is a very successful romance writer. However, despite her many accomplishments, she is a sucker for Wayne (Andrew Stevens)...a compulsive womanizer who really knows how to use and seduce women. When Goren is found murdered, Lt. Columbo is on the case and soon it becomes apparent that the woman was shot twice--and the second time they know that Wayne did it. But she was already dead....so who killed her the first time?

The plot to this one is way too complicated and the murderer's plan just seemed ridiculous. Add to that some characters who really make no sense at all (Brenda Vaccaro's character) and you have an episode that really leaves the viewer cold and disappointed. In addition to being nonsensical, the episode also lacked the usual charm and fun (an odd word for murder mysteries, I know) you'd expect.

This is the lowest I have rated a Columbo so far (haven't got to "Dagger Of The Mind" yet though!), but after twenty reviews each rating 7 or more out of 10, I have to be honest and say "Murder In Malibu" doesn't really have a lot going for it.

It's perfectly pleasant to have on in the background, but I find it very hard to sit back and concentrate on this episode without drifting off. Even though it's playing as I type, I'm struggling to describe what's going on. There's an awful lot of shouting though, that's for sure.

Very much a "filler" episode with everyone on autopilot. I can't imagine anyone ever thinking "Murder In Malibu" is their favourite Columbo.

This was a strange Columbo story about a successful romance novelist Janet Margolin who announces on an afternoon talk show host that she's about to marry Andrew Stevens professional tennis player. Part time player and full time gigolo.

But after the show Margolin finds Stevens has been, heaven forfend, unfaithful. She cuts him off and he kills her and in a rather elaborate ruse to first raise and then throw off suspicion on himself. Not something you would think of on the spur of the moment which is the main weakness of the story.

But additionally Stevens is a love 'em and leave 'em type. Margolin is not the first I'm sure to have given him his walking papers. His kind would have gone out and found someone else. Definitely not have killed someone.

Best in the cast is Margolin's overbearing protective sister Brenda Vaccaro who despises Stevens and at the same time lusts after him incredibly. Can't really blame her, she dominates when she's on.

Interesting characters, but the plot makes no real sense.

In Brenda Vaccaro's first scene her face is narrow and she looks slim, basically like she did in Midnight Cowboy. In the rest of her scenes her face is noticeably fuller and her body is heavy set. There must have been a break in the filming of this episode. She looks totally different for all her scenes after the first scene. I like seeing her because she is such a good actress, much better than Andrew Stevens who overacting this whole episode, but Brenda look changed very noticeably after her first scene. Always great to see Janet Margolin in any of her roles. She didn't get enough parts IMHO. Also, where is Columbo's beat up Volvo sedan? They should have had shot of it next to the red Jaguar two seat sports car that Stevens character drove around in.