Die vergessene Tote

Fisher Stevens (looking eerily like a young Michael Douglas) plays a wunderkind director in Columbo's cross-hairs. The young director kills to cover up something he did or didn't do when he was even younger.

In the original series Columbo played cat-and-mouse with his quarry (Columbo was the cat, though he let the mice think they were). But one never knew when the Lieutenant actually twigged the guilty party. In the revived series he seems to know right off the bat and gives it away. Or perhaps in this episode especially he wants to show these uppity kids a thing or two.

One thing I miss about the old Columbo compared to the new is that in most cases the murderer and the victim were well-known, by their lights. In one earlier-series episode the murderer was Patrick McGoohan and his victim was a pre-comedy Leslie Nielsen. Another episode had James Gregory as the victim and Roddy McDowell as the killer. They were actors who had kicked around movies and TV shows enough to be familiar. And other familiar faces dotted the episodes. The later series shows often were full of unfamiliar people, to me. In this episode the only actor I knew was Steven Hill, team leader on the first season of "Mission: Impossible." The murderer was born two years after I was and the victim was a year older than my big brother. Exciting, that Columbo had moved into my generation, but I preferred the familiar faces. Though a reason is revealed at the end why this episode especially needed unfamiliar faces, the climax reminded me of the young directors like the one in the show, a bit less clever than it thinks it is.

I'm not big on adults (politicians, say) being persecuted for dumb mistakes they made in high school or college when they are really stupid kids. But this director killed as part of a cover-up when what he tried to cover up might have been excused with a slap on the wrist.

The thing is, as one character says in this episode: movies these days are made by children, for children. And since this show aired in 1989 it's only gotten exacerbated. Perhaps it was not just an accident this episode kicks off with a movie studio tour featuring a shark as in "Jaws."

When I was growing up movies were made by middle-aged men: Lean, Hitchcock, Wyler. Then came the Spielberg/Lucas/Coppola revolution and suddenly kids right out of film school took over, who knew nothing of life experiences but only other movies. And since, they've gotten younger and younger, while knowing less and less, in front of and behind the camera and in the theatres. I miss movies made by adults for adults that aren't grim exercises. The Cary Grant/Audrey Hepburn "Charade" is the poster child for "they don't make 'em like this anymore." And don't give me guff about "the bottom line." That was the guiding force in Golden Age movies, too. And silents. Movies always existed to sell popcorn.

Having read extensively about the old studio system I probably know as much about how movies worked in the Golden Age of movie-making, without actual hands-on experience, as anyone working on this project and it was nice seeing a back lot in operation, even if only for show.

The best thing about this episode is the incidental music. It's a wonderful theme. When they lapse into "The Blue Danube," it's a bit clichéd. If they wanted to use a snatch of classical music rather than repeating the first-rate incidental music, Shostakovich's Waltz #2 might have been a better selection. It's a tad clichéd these days but not in 1989.

Fisher Stevens stars as a successful young Hollywood director of blockbuster films named Alex Bradey who feels compelled to kill an old friend by electric shock who threatened to reveal an old dark secret from his past where he covered up his negligence in the death of an actress in one of his home movies. Lt. Columbo(Peter Falk) investigates the death that leads right to Bradey, but of course the egotistical yet overconfident director(obviously an amalgam of Steven Spielberg and John Landis) underestimates the good Lt. to his peril... Entertaining episode will appeal especially to film buffs, though the climax does seem a bit too theatrical.

I liked this installment better than the first movie from '89 where the snobby villain was rather dull. At least here the villain, although a tad young, had some personality. I liked to watch his building frustration as Columbo tightened the noose. All in all, a better effort all around. I think i am figuring out why the original columbos were just better. Made in the '70s they had a certain style and simplicity thats maybe lacking in the newer films.....the newer versions try to do too much. Everything is a bit cheesier, even the music. Funny but the "newer" episodes seem more dated to me than the older stuff. And i am, so far, missing the big name villains. I am hoping the episode with Faye Dunaway will rectify this. However, as always, i enjoy Peter Falk. He remains as good as ever. Best moment: columbo shows his incredible deduction skills to the viewer and the villain during an early scene where Columbo can tell so much from 2 left over ice cream sodas. It's right up there with vintage Columbo. Secondly, the scene where Columbo literally hangs in the air scanning a movie set. His dislike of heights is known from vintage episodes.

A Steven Spielberg type director murders an old friend who has uncovered the director's murder of a young woman years earlier. Columbo investigates, and we are treated to him walking around a studio and spending time in this young man's opulent dressing room, complete with a soda fountain. Columbo, of course, helps himself to a sundae.

This is one of the better "comeback" Columbos of the '80s and early '90s, with a delightful performance by Fisher Stevens as the director, who, despite a childlike quality is a total jerk. Nan Martin and Molly Hagen also turn in good performances.

There's a rumor that Steven Spielberg ghost-directed this episode. Hard to know, but the director does seem to have been modeled on him - not the murder part, though.

One of the better entries in the second Colombo series. As usual Colombo stumbles into an unfamiliar universe in which his adversary condescends to him and underestimates his skills. In this instance, the heavy is Alex Brady (Fisher Stevens), a Spielberg figure, a young, cocky, talented, film director who electrocutes an old friend who's discovered a skeleton in Stevens' closet. Colombo solves the mystery with the help of his brains and a nearly miraculous dose of good luck. (Walking alone on a deserted set at Universal, he happens to step on a heel that turns out to be a crucial clue.)

It provides a good deal of expectable fun. So why isn't it as satisfying as the entries from the 1970s?

One reason is that Falk is 20 years older than when he started out. It's not his fault that he's aged, God knows, yet it's depressing, even though he was never an actor whose appeal rested on youthful good looks. It's a little like looking in the mirror with your 30th birthday somewhere behind you.

Second, Falk approaches the role differently. In the 1970s he was usually distracted. He frowned while concentrating, rarely smiled except with embarrassment. His eyes darted about. His speech may have been full of hesitation but his intuitions were accurate and lightning fast.

But he has changed. It's as one critic wrote of the return of Sherlock Holmes, after Conan Doyle's failed attempt to knock him off and get rid of him, "he was never quite the same man." His movements have slowed, his gestures have become more expansive, his smile has become practically a fixed grin regardless of the situation, and his voice is patronizing and patient, as if he were telling a fairy story to a couple of kids. Whereas before he seemed genuinely bemused, he now seems overly pleasant and phony.

The plot is interesting enough, up to most Colombo standards, but its execution suggests a sort of desperation to do something novel with the episode. We'll skip over the small implausibilities. (Colombo walks into a sound stage and knows how to operate the equipment.) The ending almost makes one cringe. Colombo has outwitted -- I guess that's the word -- Stevens by surrounding him in public places with police officers in wardrobe and makeup, playing the parts of waitresses, and whatnot, although what that has accomplished is a little slippery to the grasp. The role-playing cops are introduced to Stevens with a spotlight, one by one, dressed for their parts, and they take bows, while the score lapses into fanfares. It's a trick the 70s episodes would not have pulled, nor would they have had to pull it.

Stevens is pretty good as the arrogant young murderer. Steven Hill is there, briefly, as a producer. The best performance is by Nan Martin as the secretary, Rose, although her part too is a small one.

You can never recapture the past, as they say, but this entry in the later series is far ahead of some of the others. Some were unbearable.