Adorable mais dangereuse

A fine way to pass the time, Columbo and ice queen Miles, and a seedy smoking female wannabe executive, and a frustrated lab assistant toy boy, and Vincent Price all too briefly, and a washed up heartbroken scientific genius.

Viveca Scott (Vera Miles) is the owner of a high-end cosmetics company, recently sales have gone down and she's trying to fend off a takeover from corporate rival David Lang (Vincent Price). Viveca is pinning her hopes on a new wrinkle removal cream that her company has developed. But when she finds out that her chemist, Karl Lessing (Martin Sheen), is going to betray her and sell the compound to Lang, she beats him to death with his microscope. Viveca attempts to throw suspicion on Lang, but certain clues, like a scribbled note written in eyebrow pencil, point Lt. Columbo her way. There's also the matter of Shirley, Viveca's spy inside Lang's company, who knows a lot of secrets and also guesses what really happened to Karl.

Solid episode with a great performance by Vera Miles, who isn't quite evil. She's just desperate to save her business and turns to murder (she has no intention to kill Karl but so out of rage because he's adamant in selling the formula to her) in order to achieve it. Vincent Price is good in his small role but it's Sian Barbara Allen who steals the scene as a slimy employee who sees an opportunity to climb the ladder via blackmail. Columbo does his usual thing by torturing the main suspect by saying "one more thing" and "somethings bothering me - I hope you can help me on this." Me personally would just hand myself to the closest police station, confess and tell them to lock me up. Anything to avoid Colombo's pestering.

"Imagine, a harmless cream that can actually make wrinkles disappear! It's like alchemy! It's the dream of the centuries! It's what women have longed for since ancient Egypt!"

That clunky exposition gives you a good idea of what you can expect from this episode. Viveca Scott (Vera Miles) runs Beauty Mark, the cosmetics company whose products are in every woman's home. But sales are dropping, and she's counting on the miraculous new beauty cream created by her chief chemist (Fred Draper) to boost sales and overtake her rival David Lang (Vincent Price). Too bad the chemist's assistant (Martin Sheen) steals the formula. Scott attempts to negotiate with him, but in a rage knocks him over the head with a heavy microscope, killing him. Her rival's secretary (Sian Barbara Allen, in an engagingly quirky performance) finds out and attempts to blackmail her. What's the cosmetic queen's worst news? Our rumpled but brilliant detective, Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk), is on the case.

Jeannot Szwarc directs a contrived but entertaining script by Jackson Gillis based on a story by Myrna Bercovici. Szwarc does a workmanlike job, but I didn't care for the opening scene, unaccountably made to look and sound like a cheesy horror film. (Is this because Vincent Price is in the cast?) What makes this lesser "Columbo" episode enjoyable for any fan is Vera Miles, whose Viveca Scott is beautiful, chic, self-confident, imperious and condescending. She's the perfect foil for our cigar-chomping Columbo. Their scenes together are a hoot.

Peter Falk is "Columbo" in this episode "Lovely but Lethal," which stars Vera Miles, Vincent Price, Martin Sheen, and Sian Barbara Allen.

Vivika Scott (Miles) runs Beauty Mark, a once highly successful but now failing cosmetics company. She has her hopes pinned on a miracle cream that makes wrinkles disappear, but the formula disappears when her chief chemist (Sheen) steals it and wants to sell it to her competitor (Price).

Vivika attempts to seduce her chemist, thinking that's what he wants, but it turns out he's just after revenge. In a rage, she kills him by banging him over the head with a microscope. Price's secretary (Allen) attempts to blackmail Vivika, but that's the least of her worries - Columbo is investigating.

Entertaining episode with wonderful performances, with a good scene at a fat farm Vivika runs while Columbo follows her around talking to her. We could have used more of Price and a little more script development, but this episode is still good.

LOVELY BUT LETHAL is a solid enough entry in the early Columbo TV series, and it features a complex-enough guest villain the form of PSYCHO actress Vera Miles, playing the boss of a beauty firm who decides to do away with a rival only to find the crumpled sleuth dogging her every move.

Coming to this as a horror fan, my only complaint is that Vincent Price is present in this story, and they didn't make HIM the villain! I guess they only had him around for a short while as he only pops up a couple of times in support, but the producers of Columbo really seemed to miss a trick by not having Price play the villain at least once. I think he would have really relished the opportunity for a battle of wits with the detective, and it's such a pity that never happened.

Otherwise, LOVELY BUT LETHAL is straightforward entertainment. Peter Falk hounds Miles wherever she goes, while she gets increasingly frustrated. I liked the beauty world as a backdrop to the tale, although the shenanigans surrounding the opening murder are a little convoluted and there's a later plot development that barely gets referred to by the characters so seems more than a little pointless. Watch out for a young Martin Sheen in support, just before he appeared in BADLANDS.