Couronne mortuaire

Dentist Wesley Corman works for his father-in-law's firm and has wasted a small fortune of his in-law's money on business ventures and bad gambling. However his luck has run out – his wife is cheating on him and is planning a divorce while his father-in-law is planning to call in all Wesley's debts. Desperate for a way out he calls in his patient (and his wife's lover) Adam Evans and sets something inside his crown. Later that night, while he is at a poker game, the poison in the crown breaks out and kills him in the arms of Lydia Corman. Wesley comes to the rescue, taking the body out on the road and making it look like an accident – naturally his in-laws appreciate his discretion to protect his wife and all is forgiven. However Columbo gets assigned the case and a grain of salt, an empty stomach and some blue blotches are all it takes to lead him back to the Cormans with a lot of questions.

As with many TV film series (such as Perry Mason), if you like one or two of them then you'll pretty much like them all. This entry in the Columbo series pretty much follows the usual formula – we know the killer and the "perfect" plan but then watch Columbo follow his hunch and gradually starts to pick holes in the story he is told before eventually finding enough to prove his suspicions. Knowing this ahead of time won't ruin anything for you; it is simply what happens in all the films. With this strict adherence to formula it is usually simple enough for the series to do the business although I have had my fingers burnt with some of the "new" Columbo's. With a solid pun of a title and a world that Columbo is a stranger to (dentistry) things looked OK but it is a foundation that the story can't build on that well. The plot steps away from the classic cat'n'mouse game, retaining only an element of that if favour of more of a general investigation. This works better than I suspected but the unlikely plot undermines it a bit just because a lot of it doesn't ring true – Corman's office being empty of staff, his in-laws doing a 180 so easily, the crown idea working as well as it is; all these are things that take a leap of faith that sometimes the material can't make.

The cast are mixed. Falk is on pretty good form, not quite his best but he doesn't look as old as other "new" films and he comes across as a bit sharper. Read is a bit bland and doesn't quite match up to Columbo, so it is perhaps in his favour that the film only turns to cat and mouse in the final third. The support cast is so-so, some nice characters like Columbo's dentist and Gilborn's George but the family is not that great. There are some "star" cameos from people like Walker and Sargent as themselves at a poker game – I didn't care about them so much as I was annoyed by the guy doing impressions at the game, he is just the sort of w*nker that you wouldn't want at a game! The game itself though provides a nice touch where it is contrasted and intercut with Mrs Corman panicking.

Overall a solid Columbo despite the problems with the plot. The cast aren't anything special but the story moves along well and Falk in on good form. Not up to the standard of the original series' then but it stands up for itself with the lesser "new" episodes.

The previous installment of "Columbo" ("Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo") was extremely weak and had several plot holes. Fortunately, the series was back in form with "Uneasy Lies the Crown".

Dr. Corman is a jerk...and a second-rate dentist. His favorite thing in life is gambling...not his wife. So, she begins having an affair. He knows about it but plays dumb....and concocts a plan to kill his wife's lover, frame her for the murder AND convince his father-in-law to keep him at his dental practice! It's a very clever plan and involves a lethal dose of Digitalis administered under a crown he implanted in the boyfriend's mouth! Will he get away with it and fool Columbo? Yeah, right!

This is a very enjoyable episode. I am not at all sure of the chemistry and if it's real...though the show made it seem plausible. Fascinating to watch and well worth seeing.

A substantially plotted and scripted 1990 Columbo episode penned by prolific writer Steven Bochco, which sees a debt-ridden, gambling dentist murder his wife's lover, by putting an overdose of a heart condition drug in the crown he puts in for him and then frames his wife, who is filing for divorce and also possesses a tragic marital history.

The murder set-up is fine, the story holds together very well, but it isn't particularly well-paced despite the deft development of clues which shift the focus of the investigation from the murderer's wife to murderer. Moreover, the story deserves more gritty and assured performances than we evidence, particularly from James Read as the murderer, who, for me, shamefully underacts in his relatively juicy role. Consequently, his scenes with Columbo, which should have possessed a mesmerising ferocity, instead only generate mild entertainment, which unfortunately deflects from the proficient elements of the storyline (just think what Jack Cassidy or Robert Culp could have done with the material!).

Very passable stuff for a new Columbo series that was trying feverishly to get somewhere near the quality of the original series, and in terms of storyline they get very close here. Sadly, the performances from the supporting cast don't really get the best out of the material.

This is one of the better second generation Columbos. The murder is ingenious and the murderer is more intelligent than many others in the later Colombos. He doesn't make any careless mistakes and if not for his arrogance in thinking he couldn't be caught, probably would have gotten away with it. James Read plays a charming and sophisticated villain. It's a pleasure to watch him spar with Colombo and to see his mounting irritation as Columbo keeps turning up as the proverbial bad penny ("uh, just one more thing, sir..."). The cameos by the murderer's poker buddies are a nice treat. Columbo's solution is equally fun and ingenious.

Uneasy Lies the Crown is certainly not a bad episode, in fact I thought it was quite good, just not great like a lot of Columbo episodes. It is a little far-fetched and implausible in the plot at first, luckily the clues are deft and the tone of the episode becomes grittier and diverting by the final act. James Read certainly looks the part, tall, handsome and sophisticated, and he works very well with Falk in their sparring, however there were other times in this episode especially at the start where his performance felt underplayed and bland. There are some bright spots in the supporting cast, but the general standard was inconsistent ranging from inconsistent to bland and annoying. Uneasy Lies the Crown is still a well made episode with a strong score, often clever writing like in the cat-and-mouse scenes between Falk and Read and Peter Falk is just wonderful as always as Columbo, though I do think he has given better performances in the series. Overall, decent if lacking the extra something that the best episodes of the series had. 7/10 Bethany Cox