Columbo: Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

George Hamilton plays Wade Anders, the host of a show very similar to "America's Most Wanted". The show is a big success and things look great for Anders...until an old enemy shows up to see him. It seems that a TV news man was also up for the job of host of this show....and he's bitter about Anders beating him out in becoming the host. But the news man has something on Anders...he has just discovered early in his life, Anders starred in a porno film...and the news guy has a copy and plans on using it!

With the destruction of his career a strong possibility, Anders hatches a mostly ingenious plan to murder the guy. However, of course, the plan is NOT perfect and Columbo is on the case....so sooner or later he's bound to get caught.

The crime is really neat and well thought out. But the actual execution left out some important details...so see the show and see how Columbo catches him. Well worth seeing and quite enjoyable.

Yes got to be one of the best titles of an episode of not just Columbo but any other crime mystery shows. Anyway enough of the title, for what it's worth here's my assessment. I agree with most of what is said by other reviewers on here. Hamilton is as brilliant as ever- not quite as good as his previous episode but still a typical Hamilton performance that holds his own with both Peter Falk and Haskell- who is only in it for a short time due to being the victim- also great.

But I do agree that there are clumsy bits especially the beginning setting up who the character is by dialogue (explaining how he got job etc to someone who already knows) a big no no. Don't think it's ever happened in another Columbo new or old certainly not to this low degree. And the clumsiness of the murderer himself any wonder Columbo picked this up straight away. Even I and other non detectives would. And it borrows the cigarette trick from Agenda for Murder and re working tapes from Playback (and a couple of others too) so not exactly original. But what makes it great is that the originality of Columbo and his sleuthing is on full display.

So writing and set ups and ending not perfect but performances and style are. Overall a good classic.

PLOT: A crime show host (George Hamilton) murders a rival who blackmails him via an old porn flick to get his job (Peter Haskell).

COMMENTARY: Hamilton returns 16 years after his first gig with Columbo in "A Deadly State of Mind" (1975). The crime show is patterned after America's Most Wanted with John Walsh and makes for an interesting context. It's a solid episode that follows the formula to a 't,' nothing more, nothing less. Another reviewer accurately described it as "perfectly serviceable."

GRADE: B/B-

I am a fan of Columbo and while Caution: Murder Can be Hazardous to your Health is not the best of the lot, it is very enjoyable. The plot is well written and everything with a good motive but it has been used before and perhaps better, while Peter Falk has been better as Columbo. Don't get me wrong he was still wonderful but he has also been exceptional and outstanding too. The episode does look striking though, and the music is intense and atmospheric. I also loved the script, it was funny and intelligent and Columbo and Wade had some delightful scenes together, and the direction and pacing are super efficient. The acting is fine too, as I've said Falk is wonderful if not exceptional while George Hamilton plays a different character to what he played in A Deadly State of Mind. In my personal opinion he gave the better performance in that episode, but he is excellent and works well with Falk showing easily the frustration that make the best villains intriguing to watch. Overall, very good episode. 8/10 Bethany Cox

A fun entry in the 1990s series of revamped Columbo TV movies, this features George Hamilton playing the villain for the second time in the series (the first was 1975's A DEADLY STATE OF MIND). Hamilton has never been the world's greatest actor, but he's a solid fit for this 1990s-feeling piece, which has a relaxed atmosphere and plenty of light comedy to see it through.

Hamilton plays the presenter of a big crime TV show (think the BBC's CRIME WATCH) who discovers to his displeasure that a rival has uncovered a dirty secret from his past. He kills the guy by poisoning his cigarette, and Columbo is soon on the case. One of the annoying things about this episode is the slow, drawn-out way that Columbo describes the clues and the like to the audience; he actually seems quite slow-witted, and was never like this in the old episodes.

Still, the mystery is a good one, and there's an ingenious climax. Plus, I find the comedy in this latter episodes to be as strong as ever, with the interlude in the dog parlour a highlight. CAUTION: MURDER CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH is a perfectly serviceable entry in the Columbo TV series.