Columbo: Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

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

After being off the air for a while, Columbo returned with some new made-for-TV mysteries that, while not being as good as the original series, are better than the shows that were done in the later '90s.

"Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health" used the then (and I guess now, if you think about it) true crime shows as the situation for a murder. The murder is committed by a very successful, egomaniacal true crime show host, George Hamilton (in a nice bit of casting). His chain-smoking nemesis, who lost the job to him, played by Peter Haskell, attempts to blackmail Hamilton when he discovers a porno video Hamilton made with an underage actress in his salad days. Hamilton uses Haskell's cigarettes to deliver the death blow via poison, giving himself an alibi as well.

Columbo is brought in to find out what happened. You know the rest. Highly entertaining.

Like the other reviewers, I generally enjoyed this episode, which pretty much sticks to formula and has a decent murder plot with lots of real sleuthing for the good detective to figure out. However, there were two aspects that I think really kept it from being great - neither of which anyone else has mentioned. Firstly, I never was a great George Hamilton fan. Not only did his crazy tanning efforts totally disfigure his truly handsome face of the early years, he simply was not a very good actor. I think he was more truthful than humble when he said that he was a movie star, not an actor. There are none of the subtle changes in facial expressions and tone that the true stars like McGoohan and Cassidy implemented so well. He either smiles to Columbo, or loses his temper. There are none of the subtle in-between expressions, where you smile while indicating irritation or discomfort. Secondly, I thought the writing was dreadful. I have a simple test for the quality of a Columbo episode: see how many enjoyable quotes there are. The great ones had tons of funny quips about Columbo's quirks, and subtle hints by the detective that revealed his train of thought and suspicions. This movie had exactly one decent line (which I submitted to the site), when the victim chokingly states he can't breath, and Anders quips, 'I told you those things will kill ya.' There was not a single other line that I could rate as even half decent. All attempts at humor, which usually add so much to this series, were dreadful here, such as the infantile and overly extended scene where Columbo crashes into Anders' car, or the one where he picks up 'dog' from the pedicure, or when he asks about the cost of Anders' shirt and wonders why his own shirt is so much cheaper even though it 'travelled just as far.' Pullease. Can professional writers do no better than that? Finally, as in many late Columbos, instead of making the detective sound quirky and old-fashioned, it makes him speak like an old dimwit, who explains everything as if to a three year old - such as the demonstration with the typewriter pages being pulled out, or when showing Anders the cigarette butts. It just makes you wince. In this episode, it is the overall plot and the old Columbo formula that saves matters and makes it enjoyable - despite all its faults.