Columbo: Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

Our old friend, and cover boy for Tanning Quarterly, George Hamilton is front and center here. He has stepped on the toes of a guy who is out for revenge. Apparently, George did a porno film in his youth and the guy is blackmailing him. Hence, a murder plot using cigarettes and a deadly poison. George's character is a huge TV personality on a true crime show. He is arrogant and smug and in danger of losing his cash cow. The problem involves some cigarette butts he used. The victim was a chain smoker, leaving himself a target for the killer. George also uses a surveillance tape to cover his tracks. Of course, Columbo knows it's him quite quickly, but he has to gather evidence. It's a well made episode with some nicely put together deductions.

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.

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.

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-

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.