Omicidio a Malibù

The movie follows the usual Columbo formula but yet it isn't as good and enjoyable to watch as most other Columbo movies. You could blame the script for this, which doesn't feature a good plot or premise, nice original settings or likable characters. The movie also has some real horrible and lame dialog at times, which of course makes it all the worse.

It's not a totally horrible movie though and for a detective crime thriller made for TV it simply is good enough and features all of the right required ingredients. Of course also the presence of the Columbo character makes a good watch.

Peter Falk is in his good old form as Lt. Columbo but the rest of the cast however isn't halve as good. Andrew Stevens is an horrible B-actor who now days earns his living from making straight-to-video, also as a producer, director, writer and production designer. It says something about how his career declined, after he in 1979 still received a Golden Globe nomination for best new male star.

It's not a movie that moves along really pleasantly. It has a sort of dragging pace but this is also mostly due to the movie its script I would say and not necessary the movie it's directing style or editing. Some movies just have a dragging script. The movie also does some attempts at humor but it doesn't always work out as well as it did for other Columbo movies.

The movie does feature some nice twists however, which makes the movie different from most other Columbo movie entries. It helps to still make this movie a good watch, despite of all of its other weaknesses.

6/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

In Brenda Vaccaro's first scene her face is narrow and she looks slim, basically like she did in Midnight Cowboy. In the rest of her scenes her face is noticeably fuller and her body is heavy set. There must have been a break in the filming of this episode. She looks totally different for all her scenes after the first scene. I like seeing her because she is such a good actress, much better than Andrew Stevens who overacting this whole episode, but Brenda look changed very noticeably after her first scene. Always great to see Janet Margolin in any of her roles. She didn't get enough parts IMHO. Also, where is Columbo's beat up Volvo sedan? They should have had shot of it next to the red Jaguar two seat sports car that Stevens character drove around in.

This was a strange Columbo story about a successful romance novelist Janet Margolin who announces on an afternoon talk show host that she's about to marry Andrew Stevens professional tennis player. Part time player and full time gigolo.

But after the show Margolin finds Stevens has been, heaven forfend, unfaithful. She cuts him off and he kills her and in a rather elaborate ruse to first raise and then throw off suspicion on himself. Not something you would think of on the spur of the moment which is the main weakness of the story.

But additionally Stevens is a love 'em and leave 'em type. Margolin is not the first I'm sure to have given him his walking papers. His kind would have gone out and found someone else. Definitely not have killed someone.

Best in the cast is Margolin's overbearing protective sister Brenda Vaccaro who despises Stevens and at the same time lusts after him incredibly. Can't really blame her, she dominates when she's on.

Interesting characters, but the plot makes no real sense.

In the 1990s, the scriptwriters of Columbo started to subtly break with the common episode structures. Humorous and witty episodes like It's All in the Game or Undercover were the result. This 1990 episode was probably one of the first, where the audience was a little bit deceived because they believed to know how Columbo episodes work. Self-irony (`I've never solved a case that quickly!'), a great Brenda Vaccaro and plot twists - not only in connection with the murder! Very good work!

This is the lowest score I've ever given to a Columbo episode. Andrew Stevens may be about as bad an actor as exists. If he hadn't been arrested for murder, they should have arrested him for that. The plot is stupid to start with. The guy is handsome, but the drool level all over must have required a cleaning company after women met him. Anyway, he thinks he is being exposed, so he kills his potential fiancee. He has no heart, probably a sociopath. The woman's sister, played by the overrated Brenda Vicarro, is also awful actress. The times it is played for laughs just don't work well. The final scene as they are combing through women's underwear is just stupid.