Ransom for a Dead Man

Three years after making "Prescription: Murder", the character Lieutenant Columbo was revived for a second made for TV film. This time, the formula convinced the network to greenlight the show and soon it became a regular on the weekly "Mystery Movie".

Lee Grant plays a very skilled trial lawyer who is used to winning. However, one thing in her life is NOT perfect. She's married to an older man and now that he no longer is useful in forwarding her career, she's bored with him. Instead of divorce, however, you KNOW it will end in murder. After all, it's "Columbo"!

The story is well written, the acting by Grant and the rest is quite nice and it's well worth your time. My only quibble is early in the show, you see the Lieutenant making an illegal search of a locker. With no search warrant or apparent need to search it, he did anyway.

By the way, on IMDB this is listed as the first installment of "Columbo"....but as I mentioned above, it's actually the second.

I'm a fan of Columbo, and Ransom for a Dead Man is a personal favourite. It does drag towards the beginning and Patricia Mattick is rather annoying. However, the usual ingredients are there. While the production values improved a tad in quality as it progressed, the episode is still very striking to look at, and the music score is one of my personal favourites of any Columbo episode. The story once it gets going is compelling, with a well-used pivotal telephone gimmick and a classic Columbo scene at an airport, and the writing is strong throughout having some funny, thoughtful and atmospheric moments. The performances are excellent, Peter Falk is exceptional as usual and Lee Grant as a very beautiful, cold, confident and also arrogant murderess is superb. In conclusion, a great episode. 9/10 Bethany Cox

A distinct improvement on PRESCRIPTION: MURDER, especially in the visual field: this was actually released in cinemas in Britain, in 1973, and it's easy to see why. Despite some gimmicky camera effects, dating the show as the product of the early 70's (but why the hell not), the style of the visuals, particularly the opening murder scene, and the atmospheric music lend the TV production an enjoyable air of assured professionalism more associated with the big screen. (Especially, one might add, with Hitchcock, whom Levinson and Link had previously written for.) Lee Grant is a simply superb adversary, coldly beautiful and never once descending to the "chink-in-the-armour" factor that let down some of the later COLUMBO murderesses. Falk looks no different in this second pilot (in effect a special, anticipating the series' current status) than he would in the series, and has also raised his voice above the near monotone employed in PRESCRIPTION: MURDER, although his loss of temper with Grant's obnoxious stepdaughter is quite unlike the easy-going Lieutenant we all know.

... but don't hold that against it.

Esteemed trial lawyer Leslie Williams (Lee Grant) murders her husband at their home, dumps the body in a remote area, and then has the whole thing set up to look like a kidnapping for 300K. That's 2.3 million dollars in 2023. She pays the ransom, but switches the bag holding the money with an empty bag at the last minute and then hides what would have been the ransom, so she has lost no money. When the police find the empty bag and Leslie's husband's body they just figure the kidnapping went bad and the thieves got away with the money. They begin a manhunt for the kidnappers and Leslie seems home free.

Enter stage left Lieutenant Columbo who has been troubled from the start by various aspects of this case. Leslie has been smart - she has no accomplices except a couple of, what were then, high tech devices. But she has an adversary - her stepdaughter who doesn't like Leslie and is aware of certain facts that have her believing that her father was murdered. Complications ensue.

There are three years between the first Columbo movie and this one, and Columbo now has his more familiar disheveled appearance. The film does some things that date itself. For some reason the producers thought fading in and out between scenes in such a way that it seems like somebody is having a bad dream is a good thing. They also have the daughter character talking about the "fuzz" - I guess they are just trying to be "with it" but it just seems funny now. Also note Columbo being fascinated with Leslie's landline attached to a punch card reader and a tape recorder.

What is a little different from this Columbo versus some of the others is that the "why" of the murder unfolds gradually, with the episode. I'd recommend it.

Three years after the original Columbo pilot "Prescription: Murder", the great man got another chance for immortality in this film. Of course, the rest is history as Columbo went on to become one of the greatest and best-loved TV characters ever.

This pilot sets a high standard (which wasn't always maintained, let's be honest) and has strong writing and characterisation, as well as showing some visual flair with slow fades, jump cuts and other effects.

Columbo here is the Lieutenant we will come to love, absent-minded, rambling, but with pin-sharp instincts and a deep sense of justice ("I couldn't have you convicted on false evidence" he says at one point. He wants to catch the criminal but he will do it fairly and properly). The performances of Peter Falk and Lee Grant are excellent.

Some reviewers have felt the suspect wouldn't be stupid enough to use the ransom money after being so smart in planning the crime and covering her tracks. I think the fact the money was going into a *Swiss* bank probably made her feel it was a risk worth taking - you can't get any information out of those guys, so no-one would know it was the ransom money. Besides, she really doesn't have a conscience.