Grandes manoeuvres et petits soldats

GRAND DECEPTIONS is one of the earliest of the comeback Columbo episodes, following on from the superior SEX AND THE MARRIED DETECTIVE. This one's a little dry and stilted for a Columbo episode, not to mention that the military setting is overly familiar from earlier and better instalments (like BY DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT).

The murder is a typical one with a military angle, but it takes forever to get going and about half an hour of screen time has passed until we get to the meat of the detective investigation. Although the running time overall is only an hour and a half, this story feels very slow and it's a little too serious for its own good; there's no goofiness here, and even though Columbo's dog makes a cameo, he doesn't get to do much.

Falk is on fine fettle, but I find that Columbo is only as good as his opponents, and Robert Foxworth as the guest villain is a bit of a bore, far too straight-laced to make an impact. Andy Romano (ERASER) as the victim is much better, as Stephen Elliott playing the old-time general. But, in the end, GRAND DECEPTIONS is a very ordinary and average-feeling Columbo story, with a completely spurious ending, and certainly not one to remember.

I don't know why this episode is getting bashed. I thought it was one of the better 'new' Columbos. The Private Military Corp is a fun setting and the acting is uniformly good. Columbo is less goofy than he is in a lot of new episodes, too. There area lot of little touches that they add in this one that are not in a lot of the new ones: a few scenes with "This Old Man" in the background and an appearance by Dog. A lot of people complain that this villain is too easy for Columbo to get, but I will say that he actually gets some pretty decent evidence to build up a case, which does not always happen in Columbo. I will admit, I think this one is helped immeasurably by the score, which is just phenomenal! Check it out!

In this Columbo story our persistent LAPD detective moves among the elite of what is called the military industrial complex. I wonder how the story might be handled today given the history of the paramilitary private organizations in the past quarter of a century. Remember the date of this episode was 1989 before Desert Storm.

Robert Foxworth who usually plays hard bitten villains is at his worst here in this story. He's a retired army colonel who works for this paramilitary type of outfit. One part of it is a think tank, a second part is paramilitary training for would be soldiers of fortune. A third involves some illegal activities that Foxworth wants no one, especially retired war hero General Stephen Elliott who is the chairman of the board of the place to know about.

Which when his Sergeant Major Andy Romano threatens to spill the beans he kills him and then disguises the death to look like a training accident.

Best scene is when Columbo answers Foxworth's question of when did he start suspecting him. The answer is a pip and it total keeping with the characters of both men.

Second best scene is Columbo interviewing some of the recruits for this paramilitary training. What specimens they are.

Foxworth should have gotten away with it, see what trips him up.

As I stated in a previous user review I wrote for another episode of "Columbo", the episodes that were made from the late 1980s on suffer because of obvious padding; the older episodes were shorter and as a result had a faster and leaner pace. This is true with this particular episode, though I will admit that the padding is not quite as obvious as other episodes. In fact, some of the padding is entertaining, my favorite being the scene where Columbo talks to his dog. As for the main plot line, I thought it was handled in an okay fashion. Not as well accomplished as the 1970s episodes, but it does have a reasonable amount of entertainment. The murder is clever and original, and will have you guessing how Columbo will solve it. And Falk is in top form as usual. I will admit, however, that the direction is lacking edge; we don't feel the screws tighten as the investigation intensifies, nor a sense of urgency. While it may be a lesser episode in the end, it does all the same have rewards for fans of the series.

Columbo always likes to get his man or woman. This time, it's Robert Foxworth who plays a military man. Sam Wanamaker better known and respected for his role in rebuilding the Shakespeare Globe Theater on the Thames in London, England returns to direct a Columbo. He is a veteran director and it shows. Of course, I think it could have been better. The writing was a bit weaker than most and I think it could have been a lot better in the acting department but I love Columbo and I have seen almost all of them many times. I think even the casting would have been better besides just Falk and Foxworth in the roles but I'll take Columbo with the good, the bad, the ugly, and sometimes brilliant episodes.