Couronne mortuaire

PLOT: A charismatic dentist with a gambling problem (James Read) concocts a clever way to murder his wife's movie star lover and frame her (Jo Anderson), but Columbo finds flaws in the elaborate scheme. Paul Burke plays the senior partner father-in-law in his final role.

COMMENTARY: The script was originally written in 1973 by Steven Bochco for the third season of Columbo, but Falk felt the villain was weak. So the teleplay was later used for the penultimate episode of McMillan & Wife, "Affair of the Heart" (1977). Obviously Falk changed his mind by the time this episode was shot, but he was unaware that it was used for McMillan a dozen years earlier.

While the murder scheme is a little too creative (i.e. farfetched), this installment is as good as any typical segment of the 70's show and plot-wise is reminiscent of "A Stitch in Crime" (1973), which may be an additional reason why Falk rejected it at the time. It's not great like "Stitch" because it's 24 minutes longer and contains some padding, but it's still a very good episode. Redhead Anderson is strikingly lovely.

GRADE: B+

The previous installment of "Columbo" ("Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo") was extremely weak and had several plot holes. Fortunately, the series was back in form with "Uneasy Lies the Crown".

Dr. Corman is a jerk...and a second-rate dentist. His favorite thing in life is gambling...not his wife. So, she begins having an affair. He knows about it but plays dumb....and concocts a plan to kill his wife's lover, frame her for the murder AND convince his father-in-law to keep him at his dental practice! It's a very clever plan and involves a lethal dose of Digitalis administered under a crown he implanted in the boyfriend's mouth! Will he get away with it and fool Columbo? Yeah, right!

This is a very enjoyable episode. I am not at all sure of the chemistry and if it's real...though the show made it seem plausible. Fascinating to watch and well worth seeing.

This was the recycling of an old Macmillan episode that starred Stefanie Powers - notice I said Macmillan and not Macmillan and Wife. It was after Susan St. James left.

That's the only reason I was disappointed in this episode - I'd seen it! It was "Affair of the Heart" on Macmillan. Strangely, Peter Falk himself did not realize that this episode had been previously done until I told him during an interview and sent him the Macmillan tape. Apparently, it was written by Steven Bochco, who also wrote for Columbo, and it was used again.

I enjoyed the Columbo episode more. The package was somewhat classier, including James Read, Paul Burke, and Jo Anderson. It also included a fun poker game that included Nancy Walker and Dick Sargent.

A substantially plotted and scripted 1990 Columbo episode penned by prolific writer Steven Bochco, which sees a debt-ridden, gambling dentist murder his wife's lover, by putting an overdose of a heart condition drug in the crown he puts in for him and then frames his wife, who is filing for divorce and also possesses a tragic marital history.

The murder set-up is fine, the story holds together very well, but it isn't particularly well-paced despite the deft development of clues which shift the focus of the investigation from the murderer's wife to murderer. Moreover, the story deserves more gritty and assured performances than we evidence, particularly from James Read as the murderer, who, for me, shamefully underacts in his relatively juicy role. Consequently, his scenes with Columbo, which should have possessed a mesmerising ferocity, instead only generate mild entertainment, which unfortunately deflects from the proficient elements of the storyline (just think what Jack Cassidy or Robert Culp could have done with the material!).

Very passable stuff for a new Columbo series that was trying feverishly to get somewhere near the quality of the original series, and in terms of storyline they get very close here. Sadly, the performances from the supporting cast don't really get the best out of the material.

Uneasy Lies the Crown is certainly not a bad episode, in fact I thought it was quite good, just not great like a lot of Columbo episodes. It is a little far-fetched and implausible in the plot at first, luckily the clues are deft and the tone of the episode becomes grittier and diverting by the final act. James Read certainly looks the part, tall, handsome and sophisticated, and he works very well with Falk in their sparring, however there were other times in this episode especially at the start where his performance felt underplayed and bland. There are some bright spots in the supporting cast, but the general standard was inconsistent ranging from inconsistent to bland and annoying. Uneasy Lies the Crown is still a well made episode with a strong score, often clever writing like in the cat-and-mouse scenes between Falk and Read and Peter Falk is just wonderful as always as Columbo, though I do think he has given better performances in the series. Overall, decent if lacking the extra something that the best episodes of the series had. 7/10 Bethany Cox