AlsExGal

Identical twins Dexter and Norman Paris (Martin Landau) don't like each other. Dexter is a flamboyant TV chef and Norman a conservative banker. But they share a dislike for the idea of their wealthy uncle Clifford (Paul Stewart) marrying a very young woman, Lisa Chambers (Julie Newmar) because they fear it might mean no inheritance.

On the night he is supposed to get married, the uncle is murdered in his bathtub when one of the twins tosses a running electric mixer into the tub, electrocuting the uncle. The uncle is then dragged out of the tub, dried off, dressed in his sweatsuit, and placed on his exercise bike.

It's obvious the murderer was expecting the police to accept the obvious - an old guy overexerts himself and has a coronary. But then in walks Lt. Columbo to disrupt the easy disposition of this case.

This Columbo is different in that, although the viewer sees how the murder was committed, you don't know which twin did the murder. From that standpoint you are trying to solve the case right alongside Columbo for a change.

There is one thing that is bothersome. Towards the end there is a second murder. There doesn't seem to be a motive for this murder, and this time you don't see the murder happen. Also, this second murder is never solved.

And, finally, as Columbo would say is just one more thing. Mrs. Peck (Jeanette Nolan) is the uncle's fastidious and loyal housekeeper. She's been with him for 33 years. And she's got a ridiculous temper for anything being out of place. She explodes at Columbo twice over him being untidy with his cigar ashes. She acts like the uncle's home is her house, and yet it is not. In fact, her employment contract probably ended with the uncle's last heartbeat. She acts like she will always be cleaning that home, always be watching that TV when at any time a representative of the estate could send her packing into the street with possibly little or no severance or warning. Living in the 21st century I get that. But in 1973 I guess the homeless elderly was not such a normal thing.

It really is a good episode and I'd highly recommend it.

The folks at Universal wanted to use the sets they had for the film they had made the previous year, Phantom of the Opera (1943), along with some of the sets still hanging around from the silent film of the same name made in 1925. Thus "The Climax" was born.

Karloff plays the house doctor to the Vienna opera company, but he has a dark secret. Ten years ago he murdered his fiancée in a rage because she chose her career as a singer over him. He blamed her voice for ruining their relationship. Now a new singer on the scene, Angela Klatt (Susanna Foster), is set to become a star herself because of her extraordinary vocal gifts, However, Angela sounds a little too much like Hohner's deceased fiancée and this brings out his old obsessions and a desire to stop that voice once and for all. Complications ensue.

The problem is that the production has all of the boring parts of The Phantom with none of the horror. It's a psychological drama that just goes on too long. Also, there is much more singing and more production numbers in this film versus The Phantom yet it doesn't really add anything to the movie.

The production values are very good, I will give it that. It's the only reason I give it a 5/10 instead of a lower rating.

This is an up-lifiting film with good people and well-dressed women - sorry, I jest. It is exactly the opposite. It is perhaps a comment on the conditions most of the German people found themselves living under during the grimness and shortcomings of the Weimer Republic. It was hard to keep one's head above water and Franz Biberkopf, our main character in this film is an illustration of the difficulties faced.

He has just been released from prison, for, due to his short temper always simmering below the surface, he had killed his wife. He is befriended by a lady of the night - Cilly (Maria Bard) who is in reality trying to recruit him for a band of criminals lead by chief henchman Reinhold (Bernhard Minetti). Biberkopf initially resists a life of crime and instead becomes a pavement salesman with an income that barely supports him. Eventually he is tricked into "assisting" a robbery and then tries to get away from the gang. He ends up in the hospital, loses an arm and eventually meets up with a nicer girl - "Sonja" (Margarete Schlegel) and goes back to his life on the straight and narrow.

I couldn't help but think of "The Threepenny Opera" when I looked at this picture - both of these stories were similar in a way - although "The Threepenny Opera" had music. That is not to say that there isn't any music in "Berlin Alexanderplatz" as we are treated to a song here and there - but it seems to be mostly beer hall camaraderie type stuff.

"Berlin Alexanderplatz" is the type of film where you can almost smell the dirt and squalor and it makes you feel glad all over that you live where you are in this modern age. Having said that you can take it that the performances in the picture are of a standard that make it seem all the more stark and real. Heinrich George is ideal as Biberkopf and has the same presence on screen at times as did Emil Jannings, both being of the same build.

While I can't say that the film was a "nice night's entertainment", I can say that it was a good record of the times and showed some wonderful street scenes of Berlin as it was before war saw it destroyed it a few years later.