forwardintothepast

Herbie J Pilato is an excellent interviewer and he knows how to let his guests tell their stories without interrupting -- an increasingly rare skill among talk show hosts. This show is a great behind-the-scenes look at classic television programs, and the interview segments are augmented with very interesting and rare film clips and photographs. I'm eager to see more episodes in the future, as this is a valuable and entertaining contribution to television history.

This one feels as though the script was written for another show. For much of the movie, Dennis Dugan and Bruce Kirby seem to be more on the case than Columbo, possibly indicating that this was a trial for a potential new series starring them. Columbo's usual mannerisms are not on display (he's frequently in a rather foul mood, and the "just one more thing" device is not here). The pace is awful, dragging in the middle of the film for a long and uninteresting description of different boats. The ending is like a typical Agatha Christie-type of whodunit, with all of the potential murderers gathered together in a room; this may be a change of pace for a "Columbo" episode but it just feels like a tired cliché. About the only thing this one has going for it is the bright personality of Wilfrid Hyde-White, and one scene with Dugan, Falk, Kirby and Robert Vaughn all crowded together in Columbo's tiny car. This is a real misstep in what is usually an outstanding series of made-for-TV movies. One could lay the blame at the feet of director Patrick McGoohan, but since he went on to pilot three more Columbo films in the '90s one gets the impression that Falk enjoyed working with him.

This is a very well-crafted short, but I've always been mystified as to why anyone, much less Stan Laurel, would consider this to be the first true Laurel & Hardy film. The first film they appeared in was a comedy starring Laurel with Hardy in support, "The Lucky Dog" from 1921. The second film they made together at the Hal Roach studio, "Duck Soup" (not to be confused with the Marx Brothers film of the same name, nor the Edgar Kennedy short), actually has humor more typical of their mature work.

If you can get past the unusual characterizations in "Philip" (Stan is a kilted, woman-crazy Scot and Hardy is his American uncle, fearful of being embarrassed lest someone find out he's related to this eccentric young man), the film offers some solid laughs. It's beautifully paced and edited; do try to see this in a theater with an audience, where it really comes to life.

The credited director is Clyde Bruckman, known best as a gag writer for Buster Keaton (and later Harold Lloyd, and still later, The Three Stooges). He only made 20 films as a director, but they include Keaton's "The General," Laurel & Hardy's "The Battle of the Century," Harold Lloyd's "Movie Crazy" and W.C. Fields' "The Man on the Flying Trapeze," each of these titles being among the best films their respective stars ever made. Producer Hal Roach was particularly fond of "Putting Pants on Philip," incidentally.