User Reviews

The director of a Cybernetic Research Institute think tank murders an associate who threatens to expose the former's son just before he is to receive a prestigious award, after it is discovered that he plagiarised the work of a deceased scientist.

A holding and well enough done Season 3 episode made at the peak of the series, which boasts an original plot and a well-constructed script which despite the simplicity of the prevailing clues harbours an ingenuity that makes this one of Columbo's hardest cases to solve: Columbo can easily identify the murderer as a cigar smoker but can he prove it?

Jose Ferrer's character, although lacking a little in humour, stands as a comparatively respectable adversary for Columbo; he quietly respects Columbo's abilities but is relatively self-assured that his murderous act can be concealed. However, it becomes increasingly apparent that the erratic behaviour of his son (whom he is protecting) is something that Columbo can take advantage of. Ferrer's performance is more than sufficient in displaying his character's paternal protectiveness whilst maintaining a certain nonchalance and one-dimensional determination.

Much maligned for the inclusions of a youthful teenage genius named Steven Spelberg (an unsubtle reference to the director of the first transmitted Columbo story, Steven Spielberg) and Robby the Robot (from Forbidden Planet), this is a worthy entry in the long-running series simply because it's initial simplicity is the catalyst for a very robust and difficult-to-solve case for Columbo.

Peter Falk as the redoubtable Lt. Columbo of LAPD Homicide steps into the world of a scientific think tank to see who murdered Lew Ayres one of the big shots in the place. Ayres is a person of integrity and he's about to blow apart the world of Robert Walker, Jr. who plagiarized the work of a dead colleague and called it is own. That is something that Walker's father Jose Ferrer can't allow as it smear his good name as well as his son's, so he murders Ayres. Ferrer uses a robot to help him in his plan and quite cleverly, he thinks.

The main thing that I liked about this episode is the scenes with Peter Falk and Lee Harcourt Montgomery playing a young juvenile genius who more than anything else would just like to be a normal kid. Columbo is the first one in a long time to treat him like a kid and the Montgomery and Falk really bond in this. Their joint scenes are special.

A very enjoyable Columbo film, aren't they all?

One of the better Columbo episodes. Not as funny as some, but an engaging plot that pits Peter Falk against Jose Ferrer, chief of the Cybernetics Research Institute, who has just murdered his colleague, Lew Ayres, in order to protect his own son, Robert Walker Jr., from exposure as a chemical plagiarist and utter phony.

Like the other episodes in the series, the plot is implausible if only because of Columbo's fulgurating intuition. Example: Columbo arrives at the scene of the crime, is shown the body in the living room, and told that a can of heroin was stolen from the laboratory in the garage. Columbo pauses, puzzled, and says: "I don't get it. The man was killed here and the heroin was in the garage?" Any viewer with wit must think, "Sure. Why the hell not?" Some salivating doper came in through the living room, was discovered leaving by the same route with the can of smack, and clobbered Lew Ayres with a baseball bat in the living room, afterward escaping with the goods. To find a flaw in that scenario requires not just a willing suspension of disbelief but an attack on the viewer's common sense with some kind of bone drill or sledge hammer.

Maybe that alternative isn't good enough? Okay, how about this? The doper enters the doc's house, beats the location of the stash out of him, and kills him in the process.

Just one more instance of Columbo's spiritual guidance. There is a scuff mark of the victim's shoes on a door, suggesting the body had been carried into the house from somewhere else. Suspicion is cast on Research Assistant Ross, but Columbo dismisses him as a suspect because he's too short to have carried the body in his arms and left a scuff mark that high on the door. Alternative: Ross IS the murderer but carried the body not in his arms but slung over his shoulder, thus elevating the shoes to the proper distance from the floor. In any case, had I been Columbo, I'd have had the Ross character charged with inability to act, even in a bit part in a TV series.

So it goes. We fans don't mind such things. These implausibilities are like the ray guns in science fiction movies. We don't ask how they work. They're just there, taken for granted as necessary to the advancement of the plot.

For the added zest that comes from celebrity recognition, there is a supporting role for Jessica Walters, a fine actress who never really got the parts she needed. Robbie the Robot from "Forbidden Plant" is in here too. Then there is Lee Montogomery as a child prodigy of about ten or eleven, named Steve Spelberg. (Get it?) Not a bad actor for a kid. At least I didn't feel the usual impulse to stomp him like a roach. Robert Walker has the misfortune of being narrow shouldered and skinny. He wears tight trousers too. And with that big stylish mop of hair the image he always evokes is that of an olive on a toothpick.

The Beagle is in this one too. The dog is being kicked out of a tony training school because he's impossible to teach. He just sits around and drools. "Geez, Doc," says Columbo, "My wife and kids are in Fresno and I'm busy right now. Couldn't you keep him for another week?" The veterinarian refuses. "He demoralizes the others." That's an example of the writer (Steven Bochko) putting that sloppy dog to good use, whereas, say, feeding him an ice cream cone and expecting the viewer to coo over the cuteness, is not.

Enjoyable episode.

Dr Marshall Cahill is an eminent scientist and head of a think-tank. When his son Neil plagiarises a new physics theorem, a colleague threatens to blow the lid and Cahill Senior can't let him live. Columbo is on the case and up against an organisation full of geniuses.

Like a few others (Negative Reaction, A Deadly State Of Mind) the conclusion to this Columbo involves a cheap trick to ensure a confession. The facts of the case however are as intriguing as ever; a smashed pipe, a scuff-mark on a door, an odometer with a few too many miles on the clock. It's also a slightly silly story, involving good old Robby The Robot from Forbidden Planet and the character Montgomery plays is a wunderkind called Steve Spelberg (Steven Spielberg directed an early Columbo - Murder By The Book - when he was 22). It does however have three cult movie stars in Ferrer (Moulin Rouge), Walter (Play Misty For Me) and Ayres (All Quiet On The Western Front), all of whom are excellent and only surpassed by the sublime Falk, who handles the mix of plot exposition, comedy playing and character interplay with his usual effortless skill. An enjoyable if not exceptional Columbo mystery thriller.

Dr Marshall Cahill is the head of a scientific think tank and is naturally proud when his son follows in his footsteps and is nominated for top awards for his discovery of a revolutionary theory. However associate Howard Nicholson discovers that Cahill Jnr has plagiarised the work from a deceased scientist in a bid to win his demanding father's love. Unwilling to let his family be discredited, Cahill murders Nicholson and makes it look like a simple burglary gone tragically wrong.

As with many TV film series (such as Perry Mason), if you like one or two of them then you'll pretty much like them all. This entry in the Columbo series pretty much follows the usual formula – we know the killer and the "perfect" plan but then watch Columbo follow his hunch and gradually starts to pick holes in the story he is told before eventually finding enough to prove his suspicions. Saying this is not a spoiler – it is simply what happens in all the films. With this strict adherence to formula it is usually down to several factors whether or not the Columbo film stands out or if it is just average. With this film we find ourselves in a place full of geniuses, which helps to put Columbo in the "underdog" role and lets him play down his intelligence. With a good mystery plot this works well although the usual cat and mouse tensions are minimised. The story is still enjoyable though and the conclusion is a clever trap that sees Columbo being his much more aggressive self while also showing that he takes no pleasure in any of the murder business process.

The cast are roundly good. Falk, although playing alongside the dog here, is still very good and he wears his character well. Ferrer is good and he manages to make an interesting character without ever just playing the arrogant person that usually makes for a good villain. The two have good chemistry and the support cast are strong enough with good performances from Walker, Ayres, Wagner and a few others. However the lead two usually make these films and, although they don't butt heads as well as some other films they are still good.

Overall an enjoyable Columbo film that is interesting and entertaining despite not totally going to the formula in regards the characters. A good plot and the usual stuff still make it a solid entry in a roundly good series of films though.

I remember watching this series fondly in the late sixties, as a child. The stories always went to some lengths to put you clearly in the mind of the killer; you were introduced early on to the soon-to-be-victim, their relationship to the killer and the motive for the murder. You were shown meticulous preparations, which often didn't make a whole lot of sense when you first saw them. But later, when you watched the killer execute the crime, all of that preparation fell neatly into place.

When Colombo entered the scene he usually had what looked like an open and shut case of anything BUT premeditated murder. However there'd always be one tiny little detail that was out of place, and he'd find it, and slowly begin unravelling the case. As he did, the murderer would be right by his side, playing the ever-helpful sounding board for the slightly baffled detective. As the case slowly unravelled the murderer would always be ready to toss off a casual theory to put the case back on track, which Columbo would happily accept, for a few seconds, or a few hours, until he found something that still just didn't fit. Now in this episode, admittedly the killer didn't have a lot of time to prepare the murder, but, even so, the problem isn't that he can't do enough to set up the crime scene properly, it's that he spends time laying out several different, contradictory scenes, none of which have that jewel-like neatness. Columbo dismisses the entire crime scene almost immediately, except for the crucial burnt match, which leads him right to the killer at the end. And the killer only spends a few minutes prompting and hedging Columbo before their relationship turns mildly antagonistic. It's a pleasant enough show to watch, but it just doesn't quite click.

***SPOILERS*** Better then average Columbo, Peter Falk, episode in that LAPD detective Francis, yes that's his first name, Columbo isn't quite as schmucky and annoying as he usually is. He actually acts competent and professional for a change and seems more on the ball then usual even with his pet dog, an unnamed basset hound, trying him down by wanting his masters, Detective Francis Columbo, constant and immediate attention.

It's when the head of a government sponsored think tank, that's a tank where a number of scientific experts do a lot of thinking, Dr. Marshall Cahill, Jose Ferrer,tries to get his not too bright son Neil, Robert Walker,to win a world renowned national science award for the baffling theory of molecular structures that he goes a wee bit too far. As Dr. Cahill's colleague Dr. Howard Nicholson, Lew Ayres,found out young Neil, who doesn't look a day over 18, plagiarized the theory from the papers of his former boss the late Prof. Carl Finch who passed away in England the year before. As an outraged Dr. Nicholson threatens to expose Neil his dad Dr. Cahill in an ambush runs him down outside his house killing him. Dr. Cahill also makes it look like Dr. Nicholson was killed in an home invasion by a drug crazed heroin addict looking, in his laboratory, for a fix.

Put on the murder cases homicide detective Let. Columbo is puzzled in the way Nicholson was murdered. He's found dead in his house but his pipe is found broken into little pieces outside his garage! There's also a footprint, made from shoe polish, found on the wall of his house indicating that he didn't walk but was carried to the spot, Nicholson's living-room, where he was found murdered. Columbo is also a bit perplexed by young Neil who doesn't strike him as any kind of genius, lets face it the guy is no Albert Einstein, who not just qualified to not only undertake such a momentous project, the theory of molecular structures, but was also able to easily master it.

Knowing that Neil is only a stooge in his father's plan to build him up as one of the great physicists of our time he concentrates on Dr. Cahill's whereabouts at the time of Dr. Nicholson's murder. As Columbo soon finds out whoever murdered Dr. Nicholson made a couple of major slip-ups. Slip-ups not worthy of any of the genius members of his scientific think tank but slip-ups just the same.

****SPOILERS**** Using reversed psychology Det. Columbo gets Dr. Nicholson's murderer Dr. Cahill to exposed, not by taking off his clothes but by admitting his guilt, himself by him cleverly framing young Neil in Dr. Nicholson's murder. Columbo noticed that Dr. Cahill who would go so far as murder to get his son to win a science award would at the least admit the crime he committed that could send his totally innocent son Neil behind bars for life. As for the late Professor Finch, who did get the prestigious science award posthumously, his theory on the science of molecular structures was to change, in the Columbo episode not in real life, what we see and think about the world around us forever and most of all for the better.

José Ferrer has the physical presence and euphonious voice that make him a worthy foil for our favorite homicide detective.

I love Jessica Walter tons so it was enjoyable to see her long before Archer and Arrested Development. She turned in a credible performance, although I agree that she did not emote much sadness over her husband's death; perhaps this was deliberate to feed into the suspicion that she was indeed fooling around with the younger Cahill?

I could've done without the boy genius and the robot, but that did not distract me from enjoying this episode. I found the dog annoying.

I, too, was puzzled by some of the scene-setting done by the murderer since it was easily brushed aside by Columbo, leaving the viewer to wonder why it was put in the plot in the first place.