Columbo - Mystery Movie Collection, 1989 DVD   Columbo DVDs

Buy Columbo - Mystery Movie Collection, 1989

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
Brand: Universal
EAN: 0025193327222
Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Item Dimensions: 40
Label: Universal Studios
Languages: EnglishOriginal LanguageDolby Digital 2.0 MonoEnglishSubtitledSpanishPublished
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
MPN: D61033272D
Number Of Items: 3
Publisher: Universal Studios
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 24, 2007
Running Time: 466 minutes
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: February 27, 1989

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Product Description:
Legendary actor Peter Falk returns in his 4-time Primetime Emmy® award-winning role as everyone s favorite trenchcoat-wearing Police Lieutenant in Columbo: Mystery Movie Collection 1989! Join Columbo in this three-disc set as he asks all the right questions in some of the most deceptive and deadly cases. The captivating movies feature such brilliant guest stars as Fisher Stevens (Factotum) and Lindsay Crouse (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) among others! The landmark crime series that inspired a genre is back and no murderer can hide for long with Columbo on the beat!System Requirements:Runtime: 466 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 025193327222 Manufacturer No: 61033272

Amazon.com:
After a 10-year break from the role that made him a TV superstar, Peter Falk returned as rumpled LAPD homicide detective Lt. Columbo in 1989, appearing in feature-length episodes of The ABC Mystery Movie. The first five of those TV movies are collected here as the Mystery Movie Collection 1989 comprising what is essentially the long-delayed "eighth season" (and part of the ninth) of Columbo, the popular series that made its debut on NBC in 1971. Now signed to ABC with a lucrative new contract, Falk returned to his iconic role as if he'd never left, still wearing the same worn-out overcoat, still driving the same old 1959 Peugeot rust-bucket (with his lazy Bassett Hound "Dog" in the passenger seat), still making frequent references to the never-seen "Mrs. Columbo," and still annoying nervous murder suspects with his politely cunning approach to solving homicides in Los Angeles. As created by TV mystery masters Richard Levinson and William Link, the Columbo series was nothing if not formulaic, but the fun of watching these 93-minute TV movies comes from seeing how that formula still works like a charm: The first half-hour shows how the killers commit and conceal their crimes (Columbo is a police procedural, not a whodunit), and the remaining hour shows Columbo grilling his suspects, slowly turning up the heat until the killer's goose is summarily cooked. With his trademark line "Just one more thing...," Falk fits his role like an old shoe, and the show's writers played on the character's beloved status by milking humor from Columbo's well-established mannerisms, such as leaving the room after gently probing suspects for telling clues, then returning (after a pregnant pause) to deliver "one more thing "--his crime-solving coup de grace (aptly referred to by Rockford Files creator Stephen J. Cannell as Columbo's trademark "dart to the heart.")

The Mystery Movie Collection emphasizes a colorfully Southern Californian element of crime and eccentricity, from the beheading of a magician in "Columbo Goes to the Guillotine" (with Anthony Andrews hamming it up as the killer) to the malicious misdeeds of "Murder, Smoke and Shadows," in which Spielbergian movie-mogul wunderkind (Fisher Stevens) stages an electrocution murder on the backlot of Universal Studios. "Sex and the Married Detective" is a lightly comedic film noir send-up, in which a sex therapy radio-host (Lindsay Crouse) invents a sexy alter ego to eliminate her cheating lover. In "Grand Deceptions," Robert Foxworth's misdeeds on a military training base aren't clever enough to fool Columbo, and in "Murder: A Self Portrait," Patrick Bachau plays a selfish lothario with three lovers (wife, ex-wife, and girlfriend) who decides that three's a crowd and his ex (Fionnula Flanagan) has got to go! Clever enough to hold anyone's attention, these murders are smartly conceived and entertainingly solved, and the performances and direction are uniformly strong. But the obvious appeal of Columbo is Columbo himself, and with Falk in the role he was born to play (even though it was originally offered to Bing Crosby!), the character remained so popular that he appeared in 19 more TV movies between 1990 and 2003. The Mystery Movie Collection includes one DVD bonus feature: a 30-minute tribute to "America's Top Sleuths," as chosen in a 2007 online survey by viewers of the newly-launched Sleuth TV network. Columbo ranks #2 (out of 10), a close runner-up to Tom Selleck's Magnum P.I. --Jeff Shannon

Mystery Movies Collection, 1989 Episode Guide
(5 episodes)
"Columbo Goes to the Guillotine" (2/6/89)
Anthony Andrews is Elliott Blake, a fake psychic who is trying to swindle the government into giving him a lucrative contract based on his ESP abilities. He conspires with an old colleague, Max Dyson (Anthony Zerbe) who is a magician known to expose frauds. After their trickery is successful the psychic takes his revenge on the magician by tricking him into his own guillotine. Columbo has to unravel all of the tricks of the trade before the government agency whisks the fake psychic beyond his reach.

"Murder, Smoke, and Shadows" (2/27/89)
Fisher Stevens is boy genius Hollywood director Alex Bradey, whose character bears an uncanny resemblance to an early Steven Spielberg, who directed an early Columbo himself. It turns out that Alex made a movie back home with an 16 mm camera in which a young woman was killed in a motorcycle accident. Alex and his cameraman conspired to pretend that the accident did not happen on their "set" and that they weren't present when it happened, causing the official investigation to conclude that it was an accidental death. When the cameraman dies, he leaves a copy of the 16 mm film to the young woman's brother, who then shows up in Alex's Hollywood office demanding an explanation. Alex, of course, stages another "accident" to befall his old friend that night on the set of his most recent movie.

"Sex and the Married Detective" (4/3/89)
Lindsay Crouse is Dr. Joan Allenby, a renowned sex therapist. When her flight is delayed, she returns to the office only to find her lover in bed with her assistant. As a "game", she invents the "lady in black", in which disguise she meets with her lover in public and leaves for a tryst. Then she kills him and naturally everyone begins looking for the mystery woman. Everyone, including Lt. Columbo who is brought in to investigate the murder.

"Grand Deceptions" (5/1/89)
Robert Foxworth is Colonel Frank Brailie. He runs a paramilitary mercenary school owned by General Padget (Stephen Elliott), whose wife just happens to be the Colonel's lover. It also seems that the Colonel is siphoning money into what he calls "The Special Projects Fund". The suspicious General asks an employee to look into the matter, but instead of reporting his findings, he decides to blackmail the Colonel into sharing the profit. Taking the offensive, the Colonel arranges for an unfortunate accident to befall his colleague, making it appear he died in a landmine explosion. Leave it to Lt. Columbo to unravel the mystery. Actor Sam Wanamaker takes a second turn behind the scenes to direct this episode.

"Murder: A Self Portrait" (11/25/89)
Patrick Bauchau is temperamental artist Max Barsini. Max lives with his current wife Vanessa (Shera Danese), his current model/lover Julie, and they all live next door to Max's first wife Louise. Louise knows Max's darkest secret, that he killed his first agent, who was robbing him blind. She has faithfully kept the secret for years, but now that she is getting remarried to another man, Max is getting nervous. To ensure her continued silence, Max decides to silence her permanently. Turns out though, she has been having dreams which allude to the earlier murder. And she has been telling those dreams to her therapist. Columbo gets hold of the tapes of those dream sessions and begins to put together the pieces of the puzzle.