Columbo - The Complete Second Season DVD    Columbo DVDs

Buy Columbo - The Complete Second Season  

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Universal
EAN: 9781417035182
Format: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 1417035188
Label: Universal Studios
Languages: EnglishOriginal LanguageDolby Digital 2.0 MonoEnglishSubtitledSpanishSubtitledFrenchSubtitled
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
MPN: MCAD26778D
Number Of Items: 4
Publisher: Universal Studios
Region Code: 1
Release Date: March 08, 2005
Running Time: 73 minutes
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: September 15, 1971



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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 03/08/2005 Run time: 641 minutes Rating: Nr

Amazon.com:
Armchair sleuths, get out your trenchcoats: Universal has released the sophomore season (1972-73) of the classic detective series Columbo, starring Peter Falk as the sage but rumpled police lieutenant. As with the first season, there's plenty of star power in front of and behind the camera to abet Falk in these eight 90- and 120-minute episodes: John Cassavetes stars in the season premiere, Etude in Black, as a philandering symphony conductor, with Blythe Danner and Hollywood legend Myrna Loy in support; Oscar winner Ray Milland is a scheming orchid grower in "The Greenhouse Jungle," co-starring Bradford Dillman and William Smith; Robert Culp and Dean Stockwell are a football team manager and owner, respectively, whose disagreements blossom into murder in "The Most Crucial Game"; and Jeanette Nolan offers stellar comic relief in "Double Shock," which features Martin Landau as identical twins--one of whom has murdered their uncle. Performances by Richard Basehart, Laurence Harvey, Leonard Nimoy, Anne Francis, Anne Baxter, and Mel Ferrer also highlight the season; direction by small-screen stalwarts like Boris Sagal, Jeremy Paul Kagan, and Nicholas Colasanto ("Coach" on Cheers) and scripts by Stephen Bochco also bring quality and style to the proceedings. Sadly, no extras are available in this five-disc set, but the stellar image and sound quality (and lack of commercials) should appeal to series fans and newcomers alike. --Paul Gaita

Season Two Episode Guide (1972–1973, 8 episodes)
"Étude in Black" (9/17/72)
John Cassavetes is Alex Benedict, the conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Alex is having an affair with Jennifer Welles (Anjanette Comer). When Jennifer insists on "outing" their relationship, the maestro devises a clever plan to murder her and make it look like a suicide. Columbo does not believe that she took her own life and suspects that Benedict was responsible for her death. He pesters Benedict with questions as he searches for clues to place Benedict at the murder scene. Blythe Danner guests as the jilted wife. Steven Bochco wrote this one too. Nicholas Colasanto (Coach on Cheers) has the director's credit for the episode.

"The Greenhouse Jungle" (10/15/72)
Ray Milland is Jarvis Goodland, uncle of Tony Goodland (Bradford Dillman). Together they come up with a plan to break Tony's trust fund by staging a kidnapping. But Uncle Jarvis has an extra twist in mind; he kills his nephew once the ransom is paid. A careful swapping of guns with Tony's philandering wife casts suspicion in her direction. This episode marks the debut of Sgt. Wilson (Bob Dishy) as the normally solo Columbo's departmentally assigned "partner".

"The Most Crucial Game" (11/5/72)
Robert Culp returns to crime, this time as Paul Hanlon, general manager of Los Angeles Rockets, a pro football team. Dean Stockwell is the young, indifferent owner, who inherited the team but whose lack of ambition stands in the way of Hanlon's plan to create a major sports empire. Hanlon concocts a plan to kill the young owner in his home swimming pool during a football game that Hanlon is attending, thus creating a seemingly airtight alibi. Valerie Harper has a small role as a call girl.

"Dagger of the Mind" (11/26/72)
Richard Basehart is husband Nicholas Frame and Honor Blackman (Pussy Galore in Goldfinger) is wife Lillian Stanhope. Together, the two hatch a plan in which she sweet talks elderly Sir Roger Haversham (John Williams) into backing their theatre production with promises of romance. When he realizes he is being teased, he confronts the couple and decides to cancel the show. A fight ensues and the old man is accidentally killed. The pair must cover up their accident by stuffing the gentleman in a trunk, taking him home to his estate, and staging an accident of a different sort. Columbo is visiting London as the guest of Scotland Yard Detective Chief Superintendent William Durk (Bernard Fox), who stops by the estate to investigate the "accident" the two actors have staged. Columbo sees things differently, and the chase is on.

"Requiem for a Falling Star" (1/21/73)
Anne Baxter is Nora Chandler, an aging former movie queen. Pippa Scott is her personal assistant Jean Davis. Mel Ferrer is gossip reporter Jerry Parks, who has secret information about Ms. Chandler and is newly engaged to Jean. Jean and Jerry switch vehicles one night and Nora sets Jerry's garage alight just as his car pulls into it. Was it a case of mistaken identity or an attempt to stem the possible flow of confidential information? The truth is unraveled by Columbo as he digs into the case. Oscar winning costume designer Edith Head has a cameo as herself.

"A Stitch in Crime" (2/11/73)
Leonard Nimoy is Dr. Barry Mayfield. Will Geer is Dr. Edmund Hidemann. Together, the two have pioneered a major medical breakthrough which Mayfield wants to publish ASAP, while Hidemann wants to continue testing. When Dr. Hidemann has a heart attack and needs an emergency bypass, Mayfield performs the surgery and plans to kill his partner by placing dissolving sutures in his heart. Their nurse Sharon Martin (Anne Francis) discovers the plot and attempts to expose the suture situation before it dissolves into disaster. Mayfield has to kill her before she can expose him, so he stages a mugging and attempts to pin the murder on an ex-boyfriend drug addict. It doesn't take Columbo long to discover the true motive, but proving it takes a bit more sleight of hand.

"The Most Dangerous Match" (3/4/73)
Laurence Harvey is chess grandmaster Emmett Clayton. Jack Kruschen is Russian champion Tomlin Dudek. When Clayton loses an unofficial game to Dudek at a restaurant the night before their official match, he realizes that he must kill his rival to keep from losing the next day. So hard of hearing Clayton lures him to the basement and shoves him into the garbage grinder. But his hearing aid is broken and he doesn't realize that the grinder automatically shuts itself off when anything big falls into it. Dudek survives and now Clayton must poison his rival in the hospital before he regains consciousness. All the while, Columbo investigates the accident...

"Double Shock" (3/25/73)
Martin Landau portrays twins Dexter and Norman Paris. When Uncle Clifford becomes engaged to Julie Newmar, the boys decide to get rid of their uncle before he can change his will. Dexter, a free-spending cooking show host, and Norman, a banker with a gambling habit, conspire to pass off the murder (by mixer-in-the-bathtub electrocution) as an accidental heart attack. Clifford's lawyer reveals that indeed a new will already exists and that he will be willing to "lose" all copies of it for a price. The one hitch is that the fiancée has a copy of it too, so the boys decide to kill the fiancée and frame the lawyer.