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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6815 in DVD
• Brand: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAIN.
• Released on: 2007-04-24
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Dimensions: .40 pounds
• Running time: 466 minutes

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

Customer Reviews

Columbo Fan
I love Columbo and find this collection to be just as good as the first ones. You don't have to have the best clothes or cars to out smart even the cleverest of people. But a good dog to talk to helps.

All Episodes Released in France
Columbo Fans - All 12 Seasons are released in France - Season 12
has this same Art Work, but rest assured it is the Last Season,
I just purchased it, the Last Episode is "Columbo Likes the
Night Life"!
These are PAL DVD's, you need to view them on a Region Free
DVD Player that has Free Video Conversion to a NTSC TV.
I just purchased a Player from world-import.com, the
DVD's are Beautiful, they also play on my Notebook.
The Denon Players seem to not need a Video Converter,
e-mail the company to confirm.

Hope this helps those who are die-hard Columbo Fans!

A Little Older, But Still Vintage Columbo
After wrapping up the "Columbo" television show in 1978, it would be eleven long years until the man in the rumpled raincoat would return to the airwaves. When he finally did come back, he was a little older and a little grayer, but still the Columbo that we remember and love!

For those of you that have gotten this far in the Columbo series by now, you know the formula: A murder is committed before your eyes, and the "bumbling" lieutenant is called in to investigate. Columbo's eccentric nature and strange physical appearance throw the villains for a loop, and he eventually seizes on one shred (sometimes quite literally!) of evidence that leads to their downfall. Yet, despite the formulaic nature of the show, the celebrity guest stars and great writing (for both the plots and Columbo's character) make this a show that never gets old!

Overall, "Columbo" makes a triumphant return in this collection! I would not recommend starting your Columbo viewing experience with this set, as you won't quite understand all the quirks that seasoned viewers will pick up on, but even if you must start here you will not be too disappointed.

Despite having seen all the remaining Columbo episodes from television, I really hope that they will be released on DVD soon, so everyone can enjoy the great Columbo character.