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DVD Columbo - The Complete Third Season
Oh, just one more thing, mystery mavens--get ready to be mystified and entertained by the award-winning third season of Columbo, starring Peter Falk as the rumpled but unbeatable Lieutenant. Having taken home Emmys for outstanding limited drama and lead actor in its '71-'72 debut season, Columbo was again named best drama for its third season ('73-'74). The reason for the repeat success? The formula remained the same: intelligent, engaging scripts and direction, guest performances by top actors, and, of course, Falk at center stage as Columbo, the most unlikely of supersleuths, but unquestionably one of the sharpest (the role would later earn Falk three more Emmys between 1975 and 1990). The 10 episodes compiled in this two-disc set again feature top talent from film and television: directors include veterans Jeannot Swarc and Boris Sagal, as well as actors Nicholas Colasanto (better known as Coach from Cheers) and Ben Gazzara (Falk's frequent co-star in the films of John Cassavetes), while the season's scripts feature contributions from Stephen J. Cannell, Steven Bochco, and Larry Cohen. And in regard to co-stars, Falk matched wits with the likes of Donald Pleasance, Martin Sheen, Vincent Price, Robert Culp (in one of four turns on the series), Jose Ferrer, Ida Lupino, and in two novel but effective casting choices, Johnny Cash and hard-boiled mystery scribe Mickey Spillane. And there's even a bonus feature in the form of an episode of the spinoff series Mrs. Columbo, starring Kate Mulgrew as the Lieutenant's oft-mentioned better half. In short, it's 11 hours of solid sleuthing for armchair detectives. --Paul Gaita
Review(s): DVD Columbo - The Complete Third Season
Columbo rocks
What can I say? We are great Columbo fans, and this DVD contains
several great episodes.
Two Sided DVD Hades
I love Columbo. I have seasons 1, 2, 3 and 4. Season three is the only set on double sided DVDs as far as I can tell. It freezes and locks up on all my DVD players in the house. This needs to be made into a 4 disk set. Universal should redo this season and give everyone a swap out. This should be like a recall with no questions asked. If I had to do it over I would not buy the third season.
With all that said, the episodes are just great.
Columbo solves more murders by the "rich and famous"
The one thing that I always liked about the series is that the murderous culprits were always "uber-successful" and had much to lose by NOT committing the crime. Of course, the statement is not my endorsement of murder as a means to an end; it was just cool to see those people that we think "have it all" resort to doing away with their fellow man (or woman).
This third season DVD compilation shares the same double-sided disc format of the previous second season's collection. Unfortunately, it includes an installment of Kate Mulgrew's lamentable "Mrs. Columbo." Though the show came after these "Columbo" episodes, it looks more dated, with the filming techniques, as well as the awful scoring and writing.
Fortunately, for the actress, she would achieve greater success as "Captain Janeway" on "Star Trek: Voyager."
The "Columbo" episodes, on the other hand, are some of the best of the show's entire run. Vera Miles, an actress that I have long admired, gets to glamorously chew scenery with the likes of Vincent Price and young Martin Sheen in the wickedly delicious "Lovely but Lethal". Film veteran Donald Pleasance hams it up marvelously as a snooty winemaker that "liquidates" his younger half-brother (Gary Conway of "Land of the Giants") in the cleverly titled "Any Old Port in a Storm". This episode also features Vito Scotti, a friend of star Peter Falk that has appeared in many "Columbo's" over the years, including "Swan Song", also among this compilation.
In "Candidate for Crime" former child star Jackie Cooper plays a politician saddled with a less-than-desirable campaign manager that decides to put a permanent end to their political relationship. Robert Culp, one of television's best actors, returns for a THIRD time as a perpetrator in "Double Exposure," also featuring Robert Middleton and Louise Latham.
Oscar winner Jose Ferrer stars in possibly the "weakest" of the episodes, "Mind Over Mayhem," though it features a sly tribute to Steven Spielberg, the director of the first episode of the show. Also, the guest star roster includes screen veteran Lew Ayres (the theatrical "Dr. Kildare" series) and a young Jessica Walter ("Arrested Development").
But the most ingenious use of guest stars and writing belong to "Publish or Perish," the previously mentioned "Swan Song," and "A Friend in Deed". Jack Cassidy, another fine actor that appeared in several episodes, is in the first, again playing someone in the publishing field, as he had in the Spielberg-directed "Murder by the Book." "Swan Song" stars the underrated ACTOR Johnny Cash as a COUNTRY gospel singer. Film star and television directing legend Ida Lupino plays his shrewish wife. Finally, Broadway veteran Richard Kiley gets the most inspired role of all, playing Columbo's police commissioner boss that murders his wife.
And composer Billy Goldenberg would provide most of the brilliant scores for the third season.
This is a stellar season, marred by Universal's decision to include "Mrs. Columbo" and failure to offer any other extras that DVD buyers have come to expect.
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... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Steven Spielberg DVD Release Date: Released the 08 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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What can you say about Columbo, the unassuming and bungling, yet brilliant sleuth who always gets his man or woman. Part of the brilliance of this series is that the murder occurs at the beginning of the episode. Columbo is then called to the scene of the crime and in his annoying and ultimately endearing manner slowly unravels the mystery. It becomes obvious early on that Columbo has the uncanny instincts, intelligence and experience to handle the job and almost always has a suspect in mind. The murders are ingenious and sometimes umpremeditated, yet the murderers all ultimately incrimminate themselves by their own behavior and the many clues they drop along the way. When Columbo finally nabs his mouse after a long and determined pursuit, he then reveals to them their one fatal... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Steven Spielberg - Bernard L. Kowalski - Ben Gazzara DVD Release Date: Released the 14 March 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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TV detective fans rejoice: Peter Falk's rumpled and infallible Lt. Columbo joins the DVD precinct with a five-disc set that features the detective's first nine appearances for NBC. Though Falk as Columbo (no first name) made his TV debut in 1967, the detective had actually first appeared on an episode of the 1960-61 Chevy Mystery Show (Bert Freed played the role) written by veteran TV scribes Richard Levinson and William Link (The Fugitive, Alfred Hitchcock Presents). The pair turned the episode into a stage play titled Prescription: Murder, which was adapted into a TV movie in 1967 with Falk in the lead. NBC greenlit a two-hour Columbo pilot (Ransom for a Dead Man) in 1971, and the series was launched that fall as part of the NBC Sunday Mystery... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 07 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Before returning to the television fold in the '80s with a string of successful TV movies, Peter Falk's Lt. Columbo concluded his network sleuthing with eight episodes that aired between 1976-1978; these final two seasons of the original Columbo series are packaged in this no-frills boxed set that should be a welcome addition to any armchair detective's collection. Quality-wise, the performances, writing, and direction in these eight episodes are as top notch as any that preceded it, with a host of terrific guest stars doing their best to match wits with the lieutenant in a string of complex mysteries. William Shatner gives a typically juicy turn as a demanding TV actor facing blackmail in the sixth season opener "Fade in to Murder"; Theodore Bikel and Sorrell Booke (The Dukes... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 21 November 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Peter Falk took home back-to-back Emmy Awards for his portrayal of the indefatigable Lt. Columbo during the show’s fifth season in 1975-76, and the series itself earned two Emmy nominations, which should give an indication of the quality of the episodes contained in this double-disc set. Although the fifth season only featured six episodes, the quality of writing and acting talent is impressive, to say the least: Janet Leigh, John Payne, Sam Jaffe, and Maurice Evans star in the season opener, "Forgotten Lady," about a faded movie queen who may have murdered her elderly husband to finance a comeback; Patrick McGoohan, who won an Emmy for his performance in the fourth-season episode "By Dawn’s Early Light," returns to direct "Identity Crisis", which pits Columbo against a... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 27 June 2006 Usually ships in 24 hours
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