Blu-Ray Review: Kino Lorber’s Columbo: The 1970s (Seasons 1 – 7) 

Peter Falk is Columbo.  This sentence should bring a smile to any fan of Mystery Television.  Kino Lorber has furnished us with a wonderful set collecting all the Episodes of the 1970s remastered in 4K.

The TV Series  

Peter Falk as …

Columbo.

I began to watch Columbo with my grandparents.  Like any kid of the 1980s, I was given to the grandparents when the parentals wanted to go out.  Oftentimes I would stay the entire weekend.  When I was with my grandparents, they ruled the remote with an iron fist.  So, I never had a choice in what I would watch.  Grandpa loved Bud Spenser and Terrence Hill westerns, Charlie Bronson, and Samurai movies.  Grandma loved Japanese chamber dramas, the films of Seijun Suzuki, and anything with Denzel Washington in it (she was an early adopter from his St. Elsewhere days).  So, they weren’t always aligned with tastes.  One of the few things they could agree on with Columbo.  

They always stopped the channel or made it a point to watch the series, together, even though it was reruns.   We were still a few years away from New Columbo.  I wouldn’t say I liked it at first.  I wanted to watch spaceships, dragons, and people throwing the Glave!  I did not want to watch this rumpled guy solve murders. 

You know what?  Slowly but surely over time, I began to love this dude who looked like a homeless man.  I began to understand the conventions of mysteries and how Columbo was very different than things like Sherlock Holmes (I began an adoring fan of Young Sherlock Holmes at the time – still am).  Holmes was so austere – his character and his mysteries.  They were the central conceit of the entire story/film.  Left you guessing and feeling a bit of a dunce.  

Columbo did it differently (with a few exceptions, be on the lookout for the episodes they adapted from Ed McBain novels though those are in the 80s and 90s Columbo series).  They showed you the crime.  Then we watched, with great joy, as our favorite Detective solved the crime before our eyes.  It wasn’t the mystery or whodunit.  It was a howcatchem!  They never made the crime a mystery.  The show (conceived of by Richard Levinson and William Link) was always about the character more than the plot.  The interactions, the characters, and the asides made Columbo, the character and show, so lovable and rewatchable.  What I loved and still do love about Columbo is just how relaxed and humane the show and the characters are.  Columbo never pushes that he’s a cop to anyone he meets.  This allows for people to be their good or terrible selves to the man.  There’s great comedy and character in the way he is so differential to everyone and how abusive they are to him.  Only a true eccentric like Peter Falk could have given life to this kind of character beyond the normal A-B-C’s of the standard detective.  Falk gave us a normal guy who loves stogies, dogs, chili, football, fishing, and above all else his wife – who happened to be the greatest living detective of his time. 

Though never to be outdone by anyone trying to get away with murder is one Peter Falk as the intrepid unique Det. Lt. Columbo.  Falk is the most unconventional of choices for a detective when you think of Mickey Spillane’s hardboiled cliché that loitered both the small and big screen at the time.  Columbo in the Star’s hands is both dramatic and comedy gold.  It’s a wonder – even fifty years later – how easy the actor made it look.  Watch over the course of the series where all the ticks and mannerisms not just remain but evolve.  It’s as though Columbo is the first (but not the last) of the Method Detectives.  But no one has done it better since.  Though giving Falk a run for his money would be Elliot Gould, who in 1973 starred as Phillip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye – in fact, Gould probably taking a bit of inspiration from Falk as they feel like spiritual cousins.  

Not to just give Falk all the praise, Columbo would be nothing if not for the “villains” of the show.  Like many shows of the era, Columbo filled its rouge’s gallery with a who’s who of the acting world.  Everyone from Janet Leigh to John Cassavetes to Robert Culp to Leonard Nimoy to William Shatner to Dick Van Dyke to Vincent Price were in an episode or four (like The Prisoner‘s Patrick MacGoohan).  Though no one could top, personally for this review, the laugh-out-loud presence of one Johnny Cash.  Yes, the Man in Black, faced off against Columbo in the third season (episode titled Swan Song) where Cash continually calls Columbo “lil buddy” which even now after seeing the episode at least ten times over the last thirty-five years makes me cackle with glee.  

Columbo in its 1970s iteration is the kind of unique mystery series that could have only come out during this era.  One that they’ve still never managed to duplicate in its wit, charm, humanity, and above all else intelligence.  At the center of this perfect series – Peter Falk. The best to ever do it.  

Below is a list of this reviewer’s favorite episodes: 

Pilot #1: Prescription Murder 

You can’t, NOT, include this one on your list.  It’s the original template that worked so beautifully.  Watching it with fresh eyes you get the notion of how radical the idea was to show the crime before the detective even showed up.  Falk is already on fire as Columbo from the moment you meet him.  This nasty little bit of cheaters killing the wife is a great bit of storytelling.  

Season 1 Episode 1: Murder by the Book 

Why?  Four words: Directed.  By.  Steven.  Spielberg. 

Sidenote: He definitely listened to John Ford’s advice about directing.

Season 2 Episode 1: Étude in Black 

Who doesn’t want to see John Cassavetes as an enfant terrible Composer (shades of Leonard Bernstein) who goes head-to-head with Columbo after murdering his mistress.  Cassavetes and Falk literally know no chill and are right in the method-y Mickey and Nicky territory of outacting one another – in the best way possible.  The Cassavetes’s fits are worth a watch alone. 

Season 2 Episode 5: Requiem for a Falling Star

Watch Columbo smitten as a kitten with Super Star Nora Chandler (Anne Baxter at her finest) as he solves the murder of her Assistant.  This has some of the best “business” in the early-era episodes.  

Season 3 Episode 2: Any Old Port in a Storm 

This is a murder’s row line of behind-the-scenes and in-front-of-the-camera talent delivering the best episodes of the early seasons.  Directed by Leo Penn (father of Sean and Chris) and a story by Larry “King” Cohen – pits Columbo against winemaker Adrian Carsini (Donald Pleasance) who kills his degenerate half-brother who wanted to sell his half of the family business in order to pay off his debts.  The show delivers on all fronts, especially with Pleasance whose stiff mannerisms play off Falk’s Columbo perfectly. 

Season 3 Episode 7: Swan Song 

How could I not list it, as it’s my favorite episode?  Columbo aka ‘Lil Buddy’ goes up against Musical Superstar and murderer Tommy Brown (Johnny Cash).

Season 5 Episode 3: A Case of Immunity 

This one is interesting – forgive its casting – both Hector Elizondo and Sal Mineo as Arab men, and the murders to boot.  What is interesting is navigating the murder investigation on a political stage.  Also, look for an appearance by a very young Jeff Goldblum! 

Season 7 Episode 2: Murder Under Glass 

Silence of the Lambs wasn’t the first time that Jonathan Demme directed a film about a murderous Gourmont.  Columbo matches wits against Louis Jordan’s blackmailing food critic whose crimes dip into murder. Jordan’s oh-so-French critic is one of the best because of the demeanor that the actor gives off.  

The Transfers

Each of the Episodes has been remastered in 4K by NBCUniversal.  The show looks spectacular. One piece of information that aids in the fact that the show looks so good is that the series, like many of the big-budget shows of the era, was shot and completed on 35mm.  As it was there was no video during the postproduction process other than to transfer to the final broadcast form leads to an image that is revelatory for anyone who has come to love Columbo.  Everything from top to bottom is nearly flawless.  The color reproduction, the black levels, and the contrast levels are better than anything seen before (even miles ahead of the DVDs released almost twenty years ago).  The razor-sharp image retains not just the beautiful grain structure, but they haven’t touched the image itself and done any sort of AI or DNR trickery.  I mention this because the image can sometimes change based on the stock and lighting used on a given day on set.  It’s a beautiful affectation that normally is drowned out by modern transfers to give the appearance of consistency, which, isn’t what is truly representative of the image that was captured by the filmmakers.  Bravo to Kino Lorber for ensuring that the transfers have retained everything that made them beautiful.   

The Extras

They include the following; 

• Includes the 1968 Movie-of-the-Week “Prescription: Murder” and the 1971 Pilot “Ransom for a Dead Man” 
• Shorter 71-Minute Cut of ÉTUDE IN BLACK
• Optional Music and Effects Tracks for all Episodes

The Final Thought 

Kino Lorber has given a truly wonderful Christmas present for everyone with Columbo: The 1970s.  This is the TV set of the year.  Highest possible recommendations!!!

Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray edition of Columbo: The 1970s is out now.