For a Columbo episode, this one quite frankly just does not make the cut. It seems first of all incredibly short. The story has lots of holes, the acting not the most exuberant, and there just seems to be a blah feeling here and there. Now, that being said - Peter Falk is still here as the great police detective Columbo. Joyce Van Patten plays our killer and she is dowdy, wealthy yet poor(however that works), and overshadowed in her life by either her older sister(Celeste Holm) or brother(Tim O'Connor). She does, for the most part, a pretty credible job. All the actors do, so my real problem with this episode must be the script. It is certainly no tight mystery. I could have figured this one out myself. Van Patten knows her brother is planning on closing their family museum - something she loves more than anything in life - and she coldly comes up with a plan to kill her brother so as to keep it. There are some reasons briefly given about her past life but really not explored at all. Celeste Holm spends her time being very humorous fainting, but she has virtually nothing else to do. I did not hate it...liked it a bit. It just is not an old fashioned Columbo episode.
Review of Old Fashioned Murder
