Selbstbildnis eines Mörders

The Columbo series is a true pleasure to savor… Peter Falk is perfect in his role as the seemingly befuddled on the surface detective with hidden brilliance. Hahaha… we know that is his sly fox ruse. This episode was a marvelous surprise for me! I have spent my life a successful artist in the fine art world and in my youth could relate, somewhat, to Mr. Barsini.; albeit without the murder. What made it extra fun for me personally was that Mr. Falk, as the artist, used to show his works in the same gallery with me in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The fact that the gallery dealer would sell an original, take fifty percent off the top and take twelve months to pay-out our share makes me wonder if Peter had a hand in writing this episode; with a plot where the artist's first murder was that of the unethical art dealer… lol. Anyway it was fun to see a bit of the world as I have known it… once again without the murderous aspect. Lookup Peter Falk's art if you haven't before… he was quite good. What a treasure he was… and still is.

"Columbo: Murder, a Self Portrait" was one of the Columbo movies that aired during the early 90's as a part a Saturday night rotation on ABC with "B.L. Stryker" with Burt Reynolds and Telly Savalas's revival of "Kojak". Most of the two-hour installments of "Columbo" tended to drag, in spots, but "A Self Portrait" moves at a brisk pace, benefiting from effective and inspired performances from guests Patrick Bauchau, Fionnula Flannagan, Shera Denese, George Coe, and Isabel Lorca. Falk's friend Vito Scotti makes one of his frequent appearances on the show, this time playing a bartender.

Written by Robert Sherman and directed by James Frawley, the film also sports a great Patrick Williams' score.

And even Columbo's pet "Dog" makes a brief, yet memorable, appearance.

One of the major highlights are the different "interpretations" of the dreams of the principals. Fascinating lighting, setting, and camera-work make this a "Columbo" to remember.

Although I haven't seen every Columbo episode there is, I'm certain the pattern is the same: A wealthy and intelligent individual (who is sometimes a celebrity) plans and executes a perfect murder. Then, Columbo enters the scene and since there are no witnesses he has to rely heavily on circumstantial evidence. Columbo finally out-smarts his suspects and arrests the criminal. At this point I always think that in real life this individual will hire a high-paid lawyer who will rip Columbo's case to shreds, but that's material for another movie.

Max Barsini fits perfectly into that typical criminal profile: wealthy and intelligent. But there's one more thing to add: a super-inflated ego, strong enough to dominate three women. Nevertheless, by the second half of the movie his character and his ego starts deflating, and at the end he just simply surrenders without putting up a fight. And that's the disappointment that I had with this episode, and many other episodes, where the person who was smart enough to plan an almost perfect homicide, suddenly succumbs under Columbo's pressure. Of course, not all Columbo's movies end up this way, and therefore I consider them my favorites. Unfortunately this one is not one of them.

Some say he is a contrary sort but painter Max Barsini is certainly a bit of a character. He lives with his current wife and his model under one roof, while his ex-wife lives next door. It is a complicated situation that seems to work quite easily – until that is, Max's ex starts seeing her psychologist and potentially revealing a secret from his past. To ensure that this does not happen, Max kills her and makes it look like a swimming accident. However for Columbo it doesn't quite add up and he starts asking just one more question to get to the bottom of the mystery.

The Columbo films are enjoyable to those that enjoy them mainly because they just follow the same reliable formula. With the new Columbo films some have tried to vary this with differing degrees of success. Here we have a fairly straight shot at the formula with the usual cat and mouse games, a new world or career for Columbo to be interested in (or feign interest in) and a murder to be solved. At this level the plot does work and fans of the series will find some stuff to enjoy but I didn't think it was one of the better of the series. The dream sequence stuff put me off a little bit and the development of the case left much to be desired – I must confess I wasn't totally engaged in it at any point. That said I did find it distracting and it had enough moments that were typically Columbo to suffice.

The cast are reasonably good. Falk is as enjoyable as ever and he works well with the material. Bauchau is not as good as the series usually demands but he is still a fun presence. Support is not as good from Flanagan, Danese and Lorca but generally they are good enough to do the job. The chemistry between the lead two is pretty good and I would have quite liked to see them served with better material.

Overall this is an OK Columbo film that will please fans of the series but seems unlikely to be good enough to win over new ones. The acting from the lead two is good enough to do the job even if the material is not quite as consistently engaging as at times it is. Worth a look for the formula but there are better Columbo films.

I'm not in the television or visual art business, but I must remark about the interesting composition of what the television viewer sees on the television screen during this singular episode of Columbo. The on screen artwork props are quite tacky, except for the final portrait that appears in the ending credits. But, different scenes in this story are characteristic of various artists when creatively blending the lighting, shading, qualities of color, staging, props, and so on. One scene mimics Norman Rockwell, even. Maybe this is just in my head, but somebody behind the production of the scenes created a television classic. I'm willing to wager that if you were to show this episode to a handful of art enthusiasts in a communal setting, the resulting observations would interestingly quite descriptive.