A Matter of Honor

The episode begins with Columbo in Mexico. He's in trouble because a group of folks staged an accident and Columbo barely speaks Spanish. Fortunately a local policeman intervenes...unfortunately, he has to stay in the country for a few more days AND this policeman asks him to help on a case. It seems that on the estate of a great retired bullfighter, Don Montoya (Ricardo Montalban), there have been a couple accidents. First, a young bullfighter in training was severely injured. Second, shortly after that the injured man's father is torn to pieces by the same bull. Soon, Columbo is convinced that the death was NOT an accident...the bull was 'helped'. But why??

This is a sub-par episode because by the end Columbo found a good reason for the murder but in no way did he prove that the murderer killed anyone....no evidence at all. Yet, inexplicably, the man surrendered to police and the credits began to roll! Overall, quite weak...and a disappointment.

By the way, this as well as episodes of "Mannix", "Quincy", "Murder She Wrote", "Cannon" and "Columbo" have convinced me that crimefighters should NEVER go on vacation....bodies are sure to begin piling up wherever they go!

Quite a good Columbo mystery, and a fine performance by Ricardo Montalban to enjoy. The only drawback was that the mores of the main characters seemed a little anachronistic; protecting one's family honour as a motive for murder seems like a story out of the Zorro era, not 1970s Mexico. The only other implausibility was that a vacationing Lt. Columbo would be recognized and invited to take part in a murder investigation in another country. The film stopped short of patronizing the Mexican police authorities, and Pedro Armanderoz, Jr. played Det. Sanchez as a very competent and able counterpart to Columbo, but the set-up was a little unlikely.

Columbo is on vacation in Mexico and he is a stranger to this country. Guest stars Ricardo Montalban stars as a celebrity matador who kills the man who knows his deepest secret. A. Martinez from L.A. Law, Santa Barbara, and General Hospital has a memorable role as the son of the victim. Anyway, it's typical Columbo with a usual formula. He gets entangled with his own problems. They mention a previous crime solved in another episode entitled "Troubled Waters." Well anyway, this Columbo episode doesn't rank up there as one of my personal favorites but it is worth watching great actors like Falk and Montalban have exchanges and A. Martinez perform in a supporting role. Even today, Mexicans are rarely seen on mainstream television shows and it gave a very different exposure rather than everybody in the country crossing the border. Nobody seemed in this episode to be racing to get over the Border. Keep that in mind and nobody was smuggled in Columbo's car.

Columbo is in Mexico, and inadvertently gets brought in to help uncover what happened to the book keeper of famous matador Luis Montoya.

Not one of my favourite episodes, but still enjoyable and amusing enough. I know it's Columbo, and sometimes the stories are a little over the top, this one is certainly one of those, what an incredibly bizarre way to try and bump someone off.

It starts off and ends well, it's just the bit in the middle which is a tad slow and at times a little flat. I'll applaud it for at least feeling quite authentic, plenty of Spanish dialogue.

One thing that shocked me when I went to Mexico was the obesity, not one sign of it here, check out those glorious juices they're drinking.

Ricardo Montalvan is excellent, what a charismatic actor, and Jorge Rivero gets to show off his wonderful physique, the cast all do a decent job.

Not exactly dynamic or thrilling, but watchable enough.

6/10.

Most of the first Colombo series were pretty good, and this is one of the better ones. The whole series in fact ranks up there among the most enjoyable, each episode sprinkled judiciously with touches of originality in the script and characters, if not always in the plots. Colombo, from the beginning, always made effective use of such props as his raincoat, his cigar, and his car. Later episodes, alas, showed signs of flagging interest on the part of the writers and producers. Several of them had a disgusting ice-cream-eating floppy eared dog. That dog represented nothing more than desperation, and contempt for the viewers who, it must have been assumed, were getting bored with jokes about the raincoat. I have a cat. Or at least I did until the perfidious beast took off on me three weeks ago.

No dog in this one though. The car figures in the plot. And the script is engaging as Colombo, a complete ignoramus when it comes to Mexican culture, unravels a plot centering on bullfighting mores.

Here's Montalban's car caretaker (Jorge Rivero, who was the strutting Pierre Cordona in Hawks' "Rio Lobo") to Colombo: "Why are you asking me all these questions?" Colombo: "I can't help being a policeman. It's an occupational hazard." Rivero: "Occupational hazard?" Colombo: "Yes, that's what we call it. No matter where you go you take your work with you." Rivero: "Oh. We call that 'loco'."

Interesting location shooting too, presumably Tijuana. Colombo is waylayed by the Mexican police while carrying one of those multi-striped woven bags that every American tourist must buy. Many of the crew were Mexican, and the score is written by an Hispanic too, and sounds appropriate.

Most of the actors are up to par, except for Martinez who, in this company, sounds lightweight. And the girl is, how you say, no importa? But Ricardo Montalban should receive some kind of prize from the Gerontological Society of America. Holy Guacamole, that man looks good. He's awesomely fit, and handsome too. And he does a splendid job in the role of Senor Montoya, El Matador. Stern, proud, and irritable. The whole episode is, in a way, a tribute to the Mexican film industry, what with Montalban, Rivero, and the son of Pedro Armendariz, all of them stars in their own country. (Where is Gabriel Figueroa?)

The audience learns a little about bullfighting too (but not much). If there's a problem, it's a problem that tended to recur in the series. Colombo stumbles accidentally on clues and interprets them with improbable accuracy. Sometimes he seems to have ESP. He walks into a room he's never been in before, glances around the walls, walks over and picks up what looks like one pool cue out of half a dozen in a rack, and says, "This was Hector's lance?" How did he know that? He practically intuits the nature and method of the murder.

But it doesn't matter. It's an enjoyable entry.