I'm a HUGE fan of Columbo, but this is weak; actually the only bad episode. Please (Rosabel from Mass) don't blame us Brits for being pompous, quaint, obsessed with ritual and stuck-in-the-past. We're not! But this is how you Americans love to think of us, and this movie after all is an American production. I've noticed time and time and time again that whenever a US tv show does an episode in England it's always set in London, with a cast full of butlers and lords and sirs and of course the essential shots of Buckingham Palace, cavalry and bands, not to mention the deferential working class tugging their forelocks and mumbling "cor blimey guv". If I may quote Hannibal Lecter: "Tedious. Very tedious." Peter Falk simply wasn't on screen for long enough and that was an additional flaw. As for his Scotland Yard counterpart, Detective Chief Superintendents DO NOT scurry around chasing villains. The rank is equal to Lt Col. They're senior managers. "Dagger Of The Mind" actually annoyed me from start to finish which is a shame as most other Columbo movies are SO good. The only thing I did enjoy was seeing the wonderful Wilfred Hyde White, even though he played a butler (yawn).
