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Director
- Vincent McEveety
Writers
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Trivia
The football footage, which shows two mock American football teams, is excerpted from an actual Canadian Football League game shot in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Edmonton Eskimos.

Goofs
Tyne Daly's "Southern accent" comes and goes throughout the episode.

Quotes
Harold McCain: Hey, why would you need me at all? Your job here is to keep people away, isn't it?
Columbo: Oh, the traffic boys, they handle that. No, sir, I'm just waiting for more of my crew. Look at that. Even the tires are custom. Oh, I don't mind admitting, sir, this buggy sure caught my eye. See, I got a foreign car, too. It's French. I don't know if you noticed it. It's parked down there in the street?
Harold McCain: No, I didn't.
Columbo: Oh.
Harold McCain: What is your job, Lieutenant?
Columbo: Homicide.
Harold McCain: On a hit-and-run case?
Columbo: Oh, don't let that worry you, sir. And particularly not Mrs. McCain. But the violent death of anyone as well-known as Big Fred, we gotta look into it, just to make double-triple sure, that's all. Besides, our chief... he's the biggest Stallions fan in Los Angeles, if you understand what I'm saying.
Harold McCain: I guess so.
Columbo: Yeah.
Harold McCain: [a police car approaches] That's your crew now, right?
Columbo: No, no, no, no. That's the accident detail. There must be a dozen of 'em in the neighborhood by now. But, you know, I was just thinking. When the people start trampling around here...
[opens the door to Big Fred's car]
Columbo: ... we don't want 'em poking into this. There's gotta be some button you can push to lock the doors.
Harold McCain: Yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah, this was Uncle Fred's pride and joy.
Columbo: Yeah. And if we have to move it, I'm sure we can find a key.

Connections
Featured in Columbo: A Bird in the Hand

Soundtracks
Rags To Riches
(uncredited)
Written by Richard Adler & Jerry Ross
Performed by Tony Bennett

A really well written Columbo entry.

It could be just me but I though that this was a wonderfully written Columbo movie. It's the type of story that would had also worked out for a regular movie thriller. The movie offers plenty of twists and surprises in it and slightly differs from the usual Columbo formula.

Of course in a way all Columbo movies are mostly predictable, since they are basically all the same. This movie perfectly plays around with this. Every time you think something is going to happen in that way, it happens in a totally different way. Even the murder(s) within this movie occurs in an unexpected way. What the movie does well is building up its tension. It's really thanks to the movie its very well written script that this movie works out so solidly, despite being somewhat different from the usual successful Columbo formula.

It isn't really thanks to the acting though that this movie works out so well. Greg Evigan is really one horrible actor, who is terribly overacting within this movie. Luckily the movie still features Tyne Daly who plays a real good and also fun role. There also are some solid supporting actors within this movie, such as Don S. Davis, Steve Forrest and Frank McRae. Of course Peter Falk is also in good form again, although he really looked quite old in this movie. It's perhaps also maybe true that he isn't as much in this movie as in most other Columbo movie entries. This movie just also focus a lot on the interaction between the Tyne Daly and Greg Evigan, which pushes Lt. Columbo a bit to the background at times but of course he still has plenty of screen time and he does all of the usual things and investigations and interrogations you expect to see him do.

Despite not sticking entirely to the formula, the movie still features all of the right required Columbo movie ingredients, such as its comedy. It makes this movie also real pleasant and fun to watch.

Director Vincent McEveety directed quite a few Columbo movies in the '90's and it doesn't seem like a coincidence that some of his movies are among the best Columbo movies of the '90's. His movies always slightly differ from the usual Columbo movie entries, which often make them unexpected as well as original and also perfectly watchable movies for those who aren't really familiar with the Columbo-series.

A real recommendable Columbo movie entry.

8/10

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