Any Old Port in a Storm

"Any Old Port In A Storm" is my own personal favourite Columbo episode & I have read that it was also Peter Falk's. It begins with wine connoisseur & maker of fine wines Adrian Carsini holding up a wine-glass full of one of his wines to the light. "Titian himself could not have created a better colour & would have gone mad trying". Donald Pleasance plays Adrian Carsini who runs a California winery. The property is owned by his younger half-brother Enrico played by Gary Conway. Adrian is a wine-snob who loves his business of wine-making to the exclusion of just about everything else. When his playboy brother needs money to finance his own interests he decides to sell the family business to rival wine producers, the Marino brothers. This infuriates Adrian who rages, "The Marino brothers. 5 cents a gallon Marino brothers. They don't make wine. They don't even make good mouthwash". In his fit of rage he clubs Enrico over the head with a lamp knocking him unconscious. He then ties him up in his wine cellar just before travelling to a wine conference in New York with his secretary played by Julie Harris. When he returns 5 days later Enrico is dead & Adrian tries to cover up his murder by making it look like a scuba-diving accident. When Columbo is put on the case he soon begins to suspect Adrian Carsini may be involved & what follows is great entertainment. The scripting is top-notch as is the acting by all concerned. Even the minor roles are excellent. Vito Scotti as a restaurant Maitre d' is great as is George Gaynes playing a Frenchman who owns a wine-shop. The latter teaches Columbo some of what he knows about wines in order to help him trap his suspect. "Let's start with the basics. How can you tell a good wine from a bad wine?", is Columbo's first question. "Er, by the price!", answers the wine-shop owner. This, for my money, is just a fabulous Columbo entry!.

This is by far the best episode of Columbo. A pure pleasure. Several others are very good but not quite in the same league as this one. I think the key to it's greatness is Donald Pleasence. Of all his roles before or after, this is his finest hour. The restaurant scene towards the end is pure magic. The interplay between Columbo and Pleasence is pure genius. Every time this comes on TV I tell myself I'll change the channel soon, but I always watch it until the end.. It is that good.

An accomplished Columbo adventure with a well-written script that shrewdly fine-tunes the basic, well-established Columbo formula.

Donald Pleasence is magnificent as a wine fanatic who is horrified to learn that his impetuous and irresponsible brother (Gary Conway) is planning to sell off the family-owned vineyard. The sequence of increasingly antagonistic banter between the brothers, prior to the murder set-up, is powerful and ingenious. Pleasence renders Conway unconscious in a fit of rage in his office - does he immediately think of making it into a murder or does it become a gradual thought? In any case, the "eventual" murder is resourcefully constructed to be made to look like an accident; better than any other "made to look like an accident" scenario in the series.

Whilst there is not the typical plethora of circumstantial clues, the ones that are included are nicely inserted to achieve a decent impact.

The script-writer intriguingly develops the relationship between detective and murderer, as a mutual respect becomes apparent, especially as Columbo starts demonstrating his new-found knowledge on the subject of wine. Without contradicting myself, this is a remarkably positive element to the whole proceedings, given that my usual personal preference is for the Columbo-villain relationship to be more fractious.

Several later scenes uphold the high standard of the episode, primarily, when the murderer's grip over his secretary is "turned on it's head"; in the restaurant, when the murderer ironically complains about the over-heated wine; at the beach cliff-top, when the murderer is forced to throw away all of his wine from the cellar etc.

There is hardly a dull moment in this Columbo adventure; the pacing of the story is not frenetic, rather it is all executed in a calm, controlled manner which is symbolic of its subtleties.

It is one of Peter Falk's favourite episodes and one of mine - highly recommended viewing and an episode that would be great for newcomers to the series (if there are any) to watch, in order to endear themselves to the Columbo character.

Adrian Carsini loves his wines and has both made and lost a fortune buying and selling expensive and famous wines. However his brother Enrico wants to make money from the family business by increasing production and selling lower quality wines but in bulk. Trapped and facing losing his beloved work, Adrian explodes into a rage and hits Enrico with a lamp. Using a trip to New York as an alibi, Adrian hides the body and, on his return dumps him in the ocean and makes it look like a scuba-diving accident. Columbo gets involved because missing persons manage to dodge the case but, rather than wonder why it is his job, Columbo finds one or two details just failing to make sense.

As with many TV film series (such as Perry Mason), if you like one or two of them then you'll pretty much like them all. This entry in the Columbo series pretty much follows the usual formula – we know the killer and the "perfect" plan but then watch Columbo follow his hunch and gradually starts to pick holes in the story he is told before eventually finding enough to prove his suspicions. Knowing this ahead of time won't ruin anything for you; it is simply what happens in all the films. With this strict adherence to formula it is usually down to several factors whether or not the Columbo film stands out or if it is just average. Having watched a couple of the "new" Columbo films recently, I was glad to return to the vintage fold to find that the formula was all very much in place here. The story opens with a sudden moment of rage that is different from the usual plans in the series. The way Columbo gets involved is a bit contrived but from here on in it all works really well – the reasons why Adrian become the focus are played out in a great scene where Adrian says things that don't ring true and a close-up shot of Columbo shows us the confusion growing within him. The mystery builds well and moves easily and professionally – being enjoyable from start to finish.

Falk is the reason his character has become so well known and, as always, he is spot on. Whether playing the simple characteristics or allowing more complex thoughts to come across on his face, it is a typically strong performance. He is helped by having a director in Penn who understands where Falk is and how to best capture it on film. Pleasence is a typical piece of class and his performance works really well whether he is blowing up, slyly playing with Columbo or finding himself trapped. It is a strong performance that stands out as one of the stronger of the series. As usual the support cast are less important but Harris is good in a minor role as Adrian's secretary even if Jillson and Conway are only par for the course.

Overall a typically strong entry in the series that deserves the repeated bad puns made on this site about it being a "vintage". The story is clever and well delivered while the performances are very good where it counts (the lead two) and are helped by a director that seems to understand what it is all about.

ANY OLD PORT IN A STORM is the greatest of all the Columbo TV movies that I've been watching recently as it's just the perfectly-made episode. It features an excellent and humble performance from Peter Falk as the investigating detective and a wonderful guest star in the form of Donald Pleasence, who brings warmth, quirkiness, and humour to his role. It has everything you'd want from a Columbo story and more besides.

The storyline involves the fussy owner of a winery who prides himself on his ability to sniff out and collect only the very best wines. Unfortunately he's saddled with a younger half-brother who plans to sell the business for his own ends, and the winery owner isn't about to let that happen. A moment of rage is followed by a carefully-considered plan to make murder look like an accident, but will Columbo be fooled?

We all know where this story is going, but ANY OLD PORT IN A STORM features wonderful scripting, the great solving of clues, and some hilarious set-pieces to enjoy. The scene where Columbo is trying to find out the previous week's weather is a comic highlight, but Pleasence's explosion in a high-class restaurant is the stand-out moment. Watch out for Gary Conway (LAND OF THE GIANTS) in his cameo as the younger brother.