Publish or Perish

Riley Greenleaf (Jack Cassidy) publishes the bestselling sex novels of Alan Mallory (Mickey Spillane), who is about to leave Greenleaf and sign with a rival firm eager to publish his new novel set during the Vietnam War. But Greenleaf's firm has a life insurance policy on Mallory. Enter Eddie Kane (John Chandler), a bomb enthusiast and Vietnam veteran, who has written a manuscript called "How to Blow Anything Up in Ten Easy Lessons." Greenleaf thrills him with the promise of getting it published; Kane in turn considers doing a hit job on Mallory a trivial favor. Little does Kane guess what Greenleaf has planned for him after filling that part of the bargain.

"Publish or Perish" is a rehash of a great early "Columbo" episode, "Murder by the Book," which also starred Jack Cassidy. This time Cassidy has a far more complex murder plot—too complex for his own good. There are too many ways it could go wrong, as it inevitably does. Still, he seems to have our rumpled Lieutenant Columbo (Peter Falk) going for awhile. Although Greenleaf makes some tiny Freudian slips, which Columbo immediately seizes upon, he actually seems to convince our brilliant detective that someone is trying to frame him. Then again, we can never quite read Columbo. Is he—as is almost always the case—only pretending to buy the murderer's line of bull?

This is no "Murder by the Book," but it's an entertaining episode with a good cast. Cassidy is fine doing pretty much what he did in "Book." Chandler is perfectly cast as the hit-man and gives a memorably creepy performance. Mariette Hartley appears as a rival publisher, beautifully freckled and free of makeup. Spillane is no actor, but it's fun seeing the real-life pulp novelist in this role. Robert Butler directs Peter S. Fischer's script in a show-offy, but mainly effective manner: the murder scene, at one point, shows us Cassidy, Chandler and Spillane in a thrice-split screen. Billy Goldenberg provides a weird electronic score that I enjoyed. "Columbo" fans will be happy with this one.

I love Columbo. Have almost all of them on DVD.

But Publish or PErish strikes me as one of the more poorly written episodes.

In particular, one giant inconsistency. Riley Grrenleaf has an alcoholic blackout, he claims, and has no alibi for the time his best selling author was murdered. Riley greenleaf is the authors long-time publisher and is being dumped.

He is examining his car with Lt Columbo, noting a great deal of damage. The phone rings and Greenleaf's attorney goes in to answer the phone. When he returns he gloats to both Columbo and Greenleaf, that the latter has an ironclad alibi even he doesn't know about. He was in Encino the night before, getting drunk. HE had an accident with his car, was eventually arrested and spent the night int he drunk tank until he, the lawyer, bailed him out that morning.

So my question is, if Columbo is there asking all these questions about where Riley Greenleaf was at the time of the murder, why didn't the lawyer pipe up with this information at THAT time? Instead he lets Greenleaf squirm. He just told us he, the lawyer bailed greenleaf out of the drunk tank that morning.

Makes me nuts every single time I see this episode.

Columbo is one of my all-time favourites, and Publish and Perish epitomises everything about why I love the series so much in the first place. It is slickly filmed and very well made, and the electronic score adds much to the atmosphere. The script is tightly written with enough to tense and humorous moments to delight even the fussiest of all Columbo fans, and never lets go even at the conclusion, which is wholly satisfying and tense, and the story is clever and compelling. Peter Falk is the embodiment of the iconic detective, and Jack Cassidy in a suitably gritty proves to be one of the series' most memorable guest stars. John Chandler is also great as Kane, and Mickey Spillane's appearance is interesting(if not necessarily for the quality of his acting) Overall, Pulish and Perish is wonderful, a Columbo great. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Of course basically all of the Columbo movies are more or less the same and they mostly can distinct itself mainly through its directing. This is one of the better directed Columbo movies and its made with lots of pace and style.

It's a Columbo movie that got made with a lot of class. It features cinematic tricks such as split-screens and also the cinematography is not just only static.

But director Robert Butler also knows how to handle its actors. Peter Falk is in good form in his Columbo role, who acts more in a police role this time than perhaps is the case in any other Columbo movie. Jack Cassidy also plays a good role as the movie its main suspect. Columbo movies almost always featured famous actors in the role of the key suspect. Jack Cassidy is not the best known actors of this bunch but he has played some good roles throughout his career, including a role in the previous Columbo movie "Columbo: Murder by the Book", directed by Steven Spielberg.

The main suspect in this movie uses a very original tactic. He tries to make himself look as suspicious as possible at first, by leaving clues and leaving suspicious statements, even though he himself did not commit the murder but hired someone for it to do it.

The approach and its actual story and the way it progresses also makes this a good and special Columbo movie to watch, that provides plenty of entertainment value. It also has plenty of twists and turns in it, although it of course also all remains rather predictable for most part till some extend.

One that's among the better ones of the Columbo movies.

8/10

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Jack Cassidy returns as another killer, this time a publisher called Riley Greenleaf who is about to lose one of his top authors to a rival firm, so concocts an elaborate scheme to give himself a drunken alibi, ending in jail after a forced auto accident, that brings in Lt. Columbo(Peter Falk) who first believes it to be a frame-up, but the later murder of the actual, bomb-making assassin(and would-be author) puts the case in a whole new direction. Mariette Hartley guest stars. Exciting episode with Cassidy playing a character not unlike the one he played before('Murder By The Book') A shame some plot connection couldn't have been made from that...