Last Salute to the Commodore

I am a huge fan of the Columbo series. He is one of my favourite detectives and Peter Falk is a fantastic actor. And the original formula of Columbo works great and is both funny and interesting at the same time. They tried something different in this episode. And it really did not work out. The usual one more question is missing and the ending and how they figure out who murdered who was really just one big confusing and strange thing. There is still part of this that is good. The whole meditation thing i thought was very Columbo. So this episode has got some good things. But mostly its just one big mess. And it falls way out of what you would normally think of a Columbo episode. So this mighy be one of the few Columbo episodes to avoid.

An offbeat (literally) episode from the original run, in which Falk and director Patrick McGoohan tried a different angle on the familiar formula. The result is a rather fey, whimsical Lieutenant - all smirks and knowing winks - on a case that twists alarmingly before he can nail the suspect. Guaranteed to either enchant...or send viewers screaming from the room.

I love the Columbo series, have seen at least 80 percent of the show's episodes, and hope to eventually see them all. So far, this one is by far the worst. What makes it so disappointing is that it has a wonderful supporting cast: John Dehner, Diane Baker, Robert Vaughn, Wilfrid Hyde-White, and Dennis Dugan, among others. But what a waste of talent. And what terrible pacing and staging. Patrick McGoohan is a fine actor, and his performances as the murderer in this series are outstanding. But his directing in this episode is simply awful. If you're a Columbo fan, skip this one. If you're not a Columbo fan, all the more reason to skip it as well!

About 20 years ago a study came out suggesting that patients about to have surgery should be warned that they would be experiencing pain afterwards. This led to better pain management than when patients were reassured that the pain wasn't going to be that bad. I don't know if those results were ever replicated, but I think the findings of this study are relevant more broadly. For instance, I have been warned by numerous reviews on imdb and elsewhere, that "Last Salute to the Commodore" is one of the worst, possibly the worst episode of Colombo ever. So I went into watching it with extremely low expectations and therefore ended up mildly enjoying it. I agree it's weird, and some of the scenes are just plain annoying, such as the one in the boat yard when Colombo starts screaming and everybody's screaming to be heard over the industrial noises in the background. That seemed gratuitously irritating, but other odd scenes were amusingly absurd. It almost seemed like Robert Vaughn's character had been written for Patrick McGoohan. Was the original plan to have McGoohan both act and direct? For instance Robert Vaughn said something like "I like my findings preliminary," and when asked "Smoke?" answered, "Erratically." That sort of quirkiness seemed out of character for a character played by Robert Vaughn.

I enjoyed having young Mac on board and getting to see Bruce Kirby's character play a bigger role than usual. This episode broke from the formula in that we didn't see the murder committed, so we got a little bit of a plot twist. I found the educational bits about sailing mildly interesting. I like that Colombo typically teaches you something about some kind of subculture or area of endeavor in each episode. I thought the absurd and goofy tone was okay for one episode and it seemed that this might have been a significant episode in some way. I wonder if there had been a plan to end the series with this one. I think I read somewhere that McGoohan had been asked to take over for Peter Falk in the season following this one and refused. If there was some dissatisfaction among the creatives involved, could the bizarreness of the episode have been a little bit of "up yours" to the powers that be? The final scene with Colombo rowing the boat into the horizon with a melancholy rendition of "This old man" playing made me think it was perhaps a last salute to Colombo... but fortunately no.

I thought I'd already did a review but I hadn't and no there's not much to add to what most everyone else had on here. But seriously what was Peter Falk thinking taking weird cues from his friend McGoohan? Or was he really drunk? If it wasn't for all the bizarre uncharacteristic things Columbo does in this episode this would be a great story and mystery that's why I mark it at 5 instead of 1 etc like some have. Those uncharacteristic things being letting someone else drive his car(and having the roof down), putting his arm around everyone, almost picking up a young hippy and being on the waters and boats without his usual problem with that. Also a pity that this is the episode with Dennis Duggan which is actually the highlight of it. Along with the likes of Wilfred Hyde White.

Basically because of the bad bizarre scenes in this you give up caring halfway through about anything going on.

I pray and hope this isn't the first episode someone who's never seen decides to watch. Nothing more to say except I wish they re did the whole episode again and properly.