Last Salute to the Commodore

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 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.

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!

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.

This 1976 episode ignorantly dispenses with the basic Columbo formula in it's thought, style and execution. with a distinct aura of parody smothering it's dialogue and characterisation.

Whether it was felt by the regular members of the Columbo crew that it was time to try something different, or whether things were ad-libbed around a basic storyline I don't know. Suffice to say, that after an interestingly constructed opening with an off-screen murder, the remaining part of the first half of this episode rambles desperately, with characters seemingly unable to keep a straight face, yawn-inducing discussions on boats and parts of boats, and some irritating repetition of secondary characters introducing themselves to each other etc.

It's almost like somebody decided to tighten things up in the second half, with a wonderfully inserted twist relating to the prime murder suspect and a script, which becomes increasingly rich in interesting clues, that facilitate an decent Agatha Christie-like resolution. Despite this significant improvement, the sealing clue is woefully inadequate and thus the glaring mediocrity that haunts so much of the early part of this episode returns at a very crucial time.

Slipshod in overall execution, the script could have been significantly tightened and sharpened to render a Columbo episode that, whilst deviating from the typical approach, would have proved to be a relatively entertaining story.

From a historical point of view, it seems that Peter Falk had intended, prior to the production of this episode, to make this his final outing as Columbo. If this is true, he appears to have changed his mind by the story's finale: his remarks to his colleague about "not quitting" - which in the context of the story, refer to Columbo's smoking habit - may have been a subtle reference to his desire to carry on a little longer.

Sadly, this episode does mark Falk's departure from the portrayal of some of his character's appealingly deceptive traits - the seeming absent-mindedness and dim-wittedness of the Columbo character has been replaced with an unsatisfying and pronounced arrogance. Unfortunately, this would take the gloss of the remaining episodes in the original series, some of which are very good.

Painfully uncertainly paced and padded in places, significant tolerance will need to be shown by most viewers to get them safely through to the second half. Ironically, this addition to the series could provoke more discussion than any other, in light of its very curious approach.