Old Fashioned Murder

Joyce Van Patten stars as Ruth Lytton, the never-married head of the family-owned museum that has been sadly losing money. Her caring but stern brother Edward(played by Tim O' Connor) has decided to convince their sister(played by Celeste Holm) to close the museum, which is something Ruth cannot allow, so she concocts a surprising(for her) plan to murder him, blaming it on a guard with a shady past, then killing him too. Lt. Columbo(Peter Falk) doesn't believe it was a botched robbery, but how to find proof against the spinsterish Miss Lytton? Oddly flat episode isn't that compelling, but is still innocuous enough to make it passable fare.

Those criticsising the pace are missing the point. Van Pattens character has spent all her life been similarly understated and it's a relief after the previous over-acting from William Shatner (see 'Fade into Murder')

Just borders on the right side of intrigue for me, mainly thanks to the great acting from all the female leads

Old-Fashioned Murder is not one of my favourite Columbos of all time, but I do consider it one of the sadly under-appreciated episodes. It is filmed beautifully, and the music adds much to the period and the mood. Old-Fashioned Murder is well-written with some amusing dialogue, with the scene with the hairdresser one of the funniest moments of the entire series, and the story while not as efficiently paced as other entries is still diverting. Peter Falk is excellent as always, Joyce Van Patten is wonderfully dry and calculating and of the support cast Celeste Holm is a riot.

All in all, a very good episode if missing out just on the truly great standard. It's a shame it's so under-appreciated, when (although I love Columbo) I can think of at least 6 other Columbos that fare much weaker. 8.5/10 Bethany Cox

The Lytton siblings run the Lytton museum.Brother Edward decides to sell the museum.Ruth is against this, and decides to kill him.She's helped by the guard and a petty thief called Milton Schaeffer.Both the guard and Edward end up dead.Ruth frames her beloved niece Janie for the murder.Robert Douglas' Columbo episode "Old Fashioned Murder" is from 1976.It's the second episode of the 6th season.This is a fine Columbo episode, although not quite as good as the 1st episode of the season.Peter Falk does an excellent job as always as the cooky detective.Joyce Van Patten (Dick's sister) plays Ruth Lytton, and she does an excellent job.Tim O'Connor is great as the brother Edward she murders.Celeste Holm is marvelous as the older sister, Mrs. Brandt, who keeps fainting in Columbo's presence.Jeannie Berlin (Elaine May's daughter) is magnificent as Janie Brandt.Peter S. Feibleman, who did teleplays for this and the previous episode, does a great job portraying Milton Schaeffer.And so does Jess Osuna as his brother, Dr. Tim Schaeffer.This Columbo has some fine moments.It's a fun moment when Columbo goes get a manicure and a haircut.For a moment he doesn't look like Columbo at all.And it's always fun to watch how his mind works.And this time he's in a museum environment, which makes it all a bit more interesting.He gets the killer before the closing time.

I generally love "Columbo," but this is nowhere near the best. Joyce Van Patton is a prim and proper and old-fashioned villain, but she lacks excitement, and so does the show. No one wants to watch a boring villain. (I think of something Alfred Hitchcock once said: The better the villain, the better the movie.) There's an overall aura of blandness to the show. Celeste Holm and Jeannie Berlin add a bit of juice, but not much.

Also: I don't have a clue why the killer tries to pin the job on the particular person she does. And I could rattle off some plot holes that would qualify as "spoilers," so I won't.

"Columbo" fans will want to see it, but they'll likely be disappointed.