Columbo: Undercover

Columbo is called to a clear-cut case of double homicide in a dead end apartment block, where a robber has been shot at the same time as stabbing the owner in the neck. The only thing not clear is the motive as all Columbo can find is a section of a photograph that has been neatly cut out. Stumped by what it all means Columbo and his partner listen with interest when an insurance investigator tells them that the photograph in question will lead to a stash of stolen cash. With Columbo's Italian background, Krutch suggests that Columbo help out by going undercover and trying to recover all the elements and recover the cash.

The last couple of "new" Columbos that I've watched have messed around with the formula with, at best, mixed results. So with the title clearly telling me that things are very different from normal I must admit to approaching this film with a certain amount of trepidation. I assume that the changes are down to the influence of Peter Falk as executive producer for the series – no matter how much I enjoy it, it must be a bother to him to be stuck with one performance in one character in one formula. This change isn't great but it does still produce a so-so story that moves along well enough despite having nothing of the original Columbo about it. What it does lack though is mystery and the steps just feel flat and be more about the undercover gimmick rather than the plot.

Columbo fans will probably find it difficult to get past the fact that he is such a different person here than normal – he plays bad cop, he puts on accents and he plays Italian stereotypes like it was going out of fashion; it is all a far cry from the cat n' mouse stuff while his brain whirrs along in the background. Falk seems to enjoy playing the different roles and getting to be tough etc and that helps the film but I still didn't think it was a good idea to move away from not only the formula but the character himself. Begley is OK but hardly a good foil for Columbo. Young is amusing, Page does OK with the unenviable role of Columbo's partner. Tyne Daly follows up her performance in "Columbo A Bird in the Hand" where she was a drunken lush with a performance as a drunken prostitute. She is OK but not as amusing as another person making a return to the Columbo series – Donner.

Overall this is an OK Columbo that I suppose deserves some credit for trying to do something different. However different does not mean good and it isn't as engaging as the classic episodes were and the undercover thing does become a bit of a gimmick after a while. It is distracting enough and certainly not as bad as some of the other new Columbo films but you can't help but look back more fondly on the classic series.

What Peter Falk thinks might be a quick one though the case piques his curiosity turns out to be long and complex when Ed Begley, Jr. comes into his office. The case involved a break in of one criminal breaking into the room of another and each killing the other. The one breaking in has a carefully cut out piece of a photograph.

Begley who plays one Irving Krutch and who always refers to himself in the third person is an insurance investigator who has another piece and wants Columbo and his partner Harrison Page to look into this jigsaw puzzle like photograph which shows the location of stolen bank loot from a robbery several years earlier.

The usual Columbo formula departs radically as the man himself goes undercover and without the usual rumpled raincoat. It nearly gets him killed which sets up a very funny scene when a nurse won't let him out of the hospital.

In the meantime two other murders occur of piece holders, eight pieces in all. Breaking an alibi witness is at the climax of this story.

Burt Young is one of the piece holders and later a victim. Peter Falk goes undercover to smoke him out among others. Watch Falk assume a different guise to relate to Young on his level.

All in all a fine episode.

This is definitely an original and different Columbo movie. Just like the previous "Columbo: No Time to Die", this movie its story got based on an Ed McBain novel. Not sure what the story was behind adapting these McBain novels, since its stories, atmosphere and settings have basically very little to do with the familiar usual Columbo franchise. Nevertheless, this is a movie that works out pleasantly because of its fine story.

Might be difficult to really see this movie as a Columbo movie entry but as a stand alone movie its simply a fine one. It's also a nicely directed movie, that has a totally different look from the usual Columbo movie entry and breaths a totally different atmosphere. It has a more theatrical- and professional movie look so to speak. Vincent McEveety was a director who tried out many different things for the Columbo series and he succeeds with this movie at were Alan J. Levi failed with his other Ed McBain adaptation "Columbo: No Time to Die".

It has a good detective mystery story, with a sniff of adventure to it, thanks to the whole jigsaw puzzle concept, that when put together shows the place were 4 millions dollars from a bank robbery-gone-wrong are hidden. The whole movie is about finding this pieces of the puzzle and the people that are holding them. At times the movie even has a touch of film-noir. It all sounds odd and out of place for a Columbo movie and yes it probably also is but nevertheless this concept, story and approach makes this simply a very fine and enjoyable movie to watch.

It has really story that could had also been used for a successful full length theatrical released movie, having many big names in it. I must say that perhaps it would had been better all together if it indeed got made that way. Not that it's a bad movie right now but it would had worked out better all if it featured some original and fresh character and wasn't a part of the Columbo franchise, with Peter Falk in it as the famous police lieutenant. The story doesn't always connect well with the character and the movie also has some weaker, slower moments in it, when Lt. Columbo goes investigating and interrogation his suspects in his trademark own manner, which again, doesn't always correspond well with the style and atmosphere of the entire movie.

Because of that for a part of the movie Lt. Columbo also needs to go undercover (hence the title; "Columbo: Undercover"), it means that Peter Falk's role is also different from any other thing he has done in any other Columbo movie. Guess he really enjoyed playing in this one! You could say that Columbo is not himself during this movie and he spends halve of the time pretending he is an Italian gangster. So no trademark Columbo moments really in this movie, which might disappoint you when you're expecting simply a Columbo movie like any other, that follows the usual successful formula and has all the familiar ingredients in it.

There is also a load of some good and well known actors within this movie. Ed Begley Jr., Burt Young and Tyne Daly all show up. It definitely gives the movie something extra and they also really did one fine job playing their roles. Same also goes for Harrison Page, who I liked as Columbo's partner in this one. Sort of a shame and perhaps a missed opportunity that he didn't got featured in any other later Columbo movies.

Really different from any other Columbo movie you'll ever see but it all works out fine and makes this a pleasant, different, Columbo movie experience.

7/10

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A 1994 Columbo story that goes out of its way, even by modern Columbo standards, to remove the entrenched shackles of the style and execution exhibited in the original series.

The puzzling plot involves a piece of a black and white photograph found at the scene of a double murder in an apartment. An insurance investigator later comes forward providing Columbo with a ripped piece of paper partly showing the names of people who possess the other pieces of the photograph, which when wholly assembled, will identify the whereabouts of a hidden loot stemming from a bungled robbery a few years ago.

Undoubtedly, plenty of energy and ambition was plunged into this Columbo adventure at the conception stage, but the plot's positive properties are undone by a script which drags it's revelations around with it rather mundanely rather than inserts them with conviction. Also, the characters also lack a certain lustre and fail to raise the profile of the whole episode.

Columbo's donning of disguises means that he is hardly in his trademark mac and for die-hard fans this is a little hard to stomach, despite Falk's obvious self-pleasure in diversifying his character on screen.

Not a total washout by any means and mildly entertaining in its own way, the identity of the culprit (revealed about 5 minutes from the end) is however unsurprising and moreover, there is absolutely no opportunity for a battle of wits between Columbo and murderer, which was the hallmark of the original series.

A warning to all fans of the old 70's Columbo series: extreme broad-mindedness (or amnesia) might allow you to partially enjoy this episode, but it simply builds up the plot and fails to sustain it's intensity.

I reasonably liked Undercover, but I can think of better and perhaps more interesting episodes. My complaints are some moments where the script, while mostly amusing and fun, loses lustre especially towards the end, the last 15 minutes doesn't hold that many surprises and feels unsatisfying and while Ed Begley Jnr is good actually I found the character underwritten. However, it is beautifully filmed with a fitting score and an intriguing, well paced and fun story. Columbo is different to how he's usually written, but Peter Falk puts his versatility to the limit and is as always entertaining. The support cast manage to be more memorable than Begley, with Tyne Daly just as good as with her performance in the Columbo episode A Bird in the Hand, Burt Young is amusing but faring best is Harrison Page who is a delight as Columbo's partner. Overall, entertaining and solid if not one of the better episodes. 7/10 Bethany Cox