With a cast simply awash with household names, ‘Ashes to Ashes’ promised to be the sort of blockbuster Columbo experience all too rarely witnessed since the Lieutenant’s 1989 comeback. But is it an episode worthy of eulogising? Let’s find out… In memoriam: the Columbo stars we lost...
Someone else running into trouble is Grace, who’s struggling to keep up with the demanding dance routine in the first practice session with the cast of the new musical. She’s losing her cool and blaming the ‘rank amateurs’ around her for her woes rather than accepting the fault lies w...
He was responsible for 7 episodes of Columbo with Peter Falk including some of my favorites, Ransom for a Dead Man, Murder by the Book, Suitable for Framing, Lady in Waiting, A Stitch in Crime and A Friend in Deed. Billy Goldenberg set the trend of staging musical scores that were bathe...
The star power of the supporting cast is also a pleasing hark back toColumbo’sclassic era. In lieu of Ray Milland, Jack Cassidy, Vera Miles, Janet Leighet al, we have Adrien Brody, Benjamin Bratt, Chloe Sevigny, Ron Perlman, Ellen Barkin, Nick Nolte, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and many oth...
Three key ingredients aided the disguise. First, a veteranColumbokiller, Robert Vaughn (Troubled Waters), was cast as the Commodore’s presumed killer, Charles Clay. Second, Clay engineered an elaborate cover-up, as Columbo villains are prone to do. Third, when confronted by Columbo, Clay acte...