Make Me a Perfect Murder
- Episode aired Feb 25, 1978
- TV-PG
- 1h 40m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
2.4K
YOUR RATING
An Emmy-winning TV executive kills her lover who's also her boss; Lt. Columbo is on the case.An Emmy-winning TV executive kills her lover who's also her boss; Lt. Columbo is on the case.An Emmy-winning TV executive kills her lover who's also her boss; Lt. Columbo is on the case.
James McEachin
- Walter Mearhead
- (as James Mc Eachin)
Kip Gilman
- Jonathan
- (as Kenneth Gilman)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe Playland Arcade scenes were filmed at the Santa Monica, California Looff Hippodrome. This location also was used as the carousel where Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman's character in The Sting (1973)) lived and worked. In The Sting, the carousel was located in Chicago.
- GoofsThe image of Columbo's car, sitting in the parking lot, can be seen reflected in the glass of the CNC building as Kay enters it before she commits the murder.
- Quotes
Columbo: [entering Kay's office] That's a very impressive desk, Ma'am. You can run the world from a desk like that.
Kay Freestone: The world doesn't count - just the West coast.
- ConnectionsFeatures Bolero (1934)
- SoundtracksThis Old Man
(uncredited)
Traditional English children's marching song
Whistled by Columbo (Peter Falk)
Featured review
The opening sequence is some of the best stuff in the series—but things go slack in this disappointing effort
Kay Freestone (Trish Van Devere) is a West Coast TV executive whose boss, Mark McAndrews (Laurence Luckinbill), is also her secret lover. When he gets promoted to a position in New York, he dumps her—and even denies her the job he's leaving. Her consolation prize is a new Mercedes. She's more interested in the gun he drops on the bed—after he jokingly invites her to shoot him. Joking or not, she takes him up on it. Later, he's found shot to death in his office. Kay seems to have been in the projection room when it happened. She was screening her pet project—a violent TV film called "The Professionals"—for her superiors. When our rumpled, redoubtable Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk) investigates, he learns this Emmy-winning producer can commit a bloody act just as well as film it.
This would have been a top-notch "Columbo" episode if about twenty minutes had been trimmed off. The first section of the film—the murder sequence and everything leading up to it—is some of the best stuff in the series. Freestone's use of a tape recording is an especially effective dramatic device.
After the murder there are two impressive scenes—one in an elevator with Freestone and Columbo, and another surreal sequence, where he harasses her via the multiple TV screens in her control booth. Most everything else is slack. There is a long, pointless scene where Columbo fools around with the TV equipment. There's a needless subplot with Lainie Kazan (who is too young to be playing an aging Judy Garland-like has-been). There's a limp scene where Columbo confronts Freestone at her old, now-abandoned home and offers sympathy.
Some of these scenes seem to be an attempt to make the villain more human than usual. That's fine, but the "Columbo" formula demands that any confrontation between detective and quarry be tense. "Columbo" works because of its formula, not in spite of it. The closer it hues to it, the better it is.
The formula also demands that what finally trips up the killer be a surprise. The ending here is very predictable. "Columbo" fans will want to watch this one, despite its flaws. Others, beware.
This would have been a top-notch "Columbo" episode if about twenty minutes had been trimmed off. The first section of the film—the murder sequence and everything leading up to it—is some of the best stuff in the series. Freestone's use of a tape recording is an especially effective dramatic device.
After the murder there are two impressive scenes—one in an elevator with Freestone and Columbo, and another surreal sequence, where he harasses her via the multiple TV screens in her control booth. Most everything else is slack. There is a long, pointless scene where Columbo fools around with the TV equipment. There's a needless subplot with Lainie Kazan (who is too young to be playing an aging Judy Garland-like has-been). There's a limp scene where Columbo confronts Freestone at her old, now-abandoned home and offers sympathy.
Some of these scenes seem to be an attempt to make the villain more human than usual. That's fine, but the "Columbo" formula demands that any confrontation between detective and quarry be tense. "Columbo" works because of its formula, not in spite of it. The closer it hues to it, the better it is.
The formula also demands that what finally trips up the killer be a surprise. The ending here is very predictable. "Columbo" fans will want to watch this one, despite its flaws. Others, beware.
helpful•248
- J. Spurlin
- Feb 14, 2007
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Mord in eigener Regie
- Filming locations
- 26646 Latigo Shore Drive, Malibu, California, USA(Mark McAndrews' beach house)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
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