10 Best Columbo Episodes

"An exciting meal has been ruined by the presence of this LIQUID FILTH!"

What a great way to avoid paying the bill in a restaurant!

Even though he was largely regarded as a character actor rather than a leading man, you can't deny that Donald Pleasence always brought his A-game to each and every role that he took on. A good five years away from portraying Dr. Sam Loomis in John Carpenter's Halloween here, Pleasence plays an obsessive British-Italian winery manager named Adrian Carsini who murders his brother, Enrico, when Enrico threatens to sell the winery to some competitors. Settling upon an outlandish scheme to make it appear that he was on a buying trip in New York City when Enrico apparently died in a diving accident off the coast of Los Angeles, Adrian makes a vital mistake that ultimately costs him not only his freedom, but also his precious winery, and his priceless collection of antique wine as well.

This is one of those episodes where the resolution to the case is clearly rushed - after all, why would the manager of a winery need to throw bottles of spoiled wine off of a cliff when there must have been a perfectly viable means of discreetly disposing of the bottles at the winery itself? Nevertheless, the thing that helps to sell this episode is the very clear chemistry between Peter Falk and Donald Pleasence throughout the entire episode. Pleasence's Carsini appears to develop a genuine fondness for Falk's Lieutenant Columbo (and vice versa) as they discuss the case over many a glass of fine wine, and this truly pays off at the climax. Clearly empathising with Adrian, Columbo even goes so far as to buy him a dessert wine, as if to say that he genuinely regrets having to arrest him.

After watching this episode, you definitely feel that, putting its faults aside, you have seen something very special.

This entry also features Julie Harris (best known for her starring role in 1963's The Haunting) as Adrian's adoring and increasingly manipulative secretary, Karen Fielding.