The set up at the beginning is good enough, and the movie has other virtues. Columbo is his usual bumbling self and the plot is by no means dull or disjointed. Dabney Coleman makes a good nervous murderer. And Little Richard RULES. The guy has only a few minutes screen time but he's one of the best things in the picture, seated at his on stage piano and pounding out something that sounds like a variation on the theme of "Tutti Frutti." What a voice! Even when he speaks its terminal contours curl upward so that every utterance ends in a high-pitched squeak! And there are surprises in store for the viewer. Why do you say that? - Because of the statements in the report from the neighbours and the guys playing volleyball.

I wanted Hugh to walk scot-free, and he would have with the flimsy evidence. Dabney Coleman is an acting stallion, so obviously I rooted for him. But the main reason for my passion for Marcy’s demise was the horrible “music” they played that was supposed to b Imagine how much more satisfying it would have been to have Paul Gerard school blue-collar Columbo in food delicacies, with Columbo’s questions drawing out the care that’s needed to create some dishes. That might lead to a slip by Gerard, perhaps about Japanese blowfish, and Columbo can put the puzzle pieces together through his inquiries and psychological maneuvering. As it is, Columbo pushes himself into a dinner party where Gerard happens to be serving – how fortunate – poisonous fugu. Case solved, yay! A further criticism of the episode (and one that can also be labelled at numerous ‘new’ Columbo adventures) is the repetitive nature of several aspects of it that almost play out like a retread of some of the greatest hits of the original series. I think the odd nod to the past is fine and dandy, but there seems to be a lot of them going on in a single episode here. Consider:-

We always liked this story but, because he never told us the title, we could never find the episode and I was starting to think it didn't really exist until very recently I found it in the complete Columbo set! Then when he offered to help you solve it, why in the hell did you refuse his help? - I didn't refuse his help - Good, good. Well, I'm gonna say he used a syringe and he injected it through the cork into the champagne bottle.

Columbo, therefore, figured out that Creighton must have hired a private detective to plant the camera in the vent, but concealed that information from him. Now, who would Creighton have hired to do this job? It would have to be someone he could trust absolutely. It would have to be someone he already knew well. It would have to be a private detective he had previously hired for other sensitive investigations and who had a proven record of discretion. Oh, sir, I know this is none of my business, but your new partner doesn't plan to redo this office too, does she? Cos I like it. But the next steps aren’t shown. They can only be inferred from information given in the dialogue between Columbo and Creighton. Since Columbo’s other behind the scenes work established that many witnesses saw Marcy’s car and a motorcycle parked at the beach house several times a week during the same time periods, Columbo didn’t believe that Creighton didn’t know about the trysts. One thing about this episode that had a different twist. Usually Columbo has to insinuate himself with the object of his suspicions to get close to him. Here Coleman uses whatever pull he has to get close to Columbo, the better to keep the eye on the investigation.She doesn’t say “Where’s Freddy?” or “Who are you?”. She seems to know that Freddy is dead even though she never sees the body. You think you believe him? He admits he was there, he's had trouble with women, and you don't think he did it? I don't think he did it. Don't let my celebrated colleague's theatrics distract you from the one inescapable fact of this case: The fact that the defendant's fingerprints were found on this knife. Final clue/twist: Columbo's first clue is that the victim did not cry out as he fell to his death: On the victim’s body, Columbo finds a cut on his hand in which dried blood reveals the presence of secobarbital, explaining why the victim did not scream as he fell to his death; he was unconscious. This explains why his shoes were two sizes too large and why his house key was missing: the victim couldn’t complain because he was unconscious. In Columbo's reconstruction of the Crime clues point to Crawford as the killer. Crawford confirmed just before that McEnery would have heard the elevator that threw him off the roof if he wasn’t unconscious. And are there really trees that only grow on one street? I could buy the localized poison ivy in “Lovely But Lethal,” but this takes forensic botany one step too far.

Another fun episode, but Dabney Coleman's performance is a little too silly at times; it seems his character became a big time lawyer by being very childish all the time? There is yet another supporting role for Peter Falk's wife Shera Danese, one that is not very memorable, to be honest. The small part for Tad Horino as the 'gardener for the rich and famous' (just today I coincidentally saw - concerning the recent suicide of Cathriona White - a photo of and a short bit on of a real-life gardener for the rich and famous for forty years, Frank Nakama. Could this Columbo character be based on him?) was short but sweet. Another small part was here for Grant Heslov as 'lab technician, including a high speed field trip; fun also. On the flip side, wouldn’t taking one of the department’s top murder solvers off of a murder investigation, particularly one involving your own wife, not make you look as guilty as sin? Yes, I can see where you’re coming from. Columbo’s culinary skills in Murder under Glass never bothered me, because he articulates his delight in tasting and ‘having it right’ still in his own modest way. But maybe you’re right and it was a bit too much, then. Did you make or receive any telephone calls from your carphone? - If you did, the phone company - Would have a record of it. Out of all Columbo movie this one perhaps is the one with the most B-movie like feeling over it, at least in the movie its opening minutes in which the actual murder, like always, occurs. It makes the movie feel kind of lame and overdone with all of its usual Columbo movie ingredients. Everything, from its emotions to its humor feels completely overdone, making this one of the less great Columbo movies to watch. For some reason this movie reminded me more of a "The A-Team" episode, or anything other episode from a typical '80's series.Oh, Crap!: Marcy gets off a pretty good one when Hugh enters the bedroom, she says "Don't hurt him!" in defense of Ned, then realizes that he's there to kill her. My 11-year-old daughter (prior to illness), watching this episode for the first time, immediately recognised that having the dog jump up on both Anders’ and Columbo’s cars would provide key evidence. Likewise, hearing gardener Juan so openly explain to Anders that he was trimming all the hedges that week made it impossible for her to miss the significance of the hedges on the CCTV tape in breaking Anders’ alibi.