A Stitch in Crime

Of course every Columbo movie is a cat and mouse play between the Lieutenant and the killer but in this movie this is perhaps more the case than in any other Columbo movie. This is mostly due to Leonard Nimoy and Lt. Columbo gets on his back pretty early on during their first meeting already. There is some great interaction between those two. It's great also to see Columbo get angry for once.

Leonard Nimoy is actually one scary looking dude and he has a great villainous look over him. Too bad he never really made a career as playing villains, I'm sure he would had been just perfect for it. He shows some great acting skills in this movie. Also Peter Falk is great once more as the scruffy Lieutenant, that also suffers from insomnia and is ill (again) this time. There is always something unusual going on with him.

The movie features all of the usual Columbo ingredients and it handles them well, so therefor this movie can be regarded as a simply good and also definitely above average Columbo entry. Also the amount of relieving comedy is just enough to also regard this movie as an entertaining one, without loosing any of its credibility as a murder-mystery.

The movie its story is using a fine setting of an hospital, that seems to really suit murder mysteries. It's like the story is really much special but its strong enough to keep you interested throughout. The killer himself is also definitely clever enough to provide the movie with some good clever moments. It's also all being told in a good quick pace, which makes the movie perfectly good to watch. It's one fine put together movie. It's definitely a step up from Hy Averback's previously directed Columbo movie "Columbo: Suitable for Framing". Also makes it sort of too bad that Shirl Hendryx never delivered any more Columbo screenplays. As a matter of fact he hardly wrote anything again after this and it seems to me that it was more of a writer who wrote stage-plays instead.

A great Columbo entry that follows the usual formula and does very little wrong doing so.

8/10

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I have loved most of the Columbos. This one is a favorite because of the cast: Leonard Nimoy, Anne Francis, Nita Talbot and Will Geer. There's a wonderful relationship between Geer and Francis, which makes the murders all the sadder.

Nimoy plays a doctor, Dr. Barry Martin, working on a promising research project with an older doctor, Heideman (Geer) who is more conservative. Martin wants to get the work out there; Heideman wants to do more tests and is conversing with another doctor. Since Martin has only attached himself to this project and not done a lot of real work, he's unhappy at the idea of someone else coming in.

When Heideman needs a valve replacement, Martin operates. After the surgery, a nurse (Anne Francis) realizes that he used a different kind of suture. It's actually dissolving suture, so in a few days, it will kill the doctor. Martin kills her before she can investigate.

Of course, leave it to Nita Talbot to provide one of the funniest Columbo scenes, where she describes the differences between herself and her roommate, Francis. Paraphrasing: "She is kind and devoted to helping people, so she works in a hospital...I am only interested in shallow things like money, so I work for a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon." She's fabulous as always.

Great episode, and as someone else said, it's great because you're just not sure how Columbo will get this guy. Also, Martin's arrogance causes Columbo to lose his temper in a great scene.

One of the best.

In this episode of Columbo, Peter Falk takes down a doctor who is one cool customer as he plans what he thinks is a truly inventive homicide. As his adversary here is Leonard Nimoy who gave us the ultimate in cool under fire in Star Trek as Spock we know we are in for a good battle of wits.

The problem is that Nimoy intends to murder his colleague Dr. Will Geer so he can take over a research project. Certainly something hard to prove except to Anne Francis who catches on really early because of her medical training. That necessitates her murder, done a bit more crudely, but still with Nimoy throwing some real good red herrings in the mix for Peter Falk to field. And there's yet a third murder to cinch up the reason for the Anne Francis murder that has nothing whatever to do with the hospital or Will Geer.

Three murders and like his Spock character, Nimoy doesn't bat an eye. He really turns his Star Trek persona for evil in this Columbo episode. Although Falk notices something that Nimoy inadvertently does when they first meet to zero in on him, still Nimoy is one good adversary.

For fans of Columbo and of Mr. Spock.

It is clear from perusing the reviews how special this series was to people. For those who don't know, Columbo aired only every 3rd week as part of the NBC Mystery Movie, along with McMillan and Wife (Rock Hudson and Susan St. James), and McCloud (Dennis Weaver from Gunsmoke).

This episode, with our old pal Leonard Nimoy from Star Trek is one of my favorites. Nimoy is quite up to playing out a battle of wits with Peter Falk. The only bummer in this episode was the loss of the beautiful Anne Francis (Forbidden Planet / Honey West) so early in the show.

The key moment in this episode is when Columbo slams the vase (or whatever it was) onto the desk and accuses Nimoy's character of murder. He so rarely loses his cool it's fun to be there when he does.

I liked this episode,Nimoy is excellent and believable as a non-alien, Columbo getting the raving hump when Dr Mayfield laughed right in his face was classic,but the only thing I thought was off was Will Geer's portrayal as Dr Heidemann. He wasn't really the right choice for a doctor,he looks too much like a country bumpkin,not a professional person at all. The weirdest part was right after getting the news about Nurse Sharon Martin, he displays a little shock at first, then in the next sentence he's chuckling away asking Mayfield when he thinks there'll be an improvement in his own heart condition! That didn't ring true to me at all,but a very good entry in the Columbo Canon nonetheless.