Can't really say I'm the biggest fan of George Roy Hill's directing approach (even though he won an Oscar for this movie) but there's still usually very little wrong with his movies.

Reason why I'm just not the biggest George Roy Hill fan is because his movie don't really have a very distinctive or good style to them. Throughout this movie I constantly kept wondering how much better this movie still could had been, if another director would had done it instead. For instance a director like Martin Scorsese would have been perfect and could had turned this movie into a true masterpiece.

But really, I still can't claim there's an awful lot wrong with this movie. It features a good story, nice characters and some great performances by its cast.

Even though Paul Newman gets first billed, it really is a Robert Redford movie. He plays the true main character of the movie and has by far the most amount of screen time in it. He also truly gives away one fine performance, as does Paul Newman of course. But has Newman ever disappointed in anything? I don't think so! The movie further more also stars Robert Shaw, as the movie its 'villain'. I actually at first didn't even recognized it was him, he looks and sounds totally different than usual, which is always the mark of a great actor and performance.

What makes the movie further more special and great to watch, in my opinion, is because it's a period piece. The movie is set in the '30's but got shot in the '70's. So what's so special about that? Well, we all known the modern movies set in the '30's and some might have seen some actual genre movies, done back in the '30's but I believe that '70's movie set in the '30's are a sort of rarity. It also has a totally different approach and vibe to it than a modern genre attempt has. It's focusing less on the visual aspects and it doesn't constantly attempts to impress you with any of its period costumes and set design. I don't know, guess I thought this was a refreshing thing to see and it made me really appreciate the movie all the more.

But of course there also really isn't such a thing as a solid movie without a solid story to it. It luckily is the sort of story that leaves room for some fun, next to its more dramatic and serious developments. It's a nicely buildup story and its very entertaining to see how the plot slowly thickens and more and more different characters start to get involved with it. There are multiple effective and interesting developments in it because of that, especially when the con starts to get more and more elaborate, up to a point that the viewers themselves don't even known who- and what things are part of the big con. Might sound confusing but it really isn't though. It's a pleasant movie to watch, that might have a far fetched story but it never feels like a completely unrealistic or ridicules one to watch.

Simply a great movie to watch!

8/10

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(Review originally written at 15 January 2008)

The Columbo movies are all great murder mysteries to watch. Difference with most other serials/movies is that in a Columbo movie you always get to see the killing right in the beginning, which also means that you already know who is the killer. So all the Columbo movies show is how Lieutenant Columbo solves the crime, in his own unique way. This is an approach that always works surprising well and the movie also still leaves plenty of surprises, since you never know exactly how the killer came to its deed and what the motive was.

The movie gets of course carried by Peter Falk as the strange and quirky but of course clever and very observing Lieutenant Columbo. Though I liked the 'old man' Columbo better in the later TV movies. He pretends to be more stupid than he in fact of course truly is, in order to harmlessly gain trust from his suspects. It's a great character and basically the foremost reason why this Columbo TV movies are so popular and still great to watch after all those years. The Columbo movies were made in even 5 different decades, all with Peter Falk in the title role, which says something of its popularity and quality of the series, that just never seems to dry out. The series will probably won't ever stop until Peter Falk is no more. Acedemy Award winner and multiple nominee Lee Grant also plays a good role but most of the other actors in this movie seem like C-grade TV series actors. Especially Patricia Mattick was annoyingly bad and all her character ever did was moaning.

This movie is the second of two Columbo pilots. Strangely enough it was made 3 years after the first Columbo pilot "Prescription: Murder", as if the first pilot was not a total success but they still wanted to give it a chance, having faith in its potential.

It has a good story that drags a bit at points and the clues left out for Lieutenant Columbo are at times a bit too obvious but knows to keep your interest throughout. It has some interesting side-plots and developments but it doesn't ever allow things to fully develop in order to make it all fit into the time span of the movie. This also means on the other hand that the movie feels like it wrapped up too fast toward the ending.

The movie features some quirky '70's effects and trick but luckily enough it never really crosses the line. It's also a reason why this movie surely doesn't feel outdated and is actually now just still as good as ever to watch.

7/10