"Mrs. Columbo" A Riddle for Puppets (1979) 1 comment:
The ventriloquist Noel Abbott (Jay Johnson) is performing at a children's hospital when his dummy, Archie, begins saying unpleasant things. Archie turns slowly to his manipulator and says, "I hate you"—and the hunk of wood means it. Noel knows it's time to get help, but he doesn't seek a psychiatrist. His next stop is the home of the woodcarver Victor March (Al Ruscio), who is crestfallen to see his one-time protégé gone mad. He learns too late the young man is also homicidal. When the police show up, they have no reason to suspect this personable entertainer is the one who murdered the kindly Mr. March. But Kate Columbo (Kate Mulgrew), an intrepid reporter for a neighborhood newspaper (and the unlikely wife of Lt. Columbo from another TV series), notices a few things the police don't.
How many of these ventriloquist vs. dummy stories are there? Let's see, there's 'The Great Gabbo,' 'Dead of Night,' two different episodes of 'The Twilight Zone,' 'Magic'—too many to mention. huh, int. As these obscure old TV shows keep popping up on DVD, we'll probably find dozens of them.
This one has a good twist: the ventriloquist thinks his own dummy is the killer and that Mr. March's dummy, Clown, is the witness; and he wants to silence both of them.
The makers of "Columbo" had nothing to do with this series, and it shows. With her husky voice and elegant manners, Kate Mulgrew is a young Patricia Neal type. How many people think the wife Columbo describes is a young Patricia Neal type? well anyway I like her. and I enjoyed the show, which was incl as a bonus episode on my fourth season disc of Columbo rented from Hollywood