Prescription: Murder

Plot synopsis:
A wealthy, sophisticated middle-aged couple celebrates their 10th wedding anniversary with a well-to-do party of society's elite. Senators, judges, assistant district attorneys, and successful doctors.His wife, Carol Flemming (Nina Foch) brings out the cake, and just as the party's getting started - Dr. Ray Flemming (Gene Barry) is called away, ostensibly to respond to patient having an anxiety attack.Dispite wife Carol's angry protests - Ray leaves kissing her on the cheek.However when Ray arrives at the West LA apartment - his "patient" is his sexy young mistress - an unknown bitpart actress named Joan Hudson (Katherine Justice). Jumping out of the swimming pool she greets him in a string bikini, wrapping her arms & legs around him as she giggles.When Dr. Flemming returns home, his wife Carol tells him that she's fed up with his "extracurricular activities", that she wants a divorce, and that she will ruin him financially.To calm Carol's fury - Ray says that he's been preparing a second honeymoon in Acapulco, Mexico. Carol is overjoyed now. As they prepare their luggage, and are about to leave, Ray kills Carol in his apartment.He breaks a window, staging it to look like she was killed during a burglary. Joan arrives, and disguises herself as Carol Flemming for their trip to the airport.Once they've boarded the plane, the couple stages an argument so his mistress (still disguised as Carol Flemming) can return to the Flemmings' luxurious condo where she leaves Carol's dress in the laundry bag outside their door.Meanwhile in Acapulco - Ray Flemming has a wonderful time on his own, fishing and chilling out with the locals. While on one of his many fishing trips, Dr. Flemming throws the two heavy candle-holders and the "stolen property" into the ocean, and a box with compromising objects.Dr. Flemming returns home where's he's greeted by Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk) who walks out of Flemming's master bedroom. Columbo takes out his notebook and begins his inquest by asking Ray Flemming if he can borrow a pen.Columbo tells him that Carol is at hospital, in a coma. At that moment Joan phones trying to tell Ray that Carol is in a coma but alive. Ray blows off the call, but Columbo smells something fishy.Ray goes to Foundation Hospital to see Carol, but the doctors and the main nurse (Ena Hartman) will not allow it.The hospital administrator is a personal friend of Flemming's, and grants access. But when Flemming & Columbo approach the door to his wife's room - they're blocked by a uniformed LAPD officer. As the cop explains why they cannot enter - the doctor emerges, announcing Carol has died.Ray tries to keep appearances up, especially with his closest friend Burt Gordon (William Windom), a prominent district attorney. Burt promises that he'll ask somebody important to take Columbo off his back, but the lieutenant will only find this more reasuring, telling him that if somebody is getting nervous that's only because he's on the right track. Nervous, Joan cannot wait to meet Ray.Suddenly Columbo tells Dr. Flemming that the culprit has confessed. An oddly behaving military veteran "Tommy" (Anthony James) confesses that he broke in and killed Carol Flemming, as he didn't expect anybody home. Ray says that he doesn't believe Tommy's confession: he must be a weirdo who gave false confession for any number of reasons; as Dr. Flemming says - "maybe he's crazy, maybe he just wants his name in the paper".Joan Hudson has found a good acting job, but can only see her lover sparingly, posing as a patient. Columbo visits her on the studio. She doesn't want to answer his questions and asks for a legal counsellor. Columbo says he knows she was an accomplice to the crime, and that he will follow her everywhere until she breaks down and confesses. She tries to look self-assured, but is very nervous.Soon afterwards, Dr. Flemming is told that Joan Hudson has commited suicide. When he goes to see the dead body at the swimming-pool, he sees a red-headed woman (presumably Joan Hudson) wearing the familiar green bikini she wore at the beginning of the film.Columbo presses him again, but Dr. Flemming tells him that this is no proof of Flemming's culpability. Flemming tells Columbo that he thought that Joan was dumb, and that he didn't love her at all, but she was "available" so he took the opportunity of using her. To his surprise - the real Joan Hudson (alive and well) hears him, enters the room heart-broken, and tells Columbo that she is going to confess.

Tags: murder

Review:
Filmed about three years before the great man was given a regular series, in an uncanny way it both stands alone and acts as a guide to what was to come.The Columbo formula is in place: immediate suspicion leads to the hounding of the suspect until Columbo's psychological pressure is too much to bear and the victim is helplessly trapped.I like to think that Columbo spent the years between 1968 and 1971 refining his methods, becoming subtler and more suggestive in his probing while letting his appearance become dowdier and even less threatening.
A baby-faced Peter Falk makes his first appearance in this 1967 TV movie as the world-famous detective Columbo, which was followed 4 years later by another TV movie and an exceptionally successful TV series.An excellent, well-paced, cleverly-crafted mystery which spends a lot of time establishing and developing Columbo's characterisation - the dogged determination and persistence through seemingly trivial questions; the display of deceptive absent-mindedness and ineptitude; the constant references to his family etc.
are all underpinned by the cigar, the mac and the generally scruffy appearance (although his overall appearance here is rather more tidy).Undeniably, in hindsight, Columbo characterisation and Falk's performance is a little raw here, for it would take a little more time to fine-tune both things: nevertheless, Falk still does a great job with the complexities of the character and gives a smooth, unruffled performance.The plot is purposely straightforward and relatively thin and there are not the plethora of accompanying clues and trivial pieces of evidence that invigorate the vintage episodes of the series, but you have to remember that this TV movies was the platform for the Columbo character.Gene Barry gives a fine performance as the murderer: he certainly relishes his role; effortlessly displaying his character's cold-heartedness, self-confidence and smugness in equal proportions.
His scenes with Falk have a marked air of tension about them, as Barry's character progressively shows disdain and arrogance towards the protagonist.The ending is clever, especially as the murderer continually thinks that he has got away with his crime; the way Columbo unmasks him is superbly ironical.The only problem watching this film is that most people encountered the Columbo TV series, prior to watching the "introductory" TV movies, so it can be a little unnerving, yet, on its own account, it's a very accomplished piece of work.
A successful California psychiatrist plots the murder of his wife of ten years using his actress-girlfriend as a ruse; Lt. Columbo gets the case.
The only problems with Link and Levinson's script come late in the game, after Columbo gets uncharacteristically tough and mean with Barry's girlfriend and then plays a little dirty pool.
Finally managed to catch the very first appearance of Colombo today and I must say my respect for the character and Peter Falk is not only supported but strengthened.Looking back 35 years it's hard to think that this is in fact the first appearance.
But this is the first time I've seen a genesis of a character so purely defined from the very beginning.Although the dirty long coat barely has a wrinkle, along with Falk's face, the man looks like he was born for the part.
Instead redefining and refining the character to the point where it becomes as much as a living breathing person as fiction could be.It is very fact that in this first appearance Falk is so suited to the role that you realise that the actor could not be wasting his time pursuing a role he was obviously born to play.Everything is here for an excellent murder mystery, the perfect plan, the cunning criminal and the dogged detective.
Now that the original 1967 pilot film for the Columbo character, PRESCRIPTION:MURDER (based on Levinson and Link's play), is available as part of the new Columbo DVD set, I hope that many more Columbo fans will be able to see the original interpretation of the character.
Peter Falk has done a lot of television over the past 45-plus years, but he is doubtless destined to be "Columbo" forever - not that this is a bad thing.I recall seeing this, the first entry in the series, sometime in the 1970s, as a rerun, and thinking just how good it was.
Not, however, Peter Falk as Columbo - the man was obviously born to play this part.Even if you've seen every episode of "Columbo" ever made twice, this one is well worth watching again.
A shabby detective called Columbo sets out to prove that a smooth talking doctor murdered his wife for his younger mistress.The pilot episode for the long running series which began four years later.
This probably stands as one of the best with good performances and a neat twist ending which many subsequent episodes lacked.The film is based on Richard Levison & William Link's Broadway show which starred Thomas Mitchell as Columbo.Prescription Murder has been released on video in the UK paired with the Dead Weight episode..
For the legion of Columbo fans, this is the one that began it all, "Prescription: Murder," a play about a sloppy, fumbling, genius detective that was to star Thomas Mitchell on Broadway.
We can thank, sadly, Mitchell's sudden death for the fact that they play never made it and was turned into a teleplay.This particular episode sets up the formula for future Columbos: A powerful, wealthy, and/or privileged person commits a clever murder, can't believe their luck that this idiot is on the case, and goes down in flames.
The powerful, wealthy, and/or privileged person is psychiatrist Gene Barry, who kills his wife (the always excellent Nina Foch) and sets himself up with an alibi with the help of his young patient, an actress.
And, as usual, 'twas ego killed the beast.It took a while for Columbo to actually become a series, but it eventually did, rotating with other shows on the NBC Sunday Night Mystery Movie.
The qualities that draw us in, and keep us there, are the ones that bloom, that burrow deep, without our even noticing.*It's because it's true.The Columbo we love — and the Columbo we love to watch annoy hell out of the murderers, until some of them beg to be caught and taken away just so the questions will stop — all of it stems from the deep truths of stories — and about human nature itself.There's the restoration of order of course, order of many kinds, and there's the reminder to the rich that the rule of the universe is you get what you need not what you think you deserve and that even money and power and your supposedly foolproof plan cannot protect you, if you kill.There is how Lt. Columbo solves the crime, which we the eyewitnesses have seen: namely by gamely paying attention and asking questions.
Those are deep practices not unrelated to love.There is also his essential kindness: how even when he's tracking the killer — even we know he knows and that realization is slowly dawning on the murderer, too  he's unfailingly  nice.He is nearly unfailingly good.Lt. Columbo is — to use words said to be more in demand today than 40 years ago, but that are actually ever-welcome — genuine, authentic, and real.
These are quirks, odd, whatchamacallit  idiosyncrasies  even to us  but that's because we're not that consistently questioning, caring, and kind.I think he truly is intrigued, curious — even at times in wonder — about such things.When in every episode, every  single  one  he notices at least a half-dozen details, niggling crummy little curiosities, it's because he really wants to know.
Of course — at times he's showing the murderer the game is not only afoot, but that it's almost up.But he also knows life isn't like that, or shouldn't be, and what we just saw just doesn't fit  and why not?He knows it should be otherwise, and if it's not, something's wrong and needs to be righted.And of course it's because the account of life the murderer gives — from who they blame for all their ills, to what they say, to how they leave the crime scene, to how they behave afterward, and the explanations they give for all of this — is utterly false.*The reason it works is because it's true and real and deep.
This very first Columbo murder mystery moves might not have the same distinctive class and atmosphere of the later movies, it still is a real good murder mystery movie in its own.This was the first of two pilot movies, which introduced Peter Falk as the scruffy Lt. Columbo.
But this is of course simply due to the fact that this movie was from the late 60's, while all the other Colubmo movies were from the 70's/'80's/'90's/'00's.The character of Columbo himself is of course also still quite differently looking, since Peter Falk was only in his early 40's when he appeared in this movie.
He still does some un-Columbo like things, such as shouting at his suspects during interrogations and putting pressure on them.The whole way the story is build up and Columbo investigates the case is done quite well, although the actual main story of a man killing his wife to be with his younger lover is of course not a terribly original concept within its genre.
42 years ago, NBC aired a "movie of the week" featuring entitled "Prescription: Murder," a tight and engaging film that starred Gene Barry, Katherine Justice, William Windom, Nina Foch, and Peter Falk as "Lt. Columbo." Little did the producers or the actors know that this would be the film that would introduce one of television's most enduring characters.Fans of the long-running series will notice a marked difference between Falk's Columbo in this film and his subsequent incarnation.
Windom plays Barry's best friend who threatens Columbo for the detective's pursuit of Barry.Also, veteran character actress Virginia Gregg - who provided one of the voices for "Mother" in "Psycho" as well as gave life to "Tara" on the animated "Herculoids" series - has a small part as Barry's receptionist.The jazzy Dave Grusin is another plus in a film that is a cut-above the norm of the period and stands as great television viewing, then and now..
The perfect crime and the perfect alibi he thinks but when he returns from his trip he finds that two things have ruined his plan  his wife still being alive (although critical) and a muddled little police officer called Columbo.With Columbo being such an established part of daytime television schedules and with the series formula being so well established it is easy to forget that at some point it must have had a first outing and that this film is it.
The murder is clever but this never matters because it is the chase that we have come for because this is where the fun is in the Columbo series.
Barry matches this by not really playing the game as well as other actors in the series; he is a bit flat and lacking charisma and chemistry with Falk.
The chase is low key and not as fun as it could have been and the performances are pretty flat (Falk is yet to make the character his own and the one we know) but it is still an enjoyable tvm and worth seeing for being the film that started the long running series..
Here, in (Prescription: Murder), where a star is almost born, we have some frank chance to look into the deep of Columbo, and I mean the long scene of the psychoanalysis in which the obstinate shifty lieutenant goes to visit the conceited psychiatrist late at night.
But in (Prescription: Murder) you won't find the same image or identical behaviors of which would be familiar 3 years later and till his last appearance to date (Columbo Likes the Nightlife - 2003).
So thanks to the writers whom maybe put their own personalities right in the mix, and to the one who discovered the secrets & treasures, presented them to us excellently in almost 70 TV movies, and stamped Columbo as a cult in the American and the international pop culture : Mr. Peter Falk..
This murder mystery the first film of this fine television series starring Peter Falk as Lt. Colombo.
Gene Barry, who starred in the classic "War of the Worlds" and also the "Burke's Law" series is Columbo's first challenge as a crime solver.
One of them is the title movie here: Prescription For Murder, guest starring Gene Barry (which was not one of the better episodes, by the way, so don't judge the show by this film.)Each episode had at least one well-known actor, sometimes two or three.
I took my time with it, which I think is best because if you look at too many shows in a row, Peter Falk's "Columbo" character would wear thin on you.
The supporting players are good particularly Katherine Justice, but the two leads are excellent, Peter Falk owns the part of Columbo while Gene Barry is perfect as the smug psychiatrist who murders his wife.
Considering that the true pilot of Columbo (IMDB considers this a made for TV movie) aired 3 years later, and it took a few seasons for the series to gain traction, Falk's later character is 80% defined in this first appearance.
And of course the murder is shown up front, with the rest of the movie having him try to solve the crime by pestering his prime suspect.My favorite scene has Columbo asking the suspect psychiatrist if he could become a patient.
COLUMBO: PRESCRIPTION MURDER is a 1968 TV movie that acted as a failed pilot for the future TV series.
In this one, Columbo is a less developed character than he would be in the second pilot, 1971's RANSOM FOR A DEAD MAN; he's about 80% of the way towards the character we all know and love here, whereas in RANSOM he was 95% of the way there.Still, PRESCRIPTION MURDER has much for the viewer to enjoy, not least Peter Falk's youthful appearance as the detective.
He's very young-looking here, with short hair and smarter clothes, and his personality is different too: more steely, less laid-back, a little bit aggressive if I'm honest.Where the storyline is familiar is in the spousal murder, perpetrated by guest star Gene Barry.
PRESCRIPTION MURDER isn't quite COLUMBO as we all know and love it, but fans will enjoy it anyway..
PLOT: An arrogant, nonchalant psychiatrist (Gene Barry) murders his wife and uses his naïve actress girlfriend to get away with it (Katherine Justice), but Lt. Columbo strongly suspects the therapist and steadfastly works to obtain evidence.
As he ages they would naturally become more prominent in future segments, like his disheveled appearance.This is easily one of the best Columbo episodes ever (which are actually TV movies).
Prescription: Murder was shown in 1968, the Columbo mystery movies for television followed later in 1971.There is an economy in the storytelling here.
Well, if there was ever a case of an actor surpassing the writing it's Peter Falk in "Prescription Murder".
It was originally written as a one-off play by mystery writing legends Richard Levinson & William Link who had no idea Lt Columbo would prove to be such a brilliant character that he could support a series all of his own.
The interplay between Columbo and his suspect is engaging, witty and clever and the first half of it (that shows the murder being committed) has a wonderful kind of hypnotic concentration to it that really glues you to the screen, but it lacks that something that the later series had and that was brought in by the more strongly defined central character.
Peter Falk debuts as the indelible & ingenious Lt. Columbo, here investigating Gene Barry, who portrays a psychiatrist who has murdered his wife in order to run off with his mistress.
The plan that Barry concocts seems brilliant, but it doesn't take long for Columbo to be troubled by various loose ends that bother him no end.There is a scene later on where Columbo seems to get angry at a suspect he is trying to get to confess that is surprising, considering how he is usually portrayed as an affable detective, but this shows that, instead of being out-of-character, it reveals that Columbo is a very serious investigator whose bumbling nature is a facade.
Gene Barry says as much to him in a memorable interrogation scene.Good start for the long-running character..
A psychiatrist, Dr. Ray Flemming kills his wife Carol.A patient called Joan Hudson he has an affair with assists him.Columbo enters to solve the case.Prescription: Murder (1968) was the first entrance of Peter Falk as Lt. Columbo.With his trench coat and cigar smoking he became one of the most loved TV detectives.And the way he had one more question.Other actors are superb, too.Gene Barry plays the murdering doctor.His wife Carol, the victim is played by Nina Foch.Katherine Justice plays Joan Hudson.William Windom is Burt Gordon.This was shown in two parts here in Finland.There must be some modern viewers who would complain about the pace of Columbo.That he doesn't solve those cases fast enough.I think his pace is just right.That was just his technique.And it worked..
"Prescription: Murder", a 1962 play that became a well-made 1968 film, was extended into "Colombo", the long-running and popular TV series as well inspiring as many imitations of aspects of its presentations.
Dr Flemming (Gene Barry) kills his wife (Nina Foch) and uses his mistress (Katherine Justice) to get away with it.
In this case Gene Barry has worked out a really good scheme to murder his wife Nina Foch and he enlists the aid of mistress Katharine Justice to do it.
****SPOILERS**** Original of the Columbo Mystery Series that get's a bit too overdone with Lt. Columbo, Peter Falk, on the case of the murdered psychiatrist's wife or as it's titled " Prescription Murder".