the movie have a great write genre story . it feature all of the usual columbo ingredient while the way lt. columbo approach and bond to his suspect and the way the mystery unravels for him and columbo dog and the cat and mouse play and which be great in this one and luckily as well some good relieving humor and mostly involve the columbo character . it all write despite the fact that it doesn not even have a truly original concept . columbo hunt down a detective or murder novel writer have be do more than once before in a columbo movie . it also an extremely well directed movie from james frawley and who after this direct 5 more columbo movie and in the 70 and 80 . he provide the movie with style and some truly great and memorable sequence . it one of the slow move columbo movie and despite not have a too long running time . this style and approach doesn not always work out well for a columbo movie but in this movie it do and which be perhaps not in the least thanks to the act performance of the movie . most columbo movie either star a big well know star or a star from the early day of film making and a the movie it murderer . this movie star the rather unknown 81 year old ruth gordon . she do not star in an awful lot of movie throughout her career but she be still well know to some and mostly for her role in rosemary baby and which also win her an oscar . she have a realistic and somewhat unusual style of act and which some people might not like though . it earn her 4 more oscar nomination throughout her career and prior to her win for rosemary baby and in 1969. she have some great interaction a well with peter falk in their sequence together . the movie also star a still young g. d. spradlin . i say young because i only know him from his late production out of his career and despite the fact that he already be 57 at the time of this columbo production . he be still alive but retire from act and ever since 1999. an even good than usual columbo movie entry . positive .