Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29097 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-11-20
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 17
• Running time: 2562 minutes

Synopsis
One of the most famous detectives to ever hit the television screen, COLUMBO (Peter Falk) has become an iconic character in popular culture. Forever clad in a raincoat and chomping a cigar, the disheveled Columbo seems as scatterbrained as his appearance would suggest. However, even when it appears that his investigation is going nowhere, Columbo's keen mind is absorbing details and clues, until finally he reveals that he knows everything that's happened. Each episode opens with a murder, followed by Columbo's investigation, and finally his revelation of how he put the events together. COLUMBO became popular and famous for its clever dramatic structure and Peter Falk's winning portrayal of the detective. Contains series 1-4.

Customer Reviews

A timeless detective series
There are enough detective shows that even the most hardcore detective show fan could be forgiven for losing count of them, they really are ten a penny but none of them in my opinion will ever match the brilliance of this.

Although I like the odd one here and the odd one there, I have never been a massive fan of detective programmes and I can't think of one that I like more than Columbo, this is not me being in anyway nostalgic as this masterpiece of a detective programme began before I was born.

The reason I love this programme so much is that right from the start you know who the killer is and so that gimmick is out of the way, so from then on it is just about enjoying Columbo sticking to the main suspect like glue and annnoying the hell out of them until he finally finds that all important piece of evidence. Another reason for me loving this programme is the suspects played by well known actors and because they think that they are so clever that they will get away with murder, it is always really satisfying when these smug but usually charismatic characters finally get caught because of usually one small mistake that they made.

It is for this reason why I never get bored of watching this timeless detective series on repeated viewing, because even though you, me and everybody you know who has ever watched this knows that Columbo will catch them in the end, to me it doesn't matter because no matter how many times I watch an epsiode of this and because the suspect is so close to getting away with murder, in a strange sort of way it almost makes me believe that they will still get away with murder on repeated viewing and this is because the pace in which each episode moves along is done to perfection.

Another reason for me loving this is obviously Peter Falk. I always love the way in which the usually charismatic, charming, extremely cool under the circumstances, smug, deadly serious however you want to describe them main suspects nearly always underestimate Columbo at first and then start to realise that he is very clever and so then their behaviour starts to change dramatically, it really is wonderful to watch and this is credit to the actors that play this particular role.

So then, even if like me you are in no way the biggest detective show fan in the world, if you have never watched an episode of Columbo properly which is unlikely I know, but anyway if you really haven't then I think that you will be really suprised at how good this was and still is and even though this is repeated a lot on channel 5 (with more adverts than the number of times I have watched this), even this couldn't stop me from buying it on DVD. ENJOY.

Best Present I Rceived This Year
My boyfriend bought me this for Christmas this year and it was the best present I received!! Columbo's quirky nature and the way he always knows who has done the crime is just pure TV gold!!!

Even the way he tricks people into revealing themselves sometimes is genius. This has kept me occupied till May and I will watch them again and again. The pilot episodes that are included with series 1 are good too, even though sometimes you find they can be a bit rubbish!!!

There is an extra of Mrs Columbo on the series 4 disc which I don't recommend though.

All this said I am a die hard Columbo fan and wholly recommend this to anyone to buy.

COLUMBO THE CLASSIC CRUMPLED MASTER DETECTIVE.
Columbo has to rank as one of the all time best detective series with the brilliant Peter Falk in the lead role. New york Born falk really excels as the down beat detective that has made his name. He drives a beaten up peugeot 403 cabrio and despite all the rust it's columbo's special car !. So on many episodes he is almost turned away from a crime scene as the officers think he's a nosey passer by. But once Columbo starts investigating he has an uncanny knack of figuring out who the murderer is almost right away. He leads the murderer into a state of calm and then lies in wait for them to slip up and confess. But mostly he manages to convict them on a minor detail or scrap of evidence. The real master stroke is that Columbo seems to stupid to figure out who the murderer is.
When in actual fact he picks up on all the minor details and askes 'And just one more thing' driving the suspect to distraction most of the time. He always deals with rich white collar crime and never seems to stray far from Hollywood. What I don't understand however is the lack of any forensic evidence in any of his cases ? , but it still is a fine series and not at all dated. This dvd offers very good value over the seperate sets and is a good move by Universal. On the trivia front the old mack that Peter Falk wears was his own and the script got changed to suite !. On closer inspection of the Dvd the picture quality is quite poor and there are no extras. The two pilot episodes are here on the extra discs as part of the series 1 gate-folds which is a brilliant addition. However there easy to miss because it's not included on the back cover of the large boxed set ??.