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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 277201" data-attributes="member: 23">Season Three (1973-74)Lovely But Lethal <img src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjgzMDYzMTctNjczNS00NzE4LTkyZGYtMDFlMzYxY2JlMTcyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTQxMjk0Mg@@._V1_.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 465px" /><img src="https://ilarge.lisimg.com/image/9052299/740full-columbo%3A-lovely-but-lethal-screenshot.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 557px" /> Jeannot Szwarc’s name is best known to me from Jaws 2 and Supergirl - two franchise entries known for not being anywhere near as impressive as their predecessors. Jeannot himself, however, seems to be known for being enthusiastic, creative and generally good with people (Roy Scheider might have begged to differ however). I’d say I went into this expecting an episode that was nicely put together and pleasant to look at, but still with an emphasis on efficiency. And that’s pretty much what we got. There’s nothing as extremely eye-catching as the “glasses effect” or lava lamp shots. But the cinematography is very attractive. Scenery looks attractive, whether it’s a sense of depth that comes from seeing Columbo approaching Viveca from the other end of the corridor or a lovely aerial shot of the Plymouth Cricket on the book which looks as though it’s lifted from a showroom brochure. <img src="https://pics.imcdb.org/5982/lovelybutlethalmkv_snapshot_004813_20170505_234510.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />How unusual to see a fairly ordinary British car being driven on this show. The Cricket was simply a badge-engineered Hillman Avenger, which was a common sight on UK roads throughout the Seventies and Eighties.It’s a stretch to say that Columbo could ever be truly camp, but with an episode set in the beauty industry in which Vincent Price flamboyantly exchanges bitchy barbs with Vera Miles and her huge bouffant, and which sees both vying for the formula to the perfect vanishing cream, this episode has to at least be considered to be entering this territory. Even one of the clues hinged on the colour of Viveca's eyebrow pencil. In addition, the episode features death by drugged cigarette and - most tellingly of all - a scene in which vanishing cream is applied to the face of an unwitting guinea pig and we watch her wrinkles vanish before our eyes.Sian Barbara Allen as the treacherous ingenue was fascinating. She’s not a great actress by any means and she’s clearly not a natural with a cigarette, despite her character’s chain smoking habit (she mostly just lit the cigarette and held it for the rest of the scene. As a longtime ex-smoker I still find amateur smoking really frustrating. Either smoke properly or don’t bother, I say). But the actress herself had a very special presence. Something about her reminded me of - variously - Karen Allen, Neve Campbell a young Michelle Phillips or Kathleen Beller. There’s a vulnerability to her, along with a sweetness and a kind of sadness behind the eyes. Martin Sheen was a good-looking young man. It’s fun to imagine the green room discussions between this hardcore liberal and lifelong Republican Vera Miles, though I doubt they worked together long enough to get onto politics. The Gotcha and arrest scene was satisfying enough. Again, perhaps not as conclusive as it might be, but the poison ivy in the glass from the slide was still a great piece of deduction, and the episode came with a sense of closure. I wouldn't say this is top-tier Columbo. But it's still perfectly watchable. </blockquote>

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