# 45 - Murder Under Glass

As I've said before , this is unquestionably the weakest episode . I'll give a few reasons ...

_ The acting is much too over the top , including , lamentably , Falk's . This shouldn't be too surprising , considering that it's an episode produced by Richard Alan Simmons , all of which - in my opinion - featured a much more caricatured Columbo . Louis Jourdan , the murderer , is also rather overplayed , with lines like : " But how did the murderer get the fugu poison INTO THE BOTTLE !!!!??? " . Not that hammy murderers can never be good ; Ray Miland's Jarvis Goodland in " The Greenhouse Jungle " , for example . What must get me about Jourdan , though , is that he talks not only exaggeratedly , but with an indistinguishable foreign accent . That's what got me about that albino Powder chap in " Powder " , too ... No . Wait a minute ; it was his lack of hair . But , to justify me making the Powder allusion , that crazy kid would've been even worse if he shared Jourdan's penchant for vaguely Dracula-like speech . And speaking of Dracula , I'm rather fond of Dracula ; not for who he is , but for what he is , and he is ... not that bad , all things considered , except for the bloodlust . We won't consider that .

_ The chef Albert character ; practically all he says , throughout his entire tenure on the episode , is how depressed he is . That kind of talk can rub off on a man , especially one as rotund and scowl-faced as Albert , and I have no doubt that there have been such men who have watched this episode over the years . Just such a man must have been - had to have been , if he gave even a little **** about reviewing his craft - Larry D . Mann , the actor who will live in infamy as the obese chef who couldn't ( think : reverse of Little Engine that could ; chefs and engines are diametrically opposed as all get out ) . And by " couldn't " , I mean " couldn't say anything but ' This is depressing ' . This infamy , however , applies only to those who judge Mann exclusively on his " Columbo " stint . I am one of those , for I have never seen the man ( Mann ) ever before or again , not even in my wildest dreams , and believe you me ... my dreams are exquisitely wild ...

_ The victim ; he acts as though he's a hollow human body with a desperately maimed coyote inside . I'm serious .

_ The musical score certainly isn't appropriate for a murder mystery , but sounds like something that'd be playing in a fancy restaurant ; in that sense it's appropriate for this episode , I suppose .

In the episode's favor , it does have a pretty crafty murder plot and some Chinese people ( a rarity in Columbo ) . To top off this superfluously ladened with failed humor review , I just recently discovered that the episode's director , Jonathan Demme , was also the director of " Silence of the Lambs " . This is significant in that I think that effort was generally garbage , too , being as overrated as the Matrix Trilogy ; Shrek Trilogy ; Lord of the Rings Trilogy ; numerous gangster and boxing films ; The Wizard of Oz , and much , much more !! And as always , I appreciate your comments , complaints , or even just a random key stroke , except " y " because ... I don't want to have to ... ask why .

By the way , I realize this whole thing smacks of cutesy stupidity-type humor ; don't hold it against me . I could now indulge in another stupid wordplay " joke " about you holding it against me , but I won't . And that's not a threat ; it's a promise .