Any Old Port in a Storm was
-
Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Columbo
CarlCarlson — 9 years ago(November 26, 2016 11:24 AM)
one of the thinnest cases. In fact, just finished watching it and, it seemed,
the brother gave in without Columbo pinning him with the murder. It was only because his wine cellar got hot. Circumstantial evidence.
"If Mad Max Fury Road is an 8, then I'll use 8 for OK, 9 is better, 10 is best." -
coolslowhand — 9 years ago(November 30, 2016 12:29 PM)
This episode is a personal favorite of two of my mystery friends and hated by a couple of others for just that reason
But I think the killer had a different mindset than kther killers. He was a fairly sensitive and mild mannered guy. Once he knew columbo knew and had evidence of his scheme be folded faster than a cheap card table.
The stronger the personality of the villain, the more hard evidence columbo needed to trap them -
wesperkins — 9 years ago(December 26, 2016 10:59 AM)
If my brother wanted to sell $5 per gallon mouthwash to those brothers who wanted to buy the vineyard I would smack him in the head too! Now I'm off to decant some wine and head to an auction in New York. They are selling a marvelous bottle of merlot and I hope to get it at auction at $5000.
Yes it was one of the more horrific murders on the show, yet it's also my favorite episode. I was wondering at the end how long he would last in prison. My guess is not too long, unless he learned some tricks from playing with corkscrews his whole life. I think it shows what a wonderful job Donald P did if he made so many like this episode even while committing the vile crime he did and in the manner he did. I also thought the brother wasn't a sympathetic character, making the murder easier to swallow. I was watching Land of the Giants and knew I recognized one of the characters and it was the murdered brother from this episode. -
louiseculmer — 9 years ago(December 26, 2016 09:45 PM)
Smacking him on the head is one thing, shutting him up in the wine dellar to suffocate is another. though one wonders why the father didn't leave the vineyard to the older son n the first place, knowing he was the one who loved it. Instead he leaves it to the brother who doesn't care. That doesn't really make a lot of sense. I should think Donald Pleasance would do all right in prison. He will probably get the other prisoners interested in wine, perhaps they'll start a secret winemaking racket, maybe with smuggled grapes or something. or maybe the prsion would even let them start their own vineyard and produce wine for sale. It would be a good way of keeping them occupied.
-
Justice5 — 9 years ago(January 07, 2017 10:55 PM)
I could see him befuddling the jail house ruffians with his pithy insults-"insolent,muscule-bound heganists" while he longs for the "liquid filth" he loathed previously while having to entertain the love starved secretary on her weekly visits and tales of Marino Bros/Carsini "wine" being sold in cartons in Walgreen's for $4.99 or 2/$8.99.
-
fredgarv79 — 9 years ago(December 25, 2016 09:16 PM)
it's fun to point out stuff like how thin his evidence is, I think about that all the time but what really is important is the characters and the great, great actors of the time. this episode is perhaps my favorite simply because of donald plesance and a great story idea, even if flawed.
-
Ellsinore — 9 years ago(January 08, 2017 08:33 PM)
What a relief. This episode is one of my favorites, too, but I never understood the "evidence." Getting older, it's nice to get confirmation that others didn't get it either.
I resolved one night to watch it very carefully,
but I still didn't understand what the temp in the wine cellar had to do with anything. Did they even talk about the brother being in the wine cellar?
(Don't know if it's a spoiler or not, but this newbie isn't taking any chances!) -
Ellsinore — 9 years ago(January 24, 2017 10:09 AM)
But Carsini wasn't there when the power went out and spoiled the wine. He didn't even know about the power outage or the wine being ruined because they were in New York, I think, at the time?
There were plenty of reasons for Columbo to suspect Carsini, but how the murder was actually committed? Was there a clue that told him that? And, seems to me, being left in the wine cellar for one? two? weeks would do the trick, even without the power going out.
I'm still confused as to how any of that proved that Carsini left his brother in the wine cellar to die while he went on his trip to New York. The wine was a poor, unrelated victim of circumstance.
The wine reveal was great fun, but some connect the dots things were missing. Yes, Carsini was unnerved by the incident, and the secretary was putting the squeeze on him, so he caved.