User Reviews

This was the first televised episode of the Columbo series (although it was filmed after "Death Lends a Hand")and it heralded one of the most successful TV series in history.

Jack Cassidy (who played the murderer in the series three times) enthuses smugness, arrogance and self-assuredness in equal measure here, as Ken Franklin, one half of a mystery writing team who hatches an elaborate plot to kill off his partner, Jim Ferris (played by Martin Milner) who decides to terminate their professional relationship, leaving Franklin exposed as merely a good publicist rather than a prolific writer.

The initial murder set-up is fantastic and Cassidy's performance facilitates an arguable accolade that he was the best Columbo murderer in the series.

Peter Falk is wonderfully understated in his role as Columbo and the character's inherent traits and oddities, which are underlined by a seeming slowness and absent-mindedness, contrast particularly well with Cassidy's character's extreme smugness: one of their early scenes together where Ken Franklin fabricates a motive for the killing through Jim Ferris's non-existent expo-see of identifying hit-men operating in the underworld exemplifies this very well. Franklin hints to Columbo this potential motive and Columbo (purposely or ignorantly) fails to latch on, forcing Franklin to express his disappointment in a markedly patronising manner and compare him unfavourably with the detective in the books, Mrs. Melville.

Also, noteworthy is the early directorial contribution of 24 year old Steven Spielberg. Notwithstanding, some elementary inclusions of cameras shadowing the actors and actresses, he adds some stylish and elaborate touches to uphold the general professionalism of the episode. One particularly stark image is of Jim Feriss's dead body lying on the settee, almost dark in the foreground, as Ken Franklin raises a glass to him in the background after he finishes answering a phone call to Ferris's distraught wife. I have no doubt that working to a restrictive 10-14 day schedule, Spieberg's efforts should not be underestimated.

Unfortunately, the event of the second murder, necessitated by a blackmailing scheme which is plotted by a female friend of Franklin's (and ironically referred to as "sloppy" by Columbo in his climatic summing up) takes the steam out of the whole thing. The cutting edge of the plot is compromised and the screen-time between Falk and Cassidy inexcusably lessens at this point to perhaps help the script-writer (Stephen Bocho) out of a tight corner, since he cannot singularly develop the story without another murder.

The climax is the most disappointing aspect of this episode. The initial banter and exchange of words between Falk and Cassidy is strongly and effectively executed, but it merely advertises the fact that it should have happened more in the episode. The main aggravation lies with the sealing clue (if it can be called a clue): Cassidy's character's hitherto smugness and arrogance is amazingly expelled by a clue that really does little to imply his guilt; and once this is mentioned, he capitulates in a rather unspectacular and uncharacteristic fashion.

All in all, a bold opening to the series, which inevitably advertises and foretells all that is good about Columbo, and, conversely, the problems associated with such ingenuity, i.e maintaining the high standards and particularly, creating a credible and suitably intelligent ending.

"Murder by the Book" from 1971 is the first episode of Columbo with guest stars Jack Cassidy, Martin Milner, Barbara Colby, and Rosemary Forsyth.

When this episode debuted, the next day, everyone was talking about the IBM Selectric with the type ball. Yes, I saw it when it was first on television.

Jack Cassidy and Martin Milner play Ken Franklin and Jim Ferris, a writing team responsible for the Mrs. Merivale mystery series. Milner plays the partner who actually writes the books, and Cassidy does the publicity, including talk shows, interviews, etc.

When Jim decides to break up the team and go off on his own, Ken has a fit -- that happens before the episode begins. Here, he is trying to apologize and lures Jim to his cabin in San Diego, where he kills him.

He's very clever with the arrangements, but then he meets Columbo. Columbo always notices the little things that add up to one word: murder.

Jack Cassidy always made a great sleaze, and here he plays an arrogant monster well. Milner, the victim, has a smaller role.

This was an excellent episode, though sad to realize that Falk, Cassidy, Milner, and Colby are all dead now, Colby at the age of 36. She does a wonderful job here as a flirtatious woman who owns a store near Ken's cabin.

Columbo is my favorite series of all time, and I was so privileged to interview Peter Falk in the late '90s. He was an incredible man. I love what he did with this role.

For those who may not know this, Columbo: Prescription Murder (the first pilot) was based on a play starring Thomas Mitchell as Columbo. It was playing out of town prior to coming into New York when Mitchell suddenly died.

Directed by Steven Spielberg,"Murder by the Book" holds up beautifully today.

For me, there have been better Columbo episodes, but there have been worse as well. Murder By the Book is a very good episode and apart from losing steam a bit after the second murder, with Columbo and Franklin's scenes together being disappointingly sidelined and the final solution while well acted felt I agree delayed and Franklin's change in character at being found out felt uncharacteristic, it is well worth watching.

The episode once again looks good with the photography quite striking especially, and the music is haunting. The episode is very well directed by Steven Spielberg, it has some top notch writing and the premise like How to Dial a Murder is ingenious and given justice by a well written plot with many scenes to savour especially with Franklin.

The acting is very good, with Peter Falk exceptional and Jack Cassidy wonderfully smug. The two men work really well together too.

Overall, without being one of the best, it is an interesting one and is very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Ken Franklin (Jack Cassidy), the non-writing half of a mystery novel writing team, murders the writing half of the team, Jim Ferris (Martin Milner). Franklin was the smooth one that handled the publicity and TV appearances. Ferris was planning on leaving the team after his next novel to work on an expose of organized crime. Franklin plans everything well, making it look like Ferris was murdered in Los Angeles for his ongoing investigation into the mafia, while Franklin was away at his vacation cabin, thus having an alibi. But two things trip him up. One, of course, is the fact that Columbo is on the case. The other is that a rather toothy middle aged widow who runs the country store where Franklin's cabin is actually saw Ferris with Franklin on the day of the murder. And she has blackmail on her mind.

A note to would be blackmailers. Don't think that you can blackmail somebody, even for a nominal sum, and that they'll be your friend, or in the widow's case, return your romantic interest. By definition, they see you as an enemy because that is what you are.

In this episode, Columbo does something he normally does not do onscreen. He talks to the widow of the murder victim and tells her exactly who he thinks the killer is and what he thinks about him and enlists her help in trying to catch him. Normally, although you may suspect what Columbo thinks, he saves how he came to his deductions until the final scene. Also, the motive is not revealed until the end. Franklin is a cool customer, so it was probably not anger that made him carry out such a premeditated crime, and with Ferris planning on breaking up their partnership, murder is not going to change that, so I was anxious to know what possible motive there could be. To that I'd say, watch and find out.

In the Columbo series, one of the better elements is the underestimating of the Lieutenant. The smarter the crook, the more likely he or she is to see Columbo as a boob. This is a fatal mistake for these people because all they see is that awful Peugeot and that ragged topcoat and twisted tie. Another thing they like to do is go into a detailed explanation of things Columbo didn't notice. Columbo's response is routinely a self deprecating "I never thought of that." Of course, at that point he files that away as a part of his barrel of possible inconsistencies. He will eventually throw some of these things in the face of his prime suspect. Jack Cassidy, the handsome man with the great dimples, and the husband of Shirley Jones, sees himself as so clever and so on top of things, that he drops right into the trap. The two things I enjoyed the most in this series was the construction of the crime and Columbo's unraveling of it. A third would be his relentlessness after he was convinced of the perpetrator: "Oh, there's one thing more." Good early episode.

Peter Falk's third appearance as Columbo (after a pair of two-hour NBC World Premiere Movies) officially kicked off the "Columbo" series, as well as the "NBC Mystery Movie" in September 1971.

Filmed after the superior "Death Lends a Hand," but aired first, it has the distinction of having been directed by Steven Spielberg in those days before "Jaws" when he was still cranking out episodic television on the backlot of Universal. There are some smart directorial touches, particularly in the opening scenes where the sound of Martin Milner's typewriter serves as the sole soundtrack, but this a disappointing episode overall.

As the less talented half of a famous mystery writing team (not unlike Richard Levinson and William Link, "Columbo"'s creators), Jack Cassidy makes a classy villain, one who would be invited to square off against Peter Falk on two more occasions (including season three's "Publish or Perish" which was also set against a publishing background). Unfortunately, Steven Bochco's script drags along, making this a frequently dull episode. Worse, the denouement finds Columbo wrapping things up based on flimsier than usual evidence. Had the killer not confessed, he could have walked away from his crime.

Still, Peter Falk is terrific, and makes it worth watching.

Brian W. Fairbanks

Casting Jack Cassidy as Ken Frankin was sheer brilliance. Cassidy personified arrogance, confidence, charm and wit - all with a condescending, evil little smirk on his face. In my opinion, Jack Cassidy is by far the best murderer (having appeared three times) in the Columbo series. This particular (and first) performance, is my favorite Columbo episode ever - hands down. A fresh faced Steven Spielberg did amazing camera work (yes, there were a couple of camera shadows on the actors at times)capturing the nuances and banter at different and intriguing angles between Columbo and Franklin. Also, the panoramic and tight in shots at Big Bear Lake, CA (Franklin's cabin home) were very impressive.

If you have not yet seen this episode, then you owe it to yourself to do so - it's a true masterpiece.

Jack Cassidy was a very talented actor and singer. His charismatic personality was highly infectious. His death in 1976, at age 49 was very sad and indeed very tragic - he surely had his best years ahead of him. Rest in Peace Jack, you will live on for eternity through your great work.

A terrific start to the series, and I'm not just saying this because of its director: he'd have done a great job on this even if his name was Joe Nobody. Spielberg's cool, clipped way of creating an air of menace, through constant anticipations (not for nothing does the opening panning shot include a skull on Ferris' table) in the opening sequences should be required viewing at film schools. He still permits the classic character conflict to evolve in the later, less firmly paced stages: even inserting a signature (reflected in E.T. and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS) of officials loudly creating fuss and sidelining the vulnerable, in the scene at the Ferris home just before Columbo appears. Jack Cassidy, unfairly only really remembered today as the father of teen idol David, is on splendid, autocratically smarmy form here, as a mystery writer who can't write, but knows how to play the media. His staring eyes and coldly composed face as he points the gun at the camera, for the second time, are unforgettable. As ever, Falk charms in his down-to-earth manner, complaining of the cold - "there's no lining on this coat" - and helping out the distressed Mrs. Ferris in the kitchen. (A shame that Rosemary Forsyth is saddled with a line like, "I know Ken, he's not a murderer", though.) The music, more than slightly reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann's score for PSYCHO, is another eerie advantage. All in all, a shame that Falk's plan to get Spielberg to direct COLUMBO's return to TV, in 1989, came to nothing........

Interesting that the very first Columbo episode with Jack Cassidy as the murderer was one of the less successful dramatically in my humble opinion. Because of that it convinces me more than ever that the series and the character were sold brilliantly to the television audience by Peter Falk.

Cassidy plays half of the mystery writing team of Cassidy and Martin Milner and does this guy have one hell of a racket. Milner is the creative one and Cassidy gets half the royalties by just doing the public relations with the newspapers, the TV and Radio talk shows, all that stuff with all the fringe benefits coming with it.

Well the gravy train has now come to an end because Milner wants to go out on his own. You would think that Cassidy would want the last thing to be Milner's demise because he would still hope for reconciliation. What he does do though is take out a hefty insurance policy on Milner and proceed with an elaborate murder plot.

If anything this Columbo episode proved Milner really was the creative one because he is the obvious suspect. The insurance policy and his deliberate deception with phone calls placed are traced easily enough and don't ring true. And above all he gets himself blackmailed by the owner of a general store played by Barbara Colby and has to do another and less planned murder. For a guy so arrogant as Cassidy was and he set a pattern for Columbo villains he really botched this one.

The late Barbara Colby whose career and life came so tragically to an end only a few years later, she plays an interesting if spaced out character. Her scenes with Cassidy are the best part of this episode.

Still though Columbo would face far more deceptive villains in the future.

One half of a murder-mystery writing duo murders his partner in mysterious style, and is confident he can outwit the modest smarts of an 'umble ickle detective.

Pretty good. Nice to watch an investigation that doesn't rely on scientific forensics, but I think they missed a sweet trick. Although the end is ironic, a round of double irony could have been served through the portrait of the fictional detective - don't want to spoil anything, but the discussion of the royalties is key to the passion in this crime, and switching the mastermind could have delivered a really well layered story that uncovered the past of the characters.

Direction is by Spielberg, so there are some nice unusual angles on faces - although the dark close up at the home-cooked champagne meal was poor. That Slanka character should have been weird rather then sweet, but the acting was good.

The stand out is the music by Mancini.

Overall - nicely done, but they left points on the field.

After two pilot movies, NBC greenlit "Columbo" as a regular rotating show in its "Mystery Theater" which aired weekly. "Murder By the Book" is the first "Columbo" airing in the series. It also has a distinction of being directed by a relatively new and inexperienced guy...Steven Spielberg.

Ken (Jack Cassidy) and Jim (Martin Milner) have together published some very successful murder mystery books starring Mrs. Melville--a Miss Marple-type character. However, Jim wants to end their partnership and write on his own, as he's both tired of Mrs. Melville and he's been doing almost all the writing. Ken decides to deal with this by murdering his old partner. But it's not a spur of the moment killing....Ken thinks he's very clever and thinks by planning it out and staging it properly he'll no doubt get away with the murder. However, as often is the case, he underestimates the police....and especially Lieutenant Columbo.

This installment works very, very well. Most of it is because Cassidy made an excellent villain...very smug, superior and self-assured. And, this might be why although this was NOT the first completed episode of the series, it was moved to the front...most likely to make a strong impression on fans.

Steven Spielberg then a young television director on contract to Universal made the first regular episode of Columbo.

Jack Cassidy plays Ken Franklin who along with writing partner Jim Ferris has produced the successful range of Mrs Merivale mysteries which have made them both a lot of money. Ferris actually writes the books and comes up with the plot ideas with Franklin doing the publicity.

However Jim now wants to end the writing partnership and Ken lures him to his cabin in San Diego in order to kill him. He has a plan set up that Jim was abducted from his office by some hoodlums upset because of what he was researching.

However Columbo suspects Ken, who appears to be smarmy, over confident and puzzled as to why Ken chose to drive from San Diego back to LA rather than taking a flight which should had been faster given his long time creative partner had died.

Ken also has to resort to commit a second sloppy murder because he was witnessed hanging about with Jim near his cabin in San Diego.

Jack Cassidy is terrific as the villain of the piece and his performance is helped by Spielberg's direction who makes him exude sinister charm without being hammy. Cassidy would go on to appear in several other Columbo films.

However I think Columbo's denouement was weak which was a sign of sloppy writing from Steven Bochco.

First thing. I have actually driven myself from San Diego to LA, it takes about 2 and half hours. If Ken went to the airport in San Diego, he would need to arrive, wait for his plane, then fly to LA, disembark, go through security and drive to wherever from LA airport. Taking into account that in 1971 Ken would not need to arrive at the airport as early as you do nowadays and security would not be as stringent. Columbo's assertion that flying would had been faster just does not hold up.

More importantly Ken's last line does not make much sense when he states that the murder plot was his own idea from some years ago that he told Jim about and he did not know that Jim would write it down in a piece of paper. It was well known Jim always scribbled ideas down, Ken should had known that!

PLOT: One member of a popular mystery writing team (Jack Cassidy) murders his partner (Martin Milner) after he threatens to go off on his own. He claims he was 2 hours away at his cabin-on-the-lake while his partner was shot at the office in Los Angeles. Rosemary Forsyth plays the victim's wife while Barbara Colby is on hand as a flirtatious neighbor at the cabin.

COMMENTARY: This was the first episode of the series after the two pilot movies and therefore has a shorter runtime of 75 minutes. It was directed & co-written by Steven Spielberg when he only 24 years-old, just a few years before his great success with "Jaws" (1975).

This is one of my favorite episodes of the series, highlighted by the conniving Cassidy, who would reappear in two future installments, the problematic "Publish or Perish" (1974) and the excellent "Now You See Him" (1976). He made for such a sly antagonist, but perished prematurely at the age of 49 in late 1976 from a house fire.

GRADE: A-

MURDER BY THE BOOK is another early instalment of the Columbo series, featuring regular guest star Jack Cassidy in his first appearance on the show. It's a well-directed little mystery with tight writing and a decent premise, and is chiefly of note today for its direction by none other than Steven Spielberg, back when he was still making TV movies and episodes before hitting the big time.

Cassidy is always a fun, belligerent presence in this show and the scenes of him interacting with an ever-persistent Columbo are undoubtedly the highlights. However, the short running time and the extra incident of the plot keeps this one moving quickly along and there are some well-judged performances from the supporting cast members, in particular Barbara Colby as the delightful store owner. MURDER BY THE BOOK doesn't contain quite as much comedy or personal stuff from Falk as I like but otherwise it's a hit.

I saw this movie a few weeks ago, and I think that it was very well made. Peter Falk is as always very amusing to see, and the other characters interact very well with each other. --a well deserved 5/5--

Ken Franklin decides it's time to do away with his writing partner Jim, he concocts an audacious plan, but around every corner is Lieutenant Columbo.

The much loved and well remembered Columbo series kicked off with this very good feature length murder mystery.

A solid case for Columbo, it's well plotted, with interesting characters, better plots would follow, but it's imaginative enough.

As has been documented, it's expertly made by Stephen Spielberg, visually it's a cut above what was coming out at the time. It definitely has a movie like feel to it, there are some great camera angles.

That Mercedes Benz is one incredibly beautiful piece of kit, what a beauty. Just one thing that's worth looking out for, there's some gorgeous scenery here.

Great start from Peter Falk, he's so watchable, so charismatic, who doesn't love Columbo, all of the quirks we all know and love are here.

Jack Cassidy is brilliant as the villain of the piece, he arguably gets most of the screen time, and for good reason, he's far from the typical one dimensional villain, Franklin is conceited, superior and a tough nut to crack, wonderfully smug.

A good, enjoyable mystery.

7/10.