Any Old Port in a Storm
- Episode aired Oct 7, 1973
- TV-PG
- 1h 36m
IMDb RATING
8.3/10
3.7K
YOUR RATING
A wine connisseur kills his half- brother to prevent him selling the family winery to a merchant company so he can pay off his gambling debts.A wine connisseur kills his half- brother to prevent him selling the family winery to a merchant company so he can pay off his gambling debts.A wine connisseur kills his half- brother to prevent him selling the family winery to a merchant company so he can pay off his gambling debts.
Regis Cordic
- Lewis
- (as Regis J. Cordic)
Monte Landis
- Steward
- (as Monty Landis)
John Blower
- Waiter
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaPeter Falk has stated that this episode is his personal favorite. He said that this was the first episode in which Columbo developed a sincere fondness for the murderer. Speaking of Columbo and the Donald Pleasence character, he said that "the two men shared something in common: an admiration for excellence." This was discussed in a 10-minute interview by Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962)" three days before the original broadcast of the episode, in which Falk praised the skills and performance of Pleasence.
- GoofsThe wine that Carsini and Columbo drink at the conclusion is a white dessert wine. No white dessert wines are ever marketed in a fiaschi or straw-covered bottle.
- SoundtracksThis Old Man
(uncredited)
English children's folk song
Whistled by Peter Falk
Featured review
A vintage old port...
An accomplished Columbo adventure with a well-written script that shrewdly fine-tunes the basic, well-established Columbo formula.
Donald Pleasence is magnificent as a wine fanatic who is horrified to learn that his impetuous and irresponsible brother (Gary Conway) is planning to sell off the family-owned vineyard. The sequence of increasingly antagonistic banter between the brothers, prior to the murder set-up, is powerful and ingenious. Pleasence renders Conway unconscious in a fit of rage in his office - does he immediately think of making it into a murder or does it become a gradual thought? In any case, the "eventual" murder is resourcefully constructed to be made to look like an accident; better than any other "made to look like an accident" scenario in the series.
Whilst there is not the typical plethora of circumstantial clues, the ones that are included are nicely inserted to achieve a decent impact.
The script-writer intriguingly develops the relationship between detective and murderer, as a mutual respect becomes apparent, especially as Columbo starts demonstrating his new-found knowledge on the subject of wine. Without contradicting myself, this is a remarkably positive element to the whole proceedings, given that my usual personal preference is for the Columbo-villain relationship to be more fractious.
Several later scenes uphold the high standard of the episode, primarily, when the murderer's grip over his secretary is "turned on it's head"; in the restaurant, when the murderer ironically complains about the over-heated wine; at the beach cliff-top, when the murderer is forced to throw away all of his wine from the cellar etc.
There is hardly a dull moment in this Columbo adventure; the pacing of the story is not frenetic, rather it is all executed in a calm, controlled manner which is symbolic of its subtleties.
It is one of Peter Falk's favourite episodes and one of mine - highly recommended viewing and an episode that would be great for newcomers to the series (if there are any) to watch, in order to endear themselves to the Columbo character.
Donald Pleasence is magnificent as a wine fanatic who is horrified to learn that his impetuous and irresponsible brother (Gary Conway) is planning to sell off the family-owned vineyard. The sequence of increasingly antagonistic banter between the brothers, prior to the murder set-up, is powerful and ingenious. Pleasence renders Conway unconscious in a fit of rage in his office - does he immediately think of making it into a murder or does it become a gradual thought? In any case, the "eventual" murder is resourcefully constructed to be made to look like an accident; better than any other "made to look like an accident" scenario in the series.
Whilst there is not the typical plethora of circumstantial clues, the ones that are included are nicely inserted to achieve a decent impact.
The script-writer intriguingly develops the relationship between detective and murderer, as a mutual respect becomes apparent, especially as Columbo starts demonstrating his new-found knowledge on the subject of wine. Without contradicting myself, this is a remarkably positive element to the whole proceedings, given that my usual personal preference is for the Columbo-villain relationship to be more fractious.
Several later scenes uphold the high standard of the episode, primarily, when the murderer's grip over his secretary is "turned on it's head"; in the restaurant, when the murderer ironically complains about the over-heated wine; at the beach cliff-top, when the murderer is forced to throw away all of his wine from the cellar etc.
There is hardly a dull moment in this Columbo adventure; the pacing of the story is not frenetic, rather it is all executed in a calm, controlled manner which is symbolic of its subtleties.
It is one of Peter Falk's favourite episodes and one of mine - highly recommended viewing and an episode that would be great for newcomers to the series (if there are any) to watch, in order to endear themselves to the Columbo character.
helpful•592
- The Welsh Raging Bull
- Sep 8, 2004
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- "Columbo - Wein ist dicker als Blut" (1975)
- Filming locations
- Mirassou Winery, 3000 Aborn Road, San Jose, California, USA(Carsini Winery)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content