User Reviews

This is not the best Columbo episode, nor even my favorite, but it has one moment in it that I will always treasure.

George Wendt has a chance here - finally - to move away from his lovable barfly "Norm" in CHEERS. Here he plays a hard working grasshopper type. He runs a horse farm, and has been grooming and training a potentially great horse. But he's stuck with a ne'er-do-well brother (Jeff Yagher)who is potentially going to wrecked all of Wendt's hopes by his gambling debts. Wendt kills this idiot, but now has to figure out how to avoid going to jail because of it. His brother's debts are owed to Jay Acovone (playing a bookie for the Mob). Wendt lures Acovone to his home to collect the debt, and shoots the bookie "in self defense". The idea is that Yagher was killed by the bookie as a message to Wendt to pay up or else.

Enter Colombo...and Peter Falk is soon beginning to spot all the apparent unnoticed minor details that Wendt overlooked (but which the surface incidents seem to cover pretty well). But Falk realizes he has competition. It seems mobsters have private lives too. Acovone was more than a Mob bookie: he was the close godson of local Mob capo Rod Steiger, and Steiger (who like most capos has a pretty shrewd head on his shoulders) realizes that Acovone had no hand in this crazy "message" murder if he was expecting to be paid.

What happens then is similar to an episode from the first decade of "Colombo" where Hector Elizondo was an Arab diplomat who killed Sal Mineo to hide and advance a conspiracy against his monarch, and Falk and the monarch end up putting Elizondo on the spot in a squeeze play. Here Steiger works with Falk in putting Wendt in a similar squeeze-play.

Falk and Steiger have nice moments together, including a moment of lunch when Falk suddenly realizes they are eating a specialty that he can't eat, but Steiger happens to like. But the best moment comes when Wendt sees his real moment of truth. Confronting Steiger and his army of goons at a small coffee shop, only Falk happens to be there. When Falk (playing his game on Wendt) sees that Steiger means to kill Wendt and anyone else who is "troublesome", he says finally, "My salary is not worth this!", and walks out. We know he's doing it to effectively scare Wendt, but boy is it funny to see his limit finally!

This is one of the best 1989+ Columbos because it relies on that old standby of the 1970s classic era, a great performance by a heralded movie actor, this time Rod Steiger. Columbo's interactions with the mob chieftain and his utilizing him to get a confession out of the murderer are nothing short of fantastic.

Additionally, the double murder plot is very reminiscent of the Columbo halcyon days gone by. I mean, couldn't you just picture Jack Cassidy in the George Wendt role? And while many of the 1990s era episodes involved slip ups in the use or proof in the form of the technology of the time, there is none of that here. Wendt's mistakes are small and not definitive; as in the good old days, they are just enough to make Columbo suspicious and he then has to rely on his guile and wits to get the murderer to incriminate himself; in this case revealing where the most crucial piece of evidence is hidden.

And reviewers who claim that it is out of character for Columbo to use less than honest methods to trap his prey must not be familiar with a few of the very best Columbo episodes like A Friend in Deed, Death Lends a Hand and Negative Reaction. Basically, once his instincts convince him who the killer is, he would do just about anything to see the case through. In fact, Columbo admits to pretty much exactly that in the 1989's Columbo Goes to College.

All and all, an extremely entertaining later entry in the series which hearkens back to the golden years.

"Strange Bedfellows" is a 1995 Columbo that guest-stars Rod Steiger, George Wendt, and Jeff Yagher.

Wendt and Yagher play brothers Graham and Teddy McVeigh who co-own a thoroughbred stable. Unfortunately, Teddy is a compulsive gambler and now owes something like $200,000 to the mob. Graham has held back his prize racehorse on several races to increase the odds, and agrees to let him finally win to pay off Teddy's debts. Well, that's what he says he's going to do. Knowing Teddy will just end up with another debt, Graham has other plans. Those plans include two murders.

What he doesn't count on is Columbo, who gets onto him almost immediately because of a couple of mistakes. But Columbo isn't Graham's major problem. His major problem is a capo (Rod Steiger) who knows he's responsible for the murder of one of his minions and wants him dead.

Rod Steiger is hilarious as the don, with the worst Italian accent in history, doubling every consonant. Also suddenly Columbo doesn't know any Italian - he did twenty years earlier in Murder Under Glass, and if there's one thing I loathe in any show, it's inconsistent character history.

The running thread throughout is Columbo's stomach problems, which add immensely to the show.

I happen to have interviewed both Steiger and Falk and adored both of them, so this was a special episode for me. Hard to be objective, but I disagree with the poor reviews. This is an excellent episode.

***MAJOR SPOILERS*** Let. Francis-Yes that's his first name- Columbo, Peter Falk, is forced to team up with big time Mafiso kingpin Don Vincenzo Fortelli, Rod Steiger,in getting Graham McViegh, George Wendt, to confess to two murders that he committed. One of his good for nothing younger brother Teddy, Jeff Yagher, and the other of mobbed up restaurateur Bruno Romano, Jay Acovone, to whom Teddy was in for, in gambling debts, a cool $200,000.00. Having had enough of bailing out his leach of a brother Teddy losses to mob bookies Graham sets him up in losing a horse race that he tipped off Fortelli was in the bag. That in reality , due to Graham doping up the horse, he lost after having bet $30,000.00 on the nag to win. A panic stricken, in knowing what Fortelli got in store for him, Teddy runs to his brother for help only to get shot and killed by him and making it look like it was one of Fortelli's goons, Bruno Romano, who murdered him.

To make things even better Graham later has Romano killed in tricking him into coming into his house to pick up the $200,000.00 that his brother Teddy owes him. The one thing that Graham didn't count on is that Let. Columbo was put on the case who despite his lame brain and clueless demeanor figured out that he was behind both murders. The only problem for Let. Columbo was to trick Graham into confession to his crimes and that's where Mafiso Don Vincenzo came in. Wanting Graham knocked off Mafia style for murdering his good friend Bruno Romano Fortelli is talked into by Let. Columbo in letting justice take its course.

***SPOILERS*** It doesn't take much to get a scared out of his wits Graham to confess to his crimes knowing that if the wheels of justice don't get him Vincenzo'a hit men will. Let. Columbo knowing that a confession on his part will convict Graham of the double murder that he committed he used Vincenzo as a back up in convincing him that if he ends up getting off a far worse fate would awaited him on the outside. Let. Columbo played it right knowing how the by now sweaty and fearing for his life Garham would react. But if Let. Columbo was wrong and Garham was killed because of his inaction he would have well been an accomplice in his murder!

All the elements are in place here, great acting and an interesting story. Columbo's trademark mind games about smoking and mice are especially hilarious. What's great is that he suspects Graham McVeigh from the very beginning and is deliberately toying with him. It's a particularly good combination of comedy and suspense in this episode.

The triple-bluff restaurant scene was excellently planned by Columbo, and as in "It's All In The Game", he will gladly go to great lengths in socialising with people (in this case the Mafia) in order to get his conviction. But it's made clear that Columbo is a "cream soda" kind of guy, so it's not out of character at all, just what he has to do to get enough firm evidence of McVeigh's guilt.

I honestly don't think you can say this is in any way inferior to the original 70s episodes. It's perfect, timeless stuff.

One of the best.

First of all, the exact timing the killer needed to pull off what happened at the bar, with the mice and phone call was a million to one shot; not believable! Plus, there is no way he would order the same drink, especially "easy on the soda!" He would never use his lighter as well. These details are all ludicrous.,ABSURD!

I enjoyed this one... There is, however, a glaring hole in the plot. After Graham murders his brother? He should have just stopped. His brother had gambling debts. Then tries to pay them off with a race that is "fixed" but not really fixed. There is no evidence to convict anyone. Suspicion is all on those who lost money, - but no evidence... He just walks away. Instead he traps Bruno and kills him. KNOWING that this man does take gambling bets, and if he is not in the organization? He is definitely "connected" in a friendly way. It was this 2nd murder that destroys McVeigh. Before this, all Columbo had was some ashes in a car.

Even though George 'Norm' Wendt seems to have only one facial expression, he is always fun to watch somehow. Of course, he is legendary for playing the barfly postman in 'Cheers', but in the horror films 'King of the ants' (2003) and 'Family' (2006) he did a real nice job as well. Here, he does so, too. It's a lot of fun watching how he plays a calculating, down to earth villain who slowly loses control of his 'perfect' plan.

Rod Steiger as the big crime boss was impressive, too, and Columbo opposes both actors with plenty of verve, even if it seemed a little far fetched that he would immediately eye Graham McVeigh (Wendt) as if he knew he did it without any proof or indication of guilt at that time. I guess that's part of the show.

What usually is nót part of the show, is that Frank teams up with the mafia (he will do it again in a later episode as well) to catch his guy. This does not make him any more sympathetic, at all. It is actually something that really stings. This crime boss initially says he wants justice, but later on just wants a load of money back. Truly reprehensible, in spite of Frank's refusal to have drinks with the guy in the end. I don't really understand how they came up with this sort of writing, or what purpose they thought it would serve.

A rather big blemish on an otherwise pretty good episode (the plot is just fine otherwise), so I don't want to go any higher than 6 out of 10.

P.s.: it is a little strange that Frank claims he does not speak Italian, when he clearly did perfectly in several episode before this. Maybe he was trying to fool the crime boss? But if so, to what avail?

Columbo gets all rogue by being in cahoots in a kind of subtle way with mobsters to get Graham McVeigh (played by the rotund George Wendt post-Cheers) arrested for a double murder. One of the victims was Graham's brother played by Jeff Yagher, who originally played Officer Thomas Hanson in the pilot episode of 21 Jump Street, but was dumped afterwards in favor of a little-known actor by the name of Johnny Depp.

Anyway, Strange Bedfellows isn't for everyone, especially with Columbo bending the law to arrest the culprit, but remember this was released in 1995, the year after the arrest of a famous retired NFL player and the allegations of police misconduct from that.

I thought George Wendt was good in the role. He seems like a narcissist to me and had no fear(at least at first) of the mob.

I thought it was odd the bicycle tracks and footprints of the ahem.... rather heavy character of Graham were completely ignored at the scene of the crime.

Rod Steiger as Fortelli seems a very bad cliche of a mobster.

Columbo was great in the clues that he did notice such as the ashes and the timetable of Bruno's call.

The ending was shall we say terrible. Instead of Columbo cleverly outwitting the murderer and getting them to implicate themself in a mistake, here he uses frankly, illegal tactics. I believe it's called "under duress." Now it appears some reviewers were ok with this, but it seemed like lazy writing to me. The writer was incapable of having that "oh snap" moment with clever writing for Columbo to outwit the killer. In other words, the writer had no way out other than this. Or no imagination at the very least.

Why are we supposed to be ok with a murderer, Fortelli, who probably killed plenty of people in his lifetime, helping Columbo to catch a murderer that killed 2 people? The nice guy mobster thing is a joke. Mobsters are NOT nice people. Fortelli has probably has a trail of hundreds of unsolved murders in his tracks.

Anyway a rather weak ending. Love Columbo, but this was not worthy of him as a character or to the series. 5/10.

Bill of Rights? Who needs it! Miranda? Nah! Assault, coercion, threat of violence and murder, conspiracy, accessory before and after the fact of several counts of violent crime, Columbo's having a hell of a day! Too bad that none of the evidence gathered during the final scene would be admissible in any Court not to mention would probably cost Columbo his badge. This is an astonishly bad Columbo episode and if it were not for Rod Steiger it would be 100% flushable.

The newer Columbo episodes are not consistent in quality, though fortunately this particular one is pretty entertaining. It's not a perfect episode. For starters, while it was established in the 1970s episodes that Columbo is fluent in Italian, in this episode it's illustrated that he doesn't know the language at all. Also, the way that Columbo manages to get the killer at the very end somewhat smells of entrapment, if not very elaborate and unbelievable. Fortunately, the merit in the episode manages to outweigh the shortcomings. Columbo may be older, but he's still sharp and at the top of his game, and his method of operation here is for the most part plausible. And while actor Rod Steiger at this stage of his career was best known for hammy performances, here he tones it down considerably and makes his mob boss character interesting. This is not a classic episode of the series, but it shows that even in 1995 there was still life in our favorite television detective.