This story puts Darren McGavin and Simon Oakland together in Seattle during a string of murders committed by a mad doctor left over from the Civil War. It has a fine cast of mostly over-the-hill but still well-known performers, most of them now overweight with their necks bulging out over their collars and their uniforms about to burst.
This series appeared at about the time "Columbo" was at its peak but there isn't much borrowed from the model except McGavin's curious outfit -- seersucker suit, straw hat, and white tennis shoes. His blustery, shouting reporter is the opposite of Coumbo's character.
This is one of the better entries in the series, a noticeable improvement over the original that had appeared the year before. The characters are more, well, interesting -- especially Nina Wayne as Charisma Beauty, a belly dancer. My God, a living Kewpie doll. And Margaret Hamilton scores as Miss Crabwell, as odious as the Wicked Witch.
There are little asides in the conversations that keep one's attention. Scott Brady as the police chief is having a shouting match with McGavin and he uses the word "vilification." There is a pause while McGavin looks puzzled, then asks, "You KNOW that word?"
Seattle's underground really exists but how much of what we see is real and how much is a set is impossible to say.
This series appeared at about the time "Columbo" was at its peak but there isn't much borrowed from the model except McGavin's curious outfit -- seersucker suit, straw hat, and white tennis shoes. His blustery, shouting reporter is the opposite of Coumbo's character.
This is one of the better entries in the series, a noticeable improvement over the original that had appeared the year before. The characters are more, well, interesting -- especially Nina Wayne as Charisma Beauty, a belly dancer. My God, a living Kewpie doll. And Margaret Hamilton scores as Miss Crabwell, as odious as the Wicked Witch.
There are little asides in the conversations that keep one's attention. Scott Brady as the police chief is having a shouting match with McGavin and he uses the word "vilification." There is a pause while McGavin looks puzzled, then asks, "You KNOW that word?"
Seattle's underground really exists but how much of what we see is real and how much is a set is impossible to say.