MovieChat Forums > Columbo (1971) Discussion > Any Old Port in a Storm was

Any Old Port in a Storm was


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."

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I agree. That's why I wounldn't rate this episode so highly as others do.

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The show is about Columbo matching wits against a killer and the killer admitting defeat.

It has nothing to do with whether charges are filed and whether the killer could win in court.

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Though Columbo wouldn't last too long if none of it stood up in court.

"If Mad Max Fury Road is an 8, then I'll use 8 for OK, 9 is better, 10 is best."

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You're right, it is one of the thinnest cases.

And yet it remains one of my most favourite Columbo episodes.

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Agreed on both points. I've seen your comments on Exercise In Fatality - also one of my favourites!

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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

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his hitting the brother was impulsive, but what he did afterwards was pretty evil.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Agree.

"If Mad Max Fury Road is an 8, then I'll use 8 for OK, 9 is better, 10 is best."

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He gave in not because Columbo had a great case, but because his secretary knew the truth and was 'putting the screws in'.

That's why he says something at the end like 'Freedom is relative'.


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that 'freedom is realtive, isa. Great line, one of my favourites.

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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!)

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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. :-D

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. :-D

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.

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Ah ha! Thank you! I've watched that thing I don't know how many times and missed that! They're re-running those regularly here -- I'll get another chance soon, I'm sure! Thanks! :-)

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Ellsinore wrote:

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. :-D

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.


Columbo knew not only that the brother had died by suffocation, but that he couldn't have suffocated while scuba-diving as the staging indicated--both because the car wasn't in the condition it would have been if left out that long, and because the brother wasn't known for fasting (and autopsy proved he hadn't eaten for days before his death).

If the wine was spoiled by heat then the wine had been kept somewhere without A/C for a few days. That wouldn't PROVE that the brother had died in the wine cellar, but combined with the facts that the brother had been seen arriving but not leaving (once the false testimony was discounted) AND that Carsini had motive to kill his brother, would have been good evidence in court, even if Carsini hadn't confessed.


As for Carsini in prison--for those who've seen The Great Escape, it's impossible not to picture Blythe-the-Forger (another great performance by Donald Pleasence.)


..........what a shame about Amazon deciding to close down these boards. Though apparently the trolling is bad on the superhero-movie boards (and some others), there are thousands of us who get real value from coming to read and post about the less-blockbuster fare such as our beloved Columbo.

If Amazon could make a profit on these boards, they'd continue them. How about putting ads on the boards (instead of just on the main-info pages)? They could sell annual memberships that would let users have a no-ads experience----lots of message board sites do that.




_ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ .
Grey Fairy / White Wolf

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If Amazon could make a profit on these boards, they'd continue them. How about putting ads on the boards (instead of just on the main-info pages)? They could sell annual memberships that would let users have a no-ads experience----lots of message board sites do that.


I hate to say it, but I pay 7$ a month for Netflix and use these boards more than I watch Netflix.

This is one of the only websites I go to.

I'd have been willing to pay 3-5$ a month just to use the message boards during my night shifts, when they've helped me kill a few hours here and there over the past 4 years.

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Amazon would probably make a profit on these message boards even at the rate of $10 per year for a see-no-ads membership. (And I'm sure you're not the only one willing to pay even more.)

I'm still hoping they will stop and think about the business opportunity they're throwing away by closing the boards altogether. As someone was saying on the board for "The Affair," coming to the boards and then going to Amazon to actually pay for some movie or show is far from uncommon, for that individual.



_ . _ . _ . _ . _ . _ .
Grey Fairy / White Wolf

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Carsini went to prison and hooked up with some BAD people. He escaped and changed his name to Blofeld and tried to start World War III. (OK, never mind that the timeline doesn't add up.) :-)

John

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