Just read of the sad passing of the great Louis Jourdan - star of one of my favourite Columbo episodes and Bond films.

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/louis-jourdan-star-of-octo*****-gigi-dies-at-93-1201434557/

I've just seen this report too. I'm in the UK and the BBC website has the below article...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31483113

I do like this episode, I remember it well from when it was first broadcast back in the 70s when Louis Jourdan was very big on British TV. He had played Dracula in a BBC TV adaptation of that story and was all too convincing in the part.

I actually watched it again only a couple of weeks ago as the ITV channel in the UK still shows Columbo episodes on free-to-air TV on a regular basis and I came across Murder Under Glass one afternoon.

Louis was great in this episode, he was brilliant at giving you a sense of his mounting annoyance as Columbo gets closer and closer to the truth - and the last line is great!

Yes, that is one of my favourite Columbo episodes. I love how Columbo has all those fantastic dishes especially prepared for him, just because he's working on the case. I think Stuffed Mushrooms was one such dish. It makes me feel hungry every time I watch it! It's not the only episode where someone attempts to poison Columbo. Paul Gerard poisons Rossi's wine, quite cleverly. Then later (after Columbo has worked out how the wine was poisoned) Gerard tries the same trick on the Lieutenant. So that's murder and attempted murder for the perpetrator's crimes. Similarly in Rest in Peace Mrs Columbo, Helen Shaver (as Vivian Dimitri) attempts to poison Columbo with lemon marmalade. Are there any other episodes where someone tries to poison Columbo?

It's sad to hear of Louis Jordan's death, but 93 is a very good age

I'm very sorry to hear it. It took me forever to see some of his biggest roles, like the one in GIGI, but I've always been very fond of him.

This is the only episode I can think of that indirectly linked the killer with the victim. The usual formula is to from the beginning actually show stage by stage why and how the villain murders the victim. In this episode, the why is apparent, but the how is missing. The villain, Louis Jourdan, is seen preparing the poisonous "blowfish", then loading the syringe with the extracted poison and then injecting the poison into bottle opener, but never placing the opener in Rossi's restaurant. It seems like a broken chain of evidence. This is now on my Columbo favorite episodes list.

One of my all-time favorites -- funny, challenging, great acting, and very grand. Directed by Jonathan Demme (Philadelphia, Silence of the Lambs). Jordan a great elegant sleazeball in this one. How many '70s killers are still around, besides Vaughn, Shatner, and Bikel (?)?

Since I've never heard back from Dene Kernohan and I suspect his Dawidziak sequel is now dead, here's the piece I wrote for him on Murder Under Glass as my tribute to Jourdan.

Murder Under Glass
Of the many future A-listers who cut their creative teeth on Columbo, Steven Spielberg is the series’ valedictorian. The class salutatorian had to be Jonathan Demme, a mid-‘70s student of exploitation cinema under the likes of prolific B-movie king Roger Corman.
Murder Under Glass (1978) could be seen as a turning point for Demme as the director transitioned from drive-in fare such as Black Mama, White Mama to box office/critical hits including Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia. Ironic, considering Murder Under Glass itself attempted to cash in on another culinary black comedy, Someone Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe, released in 1978 with George Segal and Jacqueline Bisset.
In the film, the continent’s premiere chefs are being murdered in a manner that echoes their signature dishes (a lobster chef drowns, the master of baked pigeon found fully browned). In Murder Under Glass, Demme expertly assembles the top chefs of L.A., who are being extorted by renowned restaurant critic Paul Gerard, a sophisticated sleaze who devours free meals and protection payments. Columbo’s seventh season boasted star turns by Ruth Gordon, Nicol Williamson, Clive Revill, and Trish Van Devere (the victim of a jumbled story that attempted unsuccessfully to parody the film satire Network). Louis Jourdan, a French film idol who’d starred in Hitchcock’s The Paradine Case (1947), was an inspired choice for Gerard, serving tasty Hollywood ham with blue-nosed condescension and a reptilian gaze.
Act I concludes with the demise of Vittorio Rossi (Michael V. Gazzo), an Italian chef supremo who no longer can stomach Gerard’s blackmail. After Gerard regretfully leaves Rossi’s kitchen mid-entrée, Rossi collapses, poisoned by a bottle of wine he himself had uncorked. Gerard is quickly recalled to the restaurant, where he is greeted by the hulking Sgt. Burke and ushered to an audience with the Good Lieutenant, who’s already tucked into a late supper prepared by Rossi’s man Albert. In the latter-day Columbo tradition, the slovenly sleuth is clearly someone to reckon with, though Gerard is too much the snob to grasp the threat and is taken in by Columbo’s effusive foodie fanboyism.
This is an episode to enjoy within reach of the fridge. As he explores the impossible crime Gerard’s so meticulously concocted, Columbo is treated to gourmet mushrooms, dim sum, and other delights provided by the Friends of Rossi. Demme revels in a banquet of comedic mystery, delivering scrumptious set pieces such as Columbo’s bilingual interrogation of Rossi’s disconsolate Italian waiter, a disrupted graveside ceremony, Columbo’s flirtation with a courtly geisha and near-collision with the murder “weapon” during a Japanese feast, Columbo and Gerard’s fencing at a produce market, and a grand, masterfully orchestrated climax at a restaurateurs banquet, where our sleuth pledges to avenge the Great Rossi.
The final mano-a-mano showdown between Columbo and his adversary, played out during the lieutenant’s preparation of a tasty scallopini, is a suspenseful comedy gem highlighting the characters’ mutual admiration and contempt. A definite high point in the series’ NBC run: If The Conspirators was a final after-dinner whisky for the faithful viewer, Murder Under Glass was the wickedly sinful dessert.
And what an international buffet of guest stars, from Jourdan and Gazzo to French-Vietnamese movie sensation France Nuyen, Japanese-born superstar Mako (who delights in Columbo’s detectival ramblings), and the delightful Shera Danese (AKA, Mrs. Peter Falk), whose Eve Plummer proves more than a match for the suave Gerard. Demme took top ingredients and whipped up a witty masterpiece for discerning mystery fans. One wonders how his appetite for macabre humor and culinary decadence influenced his later direction of elegant cannibal Hannibal Lecter – something indeed to chew on.

Great review, Martin! As my tribute to Jourdan last night I watched "Murder Under Glass" first followed by his Bond villain turn in "Octo*****". When to 007's disgust he coolly eats a repelling entrée of "stuffed sheep's head" I was immediately thinking Jourdan must have been channeling Paul Gerard for that scene!

RIP.

LOL. Next up, Swamp Monster.

Always enjoyed watching Jourdan. Interesting man- even joined the French resistance to fight the Nazis!

He was good in 'Murder Under Glass' but I don't like Falk's performance in it. In fact, I see some of the character traits in Columbo in this episode that the revival series would have him exhibit every week. Columbo seems slower, more childlike, annoying and a lot less sharp.

Still, Jourdan was good and will be missed by many.

By the way, Eric, I meant Swamp Thing, one of the earliest more obscure DC Comics-based series. Jourdan was the recurring villain, who menaced the big pile of swamp moss who was the show's hero.

One of his smaller claims to fame would be those Canada Dry (?) sparkling water commercials. The idea that one of the most popular French celebrities in this country would be endorsing Canada Dry instead of Perrier was the whole idea of the campaign.

He might have been one of my favorite Culumbo villains. He had such style and grace. Truly one of my favorite episodes.