wow! that sounds great about forgotten lady...it is one of my very favourites...i can't wait to see it on dvd.

and boy! the bit about identity crisis...that really put some things in perspective for me. i am one of those who has always found it a bit confusing...but i still love it.

All the talk about whether "Charade" would be replaced in "Now You See It" had me wondering for some time if there would have been clearance problems in "Forgotten Lady" with the use of the song "Speak Low" from "One Touch Of Venus" that comes up in the story, as well as the use of the Tonight Show material. Fortunately no problems there!

great to hear about 'speak low' in forgotten lady still being there...
as i said, this is one of my favourite episodes...and that scene always brings me to tears....and then later to joy when columbo dances lightly up the staircase...

I've gone through the first 3 episodes from the 'Season 5' DVD set - the first two didn't contain much extra footage of importance or enjoyment but in 'Identity Crisis', there's a great intro to when Columbo's interview with Del Fonte - the guy that Brenner wrote the speech for.

On the DVD set, the extra footage shows the two men speaking back and forth in Italian - which, to my recollection, was the only other time besides "Murder Under Glass" when Columbo had a conversation in Italian. Even "Any Old Port In a Storm" didn't have any Italian conversations.

Since Vito Rossi, who plays Del Fonte, is also a funny actor, to hear he and Falk go back and forth in Italian was really rich. Halfway through their conversation, they switch to English - which is where most of the TV-edited versions pick the scene up from. Columbo ends up leaving the scene with a handful of grapes.

Vito Scotti!

No one has mentioned this yet, but don't forget how badly "Last Salute to the Commodore" sucks. I tried to muddle through it, and I had to stop watching it. What a terrible episode!

Yea, it's bad. It's unnecessarily complicated, and the dialogue seems unatural, annoying and forced. Maybe it was bad directing, I don't know.

i agree. i don't think i've ever watched that one all the way through. i still don't really know what the plot is.

The plot is kind of diluted, but the funny thing about the bad directing, with which I agree, is that it was directed by Patrick McGoohan.