Bert Freed as Columbo in Enough Rope,



I actually saw it today, which was amazing because I didn't know if i'd see it ever.
I think it was good, mostly needed better picture quality and production quality, the worst thing was the interuptions for the commercials and the host with his comments before the segments. The story was ok, Prescription Murder seems like a padded out version of this, rather than generally better. This didn't have the part about tricking the doctor into admitting what he did with the fake death of his girlfriend, but the ending was reasonable, though not exciting, nor great, but ok.
There was the blooper when Columbo accidently called himself Doctor Columbo, and another when Doctor Fleming got the Susan and Claire names mixed up.

The ending of the Falk version is far superior to the stage play version..
" Loved that girl?!.. Something would have been arranged; like an accident maybe?"

Where did you see this?

I think the Prescription Murder ending might have been well acted, but made less sense, why would he kill his wife and risk jail or death penalty for someone he didn't really care about? The Enough Rope ending fitted the story better, I think anyway.
There were 3 copies on youtube, I don't know how quickly they get taken down, I hope they are there now if anyone wants to see it.

He married an older woman who had money.
Killing her was his way of being free and rich.
Like Richard Kiley in " A friend in Deed".
He used the girl, he didn't love her.
His confession didn't work imho.
The play has a different emphasis ( i own a copy).
It's more about the psychiatrist who truly does love the girl .
Gene Barry played him as a cold, calculating killer.
I'm curious to see the tv version.
Thanks for the info!

I just watched ENOUGH ROPE which has a completely different ending from the stage play and PRESCRIPTION MURDER even though it is credited to Levinson and Link!
Is there ANOTHER tv play with the phony suicide/ confession ending?

Btw Bert Freed was totally wrong for COLUMBO ( although, like Falk he wears a bad toupee!😉).
It makes you really appreciate the genius of Falks interpretation!