Genre Guesstimation – Murder, a Self Portrait (1989)

The idea behind this feature (Genre Guesstimation) is for me to watch a bunch of new movies (or ones that I haven’t seen many times) from the chosen monthly GG genre in order to expand my knowledge of movies within that particular genre.

This month’s genre has been chosen by Me and we will be reviewing our favorite Movies About Detectives……

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of Nov by sending them to sleuth@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box!

Let’s see if I felt that this movie would be worthy of being in the company of my others favorite movies in the genre of Movies About Detectives….

“Well. My dog, maybe he’s not the most beautiful dog in the world. And there’s plenty of other dogs a lot smarter, but if they ever gave an award for the loving department, he would win the grand prize. When it comes to loving, this dog, he’s the champion.” – Lt. Columbo

Number of Times Seen – 1 (19 Nov 2023)

Brief Synopsis – After the former wife of a famous painter is found dead, Columbo is brought in to find her murderer.

My Take on it – This is one of the strangest films in the series. The character dynamics are a bit off and there doesn’t seem to be much chemistry with Columbo and the murder like usual and it fails to be interesting as things move along. Patrick Bauchau is a weak killer and the way things play out just doesn’t make things feel even more realistic in the way it all transpires. The one good thing about this movie is the locations which are amazing to look at, but too bad the story isn’t as engaging and wondrous to take in.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The Paradise Cove location where Louise’s body is recovered is the same location as Jim Rockford’s house trailer in The Rockford Files (1974). (From IMDB)

Genre Grandeur Worthy? – Not at all. This is another weak Columbo mystery that isn’t up to par.

Rating – BAFTA Worthy (5/10)