With the grim weekend weather and our general sense of apathy, we've been watching rather lot of crime dramas recently, aided considerably by Channel 5 running various episodes from various series during the late afternoon and early evening on Saturdays.
This has fitted in well with my own needs, given that, over Christmas, I had found myself to be really in the mood for watching a "Columbo" even though one was not to be found. Not, at least, upon the second class series of channels which get bounced in the general direction of Lesser Blogfordshire at any rate...
Ah, Columbo...
It's magical.
Like a warm, comfy blanket on a cold afternoon.
Sometimes, sometimes, really nothing else will do.
Because from the moment when the dastardly criminal first underestimates the scruffy little man in the raincoat and leaps to the conclusion that theirs is the superior intellect, you know that they are doomed and might as well just give up there and then.
But the fact that they don't, and can't, is what makes "Columbo" just so watchable even after all these years.
The formula is, as I'm sure you're aware if you've ever seen it, fairly predictable, but no less compelling for that. The viewers see a crime committed by the special guest star of the week who is, quite often (but not always), played by Patrick McGoohan. Actually, I'm being rather unfair there. Of the sixty-nine "Columbo" television "Mystery Movies" made between 1968 and 2003 (with an eleven-year gap from 1978) he only played the villain in four of them (and directed a fifth), but it does sometimes seem as if the special guest star is always the former "Danger Man" himself…
No matter.
Once the crime is committed by using either fiendishly clever, or surprisingly mundane, methods and the victim has been identified (because sometimes it really is not obvious quite who it's going to turn out to be) and tastefully despatched, at some point sometimes far later into the film than you might expect, Detective Lieutenant Columbo of the Los Angeles Police Homicide Division, a man who always looks like a fish out of water amidst the glitz and glamour of his usual Hollywood beat, will shamble onto the scene, sometimes in his battered old Peugeot, sometimes with his dog, and sometimes by appearing unexpectedly in the general proximity of the villain, and proceed to befriend, bamboozle and irritate them into making some kind of mistake, and then spring his trap to bring about their downfall.
Not so much a "Whodunnit?" as a "How's he going get caught?"
Recently they've been showing in blocks of two on Saturday afternoons, with the added bonus of an occasional third one to watch when they're also being re-shown on ITV earlier on in the day, and sometimes, through a quirk of "series link" technology being overly pedantic, the machine will also pick up the overnight broadcasts when the rather distracting little figure in the bottom right hand corner of the screen will be interpreting the dialogue in sign language and a range of troubling sweaters and shirts.
This oblique mention of disability draws me to the small but significant fact that Peter Falk only had one eye, a thing that was never drawn attention to in the programme itself, but one which does become more obvious in the later films when the directors seemed less careful about their choice of shots when trying not to draw attention to it. Of course it didn't really matter, because it was the character and the performance that was the most important thing, but I do find myself occasionally closing one eye when I'm watching the films just to see what it might be like whenever I am reminded of it, and it seems quite a ghastly thing for him to have had to go through life with.
Still, as the clever plots progress, and Lieutenant asks all of his polite and friendly questions, sometimes in the face of utter contempt from his adversary who might think that he's the fisherman right up until that delicious moment when it turns out that he was always just the fish. Along this journey to their own destruction there will be, with a befuddled-sounding (but sharp as a razor) "here's the thing...", a deconstruction of their alibi, and a variety of explanations and exposition, all performed with those familiar little twitches and movements performed by Peter Falk which showed his completely exquisite and masterful timing. Sometimes he might even show a certain amount of sympathy and liking for the perpetrator, right up until their legs are cut right from underneath them as the righteous sword of inevitable justice swings their way.
Peter Falk's performance as "Columbo" is surely on of television's greatest and most iconic performances…
And, "One more thing...", I love those films to bits...
Like a warm, comfy blanket on a cold afternoon.
Sometimes, sometimes, really nothing else will do.
Because from the moment when the dastardly criminal first underestimates the scruffy little man in the raincoat and leaps to the conclusion that theirs is the superior intellect, you know that they are doomed and might as well just give up there and then.
But the fact that they don't, and can't, is what makes "Columbo" just so watchable even after all these years.
The formula is, as I'm sure you're aware if you've ever seen it, fairly predictable, but no less compelling for that. The viewers see a crime committed by the special guest star of the week who is, quite often (but not always), played by Patrick McGoohan. Actually, I'm being rather unfair there. Of the sixty-nine "Columbo" television "Mystery Movies" made between 1968 and 2003 (with an eleven-year gap from 1978) he only played the villain in four of them (and directed a fifth), but it does sometimes seem as if the special guest star is always the former "Danger Man" himself…
No matter.
Once the crime is committed by using either fiendishly clever, or surprisingly mundane, methods and the victim has been identified (because sometimes it really is not obvious quite who it's going to turn out to be) and tastefully despatched, at some point sometimes far later into the film than you might expect, Detective Lieutenant Columbo of the Los Angeles Police Homicide Division, a man who always looks like a fish out of water amidst the glitz and glamour of his usual Hollywood beat, will shamble onto the scene, sometimes in his battered old Peugeot, sometimes with his dog, and sometimes by appearing unexpectedly in the general proximity of the villain, and proceed to befriend, bamboozle and irritate them into making some kind of mistake, and then spring his trap to bring about their downfall.
Not so much a "Whodunnit?" as a "How's he going get caught?"
 |
| ...although my comments about his outfits might have upset him... |
This oblique mention of disability draws me to the small but significant fact that Peter Falk only had one eye, a thing that was never drawn attention to in the programme itself, but one which does become more obvious in the later films when the directors seemed less careful about their choice of shots when trying not to draw attention to it. Of course it didn't really matter, because it was the character and the performance that was the most important thing, but I do find myself occasionally closing one eye when I'm watching the films just to see what it might be like whenever I am reminded of it, and it seems quite a ghastly thing for him to have had to go through life with.
Still, as the clever plots progress, and Lieutenant asks all of his polite and friendly questions, sometimes in the face of utter contempt from his adversary who might think that he's the fisherman right up until that delicious moment when it turns out that he was always just the fish. Along this journey to their own destruction there will be, with a befuddled-sounding (but sharp as a razor) "here's the thing...", a deconstruction of their alibi, and a variety of explanations and exposition, all performed with those familiar little twitches and movements performed by Peter Falk which showed his completely exquisite and masterful timing. Sometimes he might even show a certain amount of sympathy and liking for the perpetrator, right up until their legs are cut right from underneath them as the righteous sword of inevitable justice swings their way.
Peter Falk's performance as "Columbo" is surely on of television's greatest and most iconic performances…
And, "One more thing...", I love those films to bits...
Yes, and one more thing...
ReplyDelete