He is a character that I never saw tormented, depressed or stuffed with alcohol and drugs to look like a genius. I say genius given the prodigious intellectual abilities he possesses to catch criminals, he's a normal person and seems happy, with everyday phobias and problems.
"Just one more thing...", said the character before a culprit, who seconds before breathed a sigh of relief as he walked away, in that instant viewers knew the case was solved.
In the city of Los Angeles, murders were always being committed and that's why the homicide department was called. The police arrived at the scene of the crime, but in this case the homicide detective did not appear in a patrol car, but in a 1959 Peugeot 403 convertible, so dirty that its color was indescribable.
From the vehicle descends a disheveled man in a wrinkled trench coat smoking a cheap cigar. At this scene the police officers, who did not know him, blocked his way, but he searched his pockets and showed them his police badge. He had no weapons and the pockets of his trench coat were full of papers with notes He is Lieutenant Columbo, detective of the homicide department.
In movies and TV series the detective did not discover the identity of the killer until the climax or end of the story, in this TV series at the beginning of each chapter we already know who the killer is, which almost always presented the same profile: arrogant, manipulative and convinced of his own superiority. Columbo knows this and takes advantage of these distinctive qualities to bring about the downfall of all his adversaries. In other words, the focus here is not on who committed the crime, but on how he caught the murderer, if he committed the perfect crime.
We are shown the crime and then we accompany the detective who gathers the clues and uses his wit and intelligence. The criminals think Columbo is an inept cop who asks persistent questions. Actually, he investigates the facts and ends up discovering the culprit, but before arresting him he explains his theory of the crime to the suspect, who finally ends up accepting his crime.
The habits, quirks and quirks were what hooked the viewer to the series showing a charismatic protagonist, Falk was infallible.
In those years Hollywood actors waited anxiously to be called by the NBC television network to participate in the role of a murderer in this series.
Columbo always talked about his wife, even telling anecdotes about her to the killer, but we never saw her on screen.
Peter Falk is Columbo and Columbo is Peter Falk, to the point that the famous phrase "Just one more thing..." was improvised by Falk. At the end of his life he was suffering from Alzheimer's and did not remember that he played this unforgettable character of the small screen.
Richard Levinson and William Link, screenwriters of the series, created an episode of intrigue for The Chevy Mystery Show (1960), an anthology series on the NBC television network. Levinson and Link were so pleased with their script that they adapted it for the stage a couple of years later. NBC asked them for a pilot, not realizing that it was technically the second time they were airing the same story. It did so well in ratings that the network incorporated it into The NBC Mystery Movie.
The series began airing in 1971 and ran until 1978, and several TV movies were made. Peter Falk directed 2 episodes, as did John Cassavetes, Jonathan Demme and others. As a curious fact, a young director of 25 years had the privilege of directing the first episode: Steven Spielberg.
Columbo reappears between 1989 and 2003, through several TV movies.
As I remember, this series was very famous in my country at the end of the 70's and throughout the 80's where its chapters were constantly repeated through channel 4 in my country: Venevisión, and if I am not mistaken the movies were transmitted by channel 2: Radio Caracas Televisiòn (RCTV) in the 90's.
In 1980 at the age of 13 I was in my first year of high school and I went to school with a trench coat very similar to Columbo's, I had school notes in the rafters, and I did not comb my hair, I think that to this day I still have the mania of writing notes everywhere, including in papers that I have lodged in my different jackets.
I think we are alike in the fact that we like to insist to find out any irregularity that happens and go to the last consequences, in many cases I have had to sharpen my senses and do research because I have worked in financial and forensic audits, where unfortunately we have to look for the guilty of some malicious act.
In school many kids were arrogant and thought they could do whatever they wanted given their social status, including stealing a book they didn't need. Playing the fool I deliberately left a book on my desk at recess time, my intention was precisely that they would steal that textbook, I was stealthily hiding under the window and I could see the child stealing books.
I did not immediately notify the school authorities because my idea was to expose him in front of the other students in the classroom, I was studying his movements and actions so I discovered that when there were art classes this child always studied with the same book, but lined with different papers, on purpose I asked him to borrow the book but he never did it, and I repeated this approximately 10 times until the child exploded in rage, opened his backpack and told me: take your book.
I answered him in front of everyone, as I had seen him on television: just one more thing..., why don't you return the other four books that you have in your backpack, it seems to me that they are not yours. The art teacher turns around and immediately takes out the backpack and indeed, those books were not his. The student was exposed and immediately taken to the principal's office, the students thanked me for recovering the book, but others in a mocking tone said to me: "Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are, maybe Columbo, and they laughed, more than an insult that was for me an honor.
Donald Pleasence, Johnny Cash, Dick Van Dyke, Martin Landau, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Janet Leigh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Robert Vaughn, Vera Miles, Anne Baxter, Faye Dunaway, and Roddy McDowall, among others, participated in this mythical television series.
This is my proposal to participate in the initiative CineTV Contest: The most similar character to you! Enlace Aqui
The gif is of my authorship, here I present the sources: Source,Source,Source,Source,Source,Source,Source,Source, Source