![]() ![]() “The Most Dangerous Match” concerns an American chess champion who, in a fit of anxiety before a tournament final, kills his Russian rival and attempts to pass it off as an accident. It’s an episode that understands that, in a town full of rich weirdos, nobody’s weirder than professional theater kids. It’s one of the funnier episodes of the show, largely thanks to the recurring bit of Columbo being constantly starstruck by Ms. The show’s use of Los Angeles as a setting is often at its best when turning its eye to Hollywood, and “Requiem for a Falling Star” shines as a result. Only after he’s caught does he expresses something resembling respect for another human being’s intellect.Īnne Baxter’s Nora Chandler is a particularly memorable Columbo villain not just for her delightfully campy turn as a fading actress whose plot aims to take out a nosy gossip columnist but also because the plot hinges on her accidentally killing the wrong person: her longtime assistant. His contempt for not only Columbo but every other person who crosses his path is radiant, and it’s his annoyance with being bothered by anyone he deems unworthy of his time that leads to his murderous plot being found out. Cassavetes made two appearances on his pal’s show with his first turn, as an arrogant philharmonic conductor who kills his mistress, standing out as one of the show’s all-time-great villainous performances. John Cassavetes and Peter Falk are among the more perfect screen duos of all time, two longtime friends whose real-life camaraderie made for rich chemistry on-camera. Cassidy’s arrogance informs his every move right until he gets caught. His success as an author deludes him into believing he can plot his way out of a murder charge in real life, which runs up against the reality of the situation when Columbo takes on the case. Jack Cassidy, in the first of three appearances on the show, plays one half of a murder-mystery-writing duo who offs his partner. The standard of quality across its run is pretty high, so think of this less as a list of the best episodes or guest stars and more as a guide to the varied sort of wealthy weirdos the show spotlights.ĭirected by Steven Spielberg, “Murder By the Book” is the first episode of Columbo after its pilot and feels like the blueprint for everything that follows. When taken as a whole across its 69 episodes, Columbo is a rich study in the varied ways in which rich folks are nutjobs. Rather, the show posits, their downfall is their arrogance, not necessarily in thinking they could get away with murder but in assuming someone of a lower-class background like Columbo would never be the one to catch them. The reason they get caught isn’t because they’re stupid - quite the contrary: Many of them are brilliant and come pretty damn close to getting away with murder. As Columbo, Falk is the sort of once-in-a-lifetime screen talent you have to imagine big stars were willing to take a pay cut to trade a few barbs with.Ĭolumbo’s shabby demeanor and seeming obliviousness (part of the joy of Falk’s performance is trying to gauge how calculated it is at any moment) plays counter to the arrogance of the upper-class criminals he’s investigating. ![]() ![]() The format allowed for guest stars to come in as the murderer week to week with the show’s sharp writing and filmmaking drawing in big names such as Johnny Cash, William Shatner, John Cassavetes, and Faye Dunaway to chew scenery as larger-than-life loonies. Rather than guest stars having to evade the suspicion of the audience (and Columbo), they take part in a game of cat and mouse, sometimes never realizing they aren’t the cat. The structure came to be known as the “howcatchem,” an inverse of the classic whodunit. The episode then follows the murderer as they attempt to evade Columbo’s suspicions (which they never do). Each episode opens with a murder, often committed by a high-society Angeleno of the era: Think movie stars, politicians, CEOs, and the like. The show ran for decades, originally as part of the NBC Mystery Movie lineup, and follows Peter Falk as the titular frumpy New York homicide detective working out of Los Angeles. Still, if there’s a point of origin for the particular incarnation of “crazy rich people” media we’re living through, it’s Columbo. Succession is just King Lear with a dick-pic mishap. As potent a message as it may be these days - rich people have, after all, been especially weird in recent years - it’s hardly new. It’s the single dominant thematic thread tying together whodunit blockbusters ( Knives Out, Glass Onion), horror films ( Ready or Not), hospitality satires ( The White Lotus), and culinary black comedies ( The Menu) alike. As just about every popular movie and TV show of the past few years has seemed intent on reminding us, rich people are weird. ![]()
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