Yes, the victim is the dead person but in Columbo they hardly seem to count. They generally die or kick it within the first five minutes of the film, formalities are dispensed of quickly, and then Columbo sets about his “I’ll irritate them to death” routine that he does so well and you cannot help but love the way he does this, not only for the way he teases and irritates the mind of the murderer, because it is just so damn effective and the kind of thing that in real life would drive anyone crazy, like a telephone that keeps ringing, an incessant caller who just won’t go away and with whom will have to deal with at some point.
What happens in almost every Columbo episode, and I don’t think I’m giving anything away when I tell you this, is that eventually, the murderer will crack under such pressure and who wouldn’t. With Columbo all over you like white on rice, it would be nice to get him off of you so you can just get back to your murderous ways or at least to putting the murder behind you or however it is you move on from bludgeoning someone to death with a heavy object or running them over with a car or shooting them. Whichever your preferred method, Columbo will sort it out in due course and then torture you to death with it until you either fess up or he arrests you coldly.
The thing is, Columbo isn’t a bad guy. He’s no ordinary cop working a beat and being tough and mean. In fact, he seems and likely is, quite sweet and often even treats the murders well, at the end of one episode offering a vintner a glass of cheap wine before he took him into the station. Sure, there was a double entrendre; it was cheap wine to a connoisseur who surely knew (he did) and found it a bit of an insult (he did) but it was a kind gesture in some ways, allowing this man who had just lost everything (his motive in the first place), a chance to play it out at least with a little bit of sedation.
Article comments
1 - Nukapai
I must, must, must get these DVDs...
2 - sadi ranson-polizzotti
these DVDs are well worth having and are packed with episodes, so do do check it out. YOu can buy them through Amazon.com, just make sure they have all the episodes from the season on them. But they are GREAT -- as you can see from my review, i obviously thought so and i wasn't in any way skewed by my crush on Peter Falk...it's genuinely good stuff.
thanks for reading and all best to you Nukapai :)
sadi