Hector Mariñosa
Barcelona, December 15 (EFE).- Dressed in his perennial trench coat, white shirt, dark tie, squinting, tousled hair and a cigar in his hand, Lieutenant Colombo disembarked on December 16, 1973 at Televisión Española, 50 years in which, until today, its episodes have been replenished on multiple channels and platforms.
“Colombo” – “Columbo” in the United States and Latin America – began to be broadcast in Spain on the Sunday slot “Estrenos TV”, where its episodes alternated with those of other police series, such as “Kojak”, “McCloud”, ” Banacek” or “McMillan and wife”, which were also very popular in their time, could not follow in the wake of the Los Angeles hound.
The longevity of the success of this series, of which 69 episodes were filmed over ten seasons, seven of them in the 70s, and three in the late 80s, is undoubtedly due to the character that actor Peter Falk gave to the character, a antihero of small stature, glass eye, apparent shyness and a certain clumsiness.
Falk, who was not the first actor considered to star in the series, read a script that came into his hands by chance, was seduced by the character and the idea of playing him and insisted on the producers to give him the role, a persistence that finally paid off.
Peter Falk molded Lieutenant Columbo’s personality to suit him, instilling in him many of his characteristics and even the timeless trench coat he wore in the series was really his, a garment that he had bought a few years before in a store in New York to protect himself from a sudden downpour.
Another factor that has made “Colombo” a permanently popular series has been the availability of scripts that, like good wine, have stood the test of time and continue to captivate audiences.
And the scripts of “Colombo” turned the police narrative structure on its head, and thus from the first moment the viewer was a direct witness of an elaborate “perfect crime” and was aware of its author, which is why the interest of the plot It was necessary to check how the police applied his deductive skills on the “small details” that did not fit into the murderer’s story in order to finally unmask him.
The crimes that Lieutenant Colombo must solve always occur in circles of wealthy people – businessmen, financiers, senior executives, successful artists… – and in high-level environments, such as mansions, ranches or hotels, while the murderers attend to the police with a haughty, defiant and sarcastic air, aware of their social influence and sure that they have a “perfect” alibi.
“Just one more thing…”
For this reason, Colombo begins his interrogations of the criminals – his sense of smell for detecting them at first sight is almost supernatural – apologizing for having to ask them some ‘routine questions’ for a report that he must deliver to his superiors, and when it seems that it has already been given Because he is satisfied and makes a move to leave, he turns to ask “just one more thing…”
Linking the minor oversights in the commission of the crime, the slight contradictions in the answers and various conjectures that escape other police officers, Colombo builds an alternative hypothesis to the murderers’ story, which inevitably leads to their breakdown, confession and peaceful surrender, overwhelmed by the insight of an unarmed agent with a whispering voice whom they initially judged to be clueless and incompetent.
An unsolved mystery
Lieutenant Colombo only left one mystery unsolved… that of his own name, since he never mentioned it in the 69 chapters in which he appeared, nor did he ever reveal that of his wife, to whom he repeatedly alluded, but without will never appear on the screen.
On this issue, the ‘fanciers’ are divided between those who consider that his name is Frank, since that is how it appears on a card that the lieutenant shows in some chapter when identifying himself, imperceptible to the viewer but which could be seen when the frames were enlarged, and those who do not consider it conclusive proof.
In this sense, the deniers refer to the creators of the series, Richard Levinson and William Link, who, when asked directly about it, indicated that they never gave the character a name and that at no time did they think that a ‘ zoom’ on a small police card where some prop man had scribbled, probably at random, ‘Frank Colombo’.
For his role in “Columbo”, Peter Falk won four Emmy Awards (1972, 1975, 1976 and 1990) and a Golden Globe (1973), although he was nominated for these awards on fourteen other occasions.
Many famous actors of the time played the role of the murderer, including Robert Vaughn, José Ferrer, Janet Leigh, Martin Landau, Leslie Nielsen, John Cassavetes, Ricardo Montalbán, Faye Dunaway, Johnny Cash, William Shatner and Roddy McDowall, while a young and promising Steven Spielberg directed the first episode.
A new Columbo played by another actor?
For years, news and rumors have been emerging about the possibility of Lieutenant Colombo returning to star in new episodes or a film with a new actor, and Mark Ruffalo’s name has even been mentioned as a possible performer, although the character is so closely associated with the figure of Peter Falk that doubts have always arisen about his acceptance by the public.
Of course, it also seemed impossible to replace Sean Connery after his success as the first James Bond and the sixth actor is currently being sought to play the most famous secret agent in the world, without ruling out that next time the role will fall to a woman. EFE.
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(Photo) (Archive resources at www.lafototeca.com code 4909092, 4909111 and others)
2023-12-15 09:14:40
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