Columbo should be seen from the beginning starting with its original pilot movie "Prescription Murder" which is adapted
-
Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Jim Hutton
Eric-62-2 — 12 years ago(January 31, 2014 09:01 PM)
Columbo should be seen from the beginning starting with its original pilot movie "Prescription Murder" which is adapted from the original 1961 play that introduced the character. I won't spoil your fun regarding first choice to play Columbo on the series, but the first actor to play Columbo in that stage production will be an even bigger surprise. It was in one of his last roles, Thomas Mitchell.
-
hobnob53 — 12 years ago(January 31, 2014 09:26 PM)
Well, I never knew
Prescription: Murder
had been a play before the 1968 TVM. I was thinking of that production the other day, with Gene Barry as the villain. I believe, but am not sure, that that was the only time we learned Columbo's first name. It's interesting how seriously the character was written back then, ditto Peter Falk's performance.
Minor point of professional confluence: Peter Falk received the second of his two Oscar nominations (as Best Supporting Actor) for his performance in what would be the final film of Thomas Mitchell,
Pocketful of Miracles
(1961). -
Eric-62-2 — 12 years ago(February 01, 2014 10:20 AM)
Columbo's first name isn't revealed in Prescription Murder. It's never revealed in the series though in one episode, there is a glimpse of Columbo's ID that many fans have freeze-framed trying to decipher the signature which appears to resemble "Frank".
The more serious tone of Columbo carried over into the first episodes of S1 when Levinson and Link were still direc5b4tly producing the series. When they moved on to other projects and as the character became a mega-hit, then more and more they introduced gimmicks to stress the quirkiness of Columbo and played the humor a little too broadly. The 90s Columbos are barely passable fare for me because by then Falk is playing the role too self-consciously as a caricature and the mysteries themselves aren't well-plotted.
My favorite Columbo episode after the first season is "Forgotten Lady" with Janet Leigh as fading movie musical star (clips of her old movies are used as an important plot point) and which has a very unexpected twist ending. This was also the last acting role of John Payne. -
hobnob53 — 12 years ago(February 02, 2014 08:39 PM)
I very clearly remember seeing Columbo's ID, and the name "Frank" is very plainly printed typed on it. I don't recall seeing the signature but I do know I never had to decipher a signature or freeze-frame whichever episode it was shown on in order to read it. I also seem to recall hearing him call himself "Lieutenant Frank Columbo" in what must have been the pilot, but I won't swear this isn't a trick of memory. But the printed "Frank" on the ID is a certainty.
However, you and I have the exact same favorite episode: "Forgotten Lady". Every time I've written about
Columbo
on this thread that's the episode that has popped into my mind. The film Janet Leigh kept watching was a real one she had done (though of course in the show it was a fictitious one, using the actual title of the real film), called
Walking My Baby Back Home
, a 1953 trifle from Universal that's anything but a classic. John Payne wasn't in it.
I completely agree with you about those later
Columbo
s from the 90s. Cute had overtaken character. That's why I emphasized to MrsElleryQueen she should watch the 70s series. Even as the humor and some gimmicks crept in they enhanced rather than detracted from the show at that point.
Of course, once she reads these posts she'll find out about Columbo's first name! So I might as well go whole hog and reveal that the original choice for the role on TV was, of all inappropriate people, Bing Crosby. -
Eric-62-2 — 12 years ago(February 03, 2014 11:02 AM)
Believe me, I can assure you Columbo never identifies himself as "Frank" in Prescription Murder or the second pilot "Ransom For A Dead Man" (with Lee Grant). It's just the ID thing that provides possible info. However, as to the first name of the never-seen Mrs. Columbo (Kate Mulgrew was an imposter!), Falk once played Columbo at a Dean Martin roast and referred to Mrs. Columbo as "Rose"!
I belong to a Columbo forum, and there was a lovely woman named Carla, whose screen moniker was "Cass" in honor of John Cassavetes, who also shared my love of "Forgotten Lady" and its rich depth of character backstory that was quite rare for most TV programs. We frequently would talk about that episode and for years I languished on a fanfic story that was my idea of a sequel to that episode, using the device of a Quantum Leap story where Sam Beckett leaps into the John Payne character in the 1950s and must set things right so the lives of all the characters from "Forgotten Lady" end up happier than what they became in the 1970s. The sad thing is that just when I finally finished it, Carla passed away before I had a chance to share it with her. You can find it and other Columbo fanfic I've written (my first story was a sequel to "Prescription Murder" where this time, Columbo must solve the murder of the released from prison Gene Barry character) at this great site.
http://www.planetpreset.com/colfanfic.html -
hobnob53 — 12 years ago(February 03, 2014 12:16 PM)
My God, Eric, you are a fan!
As I said, hearing Columbo introducing himself with the "Frank" may well be a trick of my memory, so I accept your word that it never happened, but the printed "Frank" on the ID, I'm sure of.
The problem with your
Quantum Leap
take is that while it might have saved Sam Jaffe from being murdered (assuming the whole situation was handled properly), nothing could stop the terminal medical condition that would rob Janet Leigh of her memory and eventually kill her. Even if this were explained to her she'd forget about it.
That episode came out before everyone began becoming fully aware of Alazheimer's. (Why it took 70 or more years after its discovery for that disease to enter public consciousness I do not understand; maybe people forgot about it.) Anyway, her condition in the show was something else, related to a stroke or something I never quite understood that myself. I presume this is an actual medical condition.
But the thing that always got me about the episode was that Columbo seemed unnecessarily harsh and uncaring about her situation and what he planned to do with her. After explaining her condition to John Payne, how she performed the murder, and stating that by then she probably didn't even remember committing it, he was going to tell her the truth and arrest her anyway until John Payne intervened and said he'd killed the husband, and demanded that Columbo take him away all in order to spare Janet for the two months she had left to live. At the very end, as you know, when Columbo tells him it won't take long to break his story, Payne says to him, "It might take a couple of months", at which Columbo looks at him, nods and smiles sadly and knowingly.
I thought that was all very touching and a great ending, but I'm still surprised given the civilized, almost sympathetic, way he treated some culprits whom he'd grown to like or respect that Columbo was so prepared to come down on her so coldly, without any humanity, given her circumstances. Of course, that allowed Payne to make his grand gesture and lovely closing line, but even so, it didn't speak well of the Lieutenant. I also wonder what he did with Payne immediately after they left. Did he arrest him? Or just let him go home and keep the case "open" until Janet's death? I'd like to think he wouldn't actually have put Payne through an arrest and all its problems, including jail while awaiting trial, when he knew the truth and what Payne was up to. -
Eric-62-2 — 12 years ago(February 03, 2014 03:28 PM)
That was the point of the fanfic story, incidentally, that there wasn't anything that could be done to save Janet, but that by changing history in the 50s, events took a happier course in the years leading up to her death for all parties concerned. It was designed to see to it that in the 50s, Payne hadn't screwed up his life and instead married Janet so that they had a happy 19 years or so and Jaffe was better off. THere was a very distinct vibe in the episode I felt that Janet had married Jaffe on the rebound from a broken relationship with Payne (that Payne had screwed up) and it wasn't a married based on love but the safety net of security. It's that kind of backstory subtext about the characters that ultimately makes Payne's act of self-sacrifice at the end believably poignant because he believes that if it werent' for his mistakes, the woman he's always loved never would have committed a murder of any kind.
I believe it was either a tumor or aneurysm of some type that was used as the explanation. And the amazing thing is that you can literally see the moment where her awareness of having killed Jaffe disappears from her mind and from that point on, she's not the usual Columbo killer covering up her crime through lies but a genuinely confused person who doesn't know what's going on. It was a very effective directorial touch.
I don't think Columbo was uncarin5b4g. He did after all tell Payne that "he had a problem" with this case, which revealed how he wasn't anxious to arrest Janet, but that he was going to have to let duty take its course. albeit reluctantly.
Oh and if you think I'm a Columbo fan because I've written five stories there, you should see my "Battlestar Galactica" contributions which are over 30 stories in the last twenty years. I've always enjoyed writing fanfic as a recreational pasttime and it even helped me in my grad school days do a better job of writing research papers and my dissertation, because it made me more cognizant of how to structure things properly (many people wash out of doctoral programs because they don't know how to write). -
hobnob53 — 12 years ago(February 03, 2014 09:36 PM)
Alternativelyshe might have ended up killing
Payne
because he tried to block her plans for a comeback!
Meaning, even had he avoided the car crash (right?) that ended his dancing career, and they'd married, they'd probably be over the hill 20 years later anyway. Not to mention divorced.
Although back in pre- and post-grad days I wrote a lot of "outside" things for fun, even going back to first or second grade, I never thought of doing so as a means of honing my verbal, writing or organizational skills (such as, like, you know, they are). By the time I attended journalism school for my graduate degree, I quickly had it beaten into me that if you didn't learn how to organize your thoughts clearly and write the story concisely and accurately, you'd be out pretty fast!
Or, you became a film critic.
PS: I'm still paranoid about that troll I mentioned a few days ago, the one who enjoys turning people in to the IMDb thought police for
ABUSE!!!
Perhaps we've strayed too far off Jim Hutton, via Ellery Queen? Not that I'm not enjoying it, but the experience of a random, self-appointed troll who seems to do little else than tattle on others has put me on my guard, and maybe more. Rattled by a ratter. -
MsELLERYqueen2 — 12 years ago(February 03, 2014 10:18 PM)
Don't worry about going off-topic on my threads.
Threads are set up for talking. Talk as much as you like. Don't worry about which direction the conversation takes.
Believe me, I've heard plenty about the "on topic, off topic" issue. Your posts are a refreshing change from that mindset. Just post!
Maybe eventually the conversation will get back to Jim Hutton.
~~
JimHutton (1934-79) & ElleryQueen -
hobnob53 — 12 years ago(February 04, 2014 10:29 PM)
Of course,
you
would think that, MEQ!
Except that nobody ever went to see a "Jim Hutton movie". They
did
go to see a "John Wayne movie". Jim Hutton was never a box-office name or major movie star, so putting him in the tagline of a film wouldn't have induced anybody to see itother than his small coterie of die-hard fans, who'd go anyway.
C'est le cinma. -
MsELLERYqueen2 — 12 years ago(February 04, 2014 10:52 PM)
Okay.
Hey, I hope that you guys will continue to talk about Columbo to your heart's content.
I'm not chasing you two off the thread. I would never chase Gentlemen off my threads
Thanks for your interesting comments!
~~
JimHutton (1934-79) & ElleryQueen -
hobnob53 — 12 years ago(February 05, 2014 08:48 AM)
Hey, I was just teasin' ya, aw, shucks.
As they say about a defense attorney's objections on
Law & Order
, "She opened the door, Your Honor!"
I'll see about
Columbo
discussions. But why don't you try to see if you can watch some of them first? Then maybe we can continue talking about the series over on its site (which I don't think I've ever visited). I think you will enjoy itunless you're stuck on a traditional "sleuth" plot construct, of not knowing the murderer until the end. -
hobnob53 — 12 years ago(February 05, 2014 11:08 AM)
Not movies, TV shows. They were long, running either 90 or 120 minutes (with commercials: the actual programs were shorter). I assume some are on DVD but I've never actually looked. Again, look for the original shows from the 70s. They may also be on line.
-
hobnob53 — 12 years ago(February 07, 2014 07:37 PM)
Please.
BTW, I did look, and there's one set containing
all
the
Columbo
s the pilot shows, the original 70s series (8 or 10 seasons), plus the later TV movies from 1989 on. Rather a costly set (retail about $150 US, but I've seen it for about $60 off), but all-encompassing, and I may get it myself.
Happy watching! See you later.