I love Columbo. The best actor as a villain is for me Jack Cassidy, he did it three times and is perfect in his performances.
He really is fantastic with his fake smile and his rather polished appearance. Really devilishly sneaky and yet endearing, because you understand why he commits the murder and you almost feel sympathy for him. Especially his role as a magician is very good. When at the end he stammers grumpily: “I thought I had committed the perfect murder.” To which Columbo very wittily answers: “The perfect murder, sir? Ooh! That’s just an illusion!”
7 Likes
Cassidy is great. I recently watched Publish or Perish and quite enjoyed it. I think my two all time favourites are the Greenhouse Jungle and A friend in Deed. My two favourite gotcha moments. I would love to see a reboot of the series but think they should play Columbo straight to differentiate it from the original.
2 Likes
I recently watched all three episodes with Cassidy, among other ones. He is the perfect villain. Also I use a book that I purchased a number of years ago: “The Columbo File, a case book” by Mark Dawidziak. Very nice book and useful to be able to look up the episodes and see which one it is exactly.
3 Likes
Cassidy is a great Columbo villain, joined by Robert Culp and Patrick McGoohan.
My favorite Columbo is PLAYBACK (1975). A reworking of ETUDE IN BLACK, at 74 minutes, PLAYBACK never wears out its welcome (and still has time for both dog, and the obligatory Columbo-fish-out-of-water sequence). One gets the sense that the situation of the family involved has been going on for a long time, and the killer has decided that they must make a change. For me, it is Columbo’s “Huis Clos” episode. Also, as far as I have been able to determine, it is the only episode written by a Black scenarist.
The episode also has some actual mise en scene. Appropriate to an episode concerning confinement, Bernard Kowalski’s direction features tight framing and a sense of claustrophobia. The expensive home is never grandly photographed (as they often are), and images often contain multiple characters.
Lastly, the killer’s mistake is brilliantly deployed both visually and narratively. The “gotcha” of PLAYBACK is at the top for me.
FORGOTTEN LADY (1975) is in second place–Columbo does SUNSET BOULEVARD, with Janet Leigh being as great and daring as ever. Directed by the not untalented Harvey Hart, the script is a wonderful variation on the Columbo formula, and the subplot has an unforced connection to the murder narrative–which not all Columbo subplots manage to have.
Third place is held by IDENTITY CRISIS (1975). The inauguration of comic Columbo, McGoohan is fine as villain/director/script doctor, with my only, but major, caveat being that its more jocular approach leads to some unfortunate caricatures among the supporting cast.
Honorable mention: MURDER UNDER GLASS (1978) by Jonathan Demme. Comic Columbo in full bloom, but Demme holds it together.
5 Likes
I’d not disagree with any of those choices. My personal favourites are
Now You See Him - for Cassidy and Falk
Etude in Black - Cassevetes is superb and again him and Falk sublime
Dagger of the mind - watching Falk in London is. A. Joy.
Side note - Cassidy always reminds me physically of my Uncle, but as I age I’m getting closer 
Gratuitous shot attached of myself and my buddy the ninth Doctor ( for context my son away in uni was feeling homesick so Chris sang him a song )
8 Likes
When I have the ducats, I will upgrade to the Columbo blu-rays which have the original, shorter cut of ETUDE IN BLACK (released as a film in Europe). They added scenes later to pad it out, which you can identify by Cassavetes longer hair.
4 Likes
I read somewhere on Amazon that not all blu ray boxes have the short version as a bonus. So be careful what version you optain. I think the American version has it, but I’m not sure.
1 Like
Can we also have a moment for Robert Culp, in the first of his three villainous turns in Death Lends a Hand. The early 70’ camerawork showing him dispose of the body in the frames of his glasses is a particular delight. Also for Clive Revel in The Conspirators… an especially satisfying ending when, having already been brought to rights, he realised Columbo has also nabbed his smuggled weapons. I could go on… Johnny Cash, Robert Vaughn, our very own Donald Pleasance and Louis ‘Octopoooooooseeey’ Jordan… so many great episodes and celebrity villains!! Sometimes I wish for a remake, but then I stop and correct myself as any imitation would just pale behind the late, great Peter Falk.
5 Likes
I am so jealous
2 Likes
He’d make a good M also …Bond fanatic
2 Likes
That would be good.
2 Likes
1 Like
Ah, okay.
The plot will be that it turns out that Jason Bourne’s real identity was James Bond all the time, and we now get an adaption of Pearson’s “Authorized Biography”, with an AI enhanced Matt Damon re-enacting flashback scenes from previous movies how they really happened. Keira Knightley as Honey Rider, the Pearson character played by Daniel Craig. At the end, it turns out that they’ve been negotiating movie rights all the time, as a plot twist tool to start off a new kind of Kelvin timeline (ducks and covers), as a lame pretext for remaking the entire “old stuff” (with new young actor reveal at the end). And off we go to another set of 25…
Another one for the “Don’t give 'em any ideas” thread…
5 Likes
His other 2 roles in Nolan’s movies were brilliant, so this is good.
1 Like
I wonder whether this will be the horror film Nolan was rumoured to make at one point.
2 Likes
Oh. Wasn’t aware of this.
I’m usually very sceptical about Jackal adaptions. Massive fan of the novel and consider Zinnemann’s as the perfect book-to-movie adaption (with the sole exception that I would have preferred David Bowie for the lead role instead of Fox). In the late 1980s, I spent a couple of days in Paris just looking up and visiting novel locations, and also researched a lot about the historical background – 'nuff said. 
.
Needless to say, the Gere/Willis doesn’t rank very high in my book (not a bad movie per se, but just not The Jackal…) 
But this one got me interested. Had the trailer running on the side with no sound, but the imagery caught me – spotted some nice references – and I went on to watch it with sound, and some other clips, as well. The Jackal persona has the potential for a mini-series, no doubt (even the novel hints to that), so it might be one of the extremely rare occasions that I’ll give something like this a try.
Eddie Redmayne as Jackal is an inspired casting, and a fun fact that the Lebel character is once again played by a Bond person 
6 Likes
I posted this in the wrong thread because I thought it was a movie - I didn’t realize it’s a 10 episode series. Sorry
The Day of the Jackal and Eye of the Needle are 2 of my favorite books. Very much looking forward to this.
2 Likes
3 Likes
With that cast I’m intrigued.
Mind you Hardy was in RocknRolla…
2 Likes