MUCH HAS BEEN written over the past week about Peter Falk, who died last weekend at 83, and most of it focused on "Columbo," the iconic TV role with which his name will forever be associated.
Which is as it should be. The TV detective Falk created was one of a kind, with his deceptive appearance as a disheveled shlub with a self-deprecating manner that always gave a false sense of superiority to the criminals with whom he played cat-and-mouse.
And Falk owned it. If they ever consider a "Columbo" remake with somebody else, I'll lead the boycott.
The show itself was unique as well, in that the bad guy was always revealed in the opening moments of each episode, making "Columbo" instead of a whodunit, more of a how's-he-going-to-get-him?
If he'd never done anything else, that character would be enough to maintain Falk's reputation as a consummate actor, equally at home with drama and low-key humor. And for the role, which he played from 1968 to 2003, Falk earned no fewer than 10 Emmy nominations. And he won four times!
But Falk was a lot more, and his resume aside from "Columbo" is one that any actor would find enviable.
Long before Columbo came along, Falk had already won an Emmy for an episode of "The Dick Powell Theatre," an anthology program. And he also had two Oscar nominations under his belt for "Murder Inc." (1960) and "Pocketful of Miracles" (1961), both as gangsters, the first serious and the second comic.
In 1965, Falk landed his own television series, "The Trials of O'Brien," and his character was, in many ways, a sort of "Columbo" prototype. He also made guest appearances on a wide range of TV shows in those years, from an array of anthology programs ("Studio One," "The Twilight Zone," "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour") to westerns ("Have Gun — Will Travel," "Wagon Train") to crime shows ("The Untouchables," "Naked City") to medical procedurals ("Dr. Kildare," "Ben Casey") to variety hours (Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason).
In fact, it wasn't until he made the first "Columbo" TV movie that Falk pulled way back on his other TV appearances and began to concentrate in earnest on theatrical films, and many are quite memorable.
He played funny supporting characters in "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" (1963) and "Robin and the Seven Hoods"(1964). Then, in the 1970s, Falk co-starred in a couple of independent dramas written and directed by his pal John Cassavetes, "Husbands" and "A Woman Under the Influence" before co-starring with him in Elaine May's "Mikey and Nicky."
In 1976 Falk parodied Humphrey Bogart in Neil Simon's "Murder By Death," and two years later Simon wrote an entire movie for him that revolved around Bogart-movie parodies, "The Cheap Detective."
Falk is also a hoot in "The Brinks Job" (1978), "Happy New Year" (1987), "Cookie" (1989), "Roommates" (1995) and the TV remake of "The Sunshine Boys" (1996), in which he held his own against Woody Allen.
But there are four of Falk's films that really stand out for me:
"The Princess Bride" (1987), with Falk as the sweet, gentle grandfather who reads the title book to his sick grandson and narrates the story as it's played out for us. His distinctive line delivery is droll wit at its finest.
"Wings of Desire" (1987). In this fantasy about angels in Berlin and their dealings with mortals, Falk plays a version of himself. He's in Germany to make a movie and is recognized on the street as "Columbo." He's also the only person the heavenly creatures encounter who knows when they are around, which leads to his revealing a secret about himself that has an enormous impact on the film's central angel.
"The In-Laws" (1979). Falk is hysterically funny as a covert spy who enlists his future in-law, mild-mannered dentist Alan Arkin, for a wild international operation. The film is loaded with riotous dialogue that fans love to quote, but Falk's dinner-table monologue is a real highlight, especially when he begins his tale of giant tsetse flies in a South American jungle.
"The Great Race" (1965) is a spoof of old-time melodramas, with Falk in a real scene-stealing part as the hapless sidekick/henchman of the Snidely Whiplash-type villain played by Jack Lemmon. That Falk manages to get so many laughs is a real tribute to his intuitive sense of comic timing and his easy chemistry with Lemmon. Falk's little asides and facial reactions to all the wackiness around him are fall-down funny.
So if any of this has prompted you to want to renew your acquaintance with Falk's work, certainly, rent some "Columbos." But you also can't go wrong by filling your Netflix queue with the some of these films.
EMAIL: hicks@desnews.com