Peter Falk Movies
Best known as the rumpled television detective Columbo, character actor Peter Falk has also enjoyed a successful film career, often in association with the groundbreaking independent filmmaker John Cassavetes. Born September 16, 1927, in New York City, Falk lost an eye at the age of three, resulting in the odd, squinting gaze which later became his trademark. He initially pursued a career in public administration, serving as an efficiency expert with the Connecticut Budget Bureau, but in the early '50s, boredom with his work sparked an interest in acting. By 1955, Falk had turned professional, and an appearance in a New York production of The Iceman Cometh earned him much attention. He soon graduated to Broadway and in 1958 made his feature debut in the Nicholas Ray/Budd Schulberg drama Wind Across the Everglades.
A diminutive, stocky, and unkempt presence, Falk's early screen roles often portrayed him as a blue-collar type or as a thug; it was as the latter in 1960's Murder Inc. that he earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, a major career boost. He was nominated in the same category the following year as well, this time as a sarcastic bodyguard in Frank Capra's Pocketful of Miracles. In 1962, Falk won an Emmy for his work in the television film The Price of Tomatoes, a presentation of the Dick Powell Theater series. The steady stream of accolades made him a hot property, and he next starred in the 1962 feature Pressure Point. A cameo in Stanley Kramer's 1963 smash It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World preceded Falk's appearance in the Rat Pack outing Robin and the Seven Hoods, but the film stardom many predicted for him always seemed just out of reach, despite lead roles in 1965's The Great Race and 1967's Luv.
In 1968, Falk first assumed the role of Columbo, the disheveled police lieutenant whose seemingly slow and inept investigative manner masked a steel-trap mind; debuting in the TV movie Prescription: Murder, the character was an immediate hit, and after a second telefilm, Ransom for a Dead Man, a regular Columbo series premiered as part of the revolving NBC Mystery Movie anthology in the fall of 1971, running for seven years and earning Falk a second Emmy in the process. In the meantime, he also continued his film career, most notably with Cassavetes; in 1970, Falk starred in the director's Husbands, and in 1974 they reunited for the brilliant A Woman Under the Influence. In between the two pictures, Falk also returned to Broadway, where he won a Tony award for his performance in the 1972 Neil Simon comedy The Prisoner of Second Avenue. In 1976, Cassavetes joined him in front of the camera to co-star in Elaine May's Mikey and Nicky, and directed him again in 1977's Opening Night.
After Columbo ceased production in 1978, Falk starred in the Simon-penned mystery spoof The Cheap Detective, followed by the William Friedkin caper comedy The Brink's Job (1978). After 1979's The In-Laws, he starred two years later in ...All the Marbles, but was then virtually absent from the screen for the next half decade. Cassavetes' 1986 effort Big Trouble brought Falk back to the screen (albeit on a poor note; Cassavetes later practically disowned the embarrassing film) and and in 1987 he starred in Happy New Year along with the Rob Reiner cult favorite The Princess Bride. An appearance as himself in Wim Wenders' masterful Wings of Desire in 1988 preceded his 1989 resumption of the Columbo character for another regular series; the program was to remain Falk's focus well into the next decade, with only a handful of film appearances in pictures including 1990's Tune in Tomorrow and a cameo in Robert Altman's The Player. After the cancellation of Columbo, he next turned up in Wenders' Desire sequel Far Away, So Close before starring in the 1995 comedy Roommates.
Falk continued to work in both film and television for the next decade and a half, starring in various Columbo specials through 2003, appearing with Woody Allen in the made-for-TV The Sunshine Boys in 1997, and playing a bar owner caught up in mafia dealings in 1999's The Money Kings. Other projects included the Adam Sandler-produced gangster comedy Corky Romano (2001), the Dreamworks animated family film A Shark Tale (as the voice of Ira Feinberg), and the Paul Reiser-scripted, Raymond de Felitta-directed comedy-drama The Thing About My Folks (2005). In 2007, Falk starred opposite Nicolas Cage and Julianne Moore in Lee Tamahori's sci-fi thriller Next. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1958
Wind Across the Everglades represents the once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between director Nicholas Ray and screenwriter Budd Schulberg, and a strange little picture it is indeed. In his second film appearance, Christopher Plummer plays bibulous 19th-century Florida game warden Walt Murdock, who declares war on the poachers in his region. This brings him in direct conflict with the legendary Cottonmouth (Burl Ives), the spiritual leader of a group of illegal birdhunters. The highly eccentric supporting cast includes Gypsy Rose Lee as a sensuous farm wife, boxer "Two Ton" Tony Galento as a lout named Beef, circus clown Emmett Kelly as the much-married Bigamy Bob, novelist Mackinlay Kantor as the regional judge, and Peter Falk in his film debut, as an owlish writer. After Wind Across the Everglades, Nick Ray's Johnny Guitar will seem as antiseptic as Heidi. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burl Ives, Christopher Plummer, (more)
At the start of his film career and just a year before his appearance in Murder, Inc. would get him Academy Award notice, Peter Falk played Nico, the strung-out, emotionally dead psychopath who leads a group of societal misfits in this sick and slick, low-budget crime drama. Cliff (Jack Betts) is an ordinary young man determined to find out who murdered his kid brother by giving him a hamburger mixed with ground glass. Detective McLeod (Robert Christie), who is supposed to be investigating the case, is woefully inept, but Cliff has Ellie (Barbara Lord), a woman with problems of her own, willing to help him out. Eventually, the murder is traced to Nico and his henchmen as Cliff begins to sort out how the crime was committed. Although the dialogue is surface deep, just like the characters, the direction (Julian Roffman), the acting, and the repulsive nature of the content of this crime drama make up for any deficiencies. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Betts, Barbara Lord, (more)
- 1960
Jack Weston guest stars as Mr. Neal, a poker addict who has lost $500,000 in a marathon card game. Using the last of her money, Mrs. Neal (Betsy Jones-Moreland) hires Paladin (Richard Boone) to join the game, cut Mr. Neal's losses and bring her husband home. But the other players aren't about to give up their prize patsy--not without a bit of bloodshed. Featured in the cast in a "heavy" role is a young Peter Falk, while future perennial game-show celebrity Brett Somers also has a sizeable role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1960
This episode boasts the presence of two "Lieutenant Columbos": Thomas Mitchell, who created the role of disheveled detective Columbo in a 1960 theatrical production, and Peter Falk, who made the character internationally famous in a popular TV series. Mitchell is cast as Milo Sullivan, a gangland banker who supplies loans for various criminal operations--albeit with certain strings attached. Having a score to settle with Sullivan, hoodlum Duke Mullen (Peter Falk) tries to undercut his operation by pretending to fall in love with Milo's niece Louise O'Hara (Virginia Vincent). Meanwhile, Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) patiently awaits the inevitable downfall of both men. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This true crime story was hardly "ripped from today's headlines," since the events took place some 20 to 30 years before the movie was released. Still, Murder, Inc. is not afraid to name names, notably those of syndicate boss Louis "Lepke" Buchalter (David J. Stewart) and killer Abe Reles (Peter Falk), who squeals on the Mob to earn immunity. The activities of Buchalter's murder-for-hire operation are played against a fictional story about a nightclub singer (Stuart Whitman) and a dancer (May Britt). Murder, Inc. has a queasy, unsettling quality, due in part to some offbeat casting: TV comedian Henry Morgan co-stars as a dead-serious federal agent, while "human joke machine" Morey Amsterdam shows up as a cabaret entertainer who is stabbed by the Mob. The film was a major boost for the career of Peter Falk, who very nearly managed to parlay his Murder, Inc. supporting role into an Academy Award. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Whitman, May Britt, (more)
- 1960
Two film neophytes are of note in this otherwise lengthy, routine murder mystery by director William H. Witney -- Peter Falk as Webber, the villain, and Richard Chamberlain as Dean, a younger brother to the main protagonist Mark Christopher (Jeff Richards). Mark and his brother become suspicious about the circumstances of their father's drowning death in the Caribbean. There is no reason why the family boat should have gone down in calm seas, none that seems free of foul play at least. So the brothers take off for the tropical island on which the boat had been moored, anxious to find out what really happened. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Richards, Margia Dean, (more)
The short but bloody career of one of the most infamous outlaws of the 1930s is chronicled in this drama. Charles Arthur Floyd (John Ericson) finds work on an oil rig after serving time for armed robbery, but when he becomes involved with a married woman, her husband swears revenge. Floyd's boss doesn't know that his new employee was a jailbird, and when the cuckolded husband breaks the news, Floyd is out of a job. With nowhere to go, Floyd heads back to his father's home in Oklahoma, but when he learns that a neighboring farmer killed his father, Floyd goes berserk and murders the farmer. Floyd recruits three fellow criminals, Al (Barry Newman), Baker (Philip Kenneally), and Curly (Carl York), and together they cut a swath through the nation, robbing banks and leaving bodies in their wake. A young Peter Falk appears in a minor role, as does Al Lewis, who later gained fame as Grandpa on the TV series The Munsters. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ericson, Barry Newman, (more)
- 1961
Peter Falk guest stars as gangster Meyer Fine, a man who lives in mortal fear of sudden death. When a prominent young man commits suicide after losing heavily at Meyer's gambling house, a tough cop threatens to close Meyer down for good. To prevent this, Meyer murders the cop, only to incur the wrath of his fellow gangsters, who know they'll also suffer for the cop's death. Figuring he's a doomed man, Meyer wishes he could figure a way out of his dilemma -- a wish overheard by his loyal valet, John (Paul Hartman). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
Season Three of The Untouchables begins with a return guest-star appearance by Peter Falk, this time in the role of mob troubleshooter Nate Selko (a character reportedly based on real-life gangster Murray "The Camel" Humphries). When Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) begins bearing down on the illegal punchboard racket, the Syndicate brings Selko in from Chicago to handle the problem. Failing to buy Ness off with a $500,000 bribe, Selko manages to frame the Federal agent for murder. D.A. Asbury (Frank Wilcox) allows the Underworld to believe that Ness has been disgraced and demoted so that Elliot can put on an "embittered drunk" act, the better to lure Selko and his entire organization into a well-concealed trap. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Director Frank Capra's last feature film, Pocketful of Miracles is a Technicolor remake of his 1933 film Lady for a Day. A barely recognizable Bette Davis plays Apple Annie, the besotted, unkempt, rag-clad street vendor who controls the activities of all the beggars on Broadway. Apple Annie is the pet of Dave the Dude (Glenn Ford), a tough but basically kind-hearted gangster who believes that Annie's apples bring him luck. One morning, Annie fails to show up at her usual corner. That's because she is sitting disconsolate in her squalid shack, contemplating suicide. The reason: Annie has received a letter from her daughter Louise (Ann-Margret, in her screen debut). Annie has been supporting Louise's high-priced European education, leading the girl to believe that she, Annie, is a high-society dowager. Now Louise is returning home with her wealthy fiance Carlos Romero (Peter Mann) in tow, and it looks as though Annie's cover will be blown to bits. Partly out of sympathy, but mostly because of his superstitious belief in the power of Annie's apples, Dave the Dude arranges with his Broadway cohorts to "doll up" Annie so that she can pass as a woman of means, then stage-manages a huge, expensive reception for Louise and her beau. The complications that ensued in the original 1933 version of Lady for a Day exercise their prerogative once more, with a few added plot twists to pad out Glenn Ford's screen time. Cutting through the sentimental goo like a machete is Peter Falk, who is hilarious as Dave the Dude's sarcastic bodyguard. Evidently, Falk was one of the few actors on the set of Pocketful of Miracles with which Capra remained sympatico throughout shooting. In his autobiography (a not altogether reliable tome), Capra insisted that Pocketful of Miracles was ruined by Glenn Ford's autocratic and self-serving on-set behavior, and by Ford's demand that his current lady friend Hope Lange be (mis)cast as brash nightclub chirp Queenie Martin. As usual, Capra was not telling the whole story: at 63, he was beginning to lose his grip on his movie-making skills, allowing every scene to run well past its value and concentrating on cute isolated "bits" rather than the story at hand. Way too long at 136 minutes (Lady for a Day ran but 90), Pocketful of Miracles still has a lot going for it, especially the glowing performance of Bette Davis and the basic, foolproof Damon Runyon story on which it is based. While it disappointed at the box office, Miracles has since its release become a Christmastime TV perennial, seldom failing to draw big ratings numbers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenn Ford, Bette Davis, (more)
- 1961
This sledgehammer attack on Cuban dictator Fidel Castro stars Peter Falk as bearded banana-republic revolutionary Ramos Clemente. Upon taking control of the government, Clemente summons forth the man he has deposed, General DeCruz (Will Kuluva). Gloating, Clemente asks DeCruz if he has anything to say before he is executed. With a sly smile, DeCruz directs Clemente's attention to a huge mirror in the presidential palace, informing Clemente that the mirror will reveal the faces of those who will ultimately destroy him. He's right, of course, and any viewer who can't see the ending coming a mile away deserves to be drummed out of the living room in disgrace. Written by Rod Serling, "The Mirror" was originally telecast October 26, 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk, Richard Karlan, (more)
- 1962
Made for the continuing TV series The Dick Powell Theatre, a truck driver (Peter Falk) cares for a pregnant woman (Inger Stevens) after picking her up along the road. Falk won an Emmy for the role. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
Unable to get through to a particularly hostile patient, psychiatrist Peter Falk goes to gray-haired senior shrink Sidney Poitier for advice. This prompts Poitier to recall his experiences during World War II. While working on behalf of the government, Poitier was assigned the case of psycho Nazi sympathizer Bobby Darin. A complex flashback structure reveals the various influences that led to Darin's warped state of mind and to his life of crime. Poitier perceives that Darin is potentially dangerous, and insists that he needs further treatment. The government sees things differently, and allows Darin, who on the surface shows signs of recovery, to leave the hospital. The horrible results of this decision serve to convince Poitier to follow his own gut feelings no matter what his fellow "experts" might advise, and to continue probing even the most recalcitrant or deceptively "cured" of patients. Essentially a conformist psychological melodrama, Pressure Point truly comes to life whenever Bobby Darin is on the screen. His performance was outstanding, far better than his Oscar-nominated turn in 1963's Captain Newman MD. Unfortunately, the critics were aligned against Darin, possibly because of the singer/actor's well-publicized arrogance; Judith Crist went so far as to compare Darin to Dr. Samuel Johnson's walking dog, quipping that the most remarkable aspect of Darin's performance was not that he did it well, but that he did it at all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sidney Poitier, Bobby Darin, (more)
- 1962
Two-bit evangelist Robert Evans (Peter Falk) attaches himself to a wealthy elderly woman named Naomi Freshwater (Patricia Collinge). Evans hopes to inherit Naomi's mansion and convert into a temple -- and to expedite this, he sends her into the next world a bit ahead of schedule. Unfortunately for Evans, he may not be able to enjoy his ill-gotten gains for long: Naomi's niece Laura (Dina Merrill) has arrived in town with plans of her own. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk, Dina Merrill, (more)
- 1963
- Add It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World to QueueAdd It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World to top of Queue
With this all-star Cinerama epic, producer/director Stanley Kramer vowed to make "the comedy that would end all comedies." The story begins during a massive traffic jam, caused by reckless driver Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante), who, before (literally) kicking the bucket, cryptically tells the assembled drivers that he's buried a fortune in stolen loot, "under the Big W." The various motorists setting out on a mad scramble include a dentist (Sid Caesar) and his wife (Edie Adams); a henpecked husband (Milton Berle) accompanied by his mother-in-law (Ethel Merman) and his beatnik brother-in-law (Dick Shawn); a pair of comedy writers (Buddy Hackett and Mickey Rooney); and a variety of assorted nuts including a slow-wit (Jonathan Winters), a wheeler-dealer (Phil Silvers), and a pair of covetous cabdrivers (Peter Falk and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson). Monitoring every move that the fortune hunters make is a scrupulously honest police detective (Spencer Tracy). Virtually every lead, supporting, and bit part in the picture is filled by a well-known comic actor: the laughspinning lineup also includes Carl Reiner, Terry-Thomas, Arnold Stang, Buster Keaton, Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis, and The Three Stooges, who get one of the picture's biggest laughs by standing stock still and uttering not a word. Two prominent comedians are conspicuous by their absence: Groucho Marx refused to appear when Kramer couldn't meet his price, while Stan Laurel declined because he felt he was too old-looking to be funny. Available for years in its 154-minute general release version, the film was restored to its roadshow length of 175 minutes on home video; the search goes on for a missing Buster Keaton routine, reportedly excised on the eve of the picture's premiere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, (more)
The denizens of a sordid brothel become embroiled in a bloody coup in this arty political satire adapted from the Jean Genet play. Shelley Winters stars as the cathouse's madam, a stern woman who supervises the fantasy role-playing of her beautiful employees and their well-heeled customers, including the local police chief (Peter Falk). As various whores and their johns dress up like judges, penitents, bishops, and generals, a revolution rages outside in the streets. The leaders of society -- including the queen -- are done away with by an angry mob. Soon, the madam and her compatriots find themselves ordered to impersonate the slain bigwigs in order to restore law and order. Shot in black-and-white by cinematographer George Folsey and producer/director Joseph Strick, The Balcony features a number of future stars in its cast, from Ruby Dee and Lee Grant to Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy would go on to produce and star in Deathwatch, another Genet adaptation. Unlike the later film, Genet was actually involved in the film version of The Balcony, collaborating with Strick on the original treatment but leaving the final screenplay to poet and novelist Ben Maddow. Strick acquired the rights to The Balcony from Genet only after failing to mount another literary adaptation, of James Joyce's Ulysses. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shelley Winters, Peter Falk, (more)
The Rat Pack packed it in after this sprightly musical comedy that owes more than it should to Damon Runyon's stories and Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows's classic musical Guys and Dolls. Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen's bright and snappy score features such songs as "Style", "Bang-Bang" and the Sinatra standard "My Kind of Town". Set in 1920s Chicago, the tale begins during a birthday party for head mobster Big Jim (Edward G. Robinson) who is shot to death during the celebration. Rival gangster Guy Gisbourne (Peter Falk) immediately declares himself the chief gangster. The northside gang, headed by Robbo (Frank Sinatra) is willing to grant Guy his self-declared title as long as he leaves the northside territory alone. Guy refuses and when small time hood Little John (Dean Martin) joins Robbo's crew, turf warfare breaks out between the two gangs, resulting in the destruction of both Robbo and Guy's nightclubs. Meanwhile, Big Jim's daughter Marian (Barbara Rush) offers Robbo $50,000 to find the man who killed her father. Robbo demurs and gives the money to his henchman Will (Sammy Davis Jr.) to get rid of. Will, hoping to do a good deed, hands the money over to Allen A. Dale (Bing Crosby), who runs an orphanage. Allen, finding out that the money came from Robbo, informs the newspapers of Robbo's philanthropic enterprise and Robbo immediately becomes a local celebrity, referred to as Chicago's Robin Hood. For his part, Robbo is willing to go along with the publicity. On the romantic front, although Robbo is attracted to Marian, he gives her the brush-off when he finds she is using a charitable foundation as a front for a counterfeiting ring being run by herself and Little John. Robbo tells Marian to leave town. Instead, she hooks up with Guy, proposing that he kill both Robbo and Little John. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, (more)
- 1965
In this drama, a Hungarian photographer is sad when she discovers that her handsome lover, no longer cares for her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Tony Curtis stars as The Great Leslie, a hero among heroes whose purity of heart is manifested by his spotlessly white wardrobe. Leslie's great rival, played by Jack Lemmon, is Professor Fate, a scowling, mustachioed, top-hatted, black-garbed villain. Long envious of Leslie's record-setting accomplishments with airships and sea craft, Professor Fate schemes to win a 22,000-mile auto race from New York City to Paris by whatever insidious means possible. The problem is that Fate is his own worst enemy: each of his plans to remove Leslie from the running (and from the face of the earth) backfires. Leslie's own cross to bear is suffragette Maggie Dubois (Natalie Wood), who also hopes to win the contest and thus strike a blow for feminism. The race takes all three contestants to the Wild West, the frozen wastes of Alaska, and, in the longest sequence, the mythical European kingdom of Carpania. This last-named country is the setting for a wild Prisoner of Zenda spoof involving Professor Fate and his look-alike, the foppish Carpanian king. When Leslie and Fate approach the finish line at the Eiffel Tower, Leslie deliberately loses to prove his love for Maggie. Professor Fate cannot stand winning under these circumstances, thus he demands that he and Leslie race back to New York. The supporting cast includes Peter Falk as Fate's long-suffering flunkey Max, Keenan Wynn as Leslie's faithful general factotum, Dorothy Provine as a brassy saloon singer, Larry Storch as ill-tempered bandit Texas Jack, and Ross Martin as Baron Von Stuppe. The film also yielded a hit song, Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer's The Sweetheart Tree. The Great Race was dedicated to "Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, (more)
- 1965
The Russo/Italian coproduction Attack and Retreat was titled Italiano Brava Gente in Italy and Oni Shli Na Vostok in the USSR. This "solidarity" war epic hinges on the plot device of Italian and Soviet WWII troops forming a united front against their one-time ally, the Germans. To drum up business in America, the producers hired two Hollywood stars: Arthur Kennedy (as a fascist leader) and Peter Falk. In some prints of this film, Kennedy and Falk's highly distinctive voices have been dubbed by anonymous actors. Attack and Retreat was gorgeously filmed on location in the Ukraine with an international team of cinematographers. Originally released at 156 minutes, the film has been severely pared down for subsequent reissues and TV showings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tatiana Samoilova, Andrea Kekki, (more)
- 1966
Can armed robbery help save a marriage? These and other questions about modern relationships are pondered in this comedy. Penelope Elcott (Natalie Wood) married James (Ian Bannen) after a very brief courtship, and as his star has begun to rise in the banking business, he spends less and less time with her, leading Penelope to wonder if he still cares for her. Penelope comes up with what she thinks is a good way to get James's attention -- disguising herself as an old lady and robbing his bank of $60,000. The robbery, however, goes off without a hitch, and wracked with guilt, Penelope confesses her crime to her analyst, Dr. Gregory Mannix (Dick Shawn). Mannix, however, isn't much help, since he's crazier than any of his patients and madly in love with Penelope to boot. Penelope also features Jonathan Winters in a one-scene role as Dr. Klobb. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Natalie Wood, Ian Bannen, (more)
- 1966
Four Kings is a 60-minute World War II drama starring Peter Falk, Robert Strauss, Vito Scotti and Than Wyenn as four prisoners serving life sentences. They are pulled out of jail by the US military and given an opportunity for a pardon. The "brass" isn't asking for much: all the four lifers are expected to do is sneak into Germany and steal the secret plans for the V2 missile. Four Kings was originally telecast in 1963 on NBC's Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre. When it was rerun in early 1972, the closing credits had to be readjusted to reflect the fact that supporting player Hans Gudegast had changed his name to Eric Braeden. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
The 60-minute TV comedy Dear Deductible stars Peter Falk as a popular but improvident songwriter. After spending all of his royalties, Falk agrees to marry heiress Janet Leigh-not because of her money, but because of her lack of money. Y'see, both Peter and Janet plan to file a joint income tax return, thereby enjoying the bounty of the IRS' "deductible" system. This will keep them both solvent until they can recoup their fortunes...oh, yeah? Written by Raphael David Blau, Dear Deductible was first telecast November 9, 1966, on the weekly Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Prescription: Murder, a 1967 TV movie, represents the first appearance of Peter Falk as the rumpled but crafty detective Columbo. Gene Barry plays a distinguished doctor whose happiness is thwarted by his drunken wife (Nina Foch). Barry is in love with a pretty actress (Katherine Justice), and to smooth the path of his romance he murders his wife and arranges the evidence to pin the blame elsewhere. Enter Columbo, who seems to be slow on the uptake but who in fact is suspicious of the doctor's story. Snooping, prodding, puttering, and forever stopping at the doorway with the inevitable "just one more question," Columbo gets to the truth by playing a psychological trick on Barry, with the grudging cooperation of Barry's mistress. Written by Richard Levinson and William Link, Prescription Murder began life as a Broadway play in the late 1950s, starring Thomas Mitchell in the Columbo part (with a different character name), Joseph Cotten as the devious doctor, Agnes Moorehead as the victim and Patricia Medina (Mrs. Cotten) as the mistress. It would be adapted into a one-hour special on NBC in 1961 (with Bert Freed as the disheveled detective) before finally hitting weekly-series paydirt with Peter Falk in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk
