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
- 1994
Peter Falk returns as America's favorite rumpled detective. In this episode, the cigar-toting Lt. Columbo investigates a radio-talk-show host suspected of killing a member of his own staff in order to prevent his daughter, who also works at the station, from moving to New York to become a writer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk, William Shatner, (more)
- 1994
In this episode of the long-running detective series, Lt. Columbo delves seven years into the past to look into a lucrative bank robbery. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk, Ed Begley, Jr., (more)
- 1993
In this feature-length episode, the rumpled police lieutenant investigates a murder and finds himself the object of a flirtatious rivalry between two women. Either of the lovelies could have committed the crime. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk, Faye Dunaway, (more)
Wim Wenders revisits his masterpiece Der Himmel Uber Berlin in this film which picks up several years after the original left off. Cassiel (Otto Sander) is an angel who watches over the lives of the people of recently reunified Berlin with Raphaella (Nastassja Kinski). Damiel (Bruno Ganz), Cassiel's former partner who opted to return to the land of the living in the first film, now lives happily as a pizza chef with the woman he loved and married, circus performer Marion (Solveig Dommartin). While angels are forbidden to directly intervene in the lives of humans, Cassiel impulsively breaks this rule when a little girl falls from the balcony of an apartment block, and he swoops down to catch her. Suddenly made flesh and blood, Cassiel has earned the enmity of Emit Flesti (Willem Dafoe), a sort of overseer of the angels on the physical plane. Emit makes it his business to make things difficult for Cassiel now that he's living among the humans, and after a period of alcoholism and imprisonment, Cassiel finds himself working for gangster Tony Baker (Horst Buchholz), who distributes weapons and pornography on the black market. However, Cassiel has a change of heart and decides to destroy Tony's stockpile in a bid to make the world a better place. Peter Falk, who played himself in Der Himmel Uber Berlin, makes a return appearance when a gallery shows the sketches that he was making in the first film; rock singer Lou Reed and former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev also appear as themselves. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Otto Sander, Peter Falk, (more)
- 1992
Peter Falk returns as dishevelled Lieutenant Columbo in this 2-hour TV special. This time, Columbo investigates the murder of football-team owner Steve Forrest. The prime suspect is Forrest's nephew Greg Evigan, meaning of course that he "done it." Naturally, Evigan has an airtight alibi, but when has that ever stopped Columbo? Tyne Daly co-stars. Columbo: A Bird in the Hand originally aired November 22, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
This is one of the many made for TV movies revolving around the popular disheveled character created by Peter Falk - Lieutenant Columbo, of Homicide. In this one, the Lieutenant is called upon to use his expertise to help out the family when his nephew's new bride is kidnapped on their wedding night. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk, Joanna Going, (more)
- 1992
Larry's lack of knowledge pertaining to office gossip leaves him feeling left out in the lurch in this episode of HBO's The Larry Sanders Show. The head writer of The Larry Sanders Show is involved in a steamy office affair, and it seems that everyone aside from our gracious host is aware of it. This episode of The Larry Sanders Show features guest appearances by Kimberley Kates and Peter Falk. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Robert Altman takes a scalpel to Hollywood ethics in the 1990s (or the lack thereof) in his acidic satire The Player, adapted from Michael Tolkin's novel. (Tolkin also wrote the screenplay.) The film concerns a sleek and smooth Hollywood studio executive who starts receiving death threats from a disgruntled writer because he has committed the ultimate Hollywood sin -- he promised the writer he would call him back and he never did. This is particularly ironic because the studio executive, Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins), is considered "writer-friendly," spending his days listening to pitches from such noted screenwriters as Buck Henry, who is pushing "The Graduate, Part II" and Alan Rudolph, who is hawking a Bruce Willis action film described as "Ghost meets The Manchurian Candidate." But The Player finds Griffin's comfortable life style in danger of collapse. He is trying to find a way to unload his girlfriend (Cynthia Stevenson) whose independence and intelligence make her a poor candidate for a trophy wife. More importantly, it seems that Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher), a slippery executive from Twentieth Century Fox, is angling for his job. And then there are those nasty postcards and faxes from a screenwriter threatening to kill him. Altman cast over 65 stars in cameo roles as texture for his scabrous tale. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, (more)
- 1991
In this murder mystery, the rumpled detective battles wits with an unscrupulous jeweler over a dead nephew and a winning lotto ticket. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk, Rip Torn, (more)
- 1991
Peter Falk is Lieutenant Columbo, and the murderer is known to the audience from the get-go. This much we know before ever tuning in to Columbo: Caution--Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health. The special guest killer this time is George Hamilton, host of an America's Most Wanted-style TV show. Threatened with public revelation that he once starred in a porno film, Hamilton rubs out the blackmailer and cleverly covers his tracks. It must needs be that Hamilton's little murder will be re-enacted on his own TV show, and that Lt. Columbo will show up, rumpled raincoat and all, to ask that "one last question" at every turn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk, George Hamilton, (more)
- 1991
In this murder mystery, the rumpled detective battles wits with a brilliant defense attorney who kills his mistress. Trouble ensues when he attempts to frame her lover for the murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk, Dabney Coleman, (more)
- 1990
This documentary focuses on the person and the films of one of Germany's premiere post-war filmmakers, Wim Wenders. Wenders is a lifelong fan of American pop culture, particularly its rock music and B-movies, and his highly personalized filmmaking style is deeply influenced by both of these. He is best known for films featuring drifters and the lure of the open road and open spaces. The documentary features interviews with actors like Dennis Hopper, filmmakers (cinematographer Robby Muller) and rock musicians (e.g., Ry Cooder) and others who have worked with him over the years, as well as interviews with the director himself, who is well aware of his cinematic gifts and limitations. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wim Wenders, Harry Dean Stanton, (more)
- 1990
The tenth season of Columbo episodes was seen on ABC, which in 1989 has resurrected the property after its removal from NBC 12 years earlier. Peter Falk returns as raincoated, cigar-chewing, deceptively scatterbrained homicide detective Lt. Columbo for a group of three feature-length episodes, each of which pits the titular detective against a clever murderer who thinks he or she has committed the perfect crime. The first of the trio is "Columbo Goes to College," a campus caper featuring Robert Culp, who'd played murderers in three different Columbo installments back in the 1970s. Next is "Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health," guest-starring George Hamilton as the host of a popular anti-crime show who uses his knowledge of the criminal mind to knock off a would-be blackmailer. And finally, "The Murder of a Rock Star" finds Columbo trying to break down the alibi of a successful criminal lawyer (Dabney Coleman) who has killed his lover and framed her boyfriend. Though this spelled the end of Columbo in mini-series format, Peter Falk would revive the character in a number of one-shot movie specials, telecast between 1991 and 2003 and bearing titles like "Death Hits the Jackpot," "No Time to Die," "A Bird in the Hand," "It's All in the Game," "Butterflies in Shades of Grey," "Undercover," "Strange Bedfellows," "A Trace of Murder," "Ashes to Ashes," "Murder With Too Many Notes," and "Columbo Likes the Nightlife." ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk
- 1990
- R
Elaine May and Marlo Thomas star in this black comedy taking place in the black comedy capital of the world -- New York City. Elaine May plays Marianne Flan, who moves back to a nightmare New York City from Beverly Hills after her husband, Roger (Peter Falk), has been fired from his job. She hires ditzy psychic Reva Prosky (Marlo Thomas) to redecorate her apartment, and they end up being pursued by a crazed killer. They flee the city and end up at a new-age retreat in upstate New York. Jeannie Berlin, Elaine May's daughter, co-wrote the script with Laurie Jones and appears briefly as the Flan's strumpet neighbor. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elaine May, Marlo Thomas, (more)
- 1990
Where Columbo (Peter Falk) goes, can murder be far behind? In Columbo Goes to College, the rumpled TV sleuth shows up on campus as a guest lecturer on criminology. His visit coincides with the machinations of two rich and arrogant frat boys (Justin Rowe and Cooper Redman) who utilize "remote control" to kill the professor who's threatened to expel them. In the tradition of Compulsion, the snide young killers flaunt their intellectual superiority before the seemingly ingenuous Columbo. No wonder these boys were on the verge of flunking out--they'd never bothered to check up on Columbo's previous track record for convictions. Outside of the novel setting, Columbo Goes to College is a by-rote rehash of an old formula; even Peter Falk seems bored. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
This is one of the many made for TV movies revolving around the popular disheveled character created by Peter Falk - Lieutenant Columbo, of Homicide. In this one, the lack of a corpse doesn't hinder our trench-coat wearing detective as he tries to pin the murder on the supposed corpse's business partner, the owner of a men's magazine. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- 1990
This 2-hour TV movie was originally presented as an installment of The ABC Saturday Mystery Movie in February of 1990. Patrick McGoohan (who also directed) plays a vice presidential candidate whose best friend murders a blackmailing racketeer. With "damage control" foremost in his mind, McGoohan arrange to make the murder look like a suicide. At this point, Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk) enters, and it's "cat and mouse" for the remaining 90 minutes. The 1990 Columbo episodes alternated on the Saturday Mystery Movie with three other series: Cristine Cromwell, B.L. Stryker and Kojak. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk, Patrick McGoohan, (more)
- 1990
This was one of the highest-rated of the Columbo 2-hour TV movies of the 1990s. The story begins as Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk) solemnly attends his wife's funeral. Mrs. C. was poisoned, and the murderer is guest star Helen Shaver. When her husband died in prison, Shaver swore revenge on the three men responsible for his incarceration. She kills the first two men outright, but when she levels her sights at Columbo, Shaver decides to make the detective "feel her pain" through the loss of a loved one. A twist ending caps this intriguing entry. Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo was first presented March 31, 1990, as part of ABC's Saturday Mystery Movie anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk, Helen Shaver, (more)
- 1990
The murder of a popular romance novelist sets America's favorite rumpled detective on the case. Columbo gets off on the wrong gumshoe when he forces an innocent gigolo to confess to the crime. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1990
The title of this 2-hour Columbo entry is one of the most grievous puns ever perpetrated on the public. The "crown" in question is a gold one, placed in the murder victim's tooth by dentist James Read. Seeking redress against his wife's lover, Read has administered a slow-acting and untraceable poison in the victim's dental crown. Had not Columbo been assigned to the case, Read might have gotten away as clean as a hound's tooth (sorry!) Nancy Walker and Dick Sargent make cameo appearances in Uneasy Lies the Crown, which originally aired April 28, 1990 on ABC's Saturday Mystery Movie series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Tune in Tomorrow is based on Mario Vargas Llosa's novel, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter. In New Orleans, circa 1951, a news writer for a local radio station, Martin Loader (Keanu Reeves), meets and falls in love with his aunt Julia (Barbara Hershey), a divorced woman who is looking for a new husband. Meanwhile, new-in-town eccentric radio-soap-opera writer, Pedro Carmichael (Peter Falk) has been hired to help boost the station's bad ratings. Pedro begins manipulating Martin and Julia's affair and using it as the basis for his radio show. Director Jon Amiel uses the same story-within-a-story construction from The Singing Detective, the miniseries that he directed for British television. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk, Keanu Reeves, (more)
- 1989
After an eleven-year-absence, Peter Falk once more dons his tattered raincoat and steps into the role of delightfully sloppy and unerringly shrewd homicide detective Lt. Columbo for a short series of movie-length episodes produced for ABC. The first of these is the two-hour "Columbo Goes to the Guillotine," in which a phony psychic makes it appear that his murder of a magician was simply an "accident of the trade." This escapade was followed up three weeks later by "Murder, Smoke and Shadows," guest-starring Fisher Stevens as a Spielbergesque movie director who must commit a new murder to cover up a earlier killing while in high school. Next up is "Sex and the Married Detective," in which Columbo goes into full cat-and-mouse mode with a popular sex therapist (Lindsay Crouse) who uses a disguise to bump off a romantic rival. The final installment in the first season of ABC's Columbo revival is "Grand Deceptions," featuring Robert Foxworth as an outwardly respectable army colonel who resorts to homicide to cover up his sexual peccadillos and his dealings with crooked gun dealers. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk
- 1989
Revived by ABC after eleven years' dormancy, the popular detective series Columbo proved so successful in its revitalized version during the 1988-1989 season that the network commissioned five more movie-length Columbo installments for the following year. Peter Falk of course was back in harness as Lt. Columbo, the LAPD's sloppiest and shrewdest homicide detective. The first episode for the property's ninth season on the air (including its seven years on NBC in the 1970s) is "Murder, a Self Portrait", starring Patrick Bauchau as a famous artist who turns murderer when his romantic misadventures (namely, three different women in three different cities) catch up with him. Next is "Columbo Cries Wolf", wherein the rumpled detective gambols in the rarefied world of "men's magazines" to solve the disappearance of a female editor and to trap a well-hidden killer. Patrick McGoohan, who showed up in several of the 1970s Columbo episodes, returns as a scheming politico who arranges a murder as the first step to the Vice Presidency in "Agenda for Murder." The best-known episode this season is "Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo," in which our detective hero embarks upon an apparent vendetta to solve the reported murder of his wife (whom we never saw back in the NBC days, and whom we don't see in this episode either!) This classic episode is followed by "Uneasy Lies the Crown," a puny title referring to the villain of the piece, a homicidal dentist (James Read). And in "Murder in Malibu," a best-selling author of romantic novels is murdered by her faithless lover (Andrew Stevens), whose well-known wandering eye proves to be his undoing. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk
- 1989
After an absence of nearly a decade, Peter Falk returns to the role of dishevelled detective Columbo in Columbo Goes to the Guillotine. The special guest murderer this time out is professional psychic Anthony Andrews. The victim is magician Anthony Zerbe, a onetime cellmate of Andrews' who had been the psychic's co-conspirator in a plan to steal military secrets. Zerbe is found lying next to his guillotine trick, his head neatly severed from his body. An accident, says the coroner. Maybe not, says Columbo, whose efforts to tighten the noose around Andrews' neck are complicated by the latter's ESP prowess. The 2-hour Columbo Goes to the Guillotine was telecast February 6, 1989, as the opening volley of The ABC Monday Mystery Movie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
It's an alluring title, to be sure, but faithful Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk) does not stray from his never-seen wife in Columbo: Sex and the Married Detective. Lindsay Crouse guest stars as Dr. Joan Allenby, a radio personality billed as "Sex Therapist of the Airwaves". The doctor finds she must counsel herself when her personal assistant ends up in bed with Allenby's business manager/lover. The scorned lady murders the errant beau and tries to pin the blame on her assistant. Lt. Columbo smells a beautiful rat, and spends the rest of the 2-hour TV film dogging Dr. Allenby's trail. Sex and the Married Detective was originally telecast on the omnibus weekly series The ABC Monday Mystery Movie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk, Lindsay Crouse, (more)
