"Just one more thing..."
Sometimes, the work of the fictional detective seems to have more in common with some arcane mystical practice than the rigorously methodical, logic-based process of deduction it is in real life. Real world cops rely on years of experience, methodical procedures and cutting edge technology to get their man, while their fictional counterparts seem blessed with near paranormal abilities that allow them to deduct the truth from facts and clues often overlooked by we mere mortals. Foremost among these uncanny flatfoots is of course the Prince of Detectives himself, Sherlock Holmes, whose ability to deduce the facts from limited clues often seems like the work of black magic.
On American TV, things were generally a lot easier - cops raced around town, roughing up suspects, hanging out with informants and looking good in nifty fashions, pursuing more-or-less routine avenues of detection but doing it a bit more glamorously than you'd find in your average real-life inner-city precinct. In the 1970s, the one exception to the rule was Columbo.
Although best known and loved now as the shabbily-dressed character portrayed by Peter Falk in the long-running series of television films, the character had been created by Richard Levinson and William Link for an episode of anthology series The Chevy Mystery Show, Enough Rope [1960] where he was played by Bert Freed. The character turned up again in a stage version of the same story, this time played by Thomas Mitchell and in 1968, Falk took over the role and made it his own in the pilot film Prescription: Murder, which soon led to a series within the NBC Mystery Movie umbrella, starting in 1971.
Columbo was the most unusual American TV detective show in that it was never a whodunit. The audience always knew right from the opening scenes who the killer and the victim were and what the motive behind the killing was. The earliest use of this technique, known as the "inverted mystery" is widely credited to English writer R. Austin Freeman and the creators of Columbo readily acknowledge the debt to Freeman's work.
With the sense of mystery removed [we already knew from the start who did it], what makes Columbo so compelling is the ensuing battle of psychological wits between Columbo and the killer. The shabbily dressed Lieutenant Columbo [his first name was never revealed on screen, despite what a famous question in Trivial Pursuit might have us believe - see here for more details] never used a gun, and his car certainly wasn't a souped-up penis extension with go-faster stripes, just a rather battered 1960 Peugeot 403, a means of getting him to and from work - and there was never any guarantee that it would manage that. Instead he relied solely on the one thing that so many TV 'tecs seem to lack - his wits.
When he first arrives at the murder scene - often 10 to 15 minutes into the mystery - Columbo would often seem disinterested in the crime scene, seeming befuddled, a bit lost and in danger of overlooking the clues that his more "ordinary" colleagues were carefully combing the scene for. But somewhere, the killer has made a subtle but fatal flaw and it's this weakness that Columbo eventually manages to exploit having managed to deduce the vital clue within minutes of his flustered first appearance.
The secret weapon in Columbo's arsenal seems to be his uncanny ability to read human body language, to be able to tell at a glance when someone is lying. It's actually surprisingly easy to spot when someone is lying to you as the person involved exhibits all sorts of behaviour that gives the game away, but it's something that few of us actually notice. Though Columbo certainly does. He can see when the stiff and limited physical expressions, the avoidance of eye contact, the touching of the person's own their face, throat and mouth while trying to maintain the lie. He can see how facial expressions in liars are limited largely to their mouths instead of using the whole face, can read their defensive and discomfort at being questioned and will spot the way that guilty people invariably place an object [a book, a cup, anything at hand] between themselves and their interrogator as a way for keeping them from the truth.
But what the show's writers all seemed to understand and used so well is the fact that you can catch out a liar very easily by suddenly changing the subject of a conversation, then switching back to the topic at hand with equal rapidity - a liar will gladly change the subject and become more relaxed, but the change back to the subject of the lie will often confuse them enough to tie themselves in knots and allow the lie to be revealed. Week in, week out we saw Columbo exploiting this simple behavioural tic, especially in "Just one more thing..." questions, and using it to tease the truth from his suspect.
In more recent years, as the condition has become better known, some commentators have suggested that Columbo's success as a detective might be down to him suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder [OCD], an affliction that dogs a later small screen detective in a similar vein, Monk. Certainly the man in the mac has a near obsessive near to tie up the loose ends of every case he investigates, but OCD is just a currently rather trendy label to pin on people whose behaviour is seen as a fixated and slightly paranoid. Chances are that Columbo was just a bloody good cop whose abilities make him seem odd and slightly sinister but who really just refuses to give up on a case.
In fact, if Columbo is afflicted with a psychological condition it would seem to be a very slight case of sadism. Witness his masterly playing of mind games with the man or woman he suspects of having committed the crime, especially in his final mental torturing of them, allowing them to believe that they might just be getting away with this before springing one of 70s TV's most famous catch-phrases: "Just one more thing…" Columbo seemed to actively enjoy this mental sparring, allowing the killer enough hope of getting away with it that it will lull him into a false sense of security and trip them up.
These climactic scenes were always the most enjoyable parts of the show, the final pay-off as Columbo solves the last piece of the puzzle and springs his trap. There was never any real doubt that he would actually solve the case [though in one episode from Season Five, Forgotten Lady [14 September 1975], he agrees to allow the killer [played by Janet Leigh] to "get away with it" as she's clearly seriously mentally unwell and dying] but watching the killer initially believing that they were cleverer than Columbo [there's a real class conflict subtext at work in Columbo, with the working class gumshoe invariably taking on mainly middle-class adversaries] before panicking, making mistakes and finally marveling like the rest of us at the tenacity of the scruffy little man's perspicacity and relentlessness.
KEVIN LYONS
Columbo Season 5 is released on UK DVD by Universal on 12 February 2007, priced £29.99.
On American TV, things were generally a lot easier - cops raced around town, roughing up suspects, hanging out with informants and looking good in nifty fashions, pursuing more-or-less routine avenues of detection but doing it a bit more glamorously than you'd find in your average real-life inner-city precinct. In the 1970s, the one exception to the rule was Columbo.
Although best known and loved now as the shabbily-dressed character portrayed by Peter Falk in the long-running series of television films, the character had been created by Richard Levinson and William Link for an episode of anthology series The Chevy Mystery Show, Enough Rope [1960] where he was played by Bert Freed. The character turned up again in a stage version of the same story, this time played by Thomas Mitchell and in 1968, Falk took over the role and made it his own in the pilot film Prescription: Murder, which soon led to a series within the NBC Mystery Movie umbrella, starting in 1971.
Columbo was the most unusual American TV detective show in that it was never a whodunit. The audience always knew right from the opening scenes who the killer and the victim were and what the motive behind the killing was. The earliest use of this technique, known as the "inverted mystery" is widely credited to English writer R. Austin Freeman and the creators of Columbo readily acknowledge the debt to Freeman's work.
With the sense of mystery removed [we already knew from the start who did it], what makes Columbo so compelling is the ensuing battle of psychological wits between Columbo and the killer. The shabbily dressed Lieutenant Columbo [his first name was never revealed on screen, despite what a famous question in Trivial Pursuit might have us believe - see here for more details] never used a gun, and his car certainly wasn't a souped-up penis extension with go-faster stripes, just a rather battered 1960 Peugeot 403, a means of getting him to and from work - and there was never any guarantee that it would manage that. Instead he relied solely on the one thing that so many TV 'tecs seem to lack - his wits.
When he first arrives at the murder scene - often 10 to 15 minutes into the mystery - Columbo would often seem disinterested in the crime scene, seeming befuddled, a bit lost and in danger of overlooking the clues that his more "ordinary" colleagues were carefully combing the scene for. But somewhere, the killer has made a subtle but fatal flaw and it's this weakness that Columbo eventually manages to exploit having managed to deduce the vital clue within minutes of his flustered first appearance.
The secret weapon in Columbo's arsenal seems to be his uncanny ability to read human body language, to be able to tell at a glance when someone is lying. It's actually surprisingly easy to spot when someone is lying to you as the person involved exhibits all sorts of behaviour that gives the game away, but it's something that few of us actually notice. Though Columbo certainly does. He can see when the stiff and limited physical expressions, the avoidance of eye contact, the touching of the person's own their face, throat and mouth while trying to maintain the lie. He can see how facial expressions in liars are limited largely to their mouths instead of using the whole face, can read their defensive and discomfort at being questioned and will spot the way that guilty people invariably place an object [a book, a cup, anything at hand] between themselves and their interrogator as a way for keeping them from the truth.
But what the show's writers all seemed to understand and used so well is the fact that you can catch out a liar very easily by suddenly changing the subject of a conversation, then switching back to the topic at hand with equal rapidity - a liar will gladly change the subject and become more relaxed, but the change back to the subject of the lie will often confuse them enough to tie themselves in knots and allow the lie to be revealed. Week in, week out we saw Columbo exploiting this simple behavioural tic, especially in "Just one more thing..." questions, and using it to tease the truth from his suspect.
In more recent years, as the condition has become better known, some commentators have suggested that Columbo's success as a detective might be down to him suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder [OCD], an affliction that dogs a later small screen detective in a similar vein, Monk. Certainly the man in the mac has a near obsessive near to tie up the loose ends of every case he investigates, but OCD is just a currently rather trendy label to pin on people whose behaviour is seen as a fixated and slightly paranoid. Chances are that Columbo was just a bloody good cop whose abilities make him seem odd and slightly sinister but who really just refuses to give up on a case.
In fact, if Columbo is afflicted with a psychological condition it would seem to be a very slight case of sadism. Witness his masterly playing of mind games with the man or woman he suspects of having committed the crime, especially in his final mental torturing of them, allowing them to believe that they might just be getting away with this before springing one of 70s TV's most famous catch-phrases: "Just one more thing…" Columbo seemed to actively enjoy this mental sparring, allowing the killer enough hope of getting away with it that it will lull him into a false sense of security and trip them up.
These climactic scenes were always the most enjoyable parts of the show, the final pay-off as Columbo solves the last piece of the puzzle and springs his trap. There was never any real doubt that he would actually solve the case [though in one episode from Season Five, Forgotten Lady [14 September 1975], he agrees to allow the killer [played by Janet Leigh] to "get away with it" as she's clearly seriously mentally unwell and dying] but watching the killer initially believing that they were cleverer than Columbo [there's a real class conflict subtext at work in Columbo, with the working class gumshoe invariably taking on mainly middle-class adversaries] before panicking, making mistakes and finally marveling like the rest of us at the tenacity of the scruffy little man's perspicacity and relentlessness.
KEVIN LYONS
Columbo Season 5 is released on UK DVD by Universal on 12 February 2007, priced £29.99.
posted by Kevin at 11:33 PM
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