As many know, this was actually a film for TV, based on a stage play by Levinson and Link. If memory serves, the character of Lt. Columbo originated in 1962, and he was not played by Peter Falk. Columbo was played by Bert Freed.
What we know as the TV series began airing in 1971, and the final episode of “classic” Columbo aired in 1978. You may have heard that ABC aired many “new” Columbo films starting in 1989, and the last aired in 2003. I have seen just a few of these, and I think they are fine, but the general consensus is that the classic ones provided the audience for the new ones. This makes sense; Columbo is on a short list of the most beloved characters in American TV and feature films.
Anyway, this very first story centers around a psychiatrist “Ray Flemming” (Gene Barry) who viciously strangles his wife “Carol” (Nina Foch) because he’s been adulterous, she demanded that he stop or face divorce, and he refused. He’s also having one of his affairs with a very ill patient of his, “Joan Hudson” (Katherine Justice). Ray involves Joan in the scheme to cover up the murder by means of mistaken identity. Columbo secures almost certain conviction by also making use of mistaken identity.
Several people have noted that Columbo isn’t as affectedly foppish here; he’s not obviously aiming to be underestimated, a tactic that becomes a trademark later. He’s got shorter hair, and he’s seen getting angrier than we’ll be accustomed to in general. Columbo is still Columbo however, and I actually think that Flemming’s remorseless brutality and manipulation gets to him. (Of course, in real life, this character of Lt. Columbo is still developing as Falk first takes the role.) I think Columbo presses Joan because he believes that she has fundamentally good character, and this is borne out by the climax.
Columbo’s aesthetic here owes a debt to Hawaii Five-O, which also began airing as a series in 1968. Jack Lord’s “Steve McGarrett” seems to bring an old-fashioned morality more reminiscent of the 1950s and early ‘60s than the late ‘60s. On the other hand, cynicism and distrust of all authority (except themselves) might have been a perspective that the New Left imposed upon the end of the decade that wasn’t shared by most people. The general elections of 1968 and 1972 weren’t close at all. The people may well have grown to hate the war in Vietnam, but hating their country is impossible. Nixon made a bet that a “silent majority” would reject revolutionary violence, and so, support him. He appeared to be more correct than he could have imagined.
Regardless, there’s exactly no cynicism or self-doubt from Columbo. If he actually existed, he would laugh at the idea that the country or economics was fundamentally unfair. In “Candidate For Crime,” he mistakenly thought that a murder victim was a candidate for the US Senate. In fact, said candidate was the murderer. Throughout, he expressed faith in the political process, and in the fundamental goodness of participating in whatever capacity. Marcuse and Che he is not.
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