The Case of Columbo (part 1)

Etude in Black (1972)

You can tell a lot about the quality of any given Columbo episode by the way in which the killers meet their fate. One of the central conceits of the show is that the villains are smart. After all, these are folks attempting the ‘perfect murder’. As such, it should eventually dawn on them that the man in the rumpled raincoat has a point behind all his impertinent questions. So if the killer is, after scene after scene of ‘loose ends’ and ‘just one more things’, left utterly dumbstruck that Columbo could have pieced things together, chances are you’re dealing with a stinker. One is prone to yell at the screen “How could you not see this coming! You’re supposed to be a criminal mastermind!” All such audience of rage can be avoided if the killer is like John Cassavetes, and goes to his doom with a wry smile. That simple facial gesture indicates that he’s not all that surprised to have been found out; he did, after all, lose the flower from his lapel. It is this gesture that allows the audience to overlook the weaker aspects of Cassavetes’ performance. So what if the rough and tumble Brooklynite doesn’t make for a particularly believable symphony conductor (or, for that matter, that James Olson is not in the least convincing as a professional trumpet player) - the half smirk, and the clear self-awareness it represents, renders such worries, well, impertinent.