2. UNIVERSAL – COLUMBO – COMPLETE SERIES
(12 or 13 seasons) – 1972-2005 – 2022
There is little to say about this series, and yet we could take each episode separately and
see how it works upside down, backside front, and even right side left, and we would be left with
the aftertaste in our mouth that the story, the saga is not finished because even in the 2005 last
episode, five years after the last but one, Columbo is not finished yet, he has not reached the last
and final episode in which he decides or is forced to retire, to leave the world of police
investigations. He is the perfect example showing that there is no retiring age in this profession,
and even in most professions, and that retiring is like some whipped cream on a Golden Turd
Award: it would ruin it. And yet he has become a legend with his raincoat. “Columbo's raincoat
was designed and manufactured in Spain, by a company called Cortefiel. (Translated into English,
"cortefiel" means "good tailoring".) Cortefiel has a long-established reputation as a maker of fine
garments and owns a chain of specialty stores in 10 countries, based in Madrid, Spain.” Columbo
only tried once to have a new one, slightly more stylish, more a trench coat than a raincoat, but it
did not last even one full episode. This raincoat is like Columbo’s skin, and no one wants to flail
him, alive or dead. There is no reward or ransom for the raincoat.
The second characteristic is that we see the criminal and the crime from beginning to end at
the start of every episode, and the job of Lieutenant Columbo is to manage to understand the
crime and force the criminal to admit he or she is the author/authoress of the crime. The interest is
then the small details or facts that Columbo uses to confound the criminal, but even more than
that, the various psychological and logical tools Columbo uses to force the criminal to defeat, to
admit he/she has done it. Suspense then exists from beginning to end since we have to follow how
the criminal dissimulates his/her crime and how Columbo breaks these defenses and forces the
truth on some very swift and smart criminals.
The third interest is quite different. The kind of crime we are dealing with in these episodes.
The main crime is motivated by greed, the desire to take what the victim has, no matter what it may
be, money, a manuscript, connections, or a project. Then the second trigger is how the criminal
feels menaced in his or her integrity by the victim who has some advantage over the criminal:
better in the concerned field, more creative, more inventive, just a real menace to the criminal’s
reputation and career. The next line has to do with the criminal’s hormones. A challenger is
menacing his wife or her husband, but we remain straight, from beginning to end. Maybe two

3. women, but certainly not two men at this level. If two men are involved, they are business partners,
in projects not in private life. The victim, in one way or another, is in the way and has to be
eliminated for the criminal to recapture, his or her integrity, freedom, and creativity, at times by
using a go-between who will eventually have to be eliminated in his turn.
It is well done all along and the main actor, Peter Falk, has been able to compose a
character that could be that long-lasting and yet not in that many episodes in so many years,
meaning that he could not be reduced to this character. He has been an actor in 111 films, and he
has been himself in 138 documentaries or other films of this type. He even impersonated Columbo
in the film “Murder by Death,” a criminal comedy of note.
Now to conclude Columbo has a lot of humor as a lieutenant of the Los Angeles Police
Department. Never believe he is going to go for real when he says goodbye. He will always, or
nearly always have another question, another remark to bring up before he goes, after he has left,
and he then he has to come back, or even run after the criminal he has just released from his
questioning. He is haunting the criminal, and we may think he has had a leak from the producers
telling him who the criminal is, haunting him or her till he or she breaks down and accepts to be
defeated.
Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

4. VERSION FRANÇAISE
Il y a peu à dire sur cette série, et pourtant nous pourrions prendre chaque épisode
séparément et voir comment il fonctionne sens dessus dessous, la tête en bas et les pieds en l’air,
et même de droite à gauche et non de gauche à droite, et nous resterions avec l'arrière-goût dans
la bouche que l'histoire, la saga n'est pas terminée parce que même dans le dernier épisode de
2005, cinq ans après l'avant-dernier, Columbo n'est pas encore fini, il n'a pas encore atteint le
dernier et ultime épisode dans lequel il décide ou est forcé de prendre sa retraite, de quitter le
monde des enquêtes policières. Il est l'exemple parfait qui montre qu'il n'y a pas d'âge de la
retraite dans cette profession, et même dans la plupart des professions, et que la retraite est
comme de la crème fouettée sur un Prix du Golden Turd : elle le gâcherait. Ne parlons pas en plus
d’ajouter une cerise sur la crème Chantilly. Et pourtant, il est devenu une légende avec son
imperméable. "L'imperméable de Columbo a été conçu et fabriqué en Espagne, par une société
appelée Cortefiel. (Cortefiel jouit d'une réputation de longue date en tant que fabricant de
vêtements de qualité et possède une chaîne de magasins spécialisés dans 10 pays, dont le siège
se trouve à Madrid, en Espagne". Columbo n'a essayé qu'une seule fois d'en avoir un nouveau, un
peu plus élégant, plus un trench-coat qu'un imperméable, mais il n'a même pas duré un épisode
complet. Cet imperméable est comme la peau de Columbo, et personne ne veut l'écorcher, vivant
ou mort. Il n'y a pas de récompense ou de rançon pour l'imperméable.
La deuxième caractéristique est que l'on voit le criminel et le crime de bout en bout au
début de chaque épisode, et le travail du lieutenant Columbo est de parvenir à comprendre le
crime et de forcer le criminel à admettre qu'il est l'auteur/autrice du crime. L'intérêt réside alors
dans les petits détails ou faits que Columbo utilise pour confondre le criminel, mais plus encore,
dans les différents outils psychologiques et logiques que Columbo utilise pour forcer le criminel à
la défaite, à admettre qu'il est l'auteur du crime. Le suspense existe donc du début à la fin puisque
nous devons suivre comment le criminel dissimule son crime et comment Columbo brise ses
défenses et impose la vérité à des criminels très vifs d’esprit et intelligents.
Le troisième intérêt est tout à fait différent. Il s'agit du type de crime dont il est question
dans ces épisodes. Le crime principal est motivé par la cupidité, le désir de prendre ce que la
victime possède, peu importe ce que c'est, de l'argent, un manuscrit, des relations ou un projet. Le
deuxième élément déclencheur est la façon dont le criminel se sent menacé dans son intégrité par

5. la victime qui a un certain avantage sur lui : meilleur dans le domaine concerné, plus créatif, plus
inventif, une véritable menace pour la réputation et la carrière du criminel. La ligne suivante
concerne les hormones du criminel. Un challenger menace sa femme ou son mari, mais nous
restons dans la normalité hétéro, du début à la fin. Peut-être deux femmes, mais certainement pas
deux hommes à ce niveau. Si deux hommes sont impliqués, ce sont des partenaires d'affaires,
dans des projets et non dans la vie privée. La victime, d'une manière ou d'une autre, est en travers
du chemin et doit être éliminée pour que le criminel puisse retrouver son intégrité, sa liberté et sa
créativité, parfois en utilisant un intermédiaire qui devra finalement être éliminé à son tour.
Tout est bien fait et l'acteur principal, Peter Falk, a été capable de composer un personnage
qui ait pu durer aussi longtemps tout en n'apparaissant pas dans des épisodes par trop nombreux,
loin de là, en autant d'années, trente-trois exactement, ce qui signifie qu'il ne pourrait pas être
réduit à ce personnage. Il a été acteur dans 111 films, et il a été lui-même dans 138 documentaires
ou autres films de ce type. Il s'est même fait passer pour Columbo dans le film "Murder by Death",
une comédie criminelle digne d'intérêt.
En conclusion, Columbo a beaucoup d'humour en tant que lieutenant de la police de Los
Angeles. Ne croyez jamais qu'il va partir pour de bon lorsqu'il vous dit au revoir. Il aura toujours, ou
presque, une autre question, une autre remarque à soulever avant de partir, après son départ, et il
devra ensuite revenir, voire courir après le criminel qu'il vient juste de libérer de son interrogatoire.
Il hante le criminel, et on peut penser qu'il a eu une fuite des producteurs lui indiquant qui est le
criminel, le hantant jusqu'à ce qu'il s'effondre et accepte d'être vaincu.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
OLDER REVIEW
STALK, FALTER, AND FALK FOR A FLASHER'S
TRENCH COAT
Columbo is a legend in detective series and he was often imitated but never equaled. He
was also parodied, with half a dozen of other sleuths, private eyes, amateur detectives, and free-
lance bounty hunters in "Murder by Death" but in vain in a way, though the meeting with Miss
Marple was more than funny.
Columbo brings first of all in the picture an old French car from the 50s, a Peugeot mind
you, that is banged up and scratched in all possible indecent ways, that can fart with a boom when
a surprise is necessary, whose door does not open when it is most irritating for it not to open,
irritating for the audience of course, the audience in the room, or the audience in the film, the other
cops or the criminals who are irritated by the sole presence of Columbo, as if he were some
perambulating poison ivy. And rest assured that this reluctant door is planned through and through
by the crafty lieutenant.

6. Then he displays an inconsiderate way of dressing badly in a trench coat that looks like the
coat of a flasher, or a bum or homeless beggar, with a shirt that is never very pure and a tie that is
everything but flashy, in fact, sore and dull. His hair is greyish except when he dyes it more or less
red for the sake of a case. He smokes a disgusting cigar and drops his ashes everywhere. He
even takes an ugly dog along from time to time, with a big metal bowl and some water to give him
a drink when he arrives at the crime scene.
He has a wife who is like the Arlesian woman from the eponymous opera by Bizet who is
never seen but always spoken of and about. She is his permanent reference when he wants to
confuse a suspect. I just wonder what he could do without his wife who apparently has no
originality or original tastes because she is the pure virtual embodiment or impersonation of the
most middle-of-the-way unoriginal banal middle class non-working childless housewife you can
imagine.
The best part about Columbo is his method. He appears sloppy but he is sloppy on
purpose. He only deals with the top society criminals of Beverley Hills mostly, in Los Angeles as
you know very well, and these pretend they are the best and most organized criminals of all time.
They are then confused, distracted, mesmerized, and irritated by this sloppy lieutenant who looks
at worthless details and rants or even raves about anything but the crime at hand. And it works.
These criminals are so self-centered that they find themselves decentered, even mentally
scattered all over the landscape in a minute, especially when Columbo is de-structuring the very
piece of evidence they have planted there to mislead the police. But no one misleads Columbo.
The series as such deals with the top of the social top, the cream of the effete world in and
around Hollywood. These people are rich to the point of drowning in their greenbacks or drowning
in the common accompaniment of these greenbacks that whisky, or should I say bourbon, is. They
have cars that are as long as trains and homes that are as big as the castles of the crazy Prussian
emperor Friedrich, or was it a Bavarian Duke or something like that? They live in a dream in which
their own umbilical logic – which is pretty obtuse – is the law reigning over the world and is re-
enforced by their propensity at calling the top politicians and making them sing the song of the
death of Columbo, as if Columbo were a swan, in other words pressurizing if not blackmailing
them.
Of course, he gets these perverse and twisted warped minds and bodies that carry the
worst criminal instincts down and has his assistants put manacles generally in the form of

7. handcuffs on them, at times in a considerate way (for women) in front, but most of the time (for
men) behind their backs. And he hesitates in front of nothing at all. Down must the criminal go and
down goes the criminal. Down with and from the mountain of social climbing, which is only a ladder
and Columbo pushes that ladder down under their feet and enjoys the fall, like at the end of "Jack
and the Beanstalk." The tenth and eleventh seasons provide us with six stories that are all in that
color and I will of course not even evoke the details. We know the criminal from the very start. We
do not know the motives at times, and the motives might be even respectable when we get to
them, but the end is the end and the show, despite what all actors say, must find an end and that
end is in prison. So enjoy these six little big films of a series and let yourself be taken by the
extremely good actor who is known all around the world as Columbo, and was imitated in France
by the TV series "Navarro". But the actor is much better in the original.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
BUDAPEST