Columbo

Christyne Berzsenyi

Description

This book presents an analysis of Lieutenant Columbo's investigative method of rhetorical inquiry as seen in the television police procedural Columbo (1968-2003).  With a barrage of questions about minute details and feigned ignorance, the iconic detective enacts a persona of ‘antipotency’ (counter authoritativeness) to affect the villains' underestimation of his attention to inconsistencies, abductive reasoning, and rhetorical efficacy.  In a predominantly dialogue-based investigation, Columbo exhausts his suspects by asking a battery of questions concerning all minor details of the case, which evolves into an aggravating tedious provocation for the killer trying to maintain innocence. Based on the Ancient Greek ideal of Sophrosyne (temperance, restraint) and the Socratic method of questioning to discover truths, the Lieutenant models effective rhetorical inquiry with resistant responders: shy, secretive, anxious, emotionally-disconnected, angry, arrogant, jealous, and, in this case, murderous conversants. While designed to be critical and theoretical, this text strives to be accessible to interdisciplinary readers, practical in application, and amusing for Columbo buffs.

PART ONE: UNDERSTANDING THE LIEUTENANT AND HIS VILLAINS

1. Introduction: Introduction to Columbo And Columbo
   
   
   
   1. Columbo, An Inverted Mystery
   
   
   2. A Snapshot of Television and Film History: Pre-Columbo
   
   
   3. The Underestimated Detective (1910)
   
   
   4. Scholarship and the Lieutenant
   
   
   5. Historical, Literary, and Television Contexts: Shift to Grit and Realism
   
   
   
   


2. Columbo and the Lieutenant: Literary Influences
   
   
   
   1. The Firsts in Short and Long Detective Fiction in English (1841-62)
   
   
   2. Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Lieutenant Porfiry Petrovitch: Pretenses (1886)
   
   
   3. Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes: Genius Detective (1887)
   
   
   4. British Golden Age, Drawing Room Mysteries, The Cozy (1920-40)
   
   
   
   

3. Characterology and Character-Based Detective TV Shows
   
   
   
   1. The Lieutenant with His Sergeants
   
   
   2. Columbo: A Blend of Genres, Influences, and Deviations
   
   
   
   

4. Columbo, The Suspect Charmer
   
   
   
   1. Suspects as Resistant Responders
   
   
   2. Charming the Stinging Villains
      
      
      
      1. Glamour in Columbo
      
      
      
      
   
   
   3. Two Sides of Columbo Presented on a Case by Case Basis
      
      
      
      1. Columbo Talks to 'Dog', 'Étude in Black' (1972)
      
      
      2. Columbo and a Resistant Responder, 'Double Shock' (1973)
      
      
      3. Dual Personae, 'An Exercise in Fatality' (1974)
      
      
      
      
   
   
   4. Columbo and the Ancient Greek Virtue of Sophrosyne
   
   
   5. Looking for the Right Word: Antipotency
   
   
   
   

5. The Columbo Killer
   
   
   
   1. White, middle-aged, wealthy, intelligent, cultured, successful, arrogant
   
   
   2. Audience-Villain Relationships and Columbo
   
   
   3. Columbo’s Five Types of Villains
   
   
   
   

6. Columbo, Women of His Investigations, and the Equal Rights Movement
   
   
   
   1. The Women’s Professional Movement Strategic Male Chauvinism
   
   
   2. Columbo’s Female Villains: Ladylike but Lethal
   
   
   3. Columbo and the Female Accomplices
   
   
   4. Columbo and the Female Witnesses
   
   
   
   

 PART TWO: COLUMBO’S METHOD OF INVESTIGATION

7. Crime Scene Examination and Ratiocination
   
   
   
   1. What Viewers Know and Don’t Know about What Columbo Knows
   
   
   
   


8. The Working Cop’s Habit of Asking Questions: A Rhetoric of Inquiry
   
   
   
   1. Power of Asking Different Types of Questions
   
   
   2. The Socratic Method of Dialectic, aporia, and Standard Elenchus
   
   
   3. Techniques of Columbo’s Rhetorical Inquiry
   
   
   4. Fake Questions Types with Multiple Functions
   
   
   5. Probing Questions Types with Multiple Functions
   
   
   
   


9. Killing Them Softly: Irritating the Suspects in Seven Modes
   
   
   
   1. Obligating the Suspect with Appeasement Pressure and the Extrication of Any Threat
   
   
   2. False modesty, Excessive flattery
   
   
   3. Repeated, Disingenuous Apologies
   
   
   4. Wasting the Suspect’s Time
   
   
   5. Circumstantial Speech and Inane Storytelling
   
   
   6. False Exits, 'Oh, I almost forgot'
   
   
   7. False Exits, 'Just one more thing'
   
   
   8. Special Cases of Direct Confrontation: Columbo Gets Mad
   
   
   
   


10. Columbo Closes the Case: Capture and Consequences
    
    
    
    1. Lieutenant Columbo: Virtuous or Villainous?
    
    
    2. Columbo: The Denouement
       

       PART THREE: COLUMBO’S LEGACY IN POPULAR CULTURE AND ACADEMIA

       
       
    
    
    
    


11. Television Detectives Influenced by Lieutenant Columbo
    
    
    
    1. Spoofing the Lieutenant
    
    
    
    


12. Using Columbo’s Method in Our Everyday Lives


13. 'Just One More Thing': Columbo and Spectatorship

Sujets

• Genres
• Película fotográfica
• Greek mythology
• Television
• Richard Levinson
• Crime
• William Link
• Drama
• Peter Falk
• Columbo
• Film

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 06 avril 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781789383201
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Columbo
Nelson Brenner/Steinmetz: “I think that I should warn you that I’m not an unworldly man. I have powerful and important friends, even in the police department. I respectfully request that you do not harass me.”
Columbo: “Why, sir, I would never do that.”
Figure 1 : Screenshot: Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo and Patrick McGoohan as the villain Nelson Brenner. Patrick McGoohan (dir.), “Identity Crisis,” Columbo , 1975. Universal Television.
Columbo
A Rhetoric of Inquiry with Resistant Responders
Christyne Berzsenyi
First published in the UK in 2021 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2021 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2021 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copy editor: MPS Technologies
Cover designer: Aleksandra Szumlas
Cover photos:
1. Publicity photo of Peter Falk in the television
program Columbo. 1974. NBC Television.
2. Publicity photo of Peter Falk at an awards dinner in Chicago. 1973. Margie Korshak Associates publicity agency.
3. Publicity photo of Peter Falk as TV character Columbo. 1973. NBC Television.
4. Photo of Peter Falk from the episode “Double Shock.” 1973. NBC Television.
Production manager: Aimée Bates and Naomi Curston
Typesetting: Newgen KnowledgeWorks
Hardback ISBN 978-1-78320-985-9
Paperback ISBN 978-1-78938-325-6
ePDF ISBN 978-1-78938-319-5
ePUB ISBN 978-1-78938-320-1
Printed and bound by CPI.
To find out about all our publications, please visit our website.
There you can subscribe to our e-newsletter, browse or download our current catalogue, and buy any titles that are in print.
www.intellectbooks.com
This is a peer-reviewed publication.
For My Precious Beaus
Contents
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments and Gratitude
PART 1: UNDERSTANDING THE LIEUTENANT AND HIS VILLAINS

1. Introduction to Columbo and Columbo
A Snapshot of Television and Film History: Pre- Columbo
The Underestimated Detective (1910)
Scholarship and the Lieutenant
What Is to Come
2. Columbo and the Lieutenant: Literary Influences
The Firsts in Short and Long Detective Fiction in English (1841–62)
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Lieutenant Porfiry Petrovitch: Pretenses (1886)
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes: Genius Detective (1887)
British Golden Age, Drawing Room Mysteries, the Cozy (1920–40)
3. Characterology and Character-Based Detective TV Shows
The Lieutenant with His Sergeants
Columbo : A Blend of Genres, Influences, and Deviations
4. Columbo, the Suspect Charmer
Suspects as Resistant Responders
Charming the Stinging Villains
Two Sides of Columbo Presented on a Case-by-Case Basis
Columbo and the Ancient Greek Virtue of Sophrosyne
Looking for the Right Word: Antipotency
The Underestimated Detective with the Intelligent Villains: Socrates and Columbo
5. The Columbo Killer
Classical Greek and Christian Villainy in Columbo
Rhetoric and Villainy
Villainy Embodied, Villainy Experienced
Audience–Villain Relationships: Antipathy, Ambipathy, and Sympathy
Villain Types and Audience–Villain Relationships Examined
6. Columbo, Women of His Investigations, and the Equal Rights Movement
Columbo ’s Female Villains: Ladylike but Lethal
Columbo -Femme Fatale
Female Accomplices
Columbo Plays the Underestimating, Traditional Male Chauvinist
PART 2: COLUMBO’S METHOD OF INVESTIGATION

7. Crime Scene Investigation and Ratiocination
8. The Working Cop’s Habit of Asking Questions: A Rhetoric of Inquiry
Columbo ’s Leading and Misleading Questions in Rhetorical Inquiry
Elenchus and Aporia are Translations from the Greek
 9. Killing Them Softly: Irritating the Suspects in Seven Modes
Obligating the Suspect with Appeasement Pressure and the Extrication of Any Threat
Irritating the Villains: Use of Excessive Flattery and False Modesty
Irritating the Villains: Repeated, Disingenuous Apologies
Irritating the Villains: Wasting the Suspect’s Time
Irritating the Villains: Circumstantial Speech and Storytelling
Irritating the Villains: Doggedly Hounding Them for a Melt Down
Irritating the Villains: False Exits: “Oh, and One More Thing”
When Villains Realize that the Lieutenant is onto Them
Special Cases of Direct Confrontation: The Lieutenant Gets Mad
10. Columbo Closes the Case: Capture and Consequences
Columbo: Virtuous or Villainous?
Columbo : The Denouement
PART 3: COLUMBO’S LEGACY IN POPULAR CULTURE AND ACADEMIA

11. Television Detectives Influenced by Lieutenant Columbo
Law and Order: Criminal Intent : Detective Robert Goren
Lieutenant Columbo’s Possible Future
Spoofing the Lieutenant
12. Using Columbo’s Method in Our Everyday Lives
13. “Just One More Thing”: Columbo and Spectatorship
Works Cited
About the Author
Index
Figures
Figure 1 Screenshot: Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo and Patrick McGoohan as the villain Nelson Brenner. Patrick McGoohan (dir.), “Identity Crisis,” Columbo, 1975. Universal Television.
Figure 2 1973 publicity photo of Peter Falk, smiling as Columbo, Columbo , 1973. NBC Television. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Peter_Falk_Colombo_1973.jpg/250px-Peter_Falk_Colombo_1973.jpg
Figure 3 Screenshot: Peter Falk as Columbo and John Cassavetes as murdering maestro Alex Benedict. Cassavetes enters the room appalled. Nicolas Colasanto (dir.), “Etude in Black,” Columbo , 1973. Universal Television.
Figure 4 Christyne Berzsenyi with “Columbo and Dog” sculpture by Géza Fekete, Miksa Falk Street, Budapest, Hungary. 2018. Ava Berzsenyi.
Figure 5 Homicide trends in the United States, 1950–2005. U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Figure 6 Screenshot: In the wildly popular television western The Rifleman , Chuck Connors plays Lucas McCain, a widowed fast-shooter and Civil War veteran with a Winchester rifle. He lives on a ranch outside the town of North Fork in the Mexican Territories and helps the marshal to bring justice and safety in the 1880s. Image from the show’s opening credits. 1958–63, Four Star Productions, Four Star Television and Sussex Productions.
Figure 7 The book cover to Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, London, Vintage Classics, Penguin Random House, 1993.
Figure 8 Screenshot: Sergeant Kramer (Bruce Kirby). Harvey Hart (dir.), “By Dawn’s Early Light,” Columbo , 1974. Universal Television. “The lovable but not-too-sharp Sergeant Kramer appears in six episodes.” (Columbophile)
Figure 9 Screenshot: Columbo reluctantly mentoring earnest Sergeant Wilson (Bob Dishy) who teaches Columbo a modern investigative technology that helps solve the case. Boris Sagal (dir.), “The Greenhouse Jungle,” Columbo , 1972. Universal Television.
Figure 10 Screenshot: Arrogant, double-murdering photographer Paul Galesko (Dick Van Dyke) jabs Columbo, “Need any help with your spelling, Lieutenant?” Clearly, the devoted Sergeant Hoffman (Michael Strong) is not pleased with the disrespect shown to the Lieutenant. Alf Kjellin (dir.), “Negative Reaction,” Columbo , 1974. Universal Television.
Figure 11 Screenshot: Sergeant Young (Paul Shenar) assists his Lieutenant with a perplexing puzzle and learns a few tricks from the master. Robert Butler (dir.), “Publish or Perish,” Columbo , 1974. Universal Television.
Figure 12 Screenshot: Fitness guru and murderer Milo Janus (Robert Conrad) shows the Lieutenant how to drink a healthy breakfast. Bernard L. Kowalski (dir.), “Exercise in Fatality,” Columbo , 1974. Universal Television.
Figure 13 Screenshot: Gorgeous and glamorous Viveca Scott (Vera Miles) puts industry rival David Lang (Vincent Price) into his place by teasing him with odd sweetness about a secret new product. Jeannot Szwarc (dir.),“Lovely but Lethal,” Columbo , 1973. Universal Television.
Figure 14 Screenshot: Columbo arrives underprepared Early Morning with Col. Lyle C. Rumford (Patrick McGoohan). Harvey Hart (dir.), “By Dawn’s Early Light,” Columbo , 1974. Universal Television.
Figure 15 Screenshot: Columbo with Dog. Harvey Hart (dir.), “Forgotten Lady,” Columbo , 1975. Universal Television.
Figure 16 Screenshot: Wife-murdering psychiatrist Dr. Flemming (Gene Barry) smugly suggests a toast as he thinks he has defeated the Lieutenant, but is about to hear otherwise. Richard Irving (dir.), “Prescription Murder,” Columbo , 1968. Universal Television.
Figure 17 Screenshot: Alex Benedict (John Cassavetes) in the act of murdering his demanding mistress Jenifer Welles (Anjanette Comer). Nicholas Colasanto (dir.), “Étude in Black,” Columbo , 1972. Universal Television.
Figure 18 Screenshot: Columbo with Lauren Staton (Faye Dunaway), both cozy at a diner, playing their parts with some personal engagement. Vincent McEveety (dir.), “It’s All in the Game,” Columbo , 1993. Universal Television.
Figure 19 Screenshot: Beth Chadwick (Susan Clark) and Columbo soon after she mistakes her tyrannical brother for a burglar and fatally shoots him by accident. She is already irritated but has so much more questioning to endure. Everett Chambers (dir.), “Lady in Waiting,” Columbo , 1971. Universal Television.
Figure 20 Screenshot: Husband-murderer Leslie Williams (Lee Grant) calls Columbo out on his folksy pretense. Richard Irving (dir.),“Ransom for a Dead Man,” Columbo , 1971. Universal Television.
Figure 21 Screenshot: Viveca Scott (Vera Miles) as the glamorous beauty mogul and killer stifles the urge to dismiss the insulting working-class detective who just admits the cosmetic industry has “come a long way since hair curlers and face grease.” Jeannot Szwarc (dir.),