Post by Nalkarj on Sept 5, 2017 0:53:42 GMT
Doghouse6
I would certainly say that Dial M is a template for Columbo; I'm not sure that Rope is.
Another point that Dial M shares with Columbo is that both programs seem more reliant on whodunit than howcatchem tradition; that is to say, in R. Austin Freeman-style howcatchems, the emphasis is on the minute aspects of detection rather than deduction. Dr. Thorndyke, Freeman's sleuth, performs lengthy analyses of chemicals, bloodstains, fingerprints, etc., and eventually figures out the culprit in that way.
In both Dial M and Columbo, however, there is just as much an emphasis on whodunit trappings--clues, alibis, etc.--as, say, Death on the Nile--to wit, the kind of plotting cleverness that I've praised elsewhere is present despite our knowing from the get-go "whodunit."
I guess an example of what I mean would be the first time I showed a friend Dial M; when Hubbard explains the business with the latchkey, my friend muttered, "Of course!" (our old pal anagnorisis--or "the Homer Simpson effect"--again), in the same manner as one who had just been surprised by a well-clued least-likely suspect.
The same goes for Columbo; there are ingenious cast-iron alibis sprinkled throughout the program, and an episode like "A Stitch in Crime," or "Forgotten Lady," produces the same kind of "of course!" reaction.
Now that you mention it, I could see Grant in the role, though I'm not sure he would have done the earlier parts--"strangulation day," etc.--as well. On the other hand, someone like James Mason, whom you previously recommended, would have been apt, I think.
I agree completely about Rope's "airiness" opposed to Dial M; the apartment seems remarkably confining in the latter and more bespeaks stage origins, I feel. Then again, Dial M does have a smaller main cast as well.
You're better-versed in the whodunit/howcatchem canon than I; does it seem to you that both Rope and, even more so, Dial M are rather like templates for the later Columbo series, with its elaborate setups and cat-and-mouse (shades of Phillip) maneuverings? I note in passing that the very first Columbo drama was a 1960 episode of The Chevy Mystery Show (and which was adapted eight years later as the Columbo pilot, Prescription: Murder), with the burlier but equally rumpled Bert Freed. And the title of that episode was Enough Rope.
I would certainly say that Dial M is a template for Columbo; I'm not sure that Rope is.
Another point that Dial M shares with Columbo is that both programs seem more reliant on whodunit than howcatchem tradition; that is to say, in R. Austin Freeman-style howcatchems, the emphasis is on the minute aspects of detection rather than deduction. Dr. Thorndyke, Freeman's sleuth, performs lengthy analyses of chemicals, bloodstains, fingerprints, etc., and eventually figures out the culprit in that way.
In both Dial M and Columbo, however, there is just as much an emphasis on whodunit trappings--clues, alibis, etc.--as, say, Death on the Nile--to wit, the kind of plotting cleverness that I've praised elsewhere is present despite our knowing from the get-go "whodunit."
I guess an example of what I mean would be the first time I showed a friend Dial M; when Hubbard explains the business with the latchkey, my friend muttered, "Of course!" (our old pal anagnorisis--or "the Homer Simpson effect"--again), in the same manner as one who had just been surprised by a well-clued least-likely suspect.
The same goes for Columbo; there are ingenious cast-iron alibis sprinkled throughout the program, and an episode like "A Stitch in Crime," or "Forgotten Lady," produces the same kind of "of course!" reaction.
Now that you mention it, I could see Grant in the role, though I'm not sure he would have done the earlier parts--"strangulation day," etc.--as well. On the other hand, someone like James Mason, whom you previously recommended, would have been apt, I think.
I agree completely about Rope's "airiness" opposed to Dial M; the apartment seems remarkably confining in the latter and more bespeaks stage origins, I feel. Then again, Dial M does have a smaller main cast as well.