Book Review

BOOK REVIEW

JUST ONE MORE THING

 

Stories from my life.

Peter Falk  

Arrow Books, 2008, London.

 

Review by Stephen Wilson

'I have just written a book . Talk about change! Who would dream I would ever write a book! Not me ! Not my wife, not my doctor, dogs, family, friends, or acquaintances. Let me sum up by saying it was a blast! The funny stuff! Reliving it. Putting it on paper. If you had such fun reading it as I had writing it, you'll be dancing on the ceiling. For those of you still in your chairs, I'm delighted you 're still awake.' declares the legendary actor Peter Falk ,best known for playing the eccentric  but genius detective Columbo. 

The quote from the late actor's autobiography perhaps best sums up the style of the book. It is written in a very colloquial, chatty, warm and self depreciating way. But the book is full of many amusing anecdotes that it is just the medicine to cheer you up during those trying times. What I like about the book is just how generous the actor is when it comes to praising other actors, film directors and people who encouraged his career. Falk comes across not only as a great storyteller, but an unconventional actor who is his own man. He is full of admiration for  film directors such as Wim Wenders and John Cassavetes who break with standard notions of making films.

 

What emerges from his autobiography is that Falk did not always have an easy time as an actor. For years he was typecast as a gangster and was offered very minor roles in films which he often detested. Although Falk is largely known for his role as the detective Columbo, he played endless roles in the theater and in films such as 'Robin and the Seven Hoods',  directed by  Frank Sinatra, 1958, and Wings of Desire, 1987,directed by Wim Wenders. And this is to name but a few!

 

Peter Falk comes across as a childlike person who is often 'On the Moon'. His agent managed to arrange an interview with the head of Columbia Pictures Harry Cohn. The agent praised him as 'a second John Garfield. But the interview did not go well! Falk narrates the story as going:

'My agent was an enthusiastic young lady and she opened the meeting with Mr Cohn by pointing out that, "Yes- it is true Peter is a young John Garfield, but it is important for you, Mr Cohn to know that he is also a versatile actor and has done the plays of O'Neill, O'Casey, and Christopher. Mr Cohn's answer in the form of a question was designed to put an end to the subject of versatility: Young lady, do you think I care if Marilyn Monroe can play an old lady?" He then looked me straight in the face and said something that bewildered me: "Young man, I am concerned about your deficiency."

I had no idea what he meant. To me, if you weren't getting enough vitamins, you had a vitamin deficiency. I didn't think I had a vitamin deficiency, but even if I did, how would he know? "I said, 'I don't know what you mean'."

He looked as though he wasn't sure that I was telling the truth. He must have felt that this was sensitive, so he replied gently, "I think you do know what I am referring to'. I said again I had no idea.

Finally he came out with it - "I m concerned about your eye".

"Oh that - that's nothing. Not to worry . No problem."

But for Mr Cohn, it was a problem and Falk argued with the director. The director answered, "Young man, for the same price, I'll get an actor with two eyes". Falk, who had one of his eyes removed when he was three, correctly regarded it as irrelevant. In fact Russian viewers of Columbo have told me, "I didn't notice he had one eye". This was because they were mesmerized by his performance.

 

Another incident which indicates how Falk got into a misunderstanding is when, during an interview with the director Frank Capra,  he told him, "Mr Capra, do you read people?"

Falk meant "Could you give me a test?" Capra thought Falk was asking whether he could read his palms by fortune telling to discover whether Falk had a future as an actor!

 

Falk even tried to join the C.I.A. because he naively thought it would offer a life of adventure as opposed to landing a dull 9 to 5 office job. That interview also went wrong. The interviewer told him, 'You are the first and last man to be interviewed who built a railway for Tito." As a young man, Falk had visited Yugoslavia and helped to build a railway for Tito. He was also accused of belonging to a communist dominated trade Union.

 

On the eve of the Cuban revolution Peter Falk was arrested because the authorities thought he was with Fidel Castro. He was playing a minor part in the film 'Wind Across the Evergrades'. The role he called for demanded he wear a black beard, a mustache and mop of black hair and suit which just happened to be what Castro and his men looked like. After his arrest and release, Falk wrote, "I didn't hang around Havana. I was gone that afternoon, and three weeks later Castro and his men came down from the hills, captured Havana, and took over Cuba".

 

Readers who adore Columbo won't be disappointed, Falk devotes almost ten chapters to the character of the serial. You can read about 'How did the Columbo character evolve? and What is the toughest thing about creating Columbo?' The American Storyteller Daniel Ogan told me, "I think that the model for Columbo must have come from the detective in Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment called Porfiry Petrovich." In deed, there is a resemblance to Porfiry 's interrogation techniques of disarming a suspect by using small talk and silly comments as a digression. For instance, Porfiry rambles on about his smoking habit, battles from military history and his office furniture. Columbo tells endless stories about his wife and hobbies. Like Porfiry, Columbo conceals his genius by pretending to be stupid. An 18-year-old student of Art, Natasha, told me, "I think Porfiry is a genius and he is so good natured. He wants to actually help the suspect rather than simply arrest him." Although Porfiry has something in common with Columbo, Falk makes no mention of him. 

Falk acknowledges that he is like Columbo is some ways. He is absent-minded, forever loses his car keys and does not care too much for his appearance. But Falk insisted that it was wrong to compare Columbo with other characters like Sherlock Homes because he is unique. He was invented and had to have an interesting character. This is because in the first five minutes of the show you already know who commits the murder. It is a 'Why dunnit?' rather than a 'Who dunnit?' 

Falk was astonished about how popular the serial was. When he was visiting the Andes he was pleasantly shocked to come across some Inca children running up to him and shouting "Columbo, Columbo,-Tenante Columbo " and asking for his autograph. Peter Falk finds that one of his greatest achievements was to have presented the most famous raincoats in the world. Falk is always wearing the same raincoat and in one scene from the serial while he is visiting a soup kitchen for the homeless a volunteer directs him to a table where he can be fed. Columbo is often mistaken for being a homeless person. The studios who made this serial did not like this raincoat, but finally agreed rather than get into a fruitless argument with Falk. Even the detective's car is a broken down Peugot. Such a character would have great problems in Moscow where to wear unkempt or shabby clothes is often regarded as short of a crime. 

It is interesting to note that in one scene from a film called 'Roommates' Falk tried to add a scene where a 90-year-old man bakes a great cake and takes it to a restaurant to try and get a job. Hoping to get work as a chef, he asks a potential employer to taste it. The cake is delicious. The boss who goes down stairs finds that the man, Rocky, is fast asleep. He has one look at him and says, "He is too old, forget it." A rejected Rocky goes outside and lays the cake next to a homeless man who is asleep and leaves. The scene was not allowed by the Studios and Falk was told to stick to the original script. Falk philosophically states, 'You can't win them all". But it says a lot about his compassion for the underdog that he would fight for such a scene to be added.