A world without Peter Falk is indeed a sadder world.
Harry here. Peter Falk began COLUMBO in 1971 - and for pretty much my entire life he's played that character and burnt the iconography of that great role into the world's consciousness.
We all have favorite roles, in particular I'm a huge fan of MACHINE GUN MCCAIN - along with the other films where Peter was working alongside John Cassavetes like HUSBANDS, A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE and MIKEY AND NICKY. Peter's performances were never better than working with Cassavetes - of course the same could be said of everyone in every movie that Cassavetes ever did.
I love Peter Falk in films I saw throughout the seventies. Liked him quite a bit in Edward Dmytryk's ANZIO with Robert Mitchum - same with his part in Sydney Pollack's CASTLE KEEP alongside Burt Lancaster and Bruce Dern. However, in the 70s I was drunk in love with mysteries. Not only was Peter Falk on the small screen as Columbo, but watching him as a detective with Neil Simon dialogue with MURDER BY DEATH... a comedic mystery with an all star cast that inclued Ben Kenobi, The Bride of Frankenstein, Inspector Clouseau, that explosives expert from GUNS OF NAVARONE, the great Maggie Smith and to round it all out... the real live Truman Capote. A couple years later Neil Simon went at it again with a film called THE CHEAP DETECTIVE, where Falk was joined by folks like Ann-Margret, Sid Caesar, PAUL WILLIAMS, Abe Vigoda, Phil Silvers, Madeline Kahn, John Houseman, Dom DeLuise, Stockard Channing and a list that just keeps going. That same year, William Friedkin cast Peter Falk with Peter Boyle in THE BRINK'S JOB - a crime caper flick with laughs that was pretty damn fun. Loved Warren Oates in that.
Peter Falk's best film, and his most iconic role for me, is from 1987 and is not THE PRINCESS BRIDE, but Wim Wenders' triumph of cinema, WINGS OF DESIRE. A film that if you love film, you must love and find. Peter Falk is amazing in this movie. I love him in every frame. I saw it when I first came to college. Saw it with my first girl friend at College and I remember as we went from the Dobie Mall theater over to Quackenbush's to discuss what we had made of WINGS OF DESIRE - and it made me want to wander Berlin. It made me happy to be in College. It made me love her more that day - and it made me want to shake Peter Falk's hand.
As for THE PRINCESS BRIDE, that's the film I've been told by everyone is the best fantasy ever - and I argue non-stop about how I take my fantasy seriously - I'm sorry - I was raised on Harryhausen and my father always took fantasy seriously - and PRINCESS BRIDE has its tongue firmly in cheek. It took me years to change this perspective and finally get to a point where I could let go of my own idiotic adherence to ONE TYPE OF FANTASY - and fully embrace PRINCESS BRIDE - as I do now and for about the last decade. But for me, WINGS OF DESIRE has it all over this.
Peter Falk also left his mark on BUTT-NUMB-A-THON with his voice upon the CGI animated short film, HUBERT'S BRAIN which went on to win the ANNIE for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Short Subject - and is an absolute delight.
But the last film that Peter Falk was a part of that I loved was MADE, directed by Jon Favreau. Falk is alive and awesome in the film.
Peter Falk was a great character actor - and just a great character. If you ever saw him just talk, enjoy a drink and tell you stories - you're a lucky fucking bastard - and come tell me your story. Because this was one of the great guys walking the Earth - and I wished I had shook his hand. Talking about his role in WINGS OF DESIRE with Andrea back in college is one of my fondest memories. She was an older girl, I was fresh out of High School and WINGS OF DESIRE was the date that moved our relationship forward and well... that was good too. We talked about that film for the whole of that relationship. It became the movie we compared others to. Strange how a film and a performance carries memories like this.
I'll miss not having him surprise me on screen with future roles, but I love discovering his unwatched roles from the past.
