When ‘Columbo’ Starred with Two Film Divas

 

Peter Falk's "Columbo" investigated two film stars who resorted to murder in
 "Requiem for a Falling Star" & "Forgotten Lady, with Anne Baxter & Janet Leigh.

 

This is a round-up of when the rumpled TV detective starred with two one-time screen goddesses in classic Columbo episodes.

Anne Baxter's Nora Chandler finds Peter Falk's Columbo amusing--to a point!

The episodes: Requiem for a Falling Star, the Columbo episode that first aired January 21, 1973, was directed by Richard Quine, who was good with actors and had a flair for humor. This season two episode showcases Anne Baxter as “fading” leading lady Nora Chandler, who will kill to preserve her career. Mel Ferrer is Baxter's snarky nemesis, with echoes of Addison DeWitt from All About Eve. Pippa Scott is the star’s assistant, about to marry this arch enemy! Costume designer Edith Head, who worked with Baxter many times, most famously in The Ten Commandments, makes an appearance as herself. 

Janet Leigh's Grace Wheeler may be one of Columbo's most gentle suspects!

Forgotten Lady, the other deadly film diva Columbo episode, was directed by TV and film veteran Harvey Hart, also very good with actors. The season five premiere aired September 14, 1975. Janet Leigh guest stars as movie musical star Grace Wheeler, John Payne as one-time partner Ned Diamond, and Sam Jaffe as her older husband, Dr. Henry Willis. Maurice Evans is the butler, Raymond.

 The Set-Up: Female guest villains Anne Baxter and Janet Leigh are both mature movie stars, with Baxter then 49 in her episode and Leigh 48 in hers. Both stars are somewhat sympathetic villains, compelled to extreme measures to maintain their star status.

Anne Baxter's star sports some major shades, while she & Mel Ferrer's gossip hound
 give each other shade in Columbo's "Requiem for a Falling Star."

Anne Baxter is child star turned leading lady Nora Chandler, who is being blackmailed by gossip writer Jerry Parks, played by Mel Ferrer, who does smarmy so well. Pippa Scott is Jean, Nora’s long-time/long-suffering secretary/assistant. Despite protestations otherwise, Jean has been offering Nora gossip nuggets as pillow talk to Jerry. Nora stalks Jean to Jerry’s birthday party and slashes the tire of her vehicle. Jean borrows Jerry’s vehicle, with Nora waiting at Jerry’s. When the car arrives, Nora has poured gasoline all over the drive way and lights it up. Does Nora actually know who the driver is?

Film star Grace Wheeler contemplates her future, which doesn't include her
 disapproving husband, in Columbo's "Forgotten Lady." Starring Janet Leigh.

Janet Leigh is Grace Wheeler, former song and dance movie star, who leaves a That’s Entertainment!-style movie event, giddy with plans to revive her musical career, but on Broadway. Shades of Debbie Reynolds in Irene! She enlists former co-star and friend Ned Diamond to direct and produce. Grace must know her older, wealthy doctor spouse won’t approve, because she already has a typically convoluted Columbo plot to off him. The star swans upstairs with some extra sleeping medication and her comeback plans get doused, as expected. After her hubby takes his pill, plus one by his wife, Grace steals back upstairs later with a gun. She shoots him and puts the gun in his hand, to make it look like a suicide.

Anne Baxter's Nora Chandler is the gracious star to Peter Falk's fawning Columbo.

Enter Lt. Columbo: In Requiem for a Falling Star, Peter Falk’s wiley Lt. Columbo comes on the scene, feigning surprise and fawns over living legend Nora Chandler. Anne Baxter’s winking grande dame demeanor makes Columbo’s professed shock and awe quite believable. From then on, there is a mutual admiration society between the two worthy adversaries. In Forgotten Lady, the dynamic is quite different. Though Lt. Columbo seems shocked that he’s investigating at the home of one of his and Mrs. Columbo’s favorite stars, Janet Leigh’s Grace Wheeler is more genteel and increasingly fragile. And Falk’s Columbo, while dogged as ever, is more sensitive to the star’s story.

The Leading Ladies: Anne Baxter offers a charismatic star performance whose character Nora Chandler would be right at home with All About Eve’s Margo Channing and Eve Harrington. Nora has Margo’s larger than life persona and Eve’s cunning charm. She does seem genuinely taken with Lt. Columbo and Baxter and Falk play off each other wonderfully. The scene in the finale where Nora is caught by Columbo looks like a nod to Margo Channing, who catches Eve taking imaginary bows in Margo’s costume. Interestingly, Baxter had just performed in Applause, the musical version of All About Eve, as Margo Channing!

Anne Baxter as Nora Chandler, surprised to find Columbo on her tail at the finale!

Anne Baxter in the title role of "All About Eve" is similarly surprised!

Janet Leigh is one of the most empathetic golden era film actresses, so despite being the villain of the piece, it's not hard to sympathize with her desperate actions. Some plot twists along the way make you even more on her side, if you don't think about it too much! While Leigh’s Grace has a safe harbor marriage to the wealthy retired doc, she longs to be back in the spotlight. This seems to have been Leigh’s story off-camera, too. Though she had a loving marriage to a wealthy businessman, Leigh never quite made the top tier in Hollywood, then aged out by the end of the ‘60s, all of which seemed to eat at her. And though Janet was still beautiful, she looks reed thin and pinched, with every line showing on her 50-ish face. Much, much later, daughter Jamie Lee Curtis alluded to her mother having an eating disorder. This gives her performance as desperate Grace even more poignancy. Though I didn’t quite buy the finale’s revelation, it’s still touching.

Janet Leigh's star with a fear of fading away was not too far from her own life.
With Peter Falk as Columbo, in "Forgotten Lady."

Star Style: Anne Baxter sports a fun ‘70s style wardrobe—not by Edith Head—and in one scene sports a slinky magenta top that shows off her trim figure. All that is capped with a Lauren Bacall-style mane of hair! As the veteran star, Anne plays with her typical intensity, but also with great humor.

Anne Baxter has a wow moment, before putting on her jacket,
as the star on the run! In the Columbo episode, "Requiem for a Falling Star."

Janet Leigh also looks stylish, though undercut by her wraith-like figure. Leigh had aged drastically in just six years after sporting a trim but curvy figure in the sexy House on Green Apple Road. Janet would age much like fellow MGM star Lana Turner: bleached helmet hair, tan, and very thin. Still, Janet wore some glam gowns and retained her warm appeal. As the troubled star, Forgotten Lady is one of Janet’s best latter day performances.

As film star Grace Wheeler, Janet Leigh looks lovely, but much older than 48,
in the Columbo episode "Forgotten Lady."

Janet Leigh facing 50 reminded me of 60-ish Lana Turner.

 

Falk as Columbo: Peter Falk is in fine form in these classic Columbo episodes. Falk, along with Carroll O' Connor, were both two middle-aged character actors who hit it big in the '70s by creating their iconic characters Lt. Columbo and Archie Bunker. Both actors enjoyed their belated superstardom and have been remembered for these roles over 50 years now. While I admire Falk’s acting, I often feel the same toward his character as Kevin McCarthy’s studio head does in Requiem for a Falling Star, who resents Columbo’s dogging Nora: “Lieutenant, you have an obtuse manner which some people find ingratiating. I do not. Do you follow me?”

Columbo meets legendary designer Edith Head, courtesy of Anne Baxter's
Nora Chandler, in "Requiem for a Falling Star."

Edith Head's cameo is fun, as she was then Universal's head film costume designer. Peter Falk would hand Head her 8th Oscar for The Sting in 1974. 

Falk would borrow a few elements from Requiem for a Falling Star in a much later Columbo episode he directed, It's All in the Game. Faye Dunaway starred as an even more charming and throaty-voiced femme fatale, who also tries to get him to wear a new tie!

It’s so fun to revisit these '70s Mystery Movies, as they hold up quite well with strong writing, emphasis on characterizations, and terrific acting by star Peter Falk and his mix of young and veteran guest stars.

Peter Falk's Columbo, this time wowed by the presence of Janet Leigh's
Grace Wheeler, in the episode "Forgotten Lady."

Here’s my look at Anne Baxter in the title role of All About Eve: https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2020/04/mankiewicz-masterpiece-all-about-eve.html

And here’s Janet Leigh in another close to the bone performance as an unhappy housewife, in 1970’s House on Greenapple Road: https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2022/10/janet-leigh-haunting-in-house-on.html

 

Anne Baxter's larger than life Nora Chandler was giving me a serious Charles Busch
 vibe from "Die, Mommie, Die!" 

 

 

 

Joan VS Jack Death Match in Nifty Noir “Sudden Fear” 1952

Jack Palance lights Joan Crawford's fire in 1952's "woman in jeopardy" film noir,
 "Sudden Fear."

I watched Sudden Fear starring Joan Crawford for the first time in years, with renewed interest. The film has grown in reputation in recent decades, what with several high profile film critics championing the film noir flick as a classic. 

Sudden Fear was the first film Crawford made as an independent after leaving her second long term studio contract, this time with Warner Brothers. Like the post-MGM Mildred Pierce, Sudden Fear gave Crawford’s career a shot in the arm. Fear was not in the same league as her biggest comeback with Mildred, but was enough to keep her career going in its 4th decade, especially in 1950s Hollywood, when the studio system was swiftly beginning to wane.

Joan Crawford gets to be glam and serious in the 1952 suspense noir, "Sudden Fear."

What I remembered as a solid star vehicle, is currently called one of Crawford's finest films. Well, I still think Sudden Fear is a solid star vehicle, not a classic, yet admirable in its own right. The nifty noir is not Mildred Pierce, Humoresque, or Possessed by any means, but closer to Crawford's slick star vehicles like Flamingo Road and The Damned Don't Cry. And Sudden Fear is certainly more substantial than camp classics that followed, such as Queen Bee and Female on the Beach. 

Though "Sudden Fear" was filmed on a moderate budget,
these essentials were provided for Miss Crawford's wealthy character.

An expert collection of artists were rounded up for Sudden Fear, a “woman in jeopardy” thriller: director David Miller, skilled with star actors; screenwriter Lenore Coffee, who had worked at Metro with Joan; Sheila O'Brien, Joan's favored designer, for the costumes; cinematographer Charles Lang; and composer Elmer Bernstein for the ominous, booming score. Newcomer Jack Palance was cast as the younger husband, and noir queen Gloria Grahame as the other woman. Bruce Bennett, who had played Mildred Pierce’s first husband Bert, was a good luck charm, as the family lawyer, and Flamingo Road co-star Virginia Huston played Joan’s secretary.

Joan Crawford with Bruce Bennett, Virginia Huston, and Jack Palance in 1952's "Sudden Fear." Huston reminds me of Carole Lombard here.

Many veteran film divas have done a "woman in jeopardy" movie, so it's only fitting that superstar Joan starred in several of this genre. Throughout her film stardom, Crawford’s movies often cast her as adversarial characters toward her leading men, which intensified at WB. And with Sudden Fear, the adversarial became antagonistic, with Joan often fighting for her film life.

While Joan often played working girls and women, which played off her well-known backstory, Crawford loved to play "great ladies" on-screen and labored to be thought of as one off-screen. As Myra Hudson (no relation to Blanche or Jane!), she's an heiress who has found further wealth and prestige as a playwright. The heiress/playwright is so loaded that she plans on leaving her inherited wealth to charity. 

Joan Crawford's heiress/playwright revises her will in hubby's favor, with her
 recorder. And will soon hear back a message from him! 1952's "Sudden Fear."

Crawford is great fun to watch as the playwright planning her life and dictating missives to her recorder in the most dignified of tones, as if she’s giving a sermon. Yet, there's a genuine warmth to her character as the lonely career woman who lets love come later into her life. Just a few years later, Joan herself would find the same, after being single a decade, when she married Pepsi’s Alfred Steele.

Joan Crawford as Myra Hudson, heiress and playwright, in 1952's "Sudden Fear."

When Crawford's Myra has to let the leading contender go from her latest play, the actor leaves in an angry huff. But a "chance" meeting on a train trip from NYC's Broadway back to California's San Fran, they meet again and fall in love. Myra is in seventh heaven, but Jack Palance as Lester Blaine is steadily revealed to be the schemer from hell. 

Stranger on a train, indeed! Jack Palance as Lester Blaine, in 1952's "Sudden Fear."

While Crawford gets to emote up a storm as Myra Hudson, David Miller was an adept studio/star director. He lets Joan give a diva performance without going totally over the top in this taut thriller. Crawford's expressions of loneliness as well as happiness as the betrayed bride are most believable. Joan’s solo scenes in Myra’s study and hiding out in Irene's apartment in climatic scenes are played big, but not to the total point of ridiculousness. Joan uses all her accumulated acting skills and tricks to put this character and story across and got a well-deserved Oscar nomination. Only a few times are there camp moments: Myra's imagining the different ways hubby Lester could kill her while bug-eyed with fear or Joan hiding in terror at Irene's before the finale, sweating like she’s in a sauna, instead of closet. 

Joan Crawford strikes one of her go-to movie poses in 1952's "Sudden Fear."

What I found interesting is that Myra's career as a playwright is a stellar success, but has no romantic life. She is great at creating characters, but not a great judge of character, and is fooled by this actor—and a “charm boy,” at that! Also interesting is that Lester Blaine's shady past is not spelled out. What really did happen at that house on Fire Island, for instance? Lester is a hot head, yet amazingly keeps his cool as he jumps through hoops in Myra's world.

Once the facade is dropped and Myra finds her life in jeopardy, Sudden Fear goes into overdrive as the newlyweds plot to kill each other. How fascinating that the genteel playwright's gut reaction is to fight back with her own plan of murder. Yes, she drops and shatters the recording of Lester's murderous intentions. But I think the authorities would easily believe old money Myra over no-name actor Lester. Hey, film noirs aren't renowned for their believable plotting. So, game on!

Who's zoomin' who? Myra and Lester let the death match begin in "Sudden Fear."

I won't give away the endless twists except to say that when it comes to the finale, Lester and Myra make such a racket in their death match that it's amazing the entire neighborhood isn't awakened by their Tom and Jerry-style chase!

How intriguing that a number of the plot twists hinge on accessories of the day that are now a thing of the past: monogrammed kerchiefs, stationary, and head scarves. In this film noir, everyone smokes like chimneys, have guns tucked in their furs and overcoats, and notes hidden in gloves!

There are also some nods to living legend Crawford's way of life: her overly coordinated wardrobe, ankle strap shoes, and even an extremely organized list of a revenge timeline against her hubby and his girlfriend.

Like Joan Crawford herself, Myra Hudson is very organized, right down to her murder timeline, in 1952's "Sudden Fear."

Jack Palance got his big break with Sudden Fear. As the beginning actor who becomes the husband to older, wealthy playwright, Palance goes from charming suitor to doting husband to brutish opportunist skillfully. Palance is intense, made even more so with his severe facial features. Jack got a Best Supporting Actor nomination, though he was actually the film’s leading man.

Jack Palance, with his intensity and severe looks, was perfect as the villain husband,
in 1952's "Sudden Fear."

As with Myra, Lester Blaine has a dualistic personality. The one he shows to Joan's Myra is sensitive and cultured as the struggling young actor. Quoting Shakespeare, reading to her, and solicitous to her needs, plus letting her monogram everything he owns! Then when scheming with Gloria's Irene, Lester's animalistic, even when he is showing affection.

Irene Neves, Lester’s partner in crime, is played by Gloria Grahame. It just happens that Irene has also changed coasts, from New York City to San Francisco. And with no visible means of support, Irene has started dating a friend of Myra’s family, "Junior," played by a young Mike Connors, here billed as “Touch.”

Gloria Grahame as the vixen of "Sudden Fear" has some of the best lines! Here she is with a very young Mike Connors as her suitor.

Gloria's performance as the sexy, poisonous little Kewpie doll is delicious. Gloria’s a bit of droll comic relief from the glowering intensity of Crawford and Palance. Grahame won a supporting Oscar that year, not for Sudden Fear, but for The Bad and the Beautiful.

The ex-couple re-team for a more drastic plan. Unfortunately, one of their debriefings takes place in Myra's study, which has a state of the art recording system that was left on. The revelation in Myra's library is skillfully done, as is the murder as it's supposed to happen, as opposed to how it really goes down. It's all a bit far-fetched for my taste, but is still great fun to watch. The final scene has Joan walking off into the wee hours alone, as was often the case!

A striking moment by Joan Crawford in 1952's "Sudden Fear," when Myra Hudson sees what she has become. 

A look at Joan Crawford sparring with Jeff Chandler, Female on the Beach:

https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2023/01/love-is-beach-for-lana-joan.html

One of the many absurdities of FX's "Feud: Bette and Joan" was 70ish
Jessica Lange recreating snippets of Crawford's greatest hits.
For "Sudden Fear," Jessica looks more like Kaitlyn Jenner than Joan!

Bogie & Lizabeth Scott in Derivative ‘Dead Reckoning’ 1947

 

Lizabeth Scott & Humphrey Bogart team for 1947's film noir, "Dead Reckoning."

Humphrey Bogart's Dead Reckoning was released in 1947 by Columbia Pictures, the same year as Bogie’s WB effort, Dark Passage. Both film noirs had a few things in common: Bogart's on the lam, looking for a killer; there's Bogie-style noir narration; and he meets mysterious blondes that instantly fall for him.

Humphrey Bogart as war hero "Rip" Murdock, in 1947's "Dead Reckoning." 
Bogie's Rip is determined to get the bottom of the death of his war buddy.

Dead Reckoning feels like a mashup of Gilda and The Maltese Falcon. This Columbia film noir was intended as a vehicle for their top star, Rita Hayworth, to be teamed with Bogart for the first time. Imagine, Bogie working with the inspiration for his later film, The Barefoot Contessa! But Rita was still toiling on hubby Orson Welles’ own noir, The Lady from Shanghai. Columbia cleverly borrowed new star Lizabeth Scott from Paramount, considered “The Threat” to Bogie's co-star and spouse, Lauren Bacall. They were both blonde with husky voices but that's where the similarities end.

They didn't call Lizabeth Scott smoky-voiced for nothing! Humphrey Bogart lights
her cigarette and more, in 1947's "Dead Reckoning."

In Dead Reckoning, Bogart plays “Rip” Murdock, a war hero who is looking for the killer of his wartime comrade. The movie opens with Bogie's soldier on the run from cops and bad guys. Injured, he ducks into a church. There, he begins confessing his tale to an Air Force chaplain in true film noir narration style. I was smiling, imagining what the priest thought of this over-detailed, lingo-laden tale of woe, which lasts for most of the movie! It reminded me of Carol Burnett’s Mildred Fierce, where she tells the police her story in flashback, starting when she was a poor little girl with shabby shoes!

Humphrey Bogart hides out in a church and tells his long, convoluted tale to a priest,
in the 1947 film noir, "Dead Reckoning."

Film noirs are renowned for their coincidences and Dead Reckoning is no exception. Bogie barely gets to his missing pal's home town before the coincidences start a collision pile-up. When he arrives in Gulf City, he happens to check into the hotel that his buddy already booked for him, knowing he'd follow him. A fugitive AND a friend, how thoughtful! A trip to the library to research any clues on his pal’s life before the military handily provides front page headlines of his pal's involvement in a murder. Later, at the night club where these peeps patronized, The Sanctuary, meeting these characters proves instantly fruitful. One witness is a very nervous bartender. The lady in question sidles up to Rip before he barely has time for a first sip of his drink. The bad guys then zero in on the soldier turned sleuth. The bartender has some secret info for Bogie’s Rip, which means he'll soon turn up dead. Of course, Lizabeth Scott’s Coral Chandler is a nightclub singer, and is soon asked to sing her signature ditty from their table! And no way does it resemble Scott’s speaking voice, plus her blowfish mouth movements—all very strange, since Lizabeth made several musical records later.

Love these old movies where the leading man or lady in question has a framed picture to represent them at a climatic moment! Humphrey Bogart and Lizabeth Scott
in 1947's "Dead Reckoning."

The smooth club owner and his sadistic sidekick run the club the size of a soundstage and they seem to have something on Lizabeth's song bird. Bogie’s Rip is wary of all of them. Perhaps he saw Gilda! From there, Rip is determined to get the info and the murder weapon back, but he seems thwarted at every turn. Who keeps tripping him up? From there, there's some plot lifting of The Maltese Falcon.

***Spoiler Alert Ahead***

Bogie does the best he can with the over the top dialogue assigned to him. That he does so credibly speaks to Bogie's talent as a screen actor. As for Lizabeth Scott, it's hard to get a bead on her. Back in the day, she was poorly reviewed, often called wooden. I don't think that's true, but while her character shows warmth, Scott doesn't really seem at home in the femme fatale role. Like Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai, Lizabeth Scott's character does a total about face and revealed as the villain. As Scott's Coral is so languidly femme, she barely seems to possess the energy to be fatale! There’s no variety Scott’s performance, in her character’s behavior or revealed motives. Her voice is indeed husky, like Lauren Bacall, but Scott seems to have a lisp or slur. Every time she says yes as “yesh,” I thought of Carol Channing. While Lizabeth Scott is certainly attractive, there's an odd look to her, particularly in profile. Unfortunately for her, Scott became instantly typecast in these noirs and it shortened her career. 

Love, noir style! Tears and throat clutching, between endless cigarettes,
with Humphrey Bogart and Lizabeth Scott, in 1947's "Dead Reckoning."

John Cromwell's direction is adult and with some style, but there's only so much he can do with this story. The film really pushes the after-war bit. Bogie's "Rip" uses lots of nicknames or pet phrases relating to his stint in the military. By the end of the movie, so does his gal Coral Chandler. Bogie’s Rip also goes from instantly mistrusting Scott's Coral to falling instantly in love with her, which goes back and forth several times. And Rip’s takes on life and love are an eye roll, even for the era.

Lizabeth Scott as femme fatale Coral Chandler, gets a glam death scene, in 1947's
 "Dead Reckoning."

The supporting cast is adequate, but they're mostly stereotypes, and none of them really stood out for me; in Bogart’s same year Dark Passage, there were a number of standout supporting actors. Like Dark Passage, Dead Reckoning is quite watchable, but not the least bit credible, even on film noir terms.

Bogie & Bacall team for a WB film noir with a different vibe than Dead Reckoning, in 1947’s Dark Passage:

https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2024/09/bogie-bacalls-chemistry-brings-depth-to.html

Despite the poster's tag line, Humphrey Bogart is the same Bogie from his other
film noirs. The difference is the husky-voiced blonde, Lizabeth Scott,
in 1947's "Dead Reckoning."