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!"