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jonathanlinscott
Reviews
Columbo: Now You See Him (1976)
Jack Cassidy at his slickest best.
Jack Cassidy is one of those rare gems that became extinct in the 1970's. Smooth, slick, and cheesy all at once, Jack Cassidy turned plaid suits, thin cigarillos, and polyester ascots into monolithic fashion statements. Perhaps better known as the father of David and Sean Cassidy, and one of the husbands of Shirley Jones (aka "Mrs. Partridge"), Jack Cassidy is at his 70's best in his role as "The Great Santini" - a secret ex-Nazi living under an assumed name in America and master magician whose silky arrogance and ego is his ultimate undoing. In one pivotal scene, Santini frees himself from a pair of specially rigged handcuffs that Columbo had made - only a professional lock-picker would be able to get out of these cuffs - and a picked lock was a key clue in the murder; Santini would sooner implicate himself than be seen as a mediocre magician.
The tension builds to a slow boil as Columbo, in his patented persistence, unravels Santini, eventually beating him at his own game. Jack Cassidy died not long after this episode was released; he died in bed when his cigarette caught his mattress on fire - a very 70's way to die compared to today's peanut-allergic world. Oh Jack, we hardly knew ye! Even though he didn't live to see his 50th birthday, he still looked like someone my father would have played bridge and drank gin with at the Tarratine Club in Bangor, Maine in the mid-70's.
In the Company of Men (1997)
Who is the real victim here?
Most people I know who saw this movie thought that Chad was a total jerk; that Howard was a total sap (who got cajoled by Chad into being a half-baked jerk); and that Christine was the "victim" here. I disagree.
Chad and Howard were deliberately playing a 'game' (albeit a nasty and mean one) to strike back at the opposite sex for what they perceived to be inter-personal injustices perpetrated against them by the female gender. In doing this both Chad and Howard pursue Christine, despite her handicap, but whereas Chad continues the ruse until the bitter end, Howard actually does let his better sense of humanity prevail and falls in love, for real, with Christine.
But Christine chooses Chad over Howard, clearly because Chad was more cute and charming in her eyes. By contrast, she more than once breaks Howard's heart before anyone has a chance to break hers.
So, I would argue that HOWARD, not Christine, is the real victim here: he is set-up and manipulated by Chad, whom he reluctantly plays along with from the very onset, and has his true emotions trounced by Christine, whose vanity leans her toward Chad, who is heartlessly playing a cruel joke on her all along.
The movie is an excellent social commentary and is impeccably cast and brilliantly acted, all the way through. The real victim here, though, IMHO, is basic human decency.