Welcome to the month long celebration of the career of Peter Falk. This post will not cover Columbo as there's already a segment dedicated to his famous character, the detective. Instead, we'll focus on Falk as an indie star in the '60s and '70s, especially through his collaboration with John Cassavetes. Most people will know him as either Columbo or as grandpa from The Princess Bride. But Falk was more than that. With the exception of Columbo, he was an actor who stayed mostly below the radar. It's worth looking at his early work to find out why he never seemed to escape the shadow of his most famous character. Perhaps he never wanted to.
Clint Eastwood stars as Luther Whitney, a jewel thief who works in the Washington DC area. One night while he is stealing from a mansion he is forced to hide in a secret compartment with a two way mirror. From there he observes a sexual rezendevous with the wife of a powerful man and the President of the United States Alan Richmond (Gene Hackman) Suddenly the president gets aggressive and while defending herself the woman is shot to death by two Secret Service agents. Luther manages to get away with a letter opener the woman stabbed the president with. At first Luther plans to flee the country. But when he is disgusted by a statement the president makes, Luther decides to expose the crime. I miss these kind of films. The nineties was a great time for thrillers exactly like this. They are not the flashiest films but they are also not obsessed with big action scenes. It's all plot and character with them. Sure this plot might be a little out there but Eastwood makes it work. He's...

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