I'm sooooo sorry for posting umpteen posts in the last 48 hours, but I have two questions for ya'll...
Of all the victims, who would you most want to bump off? I would think Mrs. Galesko in "Negative Reaction." She had about four minutes of screen time and she was so despicable, with her martini and her smart little cracks. It was the simplest of motives. Despite Paul's negative reaction to Columbo, I think I would've done her in too!
On the other hand, I felt so bad for poor Howard in "A Trace of Murder." Imagine being killed and having no reason why? Also, there's Freddy in "Death Hits the Jackpot." He was so nice...that was the first episode where the first few minutes concentrated on the victim rather than the killer.
Stop apologizing!! You have made some great posts here...fantastic...this week has been really fun here...and most of it has to do with your input. Look, I live here on this forum....no life!!!! ...so it is wonderful to see all the good stuff you have written and talked about.
Now...that being said...we are going out to dinner in a little while and even though I want to say something on this topic of yours..it will have to wait till later.....but it is a goodie!
Ken Swofford's character in Candidate for a Crime. What an annoying man. Grating voice, over bearing manner, a talentless leech riding Jackie Cooper's coat tails and stupidly reminding him he can not be fired. An immensely dislikable victim. Fills out his own death certificate in triplicate.
I agree with the Mrs. Galesko thing...as well as maybe Edmund from Try and Catch Me..if he indeed kill off his wife..Abigail's niece......but for the life of me I feel so very badly for Uncle Rudy/Randy (Headache, where are you??) from Suitable For Framing...the poor soul never even got to utter a word.....only playing that beautiful piece of music on the piano...
Re: Re: Most unsympathetic and sympathetic victims
For sympathetic victims, I vote for Leslie Williams'
husband in "Ransom for a Dead Man". He was IIRC
a justice on the State Supreme Court, set her up in a successful law firm, gave her money, and even after she told him off, he continued to have some sort of civil relationship with her. She is one of the most despicable murderers of them all, no redeeming qualities at all.
Re: Re: Re: Most unsympathetic and sympathetic victims
I always thought Tomlin Dudek seemed like a nice person. Even though Clayton was his opponent, Dudek was still encouraging and sympathetic. I think Dudek just wanted a good, fair, and friendly competition.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Most unsympathetic and sympathetic victims
Poor Nina Foch in Prescription: Murder never saw it coming either. Here she's all happy about going on a trip and all of a sudden her husband's hands are around her throat! Poor thing.
Thanks, cassavetes! Haven't been around for a couple days....
Re: Re: Most unsympathetic and sympathetic victims
I never felt too much sympathy for Jennifer Wells in "Etude in Black". She has an affair with a married man and is willing to ruin his life and the life of his innocent wife just to have what she wants. What a baby!! I guess that makes Blythe Danner a sypathetic victim. Just not a murder victim.
TFL, I have to agree with you. I never really thought about her in those terms until somebody posted on here about her....I believe it was Paul, and he pointed out what a witch Jenifer really was....very manipulative and controlling...and also she was allowing pathetic Paul Rifkin to be a hanger-on, instead of telling him to move on with his life and forget her. She wasn't a very classy broad!!
Most sympathetic victim: the Commodore Otis Swanson in "Last salute to the commodore": he was a proud old man who founded a prosperous company building ships in the old good way and was unhappy of how things were going in the present and worried for his company to end up in bad hands.
Most unsympathetic victim(s): the wife of Johnny Cash in "Swan song". How on earth could a man stand such a woman?
Re: Re: Most unsympathetic and sympathetic victims
As far as "unsympathetic," I don't know the episode well, but there was Nehemiah Persoff in Now You See Him. You'd think that any detective story where the killer is a former concentration camp officer would have a sympathetic victim, but that's where the story does something original. The victim is a blackmailer, who even has the nerve to very briefly get on the soapbox about that subject, even though HE'S the one keeping Cassidy out of trouble! But my real favorite is Martin Sheen in Lovely But Lethal. Not only does he steal poor Fred Draper's invention, but he toys with Vera Miles, not only by making her think that he can be bought off, but by making her think that she herself is part of his price. Then pulls the rug out, about BOTH things. Regardless of their past together, and who was guilty of what, this showed him in a really nasty light.