Your first detective sounds intriquing and I'll try to get a copy of it-I'm a big Indemnity fan but don't see that many other similarities with Keyes though. Other than conclude the crime was murder, does he really suspect Walter unless he overhears his confession?

Keyes does play a cat-and-mouse game (of a sort) with Walter Neff and goes eyeball-to-eyeball a few times too. It seems to start after Neff discovers that Keyes has already investigated him when Neff plays back Keye's recording device in the office. And when Keyes tells Neff that Mrs Dietrichson (Stanwyck) was working with someone else, Neff realises he daren't contact her without risking discovery. Please track down the french thriller - and stay away from the Sharon Stone remake at any cost!

Interestingly, there is a scene in the official pilot for Columbo "Ransom for a Dead Man" where actress Lee Grant kills her husband, and her step-daughter is watching "Double Indemnity" on TV!

Yeah, but does Keyes genuinely suspect Walter after he's investigated him? As I recollect--it's been some time since I've seen Indemnity--Keyes thinks Walter is innocent after he's cleared and even vouches for him personally. If Keyes had thought him guilty and was playing with him, I'd agree he was a pre-Columbo character. I don't see Keyes as deliberately trapping Walter. By the way, after thinking it over, exactly why does Walter Neff go back to his office and tell his story on the dictophone when he could have tried to escape much earlier? Was there something there he was retrieving?

That's right YM. That is one of my all time favourite movies!! I love it.

The first inspiration for 'Columbo' would have to be Porfiry from "Crime and Punishment". Levinson & Link have stated so in the past.

But when it comes to possible movie inspirations, I've written in the past about "The Velvet Touch" with Rosalind Russell and Sydney Greenstreet as Captain Danbury of the NYPD.

Much of Danbury's mannerisms seem almost as if he passed them on to a young police officer before he moved to LA.....

The line "Just one more thing" is also in there, but it's said by the murderer.

And to top it off, it contains a small role by Mike Lally!

It's available on video, not sure about DVD....

thanks for the title. love sidney greenstreet.

O.K. Steve, I posted a memo on colsy's Columbo Forum eight or nine months ago about les Diaboliques being a forerunner of the Columbo character; cigar and rumpled coat and all. Is there anyone here willing to rent or buy this film (1955) and post about the similarities? Come on - - - it's a great film for images and dialogue and intrigue.

I'll do my best. Hope there are subtitles.

I just saw Double Indemnity yet again just yesterday. I love that movie so much. It is in my top 5 favs of all time.
There are definitely similarities between Keyes and Columbo. How he pecks away at the evidence and really works the case out in his head, and also with his "little man" inside him.
I believe at first Keyes did not suspect Neff....and in part, I think it was because the two of them shared such a close and, at times, sweet relationship. But as he rumbled the facts of the case over in his mind it began to make it clearer that Neff was involved. And if you check out Edward G's face and the looks he gives Neff, it becomes apparent that he knows he was involved....way before he overhears Neff confessing on the dictaphone.
Why does Neff decide to record his confession instead of trying to get awsy? The only reason I can see for that is he is paying an hommage to his friend and explaining to him how it all went down. He knows how much Keyes would want him to go through the trouble of explaining every detail just to satisfy Keyes' "little man".