Interesting. But Steve has a point. And we know if Cass was directing, all would be men. And cute me. With nice chests. And other items to boot..........
careful fred....as the old song goes...."people will say we're in love..."
i've already been accused of having a bit of a 'thing' with headache, from the beloved mark d.! i don't want to get a reputation!!
but really...i love the episodes with male murderers better. i'm not saying the women ones aren't great...forgotten lady..requiem for a falling star..try and catch me...and even the often maligned old fashioned murder...but i just find i get a better kick out of an episode when there is a man as the killer.
Funny, the female murderers are some of my favorites.
I think Leslie Williams is one of the best pure sociopaths I have ever seen portrayed on TV. She captures all the elements of a true sociopath, including the superficial charm, manipulation, sensation-seeking (e.g., the plane stunts) and utter absence of empathy.
I also really, really like Anne Baxter as Nora Chandler. Despite her ruthlessness, she has such grace and composure down to the surrender at the end. You can tell that Columbo is impressed with her surrender, too--his expression is perfect. What a contrast she is with the shallowness and desperation of Beth Chadwick.
Watching "Forgotten Lady" again today gave me another reminder of why I find Janet Leigh's Grace Wheeler the most sympathetic of Columbo killers, and why it's a relief that she's spared the trauma of actually being arrested ultimately. Whereas Nora Chandler was ultimately ruthless enough to go beyond a potentially understandable first killing to a coldblooded second killing, in the case of Grace Wheeler, you can't help but feel that an illness she wasn't told about may well have led her to do something she ordinarily never would have done.