The Writer's Life 2/10 - Albert & Other Princes

RIP Albert Finney, 82, consummate actor proficient in the classics and diverse roles ranging from Hercule Poirot to Daddy Warbucks. The son of a bookie, he won a scholarship to the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and went on to become a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Like so many Brits, he segued to film and had quite a run, garnering five Oscars nominations along the way. IMDb lists 65 titles under his name, which includes at least five mini-series. He also worked as a producer and directed two movies, one for TV. His final big screen appearance was in Skyfall (2012), where he played the shotgun-wielding caretaker of the James Bond family estate. He had the flick's best line, uttered after he'd dispatched a bad guy: "Welcome to Scotland." Down to earth, he refused knighthood. Here's a partial quote attributed to him: "I think the Sir thing slightly perpetuates one of our diseases in England, which is snobbery." Who else could have gotten away with calling the beloved Audrey Hepburn a bitch on screen, in Two for the Road (1967). Well done, sir. Thank you. Here's a still from Tom Jones (1963), the role that made him an international star:

Last night CoziTV aired another episode of Columbo with which I was only vaguely familiar. It was actually a TV movie, Ransom for a Dead Man, first aired in March 1971, before the series began in the fall. IMDb lists it as Episode 0. The character was almost perfected. The plot involves the cat and mouse game played with a lawyer who killed her much older husband. Lee Grant is, as usual, excellent, as the killer. The story was by the show's creators, Levinson and Link, the teleplay by Dean Hargrove, with Gene Thompson also receiving credit. I don't know which one of those came up with the great line the disheveled detective delivered to his prey in explaining how he'd finally bagged her: "No conscience limits your imagination." He dubbed it her "weakness." He'd counted on her believing that in crunch time everyone acts as avariciously as she. Here are the dynamic duo in character:

My thanks to the sweet elderly woman who donated two hardcover tomes in Russian, and to the young man who bought them; and to the middle age woman who selected three paperbacks in Russian; and to Sasha and her grandma, who purchased Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. Sasha, 13, fished out four quarters from an aspirin bottle with a wide mouth.

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