The cult program Columbo, starring John Cassavetes go-to Peter Falk as rumpled, tenacious, deceptively discombobulated-seeming LAPD detective Frank Columbo, sporadically aired new episodes between 1968 to 2002. Shot with a single camera and running around feature-film length, Columbo’s 69 episodes were more “cinematic” than many cinema releases, directed by real filmmakers like Steven Spielberg and Jonathan Demme, and featuring casts packed with some of the finest working character actors. Being a movie theater, Metrograph can’t in good conscience screen episodes of Columbo, but what we can do is roll out a program of films by directors and performers—including, naturally, a heaping helping of Falk—who helped create the particular magic of Columbo, a TV show with links to the best in American cinema. Just one more thing… there ain’t a dud in the line-up.