>They based the character squarely on Porfiry Petrovich, the astute but meandering lead investigator in Dostoevsky’s Crime & Punishment – a book both had studie

>They based the character squarely on Porfiry Petrovich, the astute but meandering lead investigator in Dostoevsky’s Crime & Punishment – a book both had studied at college. Perhaps, but I would find it difficult to believe that the creators of Columbo hadn't also seen the 1955 French film Diabolique (also known as Les Diaboliques). This film features a detective who seems very friendly and not very competent but who is cleverly setting up a rhetorical trap for the murder suspect, very much like how Columbo acts.