Lieutenant Columbo, played with average Joe charm and unshowy, easy-to-miss dexterity by Peter Falk, is more than meets the eye — to the bad guys, not us, because we know how things will turn out.

From the moment he shuffled onto television screens in a rumpled raincoat, cigar dangling from his fingers, Columbo—in the form of actor Peter Falk—announced that he was going to play by different ...