Day 206: Columbo, Suitable For Framing

Show: Columbo

Episode Particulars: S1EP4, “Suitable for Framing”, original airdate November 17^th, 1971.

 Summary: Art critic Dale Kingston (Ross Martin), the nephew of an art collector, decides to murder his uncle in order to get his inheritance. With the help of his lover, an artist named Tracy (Rosanna Huffman), he arranges it so that it looks like his uncle was killed later than he actually was, and makes sure to be visiting an art gallery at the alleged time of the murder. Columbo clearly is suspicious of Kingston immediately, but Kingston isn’t giving up anything. Then the time comes to read the will, and it surprises almost everyone when it turns out the priceless art collection is going to be left to the uncle’s ex-wife, Edna (Kim Hunter). Not that that changes Columbo’s suspicions too much…he just needs to figure out how to reframe the motive.

Standalone Thoughts: For most of the runtime, this episode is fine but nothing too exciting. There are good bits of business, but it’s basically about what you’d expect; Columbo starts pointing out inconsistencies and Kingston deflects them, growing increasingly exasperated. But then the time comes to read the will, and suddenly everything changes. What we thought was the motive gets called into question, and we’re thrown off balance, unsure how this is all going to play out. That leads to some moments of suspense (a scene between Columbo and Kingston at Kingston’s apartment immediately springs to mind), pieces of evidence that aren’t as important as they first appeared, and a few semi-twists that just make things even more intriguing. About the only weakness is that Kingston’s ultimate plan can be a bit confusing, but you get the gist of it eventually, and the payoff is very satisfying. It shook up the formula in a good way (as opposed to the previous episode), and actually kind of felt like a proper mystery, which is an unexpected but not unwelcome development. I wouldn’t want it all the time—that’s not what Columbo is about—but having a classic mystery feel every now and then is just fine by me.

Number of “Columbo-isms”: 3/6, but some of them cut it close. There’s definitely instances of “Just one more thing”, and there’s one mention of his wife and the appearance of his car, but those last two come pretty late in the game. Also, while Columbo does fumble around in his coat a bit, it’s not at the level I’m used to, so I don’t feel like I can include it. Opinions may vary on that one, though.

Other: *The episode didn’t leave the greatest first impression when the camera kept zooming in on the various pieces of art as Kingston prepared the murder scene, complete with dramatic stings on the soundtrack. Doing it when he first shot his uncle was all right, but to continue doing it smacked of pretension. Fortunately, things calmed down considerably after that, so we weren’t faced with another distracting “Ransom for a Dead Man” situation. No, I’m not entirely sure when I’m going to shut up about this either.

*I’m not going to take a screencap of it, but the jacket Kingston wears in the first part of the episode is very, very 70’s. It initially didn’t look bad at a distance, but close up…yikes. Combine that with a frilly shirt and I start to wonder if Mike Meyers didn’t see that outfit and decide to base his Austin Powers ensemble around it.

*Classical music fans may get a bit of a smile out of the fact that the music playing in the background during the party at the art gallery is a jazzy version of Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”. Yeah, it’s a bit pretentious, but it’s also subtle, and I appreciate touches like that when it’s not in your face.

*I know Columbo likes to pretend he’s a bumbler, but I feel like he should have respected the wishes of the servants and refrained from lighting up his cigar in the hall after being asked not to. That makes him look thoughtless in a way that I’m not entirely sure was intended.

*I really like the brief scene where Columbo interviews a painter and gets flustered by the fact that there’s a naked woman in the room. It’s both funny and oddly endearing. Maybe it’s because it shows that Columbo’s a modest kind of guy, and I like guys like that.

*When Columbo is trying to get some information out of Tracy’s landlady (Mary Wickes), he first has to sit through her going through her photo albums and gushing over some of the pictures inside. Given that one of Columbo’s methods of fishing for information/distracting a suspect is to blather about his family, I would have been amused if Columbo showed some self-awareness that he was having to deal with an annoyance he dishes out on a regular basis. However, it appears that everyone was playing this scene straight, which is fine too.

Would This Hold Up in Court?: While the way Columbo catches Kingston would skirt dangerously close to subverting “Playing Fair” if I was using the Poirot tropes, it’s a clever trick that I do think would hold up in court. It is, however, amusing to note that Kingston calls it entrapment when, for once, it isn’t.