March 7, 2025: Our Columbo rewatch continues with “Suitable for Framing”!

This episode first aired November 17, 1971

This episode features the quickest murder in the show’s run, occurring within one minute of the opening.

The exterior shot of the home in the show’s opening was also used as for the Drysdales’ house in The Beverly Hillbillies.

Dale Kingston’s apartment, established in the night establishers, was twice home to Marilyn Monroe, in 1953 and 1961.

Frank Simpson has the exact same desk at Investigator Brimmer from “Death Lends a Hand”.

The $2 that Kingston tips the valet would be equivalent to about $15 today.

Similarly, the $2000/year bequeathed to the Evans would be about $15000/year today.

Falk was apparently a notorious coffee drinker who, in this particular episode, forgot his coffee cup in a shot. It can be glimpsed in the scene where Columbo rummages around Kingston’s office.

Peter Falk ad-libbed the line: “I’m no art expert, but I know what I don’t like.” Director Hy Averback loved it and kept it in the cut.

The production borrowed real paintings from a Los Angeles art gallery for this episode.

Gene Barry, Patrick O’Neal, and Robert Wagner were initially considered for the part of Dale Kingston.

Ross Martin, who eventually won the role of Dale Kingston, had been Falk’s camp counselor and acting teacher when Falk was 12. He is best known for his portrayal of Artemis Gordon in the quirky western series The Wild, Wild West.

Rosanna Huffman, who plays Dale Kingston’s doomed girlfriend, Tracy O’Connor, was married to series co-creator Richard Levinson who also co-wrote this episode.

Falk and Kim Hunter got on famously on set. She ad-libbed a line calling Columbo “a funny little man”, but director Hy Averback chose not to use it.

Don Ameche, who played lawyer Frank Simpson, was a well-established film star who shifted his focus to television when the film offers dried up. His return to the big screen as Mortimer Duke in Trading Places revitalized his big screen career. He would later win an Oscar for his performance in Cocoon (1981).

Actor Barney Phillips appears as Captain Wyler in this episode. Those of you who joined our Twilight Zone rewatch may remember him as the Venusian in “Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up”.

My thoughts on the episode in chronological viewing order…

Well, that’s one way to get him to stop playing.

Love Dale’s blue velour jacket. It really fits his personality.

My initial reaction when she ran upstairs with the electric blanket was “No, take it with you!” assuming she would be leaving a clue behind. But, surprisingly, it never came up in the investigation.

She cut her escape kinda close!

The sequence of Kingston telling his lame jokes and his hangers-on laughing away triggered flashbacks to many a meeting with industry executives.

Hey, is that up-and-coming artist Mel from the series Alice? Yes, it’s Vic Tayback!

The medical examiner placing time of death at “11:00, give or take a few minutes” is ridiculously precise.

The burglar alarm not going off is a big mistake on Kingston’s part. He, clearly, does not possess the brilliance of any of the previous murderers Columbo matched wits with – although he clearly believes he does.

Loved the scene of an uncomfortable Columbo trying to question artist Sam Franklin while trying to avoid eye (and other parts of the body) contact with the nude model.

The fact that Kingston establishes his alibi by clumsily asking everyone the time clearly shows he is not in the same league as a Ken Franklin, Inspector Brimmer, or even a General Hollister.

When Columbo informs Kingston that the lock couldn’t have been forced from the outside, Dale’s response is “So?”. So?!!! So he’s saying it was an inside job, you idiot!

Asking the valet to help him search for his missing cufflink to establish his clean trunk was also incredibly clumsy. In the past, I’ve bumped on Columbo being too instantly suspicious of people but, in this case, I buy it.

Columbo has a habit of letting himself into people’s homes.

Columbo uses, and attempts to make off with, the desktop lighter. This is, I believe, the fourth or fifth desktop lighter featured in an episode. I guess it IS a running gag.

Columbo’s excuse that he “had to give up the painting as evidence” made me laugh.

Loved Columbo’s scene with the Landlady, played by Mary Wickes, who turns the tables on the dogged detective, taking him on an extended trip through memory lane enroute to a dead end.

I find it downright bizarre that the police would honor a request to search Edna Matthews’ home just so that they can officially discount her as a suspect.

I wonder if Columbo suspects that other detective of being a Venusian?

Bad luck for Dale Kingston that he brought the stolen paintings home while Columbo was there.

LOVE this Gotcha! moment. Falk and Kingston are terrific in this final exchange.

Ah, the classic freeze frame OUT!

Despite the fact that Kingston was clearly not on the same level as previous clever killers, I really do love this episode for a host of reasons, chiefly the humor. Kingston holding court at the art show, the nude model questioning, Columbo “appreciating” modern art, the photo album sit-down with the landlady, Kim Hunter’s quirky performance and, of course, Ross Martin absolutely killing it (literally and figuratively) onscreen.

The closing moment is brilliant, especially when one considers this wasn’t the original ending. In the original, Kingston was tripped up by a forged signature but Falk found it somewhat lackluster and, according to legend, rang up writer Jackson Gillis at midnight after a day’s shooting and pressed him for a more dramatically satisfying conclusion. To his credit, Gillis delivered just that.

Going to have to let this episode sit for a bit but, at the moment, even though Kingston was a less formidable adversary and the murder less well thought-out, “Suitable for Framing” earns very high marks for its humor, performances, and closing moments. So, at the present, I would rank the episodes accordingly: #1. Death Lends a Hand, #2. Suitable for Framing, #3. Prescription: Murder, #4. Murder by the Book/Ransom for a Dead Man (tie), #6. Dead Weight. And you?

Finally, as with previous episodes, we must consider the evidence Columbo has gathered and ask whether, on the basis of said evidence, our killer would be found GUILTY or ACQUITTED. To be honest, this is a tough one. Kingston’s fingerprints clearly tie him to the stolen paintings, and yet does that necessarily tie him to the murder? I think it would be touch and go but if the prosecution is smart they have Dale Kingston take the stand in his own defense, and given his pompous personality, I have no doubt he would sink his own case. GUILTY!

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