Heh. Didn't catch the S&M implication, but I did notice Rumford's reaction when Columbo asks him if there is any chance that someone wanted to kill him because of "jealousy over a woman." Rumford's head pops up, his eyes wide, and he is strangely emphatic when he says "Nooo." Then of course there's his total revulsion at the idea of GIRRLLS coming to stay at "his" academy.

All of Mumford's eccentricities can also be attributed to the fact that he takes his role very seriously. He believes that civilization needs defenders and it is up to academies like his (filmed at, and probably inspired by, The Citadel) to perform that function. Mumford is no ladies' man, but I think that you can interpret his private life any way you like. Personally I feel that Mumford has an exaggerated sense of self-importance and that is why he is borderline sadistic. He was obsessed with the hard cider.

Curiously, a friend of mine who is always going on about gay rights, believes that Mumford is gay. This friend dislikes Mumford's character, so I find it curious that he is more satisfied that Mumford is gay. If being gay is a positive, why does he actually want Mumford to be gay.

I'm guessing, but don't know for sure, that your gay friend isn't too happy with the thought of a gay closeted man running a school for boys in a 1970's television show...if this is what the writers intended, it was either as a joke or as a similarly negative comment on or about gay people.

Personally, I don't think Rumford is gay (just because he's surrounded by boys and likes to grow roses?). My money is on Adrian Carsini any day. He was almost relieved to be arrested because it meant, among other things, that he didn't have to marry his secretary.

I'm always picking on people who see "gay" everywhere they look. I don't mean bigots, I mean NON-bigots, because they get just as bad about it, or worse!
But, when it comes to Colonel Rumford, I think it's possible. Not definite, but possible.

Adrian Carsini was a rare breed of character indeed, totally devoted to his wine. There was never going to be any room in his life for either a woman or (god forbid) a man! So any notion of him being gay is completely erroneous. All he wanted to do was grow grapes and make superb wine for his peer group. Yes, his secretary had a handle on Carsini, but I rather suspect if he had got away with a first murder, a second one could so easily have been arranged. Much like the original line in the final scene of Prescription Murder. All I want to do (as a middle aged man) is work in my garage on my motorbikes without the constant interruption of family life! Perhaps Adrian is a role model then?

I read somewhere that J.K. Rowling felt that Prof. Albus Dumbledore was gay. It never came into play in her novels, but in the author's mind the character was gay. So whenever we examine a work of art we can imply certain things about the character's backgrounds, just as Rowling did about her own creation. The fact that we have different opinions of a character usually means that the character has some depth to it.

But as far as stating outright that it's a fact that Col. Mumford was a gay man with a penchant for S/M, I think that's going too far.

As much as I've always liked Julie Harris - so I hate to say this - it might've been a case of WHO was blackmailing him into marriage as much as anything else. (If it had been a "Joan Hudson," who knows?)

It just occurred to me, but Donald Pleasence was also a killer who gets blackmailed into marriage in the dark comedy "ARTHUR? ARTHUR!" That time it was by Shelley Winters!

I think the term asexual applies to both Carsini and Rumford.

Patrick McGoohan I'd note, had a thing for never playing characters who were romantically involved at all. When he played a spy on "Danger Man" in the early 1960s he insisted on never having any romantic scenes with the beautiful female guest of the week (that moral streak was also why he refused to be considered for the role of 007 when his name was floated as a possibility). You can also see that in "The Prisoner" and even in "Identity Crisis" there is no indication that Nelson Brenner has had any romantic attachments at any time in his life. "Agenda For Murder" is one of the few times I think he ever plays a character who has a wife, but even there you don't see him involved in any moments of personal intimacy.

Ted mentions that good moment when Columbo asks whether someone might have wanted to kill him out of jealousy over a woman, and Rumford not only says no, but gives that funny reaction to the question. Maybe it's reaching, but to me that could be a modest reaction as much as anything else. As in, "Someone jealous of ME?"