The Lt. Columbo Forum

An area where fans from all over can ask each other questions and voice their own ideas and opinions on anything Columbo.

This Forum is fondly dedicated in memory of  "cassavetes45"  (Carleen Zink),
Columbo's greatest fan and a great friend to us all.
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The Lt. Columbo Forum
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Re: The Loves and Uses of Kay Freestone

Wow!...I think you're right too. The relationship between Kay and Valerie is very clearly hinted at, even though it couldn't be overt in the 70's.

The possibility that the scene at Kay's house wasn't planned from the start is really intriguing, and now that you mention it, it does seem possible! If it *was* added in later, it was done really well, though...It does a great job of shedding light on her motive and her issues around men and power. I love Kay almost as much as Leslie Williams. She is one of the most fully developed Columbo murderers.

I love the opening scene where she is rubbing the shoulders of her male underlings...dishing out a little of what she probably perceives she's put up with to get where she is. It is a perfect encapsulation of her attitudes about men and power, and it's the very first thing we see of her. The flashback to her childhood in poverty with a single mother adds a lot, because it gives the audience a glimpse of where some of that bitterness probably came from. And the relationship with Valerie is such a great counterpoint to the quality of her relationships with men.

Re: Re: The Loves and Uses of Kay Freestone

Headache, I think you are almost certainly right. It's hard to imagine that an American TV network would be keen on such an explicit plot.

There are enough hints as to the nature of the relationship between Valerie and Kay. The ambiguity is no doubt a result of the nervousness about making it more obvious.

I'd love to know the truth about that 'shack' scene. Was it added in later? I've always thought that scene was a little odd, out of kilter with the rest of the episode. So I find this a very persuasive theory.

www.20six.co.uk/jiltedbarfly

Re: The Loves and Uses of Kay Freestone

ok this is a direct quote from Mark Dawidziak's wonderful Columbo Phile...

This is told by producer Richard Alan Simmons...."Peter thought there was no nexus between the characters (Columbo and Kay Freestone). Nothing in the script brought them together."

And then Dawidziak goes on to say...."Falk told Simmons about an incident that happened during the filming of "Candidate for Crime." Guest murderer Jackie Cooper had taken Falk to the shcack in Venice where he lived as a child. This served as the inspiration for the scene where Columbo finds Kay in the tiny, run-down home of her childhood."

Re: The Loves and Uses of Kay Freestone

.....um..that would be shack not shcack...

Re: Re: The Loves and Uses of Kay Freestone

This is all very interesting, and I had not thought about it. I had thought that her relationship with Valerie Kirk was designed to show that the she was more complex than her "predecessor", Leslie Williams.
Both women are, as I have said before, seductive yet poisonous. However, Leslie Williams has "no redeeming virtures", whereas Kay Freestone is capable of being a real friend and helping someone in trouble.
Whereas Leslie's husband was a decent fellow who was just defending himself in threatening to throw Leslie out, Mark McAndrews sort of "had it coming" (I love his quote "Kay, all we owe each other is a little affection!"). I didn't think of their relationship as allusions to homosexuality. However, now that I recall the episode "The Conspirators" where there is quite open allusions to homosexuality between Joe Devlin and his young friend, Kerry Malone, this theory seems plausible.

Re: The Loves and Uses of Kay Freestone

Good points YM.....And with The Conspirators you throw in another set of lovers....possibly...I think both episodes were dealing with that same issue...It was the last season, and maybe they wanted to see the feathers fly!!!..............Will we ever know???