Nero Wolfe (film)

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Nero Wolfe
Wolfe-NW1977-1.jpg
GenreDrama
Based on The Doorbell Rang
by Rex Stout
Written byFrank D. Gilroy
Screenplay byFrank D. Gilroy
Directed by Frank D. Gilroy
Starring Thayer David
Tom Mason
Brooke Adams
Biff McGuire
John Randolph
Anne Baxter
Theme music composer Leonard Rosenman
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producer Emmet G. Lavery, Jr.
ProducerEverett Chambers
Production locationsParamount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Cinematography Ric Waite
Editor Harry Keller
Running time120 min.
Production companiesEmmet C. Lavery, Jr. Productions
Paramount Television
Original release
NetworkABC
ReleaseDecember 19, 1979 (1979-12-19)

Nero Wolfe is a 1979 American made-for-television film adaptation of the 1965 Nero Wolfe novel The Doorbell Rang by Rex Stout. Thayer David stars as Nero Wolfe, gourmet, connoisseur and detective genius. Tom Mason costars as Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's assistant. Written and directed by Frank D. Gilroy, the made-for-TV movie was produced by Paramount Television as a pilot for an ABC television series, but the movie was shelved by the network for more than two years before finally being broadcast December 19, 1979.

Contents

Production

Disappointed with the Columbia Pictures films based on his first two Nero Wolfe novels, mystery writer Rex Stout was leery of further Hollywood adaptations in his lifetime. "I've had offers," Stout told author Dick Lochte in 1967, "but I haven't been to a movie in 30 years and I despise television. ... Anyway, the money, in addition to what the books are bringing in, would put me in a tax bracket where I wouldn't see much of it. If the characters are any good for films or television they'll be just as good 10 years from now." Ten years later, a little more than a year after Stout's death, literary agent H.N. Swanson negotiated an agreement for a Nero Wolfe television movie. [1]

In 1976 Paramount Television purchased the rights for the entire set of Nero Wolfe stories for Orson Welles. [2] [3] Paramount paid $200,000 for the TV rights to eight hours of Nero Wolfe. [4] The producers planned to begin with an ABC-TV movie and hoped to persuade Welles to continue the role in a mini-series. [5] Frank D. Gilroy was signed to write the television script ("The Doorbell Rang") and direct the TV movie on the assurance that Welles would star, but by April 1977 Welles had bowed out. [6]

"I was told to discover someone for the role since no other name actors were acceptable to them (ABC/Paramount) or to me," Gilroy wrote in his memoir, I Wake Up Screening (1993). "After a bicoastal search, which acquainted me with just about every corpulent middle-aged actor available, I, close to giving up, encountered Thayer David. No sooner did he start to read than Emmet Lavery, the producer, and I exchanged a look: We'd found our man." [7]

At a cost of about $1.5 million, [8] Nero Wolfe was filmed in March, April and May 1977, in locales including Van Nuys and Malibu, California, and New York City. [9] The scene in which Mrs. Rachel Bruner (Anne Baxter) goes ice skating was filmed at Rockefeller Center. [10]

In June 1977, UPI reported that the two-hour film would air during the 1977–78 season, with the possibility of it becoming a weekly series in January 1978. [11] But the film had still not aired when Thayer David died in July 1978. In a November 1979 interview, Gilroy mildly complained to the Associated Press that Nero Wolfe had still not been broadcast by ABC, and praised the performance of David. "It doesn't affect my career one way or the other that they haven't shown it, but that was the most important thing he ever did on film, and I'm determined to get it aired," Gilroy said. [12]

Nero Wolfe was finally broadcast by ABC-TV at midnight December 18, 1979. [13] Asked why the movie had not been run before, a former ABC executive familiar with the movie's development said, "It wasn't very good. It was very slow and plodding and talky. We just felt it wouldn't get any numbers." Asked why it had finally been scheduled, a network staffer speculated, "It's called 'dusting off the shelf.'" [8]

Frank Gilroy was recognized with an Edgar Award nomination by the Mystery Writers of America in 1980.

In January 1981, Paramount Television's one-hour weekly series Nero Wolfe , starring William Conrad, began a 14-episode run on NBC.

Cast

Thayer David (Nero Wolfe) and Tom Mason (Archie Goodwin) in the 1977 TV movie Nero Wolfe Wolfe-NW1977-2.jpg
Thayer David (Nero Wolfe) and Tom Mason (Archie Goodwin) in the 1977 TV movie Nero Wolfe

Reviews and commentary

Home media

Cover of the Visual Entertainment, Inc., DVD release of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe: The Complete Series (2017) Rex-Stout's-Nero-Wolfe-DVD.jpg
Cover of the Visual Entertainment, Inc., DVD release of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe: The Complete Series (2017)

In 2003 AudioVision Canada released Nero Wolfe on DVD, in a described edition for the blind and those with diminished vision. ISBN   0-7789-8107-X

On May 3, 2017, VEI announced a DVD release for the 1981 TV series starring William Conrad. Reported to be "coming soon", Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe: The Complete Series will include the 1977 pilot starring Thayer David. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nero Wolfe</span> Fictional character

Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young confidential assistant with an eye for attractive women, narrates the cases and does the legwork for the detective genius.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rex Stout</span> American writer (1886–1975)

Rex Todhunter Stout was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. His best-known characters are the detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin, who were featured in 33 novels, and 41 novellas and short stories, between 1934 and 1975.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thayer David</span> American actor (1927–1978)

Thayer David was an American film, stage, and television actor. He was best known for his work on the ABC serial Dark Shadows (1966–1971), as Dragon, the Albino ex-Nazi Director of C-2 in The Eiger Sanction (1975) and as the fight promoter Miles Jergens in Rocky (1976). He also appeared as Count Saknussemm in the film Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), as the Reverend Silas Pendrake in Little Big Man (1970), as Charlie Robbins in Save the Tiger (1973) and as Deacon in Fun with Dick and Jane (1977). His raspy, distinctive voice lent itself to voice-over work in commercials and instructional films.

<i>Nero Wolfe</i> (2001 TV series) American television series

Nero Wolfe is a television series adapted from Rex Stout's series of detective stories that aired for two seasons (2001–2002) on A&E. Set in New York City sometime in the 1940s–1950s, the stylized period drama stars Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe and Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin. A distinguishing feature of the series is its use of a repertory cast to play non-recurring roles. Nero Wolfe was one of the Top 10 Basic Cable Dramas for 2002.

<i>The Silent Speaker</i> 1946 Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout

The Silent Speaker is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by the Viking Press in 1946. It was published just after World War II, and key plot elements reflect the lingering effects of the war: housing shortages and restrictions on consumer goods, including government regulation of prices, featuring the conflict between a federal price regulatory body and a national business association, paralleling the conflicts between the Office of Price Administration and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers.

<i>The Doorbell Rang</i> Novel by Rex Stout

The Doorbell Rang is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by the Viking Press in 1965.

The Nero Wolfe stories are populated by a cast of supporting characters who help sustain the sense that each story takes place in familiar surroundings. The main characters are Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.

<i>Champagne for One</i> 1958 novel by Rex Stout

Champagne for One is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by the Viking Press in 1958. The back matter of the 1995 Bantam edition of this book includes an exchange of correspondence between Stout and his editor at Viking Press, Marshall Best. A letter from Stout to Best, dated July 1958, shows that Stout suggested as a title both "Champagne for One" and also "Champagne for Faith Usher." Best's reply states that Viking was quite satisfied with "Champagne for One."

<i>The League of Frightened Men</i> Novel by Rex Stout

The League of Frightened Men is the second Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout. The story was serialized in six issues of The Saturday Evening Post under the title The Frightened Men. The novel was published in 1935 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. The League of Frightened Men is a Haycraft Queen Cornerstone, one of the most influential works of mystery fiction listed by crime fiction historian Howard Haycraft and Ellery Queen.

<i>Murder by the Book</i> 1951 Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout

Murder by the Book is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout published in 1951 by the Viking Press, and collected in the omnibus volume Royal Flush (1965).

<i>Plot It Yourself</i>

Plot It Yourself is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1959, and also collected in the omnibus volume Kings Full of Aces.

<i>Too Many Clients</i>

Too Many Clients is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1960, and later collected in the omnibus volume Three Aces.

Frank Daniel Gilroy was an American playwright, screenwriter, and film producer and director. He received the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play The Subject Was Roses in 1965.

<i>Death of a Doxy</i> Detective novel by Rex Stout

Death of a Doxy is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by Viking Press in 1966.

<i>Please Pass the Guilt</i> 1973 detective novel by Rex Stout

Please Pass the Guilt is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1973. Unusually for a Nero Wolfe story, which mostly take place very near the time of publication, this novel is set in 1969, though it was originally published in 1973.

<i>Nero Wolfe</i> (1981 TV series) 1981 American television show

Nero Wolfe is an American drama television series based on the characters in Rex Stout's series of detective stories. The series aired on NBC from January 16 to August 25, 1981. William Conrad fills the role of the detective genius Nero Wolfe, and Lee Horsley is his assistant Archie Goodwin. Produced by Paramount Television, the series updates the world of Nero Wolfe to contemporary New York City and draws few of its stories from the Stout originals.

<i>The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery</i> 2000 American TV series or program

The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery is a 2000 American crime drama television film based on the 1953 novel by Rex Stout. Set in 1950s Manhattan, it stars Maury Chaykin as the heavyweight detective genius Nero Wolfe, and Timothy Hutton as Wolfe's assistant, Archie Goodwin, narrator of the Nero Wolfe stories. Veteran screenwriter Paul Monash adapted the novel, and Bill Duke directed. When it first aired on A&E on March 5, 2000, The Golden Spiders was seen in 3.2 million homes, making it the fourth-most-watched A&E original movie ever. Its success led to the A&E original series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002).

Tom Mason is an American actor.

"Poison à la Carte" is a Nero Wolfe mystery novella by Rex Stout, first published in April 1960 in the short-story collection Three at Wolfe's Door.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Die Like a Dog</span> Short story by Rex Stout

"Die Like a Dog" is a Nero Wolfe mystery novella written by American writer Rex Stout, first published as "The Body in the Hall" in the December 1954 issue of The American Magazine. It first appeared in book form in the short-story collection Three Witnesses, published by the Viking Press in 1956.

References

  1. ↑ Lochte, Dick, "TV finally tunes in Nero Wolfe," Los Angeles Times , January 30, 1977
  2. ↑ Pre-production materials for Nero Wolfe (1976) are contained in the Orson Welles – Oja Kodar Papers 1910–1998 (Box 17) at the University of Michigan Special Collections Library.
  3. ↑ Kleiner, Dick, Oakland Tribune , December 30, 1976; Smith, Liz, The Baltimore Sun , March 14, 1977
  4. ↑ Rosenfield, Paul, "Have You Seen Any Good Novels Lately?" Los Angeles Times , March 4, 1979
  5. ↑ Kleiner, Dick, Oakland Tribune , December 30, 1976
  6. ↑ Gilroy, Frank D., I Wake Up Screening. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1993, ISBN   0-8093-1856-3 pp. ii and 147
  7. ↑ Gilroy, Frank D., I Wake Up Screening. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1993, ISBN   0-8093-1856-3 p. 147
  8. 1 2 Margulies, Lee, "Clues to Stout Mystery Revealed"; Los Angeles Times , November 29, 1979
  9. ↑ Jacobs, Julie, "Valley News newsroom used in pilot TV movie about Nero Wolfe"; Valley News (Van Nuys, California), April 17, 1977
  10. ↑ Gilroy, Frank D., I Wake Up Screening. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1993, ISBN   0-8093-1856-3 p. 309
  11. ↑ United Press International (June 26, 1977). "Nero Wolfe Film Will Be TV Show". Times Daily . Florence, Alabama. Retrieved 2015-05-09.
  12. ↑ Sharbutt, Jay, The Associated Press, November 11, 1979
  13. ↑ Terrace, Vincent, Television 1970–1980. San Diego, California: A.S. Barnes & Company, 1981, ISBN   0-498-02539-X page 266
  14. ↑ Bawden, James, Toronto Star , February 23, 1991
  15. ↑ Vitaris, Paula, "Miracle on 35th Street: Nero Wolfe on Television"; Scarlet Street , issue #45, 2002, p. 34
  16. ↑ Lambert, David (May 4, 2017). "Nero Wolfe - Contents, Bonus Item and William Conrad-Featured DVD Package Art". Archived from the original on May 9, 2017. Retrieved 2017-05-04.
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