A Nero Wolfe Mystery
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| A Nero Wolfe Mystery | |
|---|---|
 ISBN 076708893X |
|
| Genre | Drama |
| Presented by | A&E Television Networks |
| Starring | Timothy Hutton Maury Chaykin Bill Smitrovich Colin Fox Conrad Dunn Fulvio Cecere Trent McMullen R.D. Reid Saul Rubinek |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 20 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Michael Jaffe Timothy Hutton Howard Braunstein |
| Producer(s) | Jaffe/Braunstein Films Ltd. and A&E Television Networks in association with Pearson Television International |
| Location(s) | Toronto, Ontario |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | A&E Network |
| Original run | April 22, 2001 – August 18, 2002 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2000) |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
A Nero Wolfe Mystery (a.k.a. Nero Wolfe, The Nero Wolfe Mysteries) is a television series based on Rex Stout's classic series of detective stories that aired for two seasons (2001–2002) on the A&E Network. A stylized period drama set in New York City in the early 1950s, A Nero Wolfe Mystery was one of the Top 10 Basic Cable Dramas for 2002.[1]
A witty, beguiling, colorful, pulse-pounding hoot of a weekly series set in the ‘50s. ... The greatest of fun... From straw hat to natty black-and-white wingtips, Archie is the swaggering, milk-drinking, street-savvy legman of this unequal union, Wolfe the cultured closer who rakes in big fees while rarely venturing outdoors on business. The "oversized genius," as Archie irreverently titles him, is 275 pounds of authoritarian harrumph packed into a custom-made three-piece suit. A derrick couldn't budge him from that ornately furnished brownstone, where he is an antique among antiques, hovering over his personal chef while cultivating his gourmandise ("I must see about those cutlets") as assiduously as he does his beloved orchids in a glassed-in plant room. ... Archie is the only man on TV who wears a snap-brim hat like he means it.
– Howard Rosenberg, Los Angeles Times [2]
A Nero Wolfe Mystery creates the world of the brownstone on Manhattan's West 35th Street through high production values and a jazzy score by Michael Small. The language and spirit of the Stout originals are preserved in the teleplays, most of them written by consulting producer Sharon Elizabeth Doyle and the team of Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin (whose "Prisoner's Base" was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America).
The series was preceded by the original film The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery, a Jaffe/Braunstein Films production that aired on A&E TV in March 2000. Veteran screenwriter Paul Monash adapted Rex Stout's 1953 novel, and Bill Duke directed. After the high ratings (3.2 million households) garnered by The Golden Spiders, A&E considered a series of two-hour Nero Wolfe films before ordering a weekly one-hour drama series into production.[3]
Contents |
[edit] Cast
Maury Chaykin is the brilliant, eccentric detective Nero Wolfe, a man with little patience for people who come between him and his insatiable passions for food, books and orchids. Timothy Hutton is Wolfe's hardworking and bemused assistant Archie Goodwin, whose voice narrates the stories. In addition to starring in the series, Hutton directed four episodes and served as an executive producer.
Other members of the principal cast are Colin Fox as Fritz Brenner, Wolfe's master chef; Conrad Dunn (Saul Panzer), Fulvio Cecere (Fred Durkin) and Trent McMullen (Orrie Cather) as the 'Teers, three freelance detectives who frequently assist Wolfe; Bill Smitrovich as Inspector Cramer, head of Manhattan's Homicide Bureau; and R.D. Reid as Sergeant Purley Stebbins. Saul Rubinek, who portrayed Saul Panzer in The Golden Spiders, took the role of reporter Lon Cohen in the series.
A distinguishing feature of the series is its use of a repertory cast — Nicky Guadagni, Kari Matchett [1], Debra Monk, Boyd Banks, George Plimpton, Ron Rifkin, Francie Swift, James Tolkan and many other accomplished Canadian and American actors — to play non-recurring roles.
"If a stylized, period series based solely on books wasn't enough to separate Nero Wolfe from other TV shows," reported Scarlet Street magazine, "[executive producer Michael] Jaffe decided to employ a returning repertory cast in the guest roles for each episode. He felt that it was necessary to find actors who understood and fit in with the show's unique approach. 'Every other show agonizes about casting,' Jaffe says. 'We don't. We have 20, 30 people in our repertory company and we get great actors to play bit roles. ... We found an enormous number of very talented actors in Canada.'"[4]
Kari Matchett has the distinction of playing a recurring role (Archie Goodwin's sometime girlfriend Lily Rowan) and a non-recurring role (nightclub singer Julie Jaquette) in the same episode, "Death of a Doxy." Nicky Guadagni has the distinction of playing two non-recurring characters (a secretary and Mrs. Cramer) in the same episode, "The Silent Speaker." Its ensemble cast gives A Nero Wolfe Mystery the effect of a series of plays put on by a repertory theatre company.
[edit] Production
A Nero Wolfe Mystery is a production of A&E Television Networks and Jaffe/Braunstein Films, Ltd., in association with Pearson Television International. The series was shot in Toronto, with select Manhattan exteriors filmed for the series premiere, "The Doorbell Rang," and seen in subsequent episodes including "Prisoner's Base."
"Jaffe/Braunstein was one of the first to experiment with HD for television," reported the industry publication HiDef Magazine. "Their landmark series 100 Centre Street ... was one of the first hour dramas to use HDCam as the capture medium. ... Jaffe/Braunstein was also producing the A&E series Nero Wolfe with Timothy Hutton in 35mm film. After the success with HD, Michael [Jaffe] decided that he'd like to try it on the single camera hour drama. At first Hutton was a little nervous about it, but after Jaffe brought experienced DP John Berrie to the program, Hutton was convinced. The entire second season was shot in HD, with 15 one hour programs and three two hours. Jaffe says that in addition to saving money, HD also allowed fewer lens changes, no magazine changes, smaller lighting instruments and near instant re-loading of stock. All this added to increased time working with the actors."[5]
A Nero Wolfe Mystery features production design by Lindsey Hermer-Bell [2], and costume design by Christopher Hargadon. Illustrator Aurore Giscard d'Estaing designed title sequences unique to each episode.
[edit] Episodes
[edit] A&E Home Video releases
"Nero Wolfe is a beautifully shot series, and its release on DVD is frequently stunning," wrote DVD Talk's Adam Tyner in his comprehensive review [3] of "Nero Wolfe: The Complete Classic Whodunit Series":
- Boxed sets of TV series take up quite a bit of space on my DVD shelves, but the majority of them — even series I deeply enjoy — have been watched once and only once. Nero Wolfe is certainly an exception. Not only did I feel compelled to rewatch these episodes, I started to feel that urge as soon as the end credits would flash on the screen. There were several cases where I'd read the original Rex Stout novel and then immediately rewatch the episode while the story was still fresh in my mind. I didn't watch Nero Wolfe so much as devour it, and that this is such a rewatchable series makes it especially worth owning on DVD.
- It's rare for any form of entertainment — be it a television series, a film, or a novel — to so immediately and unrelentingly seize my attention, and I'm left fumbling for the right adjectives to fully describe how much I've enjoyed Nero Wolfe. The asking price for this eight disc set is rather modest, so much so that at many online stores, the complete run of Nero Wolfe is considerably less expensive than the second season set released last summer. Nero Wolfe is worth that and quite a bit more, and even though it didn't get the extended run on television that it deserved, at least now viewers can appreciate this marvelous series at their leisure. ...
- It's worth mentioning that these DVDs present the episodes as they appeared on A&E, and although longer versions aired overseas (several were literally twice as long), none of that additional footage is offered here. ...
- Expertly crafted, masterfully acted, and unlike much of anything else on television, this collection of the entire two season run of Nero Wolfe is very highly recommended.
The feature-length series pilot, The Golden Spiders, is included on two of A&E's DVD box sets — "Nero Wolfe: The Complete Classic Whodunit Series" and "Nero Wolfe: The Complete Second Season." These two box sets also include a 22-minute behind-the-scenes film, "The Making of Nero Wolfe," as well as a bonus 16:9 letterbox version [4] of "The Silent Speaker," written and directed by Michael Jaffe. All of the other episodes are offered in full frame format.
| Title | Media Type | Release Date | Approximate Length | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nero Wolfe: The Complete Classic Whodunit Series |
Region 1 DVD Eight-disc box set |
April 25, 2006 | 24 hours, 56 minutes + extras |
ISBN 076708893X |
| The Doorbell Rang: A Nero Wolfe Mystery |
Region 1 DVD+R (A&E Store exclusive) |
October 2004 | 100 minutes | ISBN 0767067215 |
| The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery |
Region 1 DVD+R (A&E Store exclusive) |
October 2004 | 94 minutes | ISBN 0767067193 |
| Nero Wolfe: The Complete Second Season |
Region 1 DVD Five-disc box set |
June 28, 2005[7] | 13 hours, 20 minutes |
ISBN 076705508X |
| Nero Wolfe: The Complete First Season |
Region 1 DVD Three-disc box set |
July 27, 2004[8] | 10 hours | ISBN 0767054997 |
| The Doorbell Rang: A Nero Wolfe Mystery |
VHS videotape (NTSC) |
August 20, 2001 | 100 minutes | ISBN 0767037669 |
| The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery |
VHS videotape (NTSC) |
May 30, 2000 | 94 minutes | ISBN 0767025512 |
[edit] Adapting the stories for the A&E series
"It was a screenwriting assignment unlike any other that my writing partner, William Rabkin, and I had ever been involved with," wrote screenwriter Lee Goldberg in the November 2002 issue of Mystery Scene magazine. "Because Nero Wolfe, starring Maury Chaykin as Wolfe and Timothy Hutton as Archie, was unlike any other series on television. It was, as far as I know, the first TV series without a single original script — each and every episode was based on a Rex Stout novel, novella, or short story. That's not to say there wasn't original writing involved, but it was Stout who did all the hard work."
Goldberg and Rabkin adapted four Nero Wolfe stories — Champagne for One, Prisoner's Base, "Murder Is Corny" and "Poison à la Carte" — for A Nero Wolfe Mystery. In his article "Writing Nero Wolfe," Goldberg provides a unique inside look at the process of adapting Rex Stout for the A&E TV series:
- Everyone who wrote for Nero Wolfe was collaborating with Rex Stout. The mandate from executive producers Michael Jaffe and Timothy Hutton (who also directed episodes) was to "do the books," even if that meant violating some of the hard-and-fast rules of screenwriting. Your typical hour-long teleplay follows what's known as a four-act structure. ... But Nero Wolfe ignored the formula, forgoing the traditional mini-cliffhangers and plot-reversals that precede the commercial breaks. Instead, we stuck to the structure of the book, replicating as closely as possible the experience of reading a Rex Stout novel...
- "It's amazing how many writers got it wrong," says Sharon Elizabeth Doyle, who was head writer for Nero Wolfe. "I mean very good writers, too. Either you get it or you don't. It's so important to have the relationships right, and the tone of the relationships right, to get that it's about the language and not the story. The characters in these books aren't modern human beings. You have to believe in the characters and respect the formality of the way they are characterized." ...
- Our first step in the adaptation process was the most fun — we'd sit down and read the book for pure pleasure, to get the feel and shape of the story. (I couldn't believe someone was actually paying me to read a book that I loved!)
- After that, the real work started. We'd sit at the laptop and briefly jot down notes on the key emotional moments of the story, the major plots points, the essential clues, and most importantly, whatever the central conflict was between Wolfe and Archie. ... Once we were done with that, we were ready to read the book again, only not as readers but as literary construction workers who had to figure out how to take the structure apart and rebuild it again in a different medium. ...
- More often than not, that meant loyalty to the dialogue rather than to the structure of the plot or the order, locations, or choreography of the scenes. Because the first thing we discovered as we took apart Stout's stories and put them back together again was how thin and clumsily plotted the mysteries are... The challenge in adapting the Nero Wolfe stories for television was obscuring those plot problems by playing up the character conflicts and cherry-picking the best lines from Wolfe's many speeches. The plots became secondary to the relationships and the uniqueness of the language. The vocabulary was never dumbed down or simplified for the TV audience, which is why the series felt so much like the books.
- "There is a pleasure in Wolfe's speeches, what we call the arias," says Doyle. "Wolfe has lots of them, the trick is isolating that one aria you can't live without."[9]
The filmmakers have remained as scrupulously faithful to the original stories as possible, even to the point of retaining the different time settings — this season's episodes have jumped from the 1940s to the 1960s and back without a care. ... What a stunner it is to find them translated so effectively to television.
– S.T. Karnick, National Review [10]
"There's something so dynamic and wonderful about Wolfe and Archie, Fritz and their whole world," Sharon Elizabeth Doyle told Scarlet Street magazine in 2002. Consulting producer for A Nero Wolfe Mystery, Doyle was the show's only full-time writer — overseeing the work of freelance screenwriters, and writing 11 of the teleplays herself:
- "I do the most work on the dialogue," she says. "What Stout writes actually sounds good when you say it out loud, but the stuff that makes you laugh out loud and fall on the floor in the books doesn't work most of the time when you transpose it directly into actors' mouths. Frequently I end up moving words — tenderly and respectfully — but retaining as much of the language as possible. I feel a great belief in Rex Stout. I see the script process as writing his second draft."[11]
[edit] Relationship to literary source
In the preface to the second edition of his book At Wolfe's Door: The Nero Wolfe Novels of Rex Stout, J. Kenneth Van Dover assessed the fidelity of A Nero Wolfe Mystery to its literary source:
- A quarter century after his death, the Nero Wolfe books remain in print (on, it is reported, "a rotating basis") and, as a result of a very popular A&E television series which premiered in 2000, their continuing presence seems assured. ... The success of the series is significant especially because the scripts remained remarkably faithful to the novels. The programs are set in the period, and much of the dialogue is lifted directly from the novel. Effective novelistic dialogue is not usually effective screen dialogue, as Raymond Chandler discovered when he worked on the script for the 1944 film of James M. Cain's Double Indemnity. The A&E series was able to adopt verbatim both the sharp exchanges between Wolfe and Archie, and as well Archie's narration in voiceover. Credit certainly goes to the skills of the repertory actors who played the roles, and especially to Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton; but it was Stout who supplied the language and the characters who speak it. And it was Stout who created in words the real pleasures of the novels: the voices and ideas, the rooms and the routines. Producer Michael Jaffe realized this, and with great care recreated those pleasures on film.[12]
"That Nero Wolfe should be so pleasing has at least as much to do with the casting as the scripts," wrote cultural critic Terry Teachout in the National Review:
- Timothy Hutton plays Archie Goodwin, and I can't see how anyone could do a better job. Not only does he catch Archie's snap-brim Thirties tone with sharp-eared precision, but he also bears an uncanny physical resemblance to the dapper detective-narrator I've been envisioning all these years. No sooner did Hutton make his first entrance in The Golden Spiders than he melded completely with the Archie of my mind's eye. I can no longer read a Stout novel without seeing him, or hearing his voice.
- Still, Archie could have wandered out of any number of screwball comedies; Nero Wolfe is a far more complicated proposition. ... Maury Chaykin has doubtless immersed himself in the Wolfe novels, for he brings to his interpretation of the part both a detailed knowledge of what Stout wrote and an unexpectedly personal touch of insight. He plays Wolfe as a fearful genius, an aesthete turned hermit who has withdrawn from the world (and from the opposite sex) in order to shield himself — against what? Stout never answers that question, giving Chaykin plenty of room to maneuver, which he uses with enviable skill.[13]
BookFinder.com — a web-search service that reports the most-sought out-of-print titles — documents that the production of A Nero Wolfe Mystery coincides with Rex Stout's becoming a top-selling author some 30 years after his death. In March 2003, the top four most-wanted mysteries listed by BookFinder.com were all Nero Wolfe novels: Where There's a Will (1940), The Rubber Band (1936), The Red Box (1937) and The League of Frightened Men (1935). The Red Box was the most-searched mystery title in August 2003, and the novel remained as number two on the list in 2004. In 2006, Too Many Women (1947) was fifth on BookFinder.com's list of most-sought out-of-print thrillers, whodunits, classics and modern mystery titles. In 2007, The Black Mountain was in the number five position.[14]
Most of the Nero Wolfe stories adapted for A Nero Wolfe Mystery are available through Bantam's Rex Stout Library, a series of paperbacks featuring new introductions by today's best writers and never-before published Rex Stout memorabilia. Some Bantam volumes, like Prisoner's Base, are emblazoned with the words, "as seen on TV." The Audio Partners Publishing Corporation promotes its bestselling line of Rex Stout audiobooks [5], unabridged on CD and audiocassette, "as seen on A&E TV."
[edit] External links
- A Nero Wolfe Mystery at the Internet Movie Database
- A Nero Wolfe Mystery at Allmovie
- A Nero Wolfe Mystery at The Wolfe Pack, official site of the Nero Wolfe Society
- Small-screen version of the great man, consultant Winnifred Louis' reflections on a visit to the set of The Golden Spiders (March 2000)
- Doorbells Ringing, consultant Winnifred Louis' notes on the A&E TV series and "The Doorbell Rang" (September 2000)
- Three scripts (PDF) for A Nero Wolfe Mystery that were written by Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin: "In Bad Taste," combining "Poison a la Carte" and "Murder Is Corny"; "Champagne for One"; and "Prisoner's Base," nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America.
[edit] References
- ^ Multichannel News, February 24, 2003
- ^ Rosenberg, Howard, "The Dueling Detectives: In a Sunday night matchup, A&E's 'Nero Wolfe' easily defeats CBS' 'Murder on the Orient Express' on style points alone"; Los Angeles Times, April 20, 2001
- ^ Dempsey, John, "Wolfe series at the door for A&E"; Variety, June 26, 2000
- ^ Vitaris, Paula, "Miracle on 35th Street: Nero Wolfe on Television"; Scarlet Street, issue #45, 2002, p. 76
- ^ Denke, Conrad, "Jaffe/Braunstein — HD Reaches the MOW Mainstream"; Hi Def Magazine, Vol. 7, Issue 2 (2005 pdf), pp. 8–12
- ^ "Alan Smithee" is the traditional pseudonym for a director who wishes to remain anonymous
- ^ Actually released in June 2004 for exclusive sale by A&E Store and select outlets
- ^ Actually released in June 2003 for exclusive sale by A&E Store and select outlets
- ^ Goldberg, Lee, "Writing Nero Wolfe"; Mystery Scene, issue #77, Holiday 2002 (published November 2002), pp. 27–28 and 30
- ^ Karnick, S.T., "Wolfe a la Tube: An A&E series loyal to its source"; National Review, May 10, 2002
- ^ Vitaris, Paula, "Miracle on 35th Street: Nero Wolfe on Television"; Scarlet Street, issue #45, 2002, p. 76
- ^ Van Dover, J. Kenneth, At Wolfe's Door: The Nero Wolfe Novels of Rex Stout; 1991, Borgo Press, Mitford Series; second edition 2003, p. vii (James A. Rock & Co., Publishers; Hardcover ISBN 091873651X / Paperback ISBN 0918736528)
- ^ Teachout, Terry, "A Nero as Hero"; National Review, August 12, 2002
- ^ BookFinder.com reports for March 2003, August 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2007
