Wolfe Pack -- Official Site of the Nero Wolfe Society

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Wolfe Pack -- Official Site of the Nero Wolfe Society Nero Wolfe: The Complete First Season 3 vols. 10 hrs. DVD ISBN 0-7670-5499-7. $59.95 Nero Wolfe: The Complete Second Season 5 vols. 15 hrs. DVD ISBN 0-7670-5508-X. $99.95. ea. vol: color. A&E Television Networks, 800-423-1212;ShopAETV.com. 2004 LIBRARY JOURNAL | MICHAEL ROGERS | DECEMBER 2004 A&E's tragically short-lived detective series makes its much-welcomed DVD debut. The First Season boxed set offers The Doorbell Rang, Champagne for One, Prisoner’s Base 1 & 2, Eeny Meeny Murder Moe, Disguise for Murder, Door to Death, Christmas Party, and Over My Dead Body. The Second Season features Death of a Doxy, Murder Is Corny, Too Many Clients, and Cop Killer, plus extras, including The Golden Spiders, a two-hour feature that aired before the show was officially scheduled, a “Making of” featurette, and an especially nice bonus program, The Silent Speaker, presented in letterbox. The production quality here is top shelf, and every element, from the cars and wardrobe to jazzy soundtrack and locations, is dead on. The scripts have been carefully and faithfully adapted to retain the all-important atmosphere of Rex Stout’s original works. What really makes the series superior, however, is the ensemble cast led by Maury Chaykin as Wolfe; Timothy Hutton as Wolfe’s right hand, Archie Goodwin; Colin Fox and butler/chef Fritz; and Bill Smitrovich as the bull-necked cigar-chomping Inspector Cramer. There is especially strong chemistry between Hutton and Chaykin, who epitomizes the rotund, beer-swilling sleuth with appropriate magisterial indignation and eccentricity. Hutton thoroughly embodies tough lady-killer Goodwin. A&E’s Nero Wolfe is so good, it’s criminal. Highly recommended. file:///C|/wwwLOCAL/NewNW/articles4PDF.htm[3/27/2013 8:00:58 PM].

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Wolfe Pack -- Official Site of the Nero Wolfe Society
Wolfe Pack -- Official Site of the Nero Wolfe Society Famous detective Nero Wolfe takes on murder in The Golden Spiders A&E's mystery movie that is smart, witty and eminently watchable THE TIMES-PICAYUNE [NEW ORLEANS] | DAVID CUTHBERT | MARCH 1, 2000 If the painstaking replication of Nero Wolfe's celebrated townhouse on West 35th Street isn't enough to convince you that the latest dramatization of Rex Stout's grandly proportioned, eccentric, epicurean private detective is in good hands, then Wolfe's first articulate snarl at Lt. Cramer of Homicide should suffice. The language is pure Wolfe and its delivery, by the superb actor Maury Chaykin, is smooth and measured, with just the requisite bite. It is at this point that fans of Stout's 42 Wolfe books will breathe a sigh of relief. Paul Monash's screenplay returns again and again to Wolfe's vernacular, the choice of Chaykin for Wolfe is inspired and Timothy Hutton makes a glib, engaging Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's legman and chronicler. Archie is as casual as Wolfe is formal, as slangy as Wolfe is proper, as quick as Wolfe is deliberate. And a gallery of secondary characters also comes to more or less believable life: Wolfe's world-class chef Fritz Brenner, Lt. Cramer and his perpetually irate cohort Sgt. Purley Stebbins, and the nicely differentiated Wolfe "operatives" -- bearish Fred Durkin, pretty boy Orrie Cather and the indispensable Saul Panzer, played by another resourceful actor, Saul Rubinek. In "The Golden Spiders," Wolfe rejects a dinner of starlings Fritz has prepared with saffron, tarragon and a red currant glaze (instead of the customary sage), accepts his lowest retainer ever -- $4.30 from street urchin Pete Drosos -- tends to his orchids and solves a triple murder while imbibing copious quantities of beer.
[Show full text]
Nero Wolfe Series-Season1 Music Commentary
Nero Wolfe Series-Season1 Music Commentary A & E TV SERIES Season 1 Music by Nadine Bandler The first use of non-original music for the series is in The Doorbell Rang. Only one song is used, "La Donna e mobile", from Rigoletto by Verdi. This is an aria about the fickleness of women, which subject has nothing to do with the storyline. The song is presumably being played on the radio as background noise used to cover the brownstone goings-on in case the F.B.I. is listening in. Certain pieces of so-called "classical" music go through phases of popularity, just as other music and forms of art do. A lot of the pieces in the series are ones that would have been perhaps a little overexposed and familiar to the general populace during the 1950s, the time frame of most of the shows. This is one of them. So it is fitting that it should be a random radio selection. Other pieces used in the series are more obscure and apparently fitted to the situation, as I'll note later, individually. Starting with Champagne for One, the choice of music begins to get quite creative. The use of "Jazz Suite No. 2 (Suite for Promenade Orchestra.): VI Waltz 2" by Dmitri Shostakovich makes the introductory sequence wonderfully memorable and it is delightful to hear it again later in the show as actual dance music. Is it my imagination or does this tune have slightly sinister undertones? This makes it all the more suitable. Note that this waltz was also used in the movie Eyes Wide Shut.
[Show full text]
Rex Stout Does Not Belong in Russia: Exporting the Detective Novel
Wesleyan University The Honors College Rex Stout Does Not Belong in Russia: Exporting the Detective Novel by Molly Jane Levine Zuckerman Class of 2016 A thesis submitted to the faculty of Wesleyan University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors in the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Program Middletown, Connecticut April, 2016 Foreword While browsing through a stack of Russian and American novels in translation on a table on Arbat Street in Moscow in 2013, I came across a Russian copy of one of my favorite books, And Be a Villain, by one of my favorite authors, Rex Stout. I only knew about this author because my father had lent me a copy of And Be a Villain when I was in middle school, and I was so entranced by the novel that I went out to Barnes & Noble to buy as many as they had in stock. I quickly ran out of Stout books to read, because at the time, his books were out of print in America. I managed to get hold of most copies by high school, courtesy of a family friend’s mother who had died and passed on her collection of Stout novels to our family. Due to the relative difficulty I had had in acquiring these books in America, I was surprised to find one lying on a book stand in Moscow, so I bought it for less than 30 cents (which was probably around the original price of its first printing in America).
[Show full text]
{PDF EPUB} the First Rex Stout Omnibus Featuring Nero
Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The First Rex Stout Omnibus Featuring Nero Wolfe And Archie Goodwin The Doorbell Rang The Second The First Rex Stout Omnibus: Featuring Nero Wolfe And Archie Goodwin: " The Doorbell Rang " " The Second Confession " And " More Deaths Than One " by Rex Stout. TimeSearch for Books and Writers by Bamber Gascoigne. American author, who wrote over 70 detective novels, 46 of them featuring eccentric, chubby, beer drinking gourmet sleuth Nero Wolfe, whose wisecracking aide and right hand assistant in crime solving was Archie Goodwin. Stout began his literary career by writing for pulp magazines, publishing romance, adventure, some borderline detective stories. After 1938 he focused solely on the mystery field. Rex Stout was born in Noblesville, Indiana, the son of John Wallace Stout and Lucetta Elizabeth Todhunter. They both were Quakers. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Wakarusa, Kansas. Stout was educated at Topeka High School, and at University of Kansas, Lawrence, which he left to enlist in the Navy. From 1906 to 1908 he served as a Yeoman on President Theodore Roosevelt's yacht. The following years Stout spent writing freelance articles and working in odd jobs – as an office boy, store clerk, bookkeeper, and hotel manager. With his brother he invented an astonishing savings plans, the Educational Thrift Service, for school children. The system was installed in 400 cities throughout the USA, earning Stout about $400,000 and making him financially secure. In 1916 Stout married Fay Kennedy of Topeka, Kansas. They separated in 1931 – according to a story, she eloped with a Russian commissar – and Stout married Pola Hoffman, a fabric designer.
[Show full text]
German Titles of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Stories
German Titles of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Stories (Thank you Christian Hoffman) book book story story German story title number number 1 Fer-de-Lance 1 Fer-de-Lance Die Lanzenschlange 2 League of Frightened 2 League of Frightened Men, The Die Liga der furchtsamen Männer Men, The 3 Rubber Band, The 3 Rubber Band, The Die Gummibande 4 Red Box, The 4 Red Box, The Die rote Schatulle 5 Too Many Cooks 5 Too Many Cooks Zu viele Köche 6 Some Buried Caesar 6 Some Buried Caesar Der rote Bulle 7 Over My Dead Body 7 Over My Dead Body Über meine Leiche 8 Where There's a Will 8 Where There's a Will Kennzeichen wilde Rose 9 Black Orchids 9 Black Orchids Schwarze Orchideen 9 Black Orchids 10 Cordially Invited to Meet Death Der Tod gibt sich die Ehre 10 Not Quite Dead Enough 11 Not Quite Dead Enough Das blaue Halstuch 10 Not Quite Dead Enough 12 Booby Trap Die explosive Ananas 11 Silent Speaker, The 13 Silent Speaker, The Mord im Waldorf-Astoria 12 Too Many Women 14 Too Many Women Zu viele Frauen 13 And Be A Villain 15 And Be A Villain Aufruhr im Studio 14 Second Confession, The 16 Second Confession, The Das zweite Geständnis 15 Trouble in Triplicate 17 Before I Die Blei ist ungesund 15 Trouble in Triplicate 18 Help Wanted, Male Sie werden demnächst sterben 15 Trouble in Triplicate 19 Instead of Evidence - 16 Curtains for Three 20 Bullet for One Alibi nach Maß 16 Curtains for Three 21 Gun with Wings, The Der geflügelte Revolver 16 Curtains for Three 22 Disguise for Murder - 17 Three Doors to Death 23 Man Alive - 17 Three Doors to Death 24 Omit Flowers Die
[Show full text]
Rex Stout (1886-1975)
REX STOUT (1886-1975) FEATURING ALL THE NERO WOLFE TITLES In 1959, at age 73, Rex Stout received the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award. At the time, he had published 32 books featuring Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, his most enduring characters, including classics such as THE LEAGUE OF FRIGHTENED MEN (1935), SOME BURIED CEASAR (1939), and AND BE A VILLAIN (1948). Not surprisingly, given his outspoken left-wing political views, particularly on civil liberties, Stout had also created one of the earliest female private investigators, Theolinda “Dol” Bonner, in THE HAND IN GLOVE (1937), and a part-Native American farmer-turned-detective, Tecumseh Fox, in DOUBLE FOR DEATH (1939). Having been named a Grand Master, however, hardly meant Stout’s career was done. Fifteen years of writing still lay ahead of him, including two of his most highly regarded Nero Wolfe novels, DEATH OF A DOXY (1966) and A FAMILY AFFAIR (1975). When Stout passed away at the age of 88, the Nero Wolfe series consisted of 77 titles, including novels, novellas, and short stories. Stout scholar and biographer John McAleer has described the Nero Wolfe mysteries as “an epic that ultimately would encompass more than ten thousand pages.” No wonder, as the 20th century drew to a close, that mystery and detective writers and aﬁcionados at Bouchercon XXXI in September of 2000 nominated Rex Stout for Writer of the Century and the Nero Wolfe mysteries as Series of the Century. From the publication of FER-DE-LANCE, the ﬁrst Nero Wolfe novel in 1934, the Wolfe mysteries have always been a unique blend of golden age whodunit and hardboiled crime.
[Show full text]
Nero Wolfe, Rex Stout, the Language, and the Law
NERO WOLFE, REX STOUT, THE LANGUAGE, AND THE LAW Ira Brad Matetsky† More than one person has noted a seeming irony of devoting a themed issue of The Green Bag Almanac and Reader, a compilation of the year’s best legal writing, to the Nero Wolfe novels and stories of Rex Stout. After all, one of Mr. Wolfe’s most strongly held views is his oft-expressed disdain for almost all lawyers and the work that they do. In reality, however, both Mr. Wolfe and Mr. Stout share with many lawyers, law teachers, and judges an admiration for fine use of the English language — the celebration of which is the reason The Green Bag Almanac and Reader was created. And both Wolfe and Stout were ready to use the law when it suited their purposes. An attentive reader of the Nero Wolfe novels would correctly conclude that Stout and his creation had at least a general familiar- ity with the law and lawyers. One Wolfe novel, Murder by the Book, and one novella, “Eeny Meeny Murder Moe,” have plots centered on the affairs of law firms; another novella, “The Next Witness,”1 contains two memorable courtroom scenes. Throughout the Cor- pus, Wolfe displays a knowledge of basic legal precepts, or at least knows how to obtain information about the law when he needs it; for example, in The Rubber Band, Wolfe advises clients that a legal claim they might wish to assert has “expired by time” under the statute of limitations, while in “Immune to Murder” he accurately quotes federal and New York State statutes governing diplomatic immunity, and in “Before I Die,” he tests a law student’s knowledge of the law by deliberately misusing a legal term to test whether the student will notice.
[Show full text]
Movie Museum JUNE 2021 COMING ATTRACTIONS
Movie Museum JUNE 2021 COMING ATTRACTIONS THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY 2 Hawaii Premieres! 2 Hawaii Premieres! DOUBLE FEATURE 2 Hawaii Premieres! MINARI 3 Hawaii Premieres! HATTIE ALI (2020-US) NERO WOLFE: (2011-UK) (2012-Spain) THE 6TH OF JUNE THE GOLDEN SPIDERS in widescreen Korean/Eng w/Eng subs ws Spanish w/Eng subtitles ws with Steven Yeun, AT DAWN (2000-US) with Ruth Jones, Robert with Nadia de Santiago, Yuh-jung Youn, Alan S. Kim (1946-France) with Maury Chaykin Bathurst, Aidan Turner Verónica Forqué 11:45am, 4:15 & 6:30pm & 12, 4:30 & 9pm 3 & 7:15pm 3:30 & 7pm ---------------------------------- BLIND LOVES ---------------------------------- --------------------------------- ---------------------------------- Hawaii Premiere! (2008-Slovakia) THE FLOATING EL REINO NYNNE COME ON, 1 & 5:45pm CASTLE aka The Candidate (2005-Denmark) HAPPINESS --------------------------------- aka Nobô no shiro (2018-Spain/France) Danish w/Eng subtitles ws aka Shiawase Kamon ITALIAN RACE (2012-Japan) Spanish w/Eng subtitles ws with Mille Dinesen, (2012-Japan) (2016-Italy) Japanese w/Eng subtitles ws with Antonio de la Torre Claes Bang, Lars Kaalund Japanese w/Eng subtitles ws Italian w/Eng subtitles ws with Mansai Nomura 4:45 & 9pm 5:15 & 8:45pm 2 & 8:45pm 3:30 & 8:15pm 1:45 & 6:15pm 3 4 5 6 7 King Kamehameha Day 2 Hawaii Premieres! 3 Hawaii Premieres! EL DESCONOCIDO JUDAS AND THE (2015-Spain) MINARI EL REINO BLACK MESSIAH NYNNE (2005-Denmark) (2020-US) (2018-Spain/France) Danish w/Eng subtitles ws Spanish w/Eng subtitles, ws (2021-US) in Korean/English w/English Spanish w/Eng subtitles ws with Luis Tosar in widescreen 12:45 & 6:45pm subtitles & in widescreen with Antonio de la Torre, ---------------------------------- 4 & 8:15pm with Daniel Kaluuya, Mónica López LaKeith Stanfield CHEZ NOUS ---------------------------------- with Steven Yeun, (2013-Netherlands/Belgium) Hawaii Premiere! 12, 4:15 & 8:30pm 1, 3:30 & 8pm Yuh-jung Youn, --------------------------------- ---------------------------------- Dutch w/Eng subtitles ws COME ON, Alan S.
[Show full text]
Wolfe Pack -- Official Site of the Nero Wolfe Society
Wolfe Pack -- Official Site of the Nero Wolfe Society A&E Isn’t Just Crying Wolfe THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS | GENE AMOLE | MARCH 7, 2000 I spent my Sunday night couch potatoing two wonderful television programs. The first was A&E's The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery. The second was USA's La Femme Nikita, which one critic described as "zombie-chic." ... Pure fantasy, but I love it. It's darkly stylish and superbly filmed. But the main attraction Sunday for me was The Golden Spiders. I was wary about it because other attempts to put Nero Wolfe mysteries on film have failed miserably. True, I had always expected a great deal because I had read every one of Rex Todhunter Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries. Some snotty critics say mysteries aren't literature. "Pfui," as the corpulent detective would say. If you're a Nero Wolfe fan, you know he lived in an opulent four-story brownstone mansion in New York that he rarely left. Archie Goodwin was his legman. Fritz was his cook. His favorite color was yellow, carried out in his pajamas, the sheets on his bed and the leather upholstery on his massive chair. You would also know he raised 10,000 orchids in his rooftop greenhouse. He was a gourmand addicted to beer and also was an unapologizing sexist who would never put up with "flummery" from anyone. He solved mysteries by gathering suspects in his office and naming the killer so Inspector Cramer could arrest the culprit. I went into mourning when Stout died in 1975 at age 88.
[Show full text]
Twentieth Century Paperbacks Collection MSS 219 3.5 Linear Feet
Twentieth Century Paperbacks Collection MSS 219 3.5 linear feet Background Writing in Hardboiled America: The Lurid Years of Paperbacks, Geoffrey O’Brien summarizes the rise of the modern American paperback book: Cheap reprints and books bound in paper arose and flourished sporadically in America from the nineteenth century onwards. Although most of these were purely commercial efforts, a significant percentage were associated with a zeal for bringing culture to the masses. Nevertheless, and despite the obvious practicality of cheap mass printing, no one had been able to give that kind of publishing any permanence until June 19th, 1939, when the first ten releases of Pocket Books saw the light of day. Robert DeGraff, the company’s founder, may have been influenced by the success of Penguin Books, which had begun publishing several years earlier in England (33). Commenting on the cover art, Mr. O’Brien wrote: What surprises in the end is how much of paperback art of the Forties and Fifties conveys a sense of reality and a warmth of emotion. Even the fantasies have a homespun texture, and the most unreal of them are brought down to earth, if only by the crudeness of their execution. Today’s spell-casters have more elaborate tools at their disposal for imparting a magical aura to the every more efficient packaging. The success story of the media has culminated in a kind of computerized aesthetics not programmed for loose ends, in which considerations like corporate image and demographics are part of every image. When the bright lights and synthesized soundtracks of today’s conglomerate marketing merge into a single vast blur, it is comforting to rest a while in the clear lines of the ramshackle porch on the cover of Erskine Caldwell’s Journeyman, or to sit with Studs Lonigan in the park on a warm summer night.
[Show full text]
Semi-Private Eyes
Curriculum Units by Fellows of the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute 1982 Volume I: Society and the Detective Novel Semi-Private Eyes Curriculum Unit 82.01.05 by Anthony F. Franco Benny sits in the cafeteria, opens his carton of milk, and prepares to devour his government-subsidized fried chicken. Within moments several other boys join him with their lunch trays at the table. A few minutes later there are no less than six other boys and several girls jockeying for position at the now crowded table. Benny is captain of the basketball team, good-looking, well-mannered, and adequately intelligent. His popularity is well-deserved. He is adored by students and well-liked by his teachers. Benny will say very little at the table today. The conversation concerns the school’s basketball game of the previous afternoon. Should he agree with the jabbering analysis, it will be looked upon as formal certiﬁcation of all that transpires. If he should disagree with the minutest detail concerning the game, the conversation will immediately take a diﬀerent turn. Benny uses his foils well. Tricia is an extremely attractive co-ed at the same school as Benny. Tricia has attained academic honors throughout the year. Each morning a crowd of students surrounds Tricia’s desk as she brushes her hair and freshens her makeup. Throughout the day Tricia is never unaccompanied to class. Her usual companions are a bevy of other girls who do not approach Tricia’s appearance or intelligence. These same girls usually sit near Tricia in her classes and are attentive to every word she says.
[Show full text]
Rex Stout Papers 1907-1980 (Bulk 1930-1975) MS.1986.096
Rex Stout papers 1907-1980 (bulk 1930-1975) MS.1986.096 http://hdl.handle.net/2345/1132 Archives and Manuscripts Department John J. Burns Library Boston College 140 Commonwealth Avenue Chestnut Hill 02467 library.bc.edu/burns/contact URL: http://www.bc.edu/burns Table of Contents Summary Information .................................................................................................................................... 3 Administrative Information ............................................................................................................................ 4 Related Materials ........................................................................................................................................... 4 Biographical note ........................................................................................................................................... 6 Scope and Contents ........................................................................................................................................ 7 Arrangement ................................................................................................................................................... 7 Collection Inventory ....................................................................................................................................... 8 I: Literary Life ............................................................................................................................................. 8 II: Personal
[Show full text]