Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The Five Stars are for the inclusion of the telemovie starring Thayer David and Tom Mason. The William Conrad/lee Horsley series is probably worth, at best, three stars. Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin have not been served particularly well by movies and TV. Edward Arnold as Wolfe in 1936's "Meet Nero Wolfe" (based on Wolfe's initial appearance in "Fer-de-Lance"), could have been fine, but the writing let him down, and his characterisation was far too jocular and avuncular. Walter Connolly as Wolfe in the sequel (The League of Frightened Men, 1937) lacked the force of personality, and his curiously high-pitched voice and delivery did nothing to convince as Stout's eccentric detective genius. Lionel Stander was Archie in both, and satisfied nobody, including the author. Rex Stout refused to sanction any further films, and an abortive television pilot starring Kurt Kaznar and William Shatner was not picked up. Fortunately, writer and director Frank D Gilroy gave us the definitive on-screen Wolfe and Archie in the telemovie and possible series pilot made for Paramount in 1977. The script is lovingly faithful to Stout's novel, "The Doorbell Rang", and is laced with numerous examples of Wolfe's philosophy and epigrams lifted verbatim from the pages of a range of other titles. The principal casting is excellent. Though Thayer David is somewhat lacking in Wolfe's famous "seventh of a ton" (probably because he was ill at the time), he captures Wolfe's personality and demeanour perfectly. Tom Mason is suitably jaunty as Archie Goodwin, and his relationships with Wolfe, Inspector Cramer (very well portrayed by Biff Maguire) and Lon Cohen (John Randolph) are straight from the books. Anne Baxter is suitably sophisticated as Wolfe's client, Rachael Bruner, and Brooke Adams is fine as Sara Dacos. Wolfe's brownstone on West 35th Street is perfectly realised. In a relatively brief cameo, John Hoyt makes a perfectly acceptable Lewis Hewitt, Wolfe's rival orchid grower and "friend". The only mis-steps are that Wolfe's "irregulars", Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin and Orrie Cather are all played by actors who are too old for their characters (but fortunately not given much to do), and Wolfe is never seen in either his favourite yellow shirt, or pyjamas. (Thayer David favours blue shirts.) All in all, though, a fine production and well worthy of inclusion in any collection of the screen investigations of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. After such an excellent opening, it was likely that any series would have difficulty maintaining the same level of quality. Sadly, Thayer David's untimely death necessitated recasting the part. William Conrad possessed the girth, and a magnificent speaking voice that augured well. He also wore the required yellow shirts (and pyjamas on occasion when the script dictated). Unfortunately, Conrad tended to be something of a rough diamond physically (See: "Cannon", and "Jake and the Fatman"), and was not very tall. Possibly to "smooth" him down a bit and give him a bit more intellectual polish and gravitas, he chose to play the part with a beard (a complete no-no for Stout fans), and he has a marked propensity to chuckle, and appear avuncular to clients: especially female clients. He also tends to be uncharacteristically mobile, and even concludes some of his final revelations whilst standing amongst the suspects in his main office in the brownstone! Lee Horsley makes a brave stab at Archie Goodwin, but he appears a little too young and insufficiently worldly-wise to truly convince. As written, he also has an alarming propensity for putting himself in positions where he can be knocked out from behind by mysterious characters wielding guns or other heavy, blunt instruments. George Voscovec is fine as Fritz Brenner, Alan Miller adequate as Inspector Cramer (he is written as being far to friendly with Wolfe and Goodwin, and seldom displays the requisite angry frustration in their encounters), and Robert Coote is given far more prominence in the proceedings than he deserves and ever gets in the books. George Wyner's Saul Panzer is a disappointingly far cry from Stout's depiction. Upon its release, the Conrad/Horsley series received few critical plaudits. Among the main criticisms were those relating to Conrad's beard, and a frequently false assertion that the series was not based on the actual stories by Rex Stout. Of the fourteen episodes, six are in fact reasonably faithful (or at least recognisable albeit truncated) adaptations of "The Golden Spiders", "Before I Die", "Might As Well Be Dead", "In the Best Families" (although with Arnold Zec curiously renamed Arnold Dorso), "Murder by the Book" and ""Death of a Doxy" (with a title change to "What Happened to April" and with many character names and roles substantially altered, and the complete elimination of the Wolfe/"Julie Jacquette" interactions.). A seventh episode, "Gambit" purloins the title of a Stout' novel, but not the associated plot. Rather, the credits assert that it is based on one of Stout's war-time novellas, "Booby Trap", but there is no similarity in storyline or characters whatsoever. In fact, the series is far better than its reputation would suggest. It deserves a more objective reappraisal in terms of what had gone before, and what came later. (The subsequently highly-lauded series with Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin, despite its fidelity to period and plot-lines, also had its faults: not the least of which was the repertory approach to casting which was, to say the least disconcerting: especially when some of the cast played more than one role in some episodes. The two leads were the best part of that production, with Timothy Hutton outstanding as Archie, and Maury Chaykin generally excellent as Wolfe, though perhaps a little too prone to outburst of bellicose anger, and occasional petulance.) If you are a fan of Rex Stout, Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, give this one a try: you might be pleasantly surprised by the TV series: especially if you are prepared to be a little patient with some of the infidelities to the source material. If you are not inclined to such patience, the DVD is surely worth the purchase price just for a fine print of the Thayer David/Tom Mason telemovie. Now, if only some intelligent and enterprising producer would be prepared to invest in a big budget, cinema adaptation of Stout's "Some Buried Caesar" and/or "Too May Cooks" - set in period and faithful to the original novels - we Wolfe and Archie fans would no doubt be truly grateful. Kenneth Branagh is redoing Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express" for the big screen, surely Wolfe and Archie have similar big screen potential! Final Note: there was a fault on Disc 3 of the DVD I received, involving the episode entitled "The Murder In Question". Just as the suspects are gathered together for Wolfe's final reveal, the disc skips back to the disc menu. Tried the disc on two other machines, always with the same result. Might just have been an aberration on this transfer, but be warned. POSTSCRIPT: I am delighted to report that following the posting of the above review and providing feedback via Amazon Marketplace, the supplier contacted me to apologise for the faulty disc, and advised that a replacement disc 3 was in the mail. It arrived today. Have checked the disc and all episodes are now complete. Impossible to fault the customer service on this occasion.