NERO WOLFE
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'"Bitter End"' — Carl Mueller illustrated Rex Stout's
first Nero Wolfe novella for ''The American Magazine''
(November 1940)
first Nero Wolfe novella for ''The American Magazine''
(November 1940)
'Nero Wolfe' is a fictional detective, created by the American mystery writer Rex Stout, who made his debut in 1934. Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the detective genius in 33 novels and 39 short stories from the 1930s to the 1970s, with most of them set in New York City. The Nero Wolfe corpus was nominated Best Mystery Series of the Century at Bouchercon 2000, the world's largest mystery convention, and Rex Stout was nominated Best Mystery Writer of the Century.[1]
Character
Rex Stout originally intended Nero Wolfe's age to be 56, at least in the first books[2]. Some descriptions and remarks in the later books show that Stout was allowing his principal characters to age somewhat, although much more slowly than the world they inhabit. The books take place contemporaneously with their writing, however, so that they do depict a changing landscape and society, primarily that of New York City, over the course of 40 years.
Wolfe is 5'11" tall and is frequently said by the books' narrator to weigh "a seventh of a ton" (about 286 pounds or 130 kg). At the time of the first book, 1934, this was intended to indicate unusual obesity, especially through the use of the word "ton" as the unit of measure. [3] Although capable of normal movement, Wolfe tries to adhere to a policy of never leaving his house for business reasons and seldom for any reason at all: as the British critic Kingsley Amis says, Wolfe "distrust[s] all machines more complicated than a wheelbarrow." [4]
Wolfe was born in Montenegro. He is reticent about his youth, but apparently he was athletic, fit, and adventurous. Before World War I, he spied for the Austrian government, but had a change of heart when the war began. He then joined the Serbian-Montenegrin army and fought against the Austrians and Germans. After a time in Europe and North Africa, he came to the United States.
Home
Wolfe, who has expensive tastes, lives in a luxurious and comfortable New York City brownstone on West 35th Street. In the course of the books, nine different street addresses are given, ranging from 506 to 938; many of those numbers would actually be located in the Hudson River.[5] Ken Darby's meticulously researched book about the brownstone says that its real location was on East 22nd Street in the Gramercy Park District and that "there never ''were'' brownstone houses on West 35th Street."[6] The house has three floors, plus a large basement with living quarters, a rooftop greenhouse also with living quarters, and a small elevator, used almost exclusively by Wolfe. Other unique features include a timer-activated window-opening device that regulates the temperature in Wolfe's bedroom, an alarm system that sounds in Archie's room if someone approaches Wolfe's bedroom door, and climate-controlled plant rooms on the top floor. A well-known amateur orchid grower, Wolfe has 10,000 plants in the brownstone's greenhouse and employs three live-in staff to see to his needs:
Staff
Household
★ Archie Goodwin, the narrator of all the stories and a central character in them. He is occasionally referred to by the New York newspapers as "Nero Wolfe's legman." Like Wolfe, Archie is a licensed private detective and handles all investigation that takes place outside the brownstone. He also takes care of routine tasks such as sorting the mail, taking dictation and answering the phone. At the time of the first novel, ''Fer-de-Lance,'' Archie had been working for Wolfe for seven years[7] and had by then been trained by Wolfe in his preferred methods of investigation. Like Wolfe, he has developed an extraordinary memory and can recite verbatim conversations that go on for hours. But perhaps his most useful attribute is his ability to bring reluctant people to Wolfe for interrogation. Archie has his own bedroom one floor above Wolfe's and lives at the brownstone rent-free. On several occasions he makes it a point to note that he owns his bedroom furniture. Except for breakfast (which chef Fritz Brenner generally serves him in the kitchen) Archie takes his meals at Wolfe's table, and has learned much about ''haute cuisine'' by listening to Wolfe and Fritz discuss food. While Archie has a cocktail on occasion, his beverage of choice is milk. Archie's initial rough edges become smoother across the decades, much as American norms evolved over the years. In the first Wolfe novel, Archie uses a racially offensive term, for which Wolfe chides him,[8] but by the time that ''A Right To Die'' was published in 1964, racial epithets were used only by Stout's criminals, or as evidence of mental defect. Many reviewers and critics regard Archie as the stories' true protagonist. Compared to Wolfe, Goodwin is the man of action, tough and street smart. His narrative style is breezy and vivid. Some commentators saw this as a conscious device by Stout to fuse the hard school of Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade with the urbanity of Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot. [9] But there is no doubt that Goodwin was an important addition to the genre of detective fiction. Previously, foils such as Watson or Hastings were employed as confidants and narrators, but none had such a fully-developed personality or was such an integral part of the plot as Archie.
★ Fritz Brenner, an exceptionally talented Swiss cook who prepares and serves all of Wolfe's meals except those that Wolfe occasionally takes at Rusterman's Restaurant, of which Wolfe became trustee after the death of his friend, and Rusterman's owner, Marko Vukcic. Fritz (by which name he is generally referred to in the stories) also acts as the household's majordomo and butler. In his room, Fritz keeps 289 cookbooks, the head of a wild boar he shot in the Vosges, and busts of Escoffier and Brillat-Savarin as well as a cooking vessel thought to have been used by Julius Caesar's chef.[10].
★ Theodore Horstmann, an orchid expert who assists Wolfe in the plant rooms and has his living quarters on the roof. In the first Wolfe book, ''Fer-de-Lance'', Horstmann is described as being an "old man" who yells at Wolfe, who "seemed to have the same effect on Horstmann that an umpire had on John J. McGraw." Sometimes when Horstmann appears, his existence is little more than a plot device — as in "Door to Death." in which his extended absence forces Wolfe to find another orchid tender. In "Black Orchids," however, Theodore's actions are central to the denouement. It is curious that in spite of the great emphasis on food and eating throughout the series, along with Wolfe's frequent query of guests or gathered suspects as to whether they have yet eaten, little mention is ever made of where, when, or what Horstmann eats, except that in ''Plot It Yourself'' he is said to eat in the kitchen with Fritz.
The 'Teers
★ Saul Panzer, a top-notch private detective who is frequently hired by Nero Wolfe either to assist Archie Goodwin, or to carry out assignments Wolfe prefers that Archie not know about. Panzer is not an impressive looking character; he dresses sloppily, has a big nose, and almost always needs a shave. Even so, Archie and Wolfe respect Saul immensely. He charges much higher fees than other New York detectives, but Archie insists he's worth every cent.
★ Fred Durkin, a blue-collar gumshoe who is often hired for mundane tasks like surveillance. Durkin is honest and likable, but unsophisticated. He is often nervous around Nero Wolfe, whom he once offended by stirring vinegar into a roux for squab at Wolfe's table.[11] To curry favor with Wolfe, he sometimes accepts Wolfe's offer of beer, even though Archie has heard Fred call beer "slop."
★ Orvald "Orrie" Cather, whose self-indulgence is central to the plots of ''Death of a Doxy'' and ''A Family Affair''. Stout depicts Orrie as unusually handsome, someone who makes people want to tell him things. Orrie can be too full of himself at times. In ''The Mother Hunt'', after Wolfe leaves it to Saul to teach Orrie better manners, Archie warns Wolfe, "You know, if you pile it on enough to give Orrie an inferiority complex it will be a lulu, and a damn good op will be ruined."[12] But Archie too has an occasional run-in with Orrie, who thinks he would look just fine sitting at Archie's desk.
Other associates
★ Lon Cohen, of the ''New York Gazette'', is Archie's pipeline to breaking crime news. Archie frequently asks Lon to run background checks on current or prospective clients. Lon is also one of Archie's poker-playing pals.
★ Lily Rowan, heiress and socialite, often appears as Archie's romantic companion, although both Lily and Archie are fiercely independent and have no intention of getting engaged or settling down. Lily appears in several stories and assists in a couple of cases.
★ Herb Aronson and Al Goller are two friendly cabbies who make themselves available to Archie for mobile surveillance jobs.
★ Bill Gore and Johnny Keems, freelance operatives, are occasionally called in when Wolfe requires additional help in the field. Keems is killed while working for Wolfe in ''Might as Well Be Dead''.
★ Whenever Wolfe's plans call for a female operative, Wolfe engages Ruth Brady (who is handy with a blackjack) or Dol (short for Theodolinda) Bonner. Dol Bonner has her own independent agency, and her assistant is Sally Corbett.
★ Del Bascom, another local independent with his own agency, is a professional colleague referred to on occasion.
★ Nathaniel Parker serves as Wolfe's lawyer (or occasionally as a client's lawyer, on Wolfe's recommendation) when only a lawyer will do. Parker succeeded Henry H. Barber, who played this role earlier in the series.
Eccentricities
Wolfe has pronounced eccentricities, as well as strict rules concerning his way of life, and their occasional violation adds spice to many of the stories:
★ According to Amis, Wolfe does not allow people to use his first name, spends his free time reading, and and "react[s] so little in conversation that an eighth-of-an-inch shake of the head becomes a frenzy of negation." Amis also states that there are no televisions in the brownstone. However, both ''Plot It Yourself'' and ''The Doorbell Rang'' mention televisions in Wolfe's house. The latter story places one television in Fritz's basement den (its volume turned up to foil potential eavesdroppers) and another in Wolfe's office[13].
★ The stories insist that Wolfe conducts no business outside the brownstone, but in fact this rule is frequently violated. At times, Wolfe and Archie are on a personal errand when a murder occurs, and legal authorities require that they remain in the vicinity (''Too Many Cooks'', ''Some Buried Caesar'', "Too Many Detectives" and "Immune to Murder", for example). In other instances, the requirements of the case force Wolfe from his house (''In the Best Families'', ''The Second Confession'', ''The Doorbell Rang'', ''Plot It Yourself'', ''The Silent Speaker''). Although he occasionally ventures by car into the suburbs of New York City, he is loath to travel, and clutches the safety strap continually on the occasions that Archie drives him somewhere.
★ Wolfe maintains a rigid schedule in the brownstone. After breakfast in his bedroom while wearing yellow silk pajamas, he is with Horstmann in the plant rooms from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Lunch is usually at 1:15 p.m. He returns to the plant rooms from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Dinner is generally at 7:15 or 7:30 p.m. (although in one book, Wolfe tells a guest that lunch is served at 1 o'clock and dinner at 8). The remaining hours, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and after dinner, are available for business, or for reading if there is no pressing business (by Archie's lights, even if there is). Sunday's schedule is more relaxed.
★ Wolfe drinks copious amounts of beer, starting after returning to his office from the plant rooms at 11 a.m., and not ending until bedtime. He carefully collects the bottle caps in a desk drawer to track his consumption. In the first book, ''Fer-de-Lance'', his daily consumption is said to be six quarts but that he was considering cutting it back to five quarts.
★ Wolfe has stated that "all music is a vestige of barbarism."[14]. And in a conversation over lunch with Saul Panzer, Wolfe denies that music can have any intellectual content.[15]
★ In the course of the stories, Wolfe displays a pronounced, almost pathological, dislike for the company of women. Although some readers interpret this attitude as simple misogyny, various details in the stories, particularly the early ones, suggest it has more to do with an unfortunate encounter in early life with a ''femme fatale''. He dislikes women not so much as what he perceives as their frailties, especially their tendency to hysterics — to which he thinks every woman is prone. However, "Cordially Invited to Meet Death" describes Wolfe's respect for a woman who solves the problem of preparing corned beef — he actually allows her to stand "... closer to him than I had ever seen any woman or girl of any age tolerated, with her hand slipped between his arm and his bulk ..." And ''Death of a Doxy'' offers this vignette: "'I decline your invitation, Miss Jackson,' he said, 'but I wish you well. I have the impression that your opinion of our fellow beings and their qualities is somewhat similar to mine.' He got to his feet. He almost never stands for comers or goers, male or female. And he actually repeated it. 'I wish you well, madam.'"
★ It is noted early in the first Wolfe novel that there is a gong under Archie's bed that will ring upon any intrusion into or near Wolfe's own bedroom: "Wolfe told me once ... that he really had no cowardice in him, he only had an intense distaste for being touched by anyone ..."
★ In nearly every story, Wolfe solves the mystery by considering the facts brought to him by Archie and others, and the replies to questions he himself asks of suspects. Wolfe ponders with his eyes closed, leaning back in his chair, breathing deeply and steadily, and pushing his lips in and out. Archie says that during these trances Wolfe reacts to nothing that is going on around him. Archie seldom interrupts Wolfe's thought processes, he says, largely because it is the only time that he can be sure that Wolfe is working.
Parentage
In 1956, John D. Clark put forth a theory in the ''Baker Street Journal'' that Wolfe was the offspring of an affair between Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler (a character from A Scandal in Bohemia). Clark suggested that the two had had an affair in Montenegro in 1892, and that Nero Wolfe was the result. The idea was later co-opted by William S. Baring-Gould, but there is no evidence that Rex Stout had any such connection in mind. Certainly there is no mention of it in any of the stories. Some commentators, noting both physical and psychological resemblances, suggest Sherlock's brother Mycroft Holmes as a more likely father for Wolfe. There is also a curious coincidence: in the names "Sherlock Holmes" and "Nero Wolfe", the vowels appear in the same order. In 1957 Ellery Queen called this "The Great O-E Theory" and suggested that it derives from the father of mysteries, Poe. [16]
Food
Stan Hunt's cartoon appeared in ''The American Magazine'' (June 1949).
Along with reading, enjoyment of good food is the keystone of Wolfe's mostly leisured existence. He is both a gourmand and a gourmet, dining on generous helpings of Fritz's cuisine three times a day. Shad roe is a particular favorite, prepared in a number of different ways. Archie, who heartily enjoys his food but lacks Wolfe's palate, laments at one point that "Every spring I get so fed up with shad roe that I wish to heaven fish would figure out some other way. Whales have." [17] Shad roe is frequently the first course, followed by another Wolfe favorite, roasted or braised duck. Archie also complains that there is never corned beef or rye bread on Wolfe's table, and he sometimes ducks out to eat a corned beef sandwich at a nearby diner. But in "Black Orchids" a young woman gives Wolfe a cooking lesson in the preparation of corned beef hash. Another contradiction: in ''Plot It Yourself'' Archie goes to a diner to eat "fried chicken like my Aunt Margie used to make it back in Ohio," since Fritz does not fry chicken. But in ''The Golden Spiders'' Fritz prepares fried chicken for Wolfe, Archie, Saul, Orrie, and Fred.
Wolfe displays an oenophile's knowledge of wine and brandy, but it is only implied that he drinks either. In ''And Be a Villain'', he issues a dinner invitation and regrets doing so on short notice: "There will not be time to chambrer a claret properly, but we can have the chill off." Continuing the invitation, Wolfe says of a certain brandy, "I hope this won't shock you, but the way to do it is to sip it with bites of Fritz's apple pie."[18]
On weekdays, Fritz serves Wolfe's breakfast in Wolfe's bedroom. Archie eats his separately in the kitchen, although if Wolfe has morning instructions for Archie, Wolfe will ask Fritz to send Archie upstairs first. For lunch and dinner, regularly scheduled mealtimes are part of Wolfe's daily routine. In an early story, Wolfe tells a guest that luncheon is served daily at 1:00 p.m. and dinner at 8:00, although later stories suggest that lunchtime may have been changed to 1:15 or 1:30, at least on Fridays. Lunch and dinner are served in the dining room. If Archie is in a rush due to pressing business or a social engagement, however, he will eat separately in the kitchen because Wolfe cannot bear to see a meal rushed. Wolfe also has a rule, sometimes bent but never overtly broken, that business is never discussed at the table.
Wolfe views much of life through the prism of food and dining, going so far as to say at one point that Voltaire "... wasn't a man at all, since he had no palate and a dried-up stomach."[19] He knows enough about fine cuisine to lecture on American cooking to Les Quinze Maîtres (a group of the 15 finest chefs in the world) in ''Too Many Cooks'' and to dine with the Ten for Aristology (a group of epicures) in "Poison à la Carte." Wolfe does not, however, enjoy visiting restaurants (with the occasional exception of Rusterman's, owned for a time by Wolfe's best friend, Marco Vukcic); Wolfe states that " ... short of compulsion, I would not eat in one were Vatel himself the chef."[20]
It appears that Wolfe himself knows his way around the kitchen; in ''The Doorbell Rang'', he offers to cook Yorkshire Buck for the 'teers, and in "Immune to Murder", the State Department asks him to prepare trout Montbarry for a visiting dignitary. In ''The Black Mountain'', Wolfe and Archie stay briefly in an unoccupied house in Italy on their way to Montenegro; Wolfe prepares a pasta dish using Romano cheese that, from "his memory of local custom," he finds in a hole in the ground. (The early story "Bitter End" suggests the contrary view that Wolfe was unable to prepare his own meals, as in that story Fritz's illness with the flu causes a household crisis and forces Wolfe to resort to canned liver pâté for his lunch.)
Wolfe's meals generally include an appetizer, a hearty main course, a salad served after the entrée (with the salad dressing mixed at tableside and used immediately), and a dessert course with coffee.
Bibliography
Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout
Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books are listed below in order of publication. Novels are also browsable by title at the page. Titles of the novella collections are listed alphabetically on the page.
★ ''Fer-de-Lance'' (1934) — The first Nero Wolfe mystery involves the death of a college president while playing golf in Westchester County, New York. Although the characters are not as fully developed as they would become later in the series, the essential characteristics of Wolfe, Archie, and several other regulars already are clearly present. The novel was adapted for the 1936 movie ''Meet Nero Wolfe''.
★ ''The League of Frightened Men'' (1935) — Author Paul Chapin is on trial for obscenity in his popular novel. Wolfe reads the book, then tells Archie that a potential client had asked Wolfe to arrange to protect him from Chapin. The potential client, along with some classmates at Harvard, had taken part in a hazing incident years before, in which Chapin was crippled. Now some of the "League of Frightened Men" — who chipped in to help Chapin after the accident — have begun dying. It is unclear whether that is through malice or by chance, but the surviving members of the League wish to hire Wolfe to find out. The book was adapted for the 1937 movie ''The League of Frightened Men''.
★ ''The Rubber Band'' (1936) — Archie books two new clients on the same day, and before the day is over Wolfe has to choose which to keep and there are more than two crimes to untangle. The client he keeps in the end is a beautiful young woman, but it's Wolfe who reads her Hungarian poetry, not Archie. In the course of this novel, Lieutenant Rowcliff, not one of the NYPD's finest (in the opinion not only of Wolfe but Cramer), earns Wolfe's enmity that lasts until the final Wolfe novel in 1975.
★ ''The Red Box'' (1937) — In the midst of a murder investigation, one of the suspects visits Wolfe and begs Wolfe to handle his estate and especially the contents of a certain red box. Wolfe is at first concerned about a possible conflict of interest, but feels unable to refuse when the man then dies in his office before telling Wolfe where to find the red box. The police naturally think that he told Wolfe somewhat more before dying.
★ ''Too Many Cooks'' (1938) — Wolfe, a knowledgeable gourmet as well as a detective, attends a meeting of great chefs, ''The Fifteen Masters'', at a resort in West Virginia, and jealousies among them soon lead to death. Wolfe sustains his own injury in the course of finding the culprit but also obtains the secret recipe for ''saucisse minuit''.
★ ''Some Buried Caesar'' (1939) — On the way to an agricultural fair north of Manhattan, Wolfe's car runs into a tree, stranding Wolfe and Archie at the home of the owner of a chain of fast-food cafés. A neighbor is later found gored to death; the authorities rule the death an accident but Wolfe deduces that it was murder. Lily Rowan, Archie's longtime girlfriend, makes her first appearance.
★ ''Over My Dead Body'' (1940) — This novel and its much later sequel ''The Black Mountain'', have as a background Montenegrin (Yugoslavian) politics[21]
★ ''Where There's a Will'' (1940) — Wolfe is initially retained to assist in a will contest, only soon to find himself engaged in investigating a murder.
★ ''Black Orchids'' (1942) — Novella collection that includes "Black Orchids" and "Cordially Invited to Meet Death"
★ ''Not Quite Dead Enough'' (1944) — Novella collection that includes "Not Quite Dead Enough" and "Booby Trap"
★ ''The Silent Speaker'' (1946) — The head of a Federal agency is bludgeoned to death just before giving a speech to an industrial association. Public opinion quickly turns against the association, which is thought to have been involved in the murder. The association hires Wolfe to find the murderer in hope of ending the public relations disaster.
★ ''Too Many Women'' (1947) — A malcontent at the Naylor-Kerr corporation charges that one of its employees, thought to have been killed in a hit-and-run accident, was actually murdered. The president of the colossal company hires Archie to look into the matter in the guise of a personnel consultant working in Naylor-Kerr's executive offices — where 500 beautiful woman have been gathered under one roof.
★ ''And Be a Villain'' (1948) (British title ''More Deaths Than One'') — The first of three novels (''The Second Confession'', ''In the Best Families'') that concern Nero Wolfe's struggle with Arnold Zeck, an organized crime kingpin.
★ ''Trouble in Triplicate'' (1949) — Novella collection that includes "Help Wanted, Male," "Before I Die" and "Instead of Evidence"
★ ''The Second Confession'' (1949) — Hired to find evidence that Louis Rony is a Communist, Wolfe finds himself under attack from Arnold Zeck and stymied by his own client. Wolfe solves Rony's murder by coercing the assistance of the American Communist Party.
★ ''Three Doors to Death'' (1950) — Novella collection that includes "Man Alive," "Omit Flowers" and "Door to Death"
★ ''In the Best Families'' (1950) — A wealthy wife hires Wolfe to learn the source of her husband's mysterious income. In short order, Arnold Zeck horns in, the wife is murdered, and Wolfe disappears.
★ ''Curtains for Three'' (1951) — Novella collection that includes "The Gun with Wings," "Bullet for One" and "Disguise for Murder"
★ ''Murder by the Book'' (1951) — Because the New York police have written the case off as an accident, a Peoria businessman asks Wolfe to investigate the hit-and-run death of his daughter, a reader for a book publishing company, in Van Cortlandt Park. Wolfe connects her death to a list of names he was recently shown by Inspector Cramer, related to a stalled homicide investigation — and concludes there is a second murder. A third murder validates Wolfe's conclusion, and Archie follows the trail of an unpublished novel to California and back.
★ ''Triple Jeopardy'' (1952) — Novella collection that includes "Home to Roost," "The Cop-Killer" and "The Squirt and the Monkey"
★ ''Prisoner's Base'' (1952) (British title ''Out Goes She'') — A young woman who will shortly inherit control of a large manufacturing firm wants to rent a room in Wolfe's house. Wolfe, outraged, puts her out; she is found murdered later that night. With no client in sight, Wolfe is not interested, but Archie feels responsible. His first step is to crash a meeting of the manufacturer's board of directors.
★ ''The Golden Spiders'' (1953) — A squeegie kid, Pete Drossos, tells his neighbor and hero, Nero Wolfe, how he saw a woman being held at gunpoint at a nearby intersection. It isn't long before Pete is murdered and Wolfe investigates his death for a fee of $4.30 that Pete had managed to save from washing windshields.
★ ''Three Men Out'' (1954) — Novella collection that includes "Invitation to Murder," "The Zero Clue" and "This Won't Kill You"
★ ''The Black Mountain'' (1954) — Wolfe and Archie clandestinely go to Yugoslavia in order to avenge the death of Wolfe's oldest friend and bring the murderer to justice
★ ''Before Midnight'' (1955) — A national literary contest to promote a new brand of perfume leads to murder and more.
★ ''Three Witnesses'' (1956) — Novella collection that includes "The Next Witness," "When a Man Murders" and "Die Like a Dog"
★ ''Might As Well Be Dead'' (1956) — Wolfe is hired to find a missing person, who soon turns up — under a new name — as a newly convicted murderer in a sensational crime.
★ ''Three for the Chair'' (1957) — Novella collection that includes "A Window for Death," "Immune to Murder" and "Too Many Detectives"
★ ''If Death Ever Slept'' (1957) — Millionaire Otis Jarrell retains Nero Wolfe to get a snake out of his house — the snake being his daughter-in-law, whom he believes is ruining his business deals by leaking information to his competitors. Since Archie and Wolfe are in the midst of one of their periodic squabbles, it is decided that Archie will move into Jarrell's Fifth Avenue penthouse apartment, posing as his new secretary, While he's away, Orrie tests out Archie's desk.
★ ''And Four to Go'' (1958) — Novella collection that includes "Christmas Party," "Easter Parade" "Fourth of July Picnic" and "Murder Is No Joke"
★ ''Champagne for One'' (1958) — Archie sits in for a friend at a charity dinner dance for unwed mothers, and one of the guests drops dead on the dance floor.
★ ''Plot It Yourself'' (1959) (British title ''Murder in Style'') — A group of authors and publishers hires Wolfe to investigate a series of plagiarism claims. Wolfe, by his own admission, bungles the investigation so badly that three murders result.
★ ''Three at Wolfe's Door'' (1960) — Novella collection that includes "Poison a la Carte," "Method Three for Murder" and "The Rodeo Murder"
★ ''Too Many Clients'' (1960) — A man who identifies himself as Thomas Yeager, head of Continental Plastics, asks Archie to ascertain whether he is being followed when he visits a certain address in one of New York's worst neighborhoods. When Yeager's body is found at an excavation site in the vicinity of that address, Archie crosses the threshold and finds a fantastically appointed love nest where Yeager secretly entertained many women.
★ ''The Final Deduction'' (1961) — Wolfe is initially retained to work on a kidnapping, but deaths soon crop up.
★ ''Homicide Trinity'' (1962) — Novella collection that includes "Eeny Meeny Murder Mo," "Death of a Demon" and "Counterfeit for Murder"
★ ''Gambit'' (1962) — A chess prodigy is poisoned during a club tournament, and the police arrest the member who served the victim hot chocolate. Wolfe is hired to exonerate the suspect, but finds that no one else has either an adequate motive or the requisite opportunity.
★ ''The Mother Hunt'' (1963) — A baby is left in a young widow's vestibule, along with a note implying that her late husband is the baby's father. The widow hires Wolfe to identify and locate the baby's birth mother.
★ ''Trio for Blunt Instruments'' (1964) — Novella collection that includes "Kill Now — Pay Later," "Murder Is Corny" and "Blood Will Tell"
★ ''A Right to Die'' (1964) — A character who last appeared a quarter-century earlier asks Wolfe to help his son, a young black man whose fiancee is white and wealthy. When the girl is murdered and the son arrested, Wolfe's investigation leads to a 1959 suicide in Wisconsin.
★ ''The Doorbell Rang'' (1965) — Wolfe is hired to force the FBI to stop wiretapping, tailing and otherwise harassing a woman who gave away 10,000 copies of a book that is critical of the Bureau and its Director.
★ ''Death of a Doxy'' (1966) — Orrie Cather, one of Wolfe's operatives, has been secretly seeing a wealthy man's kept mistress at her secret lovenest, but is arrested when she turns up dead.
★ ''The Father Hunt'' (1968) — Amy Denovo, a young woman assisting Lily Rowan, hires Nero Wolfe because she ''must'' find out who her father is, or was. After her mother was killed in a recent hit-and-run, Amy received a locked metal box containing more than a quarter of a million dollars in cash — and a letter from her mother that explained only that the money came from her father. The mystery of Amy's mother's identity rivals that of her father's.
★ ''Death of a Dude'' (1969)
★ ''Please Pass the Guilt'' (1973)
★ ''A Family Affair'' (1975) — Rex Stout's final Nero Wolfe novel. At first, the mystery seems to be related to the Watergate scandal. Ultimately, one of Nero Wolfe's closest associates, a character who had appeared in Nero Wolfe novels for four decades, is revealed to be a murderer.
★ ''Death Times Three'' (1985) — Posthumous novella collection that includes "Bitter End," "Frame-Up for Murder" and "Assault on a Brownstone"
Nero Wolfe novellas by Rex Stout
Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe novellas are listed below in order of first appearance.
★ "Bitter End" (1940) — Rex Stout's rewrite of ''Bad for Business'', a novel that featured Tecumseh Fox,[22] begins with Nero Wolfe vowing to find the person responsible for adulterating a commercial liver pate he has just spit in Archie's face. Originally printed in the November 1940 issue of ''The American Magazine'', "Bitter End" saw its first book publication in ''Corsage: A Bouquet of Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe'' (James A. Rock & Co., 1977), a posthumous collection edited by Michael Bourne (see Books about Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe).
★ "Black Orchids" (1941) — Curiosity about the black orchids grown by millionaire Lewis Hewitt compels an envious Nero Wolfe to attend New York's annual flower show.
★ "Cordially Invited to Meet Death" (1942) — High-society party arranger Bess Huddleston hires Wolfe to investigate anonymous letters, sent to her clients, claiming that she's spreading rumors about them.
★ "Not Quite Dead Enough" (1942) — How Archie joined Army Intelligence in WWII and got Wolfe involved in it.
★ "Booby Trap" (1944) — Another story about Archie in uniform, this time involving attempts by the munitions industry to bribe Congress in order to steal industrial secrets for use after the war.
★ "Help Wanted, Male" (1945) — An anonymous threat leads Wolfe to take unusual steps to prevent his own murder.
★ "Instead of Evidence" (1946) — Certain that his partner is about to murder him, the owner of a novelty company retains Wolfe to keep him from getting away with it.
★ "Before I Die" (1947) — Mobster Dazy Perrit comes to Wolfe for help in stopping a blackmailer.
★ "Man Alive" (1947) — A high-fashion designer consults Wolfe after she sees her uncle — believed to have committed suicide a year before — in disguise and in the audience at one of her shows.
★ "Bullet for One" (1948) — An industrial designer is shot to death while riding horseback in Central Park.
★ "Omit Flowers" (1948) — As a favor for his oldest friend Marko Vukcic, Wolfe takes the case of Virgil Pompa, a chef who traded his genius for a high-paying job as the supervisor of a restaurant chain. He is in jail, charged with murder. Archie begins the story with the statement, "In my opinion it was one of Nero Wolfe's neatest jobs, and he never got a nickel for it."
★ "Door to Death" (1949) — When orchid nurse Theodore Horstmann leaves the brownstone indefinitely to tend to his sick mother, Nero Wolfe goes out — in the snow and on foot — into the raging wilds of Westchester to find a replacement. He and Archie find a corpse in the greenhouse, as well.
★ "The Gun with Wings" (1949) — The police are satisfied that a top tenor at the Metropolitan Opera shot himself, but his widow and the man she hopes to marry know it was murder.
★ "Disguise for Murder" (1950) — The garden editor of the ''Gazette'' persuades Nero Wolfe to play host to the Manhattan Flower Club. While a couple of hundred people are upstairs in the plant rooms looking at Wolfe's orchids, a woman is strangled in his office.
★ "The Cop-Killer" (1951) — Tina and Carl Vardas, employees at the barbershop Archie patronizes, are questioned by a policeman after a hit-and-run. When the Vardases flee to the brownstone and desperately ask Archie for help, their overreaction proves to be justified.
★ "The Squirt and the Monkey" (1951) — Archie becomes involved with gunplay at the unconventional and uncomfortably warm home of a syndicated cartoonist.
★ "Home to Roost" (1952) — A young man is poisoned shortly after confiding to his aunt that his objectionable advocacy of the Communist party is a front for his undercover work for the FBI.
★ "This Won't Kill You" (1952) — Wolfe honors a guest's request by taking him to a World Series game at the Polo Grounds. After the Giants are trounced by the Red Sox, members of the team are found to have been drugged — and a body is discovered in the locker room. Wolfe solves the crime without leaving the ball park.
★ "Invitation to Murder" (1953) — A client hires Archie to assess the matrimonial intentions of his wealthy invalid brother-in-law. When Archie finds the client dead, he tricks Wolfe into leaving the brownstone and identifying the killer before the police are called in.
★ "The Zero Clue" (1953) — Leo Heller, a probability expert who has parlayed his math skills into celebrity, tries to consult Wolfe after he calculates that one of his clients has committed a serious crime. Wolfe refuses the case, but Archie — "who is subordinate only when it suits his temperament and convenience," Wolfe later complains — agrees to explore on his own.
★ "When a Man Murders..." (1954) — Caroline and Paul Aubry ask Wolfe's help after her first husband — reportedly killed in action in Korea — turns up alive in New York. Their marriage is at stake, along with a million-dollar inheritance.
★ "Die Like a Dog" (1954) — A Labrador retriever follows Archie home from a murder scene, and a volatile demirep is at the center of the crime.
★ "The Next Witness" (1955) — When their would-be client Leonard Ashe is on trial for murder, Wolfe and Archie are subpoenaed to testify as witnesses for the prosecution. Wolfe bolts from the courtroom when he realizes his testimony will convict an innocent man. He and Archie elude arrest for contempt — even spending the night at Saul Panzer's apartment — as they investigate the crime themselves.
★ "Immune to Murder" (1955) — Wolfe is invited by the State Department, at the behest of an ambassador from an oil-rich country, to cook a special meal for him at an oil baron's private retreat in the Adirondacks. This naturally results in a death to investigate.
★ "A Window for Death" (1956) — A wealthy prospector returns home after a 20-year absence. He contracts pneumonia and, despite medical care, dies in his bed, bracketed by two empty hot water bottles. His brother suspects homicide and the family hires Wolfe to decide whether the police should be brought in.
★ "Too Many Detectives" (1956) — Wolfe and Archie are called to Albany, along with other licensed private detectives in New York, when there are complaints about how lax the licensing of detectives in the state is and how the detectives violate the rights of private citizens by tapping their phones.
★ "Christmas Party" (1957) — Archie goes to a holiday gathering where the host toasts the season with a poisoned glass of Pernod.
★ "Easter Parade" (1957) — When Wolfe sends him to photograph the uniquely colored orchid that will be worn in the Easter Parade, Archie snaps a murder scene.
★ "Fourth of July Picnic" (1957) — One of a set of fine knives is put to use at a restaurant workers union picnic where Wolfe has agreed to speak. The story is notable for the autobiographical sketches Wolfe and Archie share with the principal suspects gathered at Saul Panzer's apartment.
★ "Murder Is No Joke" (1958, expanded and serialized as "Frame-Up for Murder") — The sister of a fashionable designer asks Wolfe to ascertain what mysterious hold a woman from her brother's past has over him. When she arranges for Wolfe to speak to the woman by telephone, he and Archie hear a murder on the other end of the line.
★ "Method Three for Murder" (1960) — After discovering a body in the back seat, Mina Holt drives the taxi she has borrowed for the evening to 918 West 35th Street. She walks up the front steps of the brownstone just as Archie is walking down — having just told Nero Wolfe that he's quit.
★ "Poison à la Carte" (1960) — Wolfe's chef, Fritz, is invited to prepare the annual dinner for the Ten for Aristology, "a group of ten men pursuing the ideal of perfection in food and drink." Wolfe and Archie are guests at the table when one of the ten becomes acutely ill during the meal and soon dies of arsenic poisoning. Wolfe's self-esteem is injured, he believes that Fritz has been humiliated, and he resolves to determine which of the servers hired for the dinner is the guilty party.
★ "The Rodeo Murder" (1960) — A party at Lily Rowan's Park Avenue penthouse includes a roping contest between some cowboy friends, with a silver-trimmed saddle as the prize. One of the contestants is at a disadvantage when his rope is missing. When it is found wound more than a dozen times around the neck of the chief backer of the World Series Rodeo, Lily asks Wolfe to sort out the murder.
★ "Counterfeit for Murder" (1961) — Wolfe and Archie encounter the Treasury Department when the owner of a rooming house comes to the brownstone with a large packet of counterfeit bills that she's found hidden on a bookshelf.
★ "Death of a Demon" (1961) — A blackmailer hosts a dinner party for his victims, whom he torments by dropping hints about their secrets. The blackmailer is murdered shortly thereafter, and the police arrest his wife, Wolfe's client.
★ "Kill Now — Pay Later" (1961) — Wolfe's aging Greek bootblack is accused of murder.
★ "Eeny Meeny Murder Mo" (1962) — Waiting in Wolfe's office for Archie to return from the plant rooms, a legal secretary is strangled with Wolfe's own necktie.
★ "Blood Will Tell" (1963) — Archie receives a blood-stained tie in the mail from the owner of a small walk-up apartment building in lower Manhattan, who also lives on the top floor. Archie investigates, only to find yet another dead body.
★ "Murder Is Corny" (1964) — A female acquaintance of Archie's implicates him in a murder but seeks his assistance in getting herself out of the mess.
★ "Assault on a Brownstone" (1959, published 1985, posthumous)
Other Nero Wolfe works by Rex Stout
★ ''The Nero Wolfe Cookbook'', with the editors of Viking Press (1973) — The cuisine and world of Nero Wolfe are brought to life in 237 recipes and a wealth of pertinent quotes from the corpus, illustrated by vintage New York City photographs by John Muller, Andreas Feininger and others. Many of the recipes would be regarded today as too heavy: for example, the ingredients listed for ''il pesto'' include pig liver and butter. Chapters include "Breakfast in the Old Brownstone"; "Luncheon in the Dining Room"; "Warm-Weather Dinners"; "Cold-Weather Dinners"; "Desserts"; "The Perfect Dinner for the Perfect Detective"; "The Relapse"; "Snacks"; "Guests, Male and Female"; "Associates for Dinner"; "Fritz Brenner"; "Dishes Cooked by Others"; "Rusterman's Restaurant"; "Nero Wolfe Cooks"; and "The Kanawha Spa Dinner". Hardcover ISBN 0670505994 / Paperback ISBN 1888952245
★ "Why Nero Wolfe Likes Orchids" [1], ''Life'' (April 19, 1963) — Concluding a feature story titled "The Orchid" that was photographed by Alfred Eisenstaedt, Archie Goodwin "investigates and explains the deep satisfactions of his boss's orchid-fixation." Archie reports that Wolfe's fascination with orchids began when he was given a specimen plant "by the wife of a man he had cleared on a murder rap. He kept it in the office and it petered out. He got mad, built a little shed on the roof and bought 20 plants." A detailed description of the dimensions and activities of the rooftop plant rooms follows. Archie notes that he often hears Wolfe talking to the orchids and gives examples of what he says. The main reason his boss grows orchids, he writes, is for the color:
::He says you don't look at color, you feel it, and apparently he thinks that really means something. It doesn't to me, but maybe it does to you and you know exactly how he feels as he opens the door to the plant rooms and walks in on the big show. I have never known a day when less than a hundred plants were in bloom, and sometimes there are a thousand...
★ "The Case of the Spies Who Weren't," ''Ramparts'' (January 1966) — Archie Goodwin reports that the previous evening Nero Wolfe and "Rex Stout, my literary agent" filled 27 pages in his notebook with their discussion of ''Invitation to an Inquest'' by Walter and Miriam Schneir, a recently published book that they are reviewing for ''Ramparts'' magazine. Since their review must be fewer than 3,000 words, Wolfe frowns and orders Archie to "Contract it. Cramp it."
::I frowned back. "You cramp it. Or Stout. Let him earn his ten per cent. Dictate it."
:Archie loses the argument and condenses their views on the book, which concerns the case against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
Other authors of Nero Wolfe stories
Robert Goldsborough
With the approval of the estate of Rex Stout, journalist Robert Goldsborough wrote seven Nero Wolfe mysteries, published by Bantam Books. Goldsborough's approach was faithful to the Rex Stout works, but he added his own touches, including an updated frame of reference (Archie now uses a personal computer to file Wolfe's germination records; Wolfe's ancient elevator is finally replaced by a more efficient model, etc.). Goldsborough's first effort, ''Murder in E-Minor'' (1986), was a bestseller, and was hailed as an excellent mystery. Goldsborough averaged one new Wolfe novel annually, often drawing on his own background in advertising, education, and journalism for color and detail.
★ ''Murder in E-Minor'' (1986) — Wolfe is brought out of ''de facto'' retirement by the death of a man who saved his life 50 years before in Montenegro — against a background of politics at a major symphony orchestra.
★ ''Death on Deadline'' (1987) — Lon Cohen consults Wolfe and Archie about a deadly fight for control of the ''New York Gazette''.
★ ''The Bloodied Ivy'' (1988) — Murder on the college campus, mingled with the attractions and pitfalls of having dedicated groupies as graduate students.
★ ''The Last Coincidence'' (1989) — The fallout of the (alleged) date rape of Lily Rowan's niece.
★ ''Fade to Black'' (1990) — The second of two Wolfe books about the world of advertising (the first was Rex Stout's ''Before Midnight''). ''Fade to Black'' has, among other things, material about the Cherokee Trail of Tears and a realistic opportunity for the reader to zero in on the likely culprit without any extra information supplied later by Wolfe.
★ ''Silver Spire'' (1992) — Behind-the-scenes intrigue at a successful televangelism ministry based in Staten Island.
★ ''The Missing Chapter'' (1994) — Last and least of the Goldsborough novels, this is, in retrospect, the author's explicit farewell to Nero Wolfe: the story concerns the murder of a mediocre continuator of a popular detective series. In fairness to Goldsborough, his personal enthusiasm for the series may have been dampened by an outspoken newspaper critic, who had attacked Goldsborough and his "pallid" pastiches. Actually, the series remained popular throughout Goldsborough's tenure, and the novels sold well in both hardcover and paperback editions.
John Lescroart
While not mentioning Nero Wolfe by name, John Lescroart suggests in two books that the main character, Auguste Lupa (the son of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler), later becomes Nero Wolfe.[23]
★ ''Son of Holmes'' (1986)
★ ''Rasputin's Revenge'' (1987)
Books about Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe
★ Anderson, David R., ''Rex Stout'' (1984, Frederick Ungar; Hardcover ISBN 080442005X / Paperback ISBN 0804460094). Study of the Nero Wolfe series.
★ Baring-Gould, William S., ''Nero Wolfe of West Thirty-fifth Street'' (1969, Viking Press; ISBN 0140061940). Fanciful biography. Reviewed in ''Time'', March 21, 1969 ("The American Holmes" [2]).
★ Bourne, Michael, ''Corsage: A Bouquet of Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe'' (1977, James A. Rock & Co., Publishers; Hardcover ISBN 0918736005 / Paperback ISBN 0918736013). Posthumous collection produced in a numbered limited edition of 276 hardcovers and 1,500 softcovers. Shortly before his death Rex Stout authorized the editor to include the first Nero Wolfe novella, "Bitter End" (1940), which had not been republished in his own novella collections.[22]''Corsage'' also includes an interview Bourne conducted with Stout (July 18, 1973; also available on audiocassette tape),[25] and concludes with the first and only book publication of "Why Nero Wolfe Likes Orchids," an article by Rex Stout that first appeared in ''Life'' (April 19, 1963).
★ Darby, Ken, ''The Brownstone House of Nero Wolfe, as Told by Archie Goodwin'' (1983, Little, Brown and Company; ISBN 0316172804). Full-length book about Wolfe's house, including several elaborate floor plans.
★ Gotwald, Rev. Frederick G., ''The Nero Wolfe Handbook'' (1985; revised 1992, 2000). Self-published anthology of essays edited by a longtime member of The Wolfe Pack.
★ Kaye, Marvin, ''The Archie Goodwin Files'' (2005, Wildside Press; ISBN 1557424845). Selected articles from The Wolfe Pack publication ''The Gazette'', edited by a charter member.
★ Kaye, Marvin, ''The Nero Wolfe Files'' (2005, Wildside Press; ISBN 0809544946). Selected articles from The Wolfe Pack publication ''The Gazette'', edited by a charter member.
★ McAleer, John, ''Rex Stout: A Biography'' (1977, Little, Brown and Company; ISBN 0316553409). Foreword by P.G. Wodehouse. Winner of the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Work in 1978. Reissued as ''Rex Stout: A Majesty's Life'' (2002, James A. Rock & Co., Publishers; Hardcover ISBN 0918736439 / Paperback ISBN 0918736447).
★ McAleer, John, ''Royal Decree: Conversations with Rex Stout'' (1983, Pontes Press, Ashton, MD). Published in a numbered limited edition of 1,000 copies.
★ McBride, O.E., ''Stout Fellow: A Guide Through Nero Wolfe's World'' (2003, iUniverse; Hardcover ISBN 0595657168 / Paperback ISBN 0595278612). Pseudonymous self-published homage.
★ Mitgang, Herbert, ''Dangerous Dossiers: Exposing the Secret War Against America's Greatest Authors'' (1988, Donald I. Fine, Inc.; ISBN 1556110774). Chapter 10 is titled "Seeing Red: Rex Stout."
★ Symons, Julian, ''Great Detectives: Seven Original Investigations'' (1981, Abrams; ISBN 0810909782). Illustrated by Tom Adams. "We quiz Archie Goodwin in his den and gain a clue to the ultimate fate of Nero Wolfe" in a chapter titled "In Which Archie Goodwin Remembers."
★ Townsend, Guy M., ''Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography'' (1980, Garland Publishing; ISBN 0824094794). Associate editors John McAleer, Judson Sapp and Arriean Schemer. Definitive publication history.
★ Van Dover, J. Kenneth, ''At Wolfe's Door: The Nero Wolfe Novels of Rex Stout'' (1991, Borgo Press, Mitford Series; second edition 2003, James A. Rock & Co., Publishers; Hardcover ISBN 091873651X / Paperback ISBN 0918736528). Bibliography, reviews and essays.
Adaptations
Cinema
After the publication of ''Fer-de-Lance'' in 1934, several Hollywood studios were interested in the movie rights.[26] In one of many conversations with his authorized biographer, Rex Stout told John McAleer that he himself had wanted Charles Laughton to play Nero Wolfe:
:I met Laughton only once, at a party. Of all the actors I have seen, I think he would have come closest to doing Nero Wolfe perfectly. A motion picture producer (I forget who) asked him to do a series of Nero Wolfe movies, and he had said he would agree to do one but would not commit himself to a series.[27]
In 1974 McAleer interviewed Laughton's widow, Elsa Lanchester. "I seem to remember Charles being very interested in the character of Nero Wolfe," she told him. "I always regretted I did not get to play Dora Chapin."[28]
"When Columbia pictures bought the screen rights to ''Fer-de-Lance'' for $7,500 and secured the option to buy further stories in the series, it was thought the role would go to Walter Connolly. Instead Edward Arnold got it," McAleer reported in ''Rex Stout: A Biography''. "Columbia's idea was to keep Arnold busy with low-cost Wolfe films between features. Two films presently were made by Columbia, ''Meet Nero Wolfe (Fer-de-Lance)'' and ''The League of Frightened Men''. Connolly did portray Wolfe in the latter film, after Arnold decided he did not want to become identified in the public mind with one part. Lionel Stander portrayed Archie Goodwin. Stander was a capable actor but, as Archie, Rex thought he had been miscast."[29]
''Meet Nero Wolfe''
Lionel Stander and Edward Arnold were teamed as Archie Goodwin and
Nero Wolfe for the 1936 Columbia Pictures film, ''Meet Nero Wolfe''
Nero Wolfe for the 1936 Columbia Pictures film, ''Meet Nero Wolfe''
Columbia Pictures adapted the first Nero Wolfe novel, ''Fer-de-Lance'', for the screen in 1936. ''Meet Nero Wolfe'' was directed by Herbert Biberman, and featured a cast led by Edward Arnold as Nero Wolfe, and Lionel Stander as Archie Goodwin. A young Rita Hayworth (then Rita Cansino) portrays Maria Maringola, "the best beer maker in the world," who sets the story in motion when she asks for Wolfe's help in finding her missing brother, Carlo.
"A most comforting sort of detective for these humid days is Nero Wolfe, a sedentary sleuth given to drinking great quantities of homemade beer in his cool, shade-drawn brownstone and solving murder mysteries therefrom by means of remote control," wrote ''The New York Times'' (July 16, 1936):
:Mr. Wolfe is, of course, the rotund Edward Arnold, whose characterization of Rex Stout's fairly recent fictional figure presages brisk competition for such current screen master minds as Philo Vance and Perry Mason, both in matters of deduction as well as esthetically. Where Mr. Vance, for example, collects old chrysoprase and what not, Nero Wolfe grows orchids. Mr. Wolfe sets a precedent, too, in achieving something that seems not to have occurred to the other ratiocinators of the cinema. He collects huge fees.
"Its hero, less dashing than Philo Vance and less whimsical than Charlie Chan, but more mercenary than either, will be a highly acceptable addition to the screen's growing corps of private operatives," wrote ''Time'' (July 27, 1936) [3].
"The comedy and the guessing elements have been deftly mixed, the well-knit narrative precludes any drooping in interest and the cast disports itself in crack whodunit fashion," wrote ''Variety'' (July 22, 1936). "In bringing the Rex Stout figment to life Arnold has contributed lots more than girth and a capacity for beer guzzling. His Nero Wolfe jells suavely with the imagination and makes a piquant example of personality conception."
In 2002 ''Scarlet Street'' magazine revisited the film — little seen in the years after its release — finding it neither the travesty it is sometimes thought to be, nor a faithful recreation of the world of Nero Wolfe. "Judging the film as a film and dismissing questions of fidelity to the source material, ''Meet Nero Wolfe'' is an above average minor A picture, a solid mystery, and unfailingly entertaining," the magazine reported. "No, at bottom, it's not Rex Stout's Nero and Archie, but it's a well-developed mystery (thanks to Stout's plot) with compensations all its own — and an interesting piece of Wolfeana.[30]
''The League of Frightened Men''
In 1937, Columbia Pictures released ''The League of Frightened Men'', its adaptation of the second Nero Wolfe novel. Lionel Stander reprised his role as Archie Goodwin, and Walter Connolly took over the role of Nero Wolfe.
"''The League of Frightened Men'' is a new Nero Wolfe episode for the screen," wrote ''The New York Times'' (July 2, 1937), "and it finds Walter Connolly, the incumbent Nero, prissily substituting chocolate for the more familiar Wolfe diet of beer. This is rather hard on Lionel (Archie) Stander, because chocolate makes him boip, whereas the beer used to be right to his taste... It should be reported that ''The League of Frightened Men'' is a well-knit mystery, and well played out."
After ''The League of Frightened Men'', Rex Stout declined to authorize any more Hollywood adaptations. "Do you think there's any chance of Hollywood ever making a good Nero Wolfe movie?" biographer John McAleer asked the author. Stout replied, "I don't know. I suppose so."[31]
Radio
''The Adventures of Nero Wolfe'' (ABC)
1943–1944, 30 minutes
''The Adventures of Nero Wolfe'' began with "The Case of the Bloodstained Orchid" (July 5, 1943). "Santos Ortega played Wolfe," wrote John McAleer in ''Rex Stout: A Biography''. "John Gibson was Archie. Gibson was breezy and Ortega wheezy — indeed, he opened the program with a wheeze, as his signature.... Rex thought the actors were creditable but winced at the plots. He never listened to the broadcasts. ... Louis Vittes was the chief script writer and wrote most of the scripts. None of Rex's story material was used. All characters beside Wolfe, Archie and Cramer were ABC's own. For the use of Wolfe and Archie, Rex received a weekly royalty."
The final episode, "The Last Laugh Murder Case," aired July 14, 1944. "Differences between (ABC producer) Hi Brown and Edwin Fadiman, who represented Rex's radio, screen and television interests, as Nero Wolfe Attractions, Inc., prevented its later resumption on ABC," McAleer reported. "This fact Brown regretted. 'Nero Wolfe,' Brown says, 'is one of the strongest and most successful detective characters in all of fiction.'"[32]
''The Amazing Nero Wolfe'' (MBC)
1946, 30 minutes
"The series next surfaced early in 1946, on Sundays, on the Mutual Network," wrote Stout biographer John McAleer, "with Francis X. Bushman, one-time movie idol, as Wolfe, and Elliott Lewis as Archie. ... The scripts once again were network originals. The humor verged on slapstick."[32]
The concluding show in the series, "The Case of the Shakespeare Folio," aired December 15, 1946.[34]
''The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe'' (NBC)
1950–1951, 30 minutes
''The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe'' began October 20, 1950, with "The Case of the Stamped for Murder." Sydney Greenstreet starred as Nero Wolfe. "Rex thought Greenstreet a splendid choice for the role and Greenstreet did, in fact, fill every reasonable expectation," wrote Stout biographer John McAleer."The wryness of Wolfe, for which Archie's drollery is a whetsone, was not felt in the Ortega or Bushman interpretations. Greenstreet caught it." A succession of Archies included Gerald Mohr, Herb Ellis, Larry Dobkin, Wally Maher and Harry Bartell. The series ended April 27, 1951, with "The Case of Room 304."
"Radio found three outstanding Nero Wolfes," wrote John McAleer in 1977, "but none of the scripts was perfect." He reports that after hearing five minutes of one of Greenstreet's shows, Stout said he could take no more. "He liked Greenstreet. The script he found impossible."[35]
''Nero Wolfe'' (CBC)
1982, 60 minutes
In 1982, Canadian actor, producer, writer and cultural pioneer Mavor Moore (1919–2006) starred as Nero Wolfe in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's 13-episode radio series ''Nero Wolfe'' (a.k.a. ''Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe''). Don Francks portrayed Archie Goodwin, and Cec Linder played Inspector Cramer.
"It took [Toronto actor and producer] Ron Hartmann two years to adapt, direct and produce the 13 episodes for radio," reported the Toronto ''Globe and Mail''. "Ron and I are ardent Nero Wolfe fans, and we're out to convert the listener," Moore said.[36]
The series was released on audiocassette by Durkin Hayes Publishing (DH Audio).
# "Disguise for Murder" (January 16, 1982)
# "Before I Die" (January 23, 1982)
# "Counterfeit for Murder" (January 30, 1982)
# "The Cop Killer" (February 6, 1982)
# "Christmas Party" (February 13, 1982)
# "Cordially Invited to Meet Death" (February 20, 1982)
# "Man Alive" (February 27, 1982)
# "Instead of Evidence" (March 6, 1982)
# "Eeny Meeny Murder Mo" (March 13, 1982)
# "The Squirt and the Monkey" (March 20, 1982)
# "The Next Witness" (March 27, 1982)
# "Death of a Demon" (April 3, 1982)
# "Murder is No Joke" (April 10, 1982)[37]
Television
''Nero Wolfe'' (Paramount Television)
Rex Stout, disappointed with the Nero Wolfe movies of the 1930s and unimpressed with television in general, vetoed Nero Wolfe film and TV projects in America until his death in 1975. In 1977, Thayer David, Tom Mason, Anne Baxter and Brooke Adams filmed ''Nero Wolfe'', a Paramount Television production based on the novel ''The Doorbell Rang.'' Intended as the pilot for a TV series, the telemovie was shelved due to the death of David shortly after filming. The film was finally broadcast in December 1979.
A year later, Paramount produced the short-lived ''Nero Wolfe,'' a weekly series that ran for the first six months of 1981 on NBC TV. William Conrad played a bearded Wolfe and Lee Horsley played Goodwin, in a production that departed considerably from the Stout originals. The episodes were set in present-day New York City.
"''Nero Wolfe'' could have worked but it was done too quickly," William Conrad told ''The Toronto Star'' in 1987. "I replaced Thayer David when he died and we just couldn't deliver it properly in the deadline of a few weeks."[38]
''A Nero Wolfe Mystery'' (A&E Network)
Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin in ''A Nero Wolfe Mystery''
In March 2000, Maury Chaykin (as Nero Wolfe) and Timothy Hutton (as Archie Goodwin) starred in ''The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery'', a Jaffe/Braunstein Films co-production with the A&E Network. High ratings led to the original series, ''A Nero Wolfe Mystery'' (2001-2002).
Hutton had a strong creative hand in the A&E series, serving as an executive producer and directing a number of episodes. Many consider the series the most accurate adaptation of the Wolfe stories ever presented. The episodes followed the plots of the stories closely; unlike previous Wolfe adaptations, they were not updated to contemporary times. They were colorful period pieces, set in a somewhat vague past (the 1940s to the early '60s). The production values were exceptional and critics responded favorably.
Other members of the principal cast are Colin Fox (Fritz Brenner), Conrad Dunn (Saul Panzer), Fulvio Cecere (Fred Durkin), Trent McMullen (Orrie Cather), Saul Rubinek (Lon Cohen), Bill Smitrovich (Inspector Cramer) and R.D. Reid (Sergeant Purley Stebbins).
One distinguishing feature of the series is its use of a repertory cast to play non-recurring characters. The same actor who played the murder victim in one episode might play the murderer in another. 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 accomplished ensemble cast gives ''A Nero Wolfe Mystery'' the effect of a play put on by a repertory company, as might have been done in the early 20th century.
''A Nero Wolfe Mystery'' is available on DVD as two sets (''The Golden Spiders'' bundled with the second season), and as a single eight-disc thinpack set. ISBN 076708893X
''Omnibus'', "The Fine Art of Murder" (ABC)
Rex Stout appeared in the December 9, 1956, episode of ''Omnibus'', a cultural anthology series that epitomized the golden age of television. Hosted by Alistair Cooke, "The Fine Art of Murder" [4] was a 40-minute segment described by ''Time'' magazine as "a homicide as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe [and] Rex Stout would variously present it." The author is credited as appearing along with Gene Reynolds (as Archie Goodwin), Robert Echols, James Daly, Jack Sydow and Dennis Hoey. Written by Sidney Carroll and directed by Paul Bogart, "The Fine Art of Murder" is in the collection of the Library of Congress (VBE 2397-2398) and screened in its Mary Pickford Theater February 15, 2000.
International TV productions
Germany
A German TV adaption of ''Too Many Cooks'' — ''Zu viele Köche'' [5] (1961) — starred Heinz Klevenow as Nero Wolfe, and Joachim Fuchsberger as Archie Goodwin. After he protested that his story was used without permission, Rex Stout received a $3,500 settlement.[39]
Italy
"The name Nero Wolfe has magic in Italy," wrote Rex Stout's biographer John McAleer. In 1968, the Italian television network RAI paid Stout $80,000 for the rights to produce 12 Nero Wolfe stories. "He agreed only because he would never see them," McAleer wrote.
:In February 1969, Italian television began broadcasting a first group of weekly Nero Wolfe programs — each in two episodes. These, in order of appearance were ''Veleno in sartoria / Poison at the Tailor Shop (The Red Box)'', ''Circuito chiuso / Closed Circuit (If Death Ever Slept)'', ''Per la fama di Cecare / For Caesar's Fame (Some Buried Caesar)'', and ''Il Pesce più grosso / The Too-Big Fish (The Doorbell Rang)''. The second series — ''In the Best Families,'' ''Too Many Cooks'', "Murder is Corny," ''Where There's a Will'', ''The Rubber Band'', "Counterfeit for Murder," ''Gambit'', and ''The Final Deduction'' — followed several weeks later.[39]
The successful series of black-and-white telemovies starred Tino Buazzelli (Nero Wolfe), Paolo Ferrari (Archie Goodwin), Pupo De Luca (Fritz Brenner) and Renzo Palmer (Inspector Cramer). Ten episodes of the series were available on DVD in 2007.
Russia
A series of Russian Nero Wolfe TV movies was made in 2001–2002. One of the adaptations, ''Poka ya ne umer'' [6] was written by Vladimir Valutsky, screenwriter for a Russian Sherlock Holmes television series in the 1980s. Nero Wolfe is played by Donatas Banionis, and Archie Goodwin by Sergei Zhigunov.
External links
★ The Wolfe Pack, official site of the Nero Wolfe Society
★ The Nero Wolfe Database, an editable resource offering plot and character summaries for all of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe stories
★ Merely a Genius..., Winnifred Louis' fan site dedicated to Nero Wolfe including a complete annotated bibliography
★ Nero Wolfe Club at Yahoo Groups (established 2000)
★ Nero Wolfe profile at The Thrilling Detective
★ The psychology of Rex Stout, Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. at Abelard
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★
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★ ''A Nero Wolfe Mystery'' at The Wolfe Pack, official site of the Nero Wolfe Society
Notes
1. Walker, Tom, "Mystery writers shine light on best: Bouchercon 2000 convention honors authors"; ''The Denver Post'', September 10, 2000. Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot was named Best Mystery Series of the Century. Agatha Christie was voted Best Mystery Writer of the Century; the other nominees were Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Dorothy Sayers and Rex Stout. The 31st World Mystery Convention was presented in Denver September 7-10, 2000.
2. Memorandum dated 1949 and reprinted in the 1992 Bantam edition of ''Fer-de-Lance''.
3. In the 1953 book ''In the Best Families'', Wolfe temporarily sheds 117 pounds.
4. Amis, Kingsley, "My Favorite Sleuths"; ''Playboy'', December 1966
5. Darby, Ken, ''The Brownstone House of Nero Wolfe, as Told by Archie Goodwin'', p. 9. Randy Cohen included the address printed on Archie Goodwin's business card in ''The Silent Speaker'' — 922 West 35th Street — on the literary map of Manhattan he created for ''The New York Times''(June 5, 2005). "Curiously, the 900 block of West 35th Street would be in the Hudson River — it's a non-address, the real estate equivalent of those 555 telephone numbers used in movies," Cohen wrote ("We'll Map Manhattan," ''The New York Times'', May 1, 2005).
6. Darby, Ken, ''The Brownstone House of Nero Wolfe, as Told by Archie Goodwin'', p. 8
7. ''Fer-de-Lance'', chapter 3.
8. But the admonition apparently did not take hold. In ''Too Many Cooks'', Wolfe questions a group of black men. Archie’s opinion, voiced using racial epithets, is that interviewing them will be a waste of time, but Wolfe's candor and respect gains him the men's trust. The session ends at 4:30 A.M. and Wolfe instructs Archie to telephone the (white) district attorney. Again Archie objects, suggesting that Wolfe should wait until later that day. Wolfe calmly says: “Archie, please. You tried to instruct me how to handle colored men. Will you try it with white men too?â€
9. Another fictional creation by Stout, the solo operative Tecumseh Fox, who is perhaps a fusion of the best qualities of Wolfe and Goodwin into a single person without Wolfe's collection of idiosyncrasies, is arguably a better and more effective fictional character, as in the novel ''The Broken Vase''. That book, however, was not a commercial success, and only three books featuring Fox were written, one of which was later used as the basis for a Wolfe story at the urging of Stout's publisher.
10. ''The Doorbell Rang'', chapter 7.
11. ''Where There's a Will'', cited in chapter 10 of ''The Nero Wolfe Cookbook''.
12. Chapter 9.
13. The Doorbell Rang, chapter 7
14. "Blood Will Tell", chapter 2.
15. ''The Father Hunt'', chapter 12.
16. Queen, Ellery, ''In the Queens' Parlor'', Simon and Schuster, New York, 1957, pp. 4-5
17. ''The Final Deduction''
18. Chapter 17.
19. ''Gambit'', chapter 8.
20. ''The Red Box''.
21. The dissolution of the Turkish and Austro-Hungarian empire created an opportunity for the "South Slavs" (Yugoslavs), previously in separate spheres, to unite in a single country, but over the centuries of separation they had adopted three different religions (Orthodox, Catholic, and Muslim) and there was much intrigue both within the region and instigated by outside powers for control of the area.
22. Townsend, Guy M., ''Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography'', page 56
23. Pierleoni, Allen, "Serial Thriller: John Lescroart's passions range from family to fishing but he's hit the big time with his novels"; ''Sacramento Bee'', February 13, 2006. "Next came two books about the foreign adventures of crime-solving chef Auguste Lupa, reputedly the son of Sherlock Holmes — and who may have been the young Nero Wolfe."
24. Townsend, Guy M., ''Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography'', page 56
25. Bourne, Michael, "An Informal Interview with Rex Stout"; 1998, James A. Rock & Co., Publishers ISBN 0918736226
26. McAleer, John, ''Rex Stout: A Biography''; 1977, Little Brown and Company; p. 254
27. McAleer, John, ''Royal Decree''; 1983, Pontes Press, Ashton, MD; p. 48
28. McAleer, John, ''Rex Stout: A Biography''; 1977, Little Brown and Company; p. 554
29. McAleer, John, ''Rex Stout: A Biography''; 1977, Little Brown and Company; pp. 254–255
30. Hanke, Ken, "Meet Nero Wolfe"; ''Scarlet Street'', issue #45, 2002, p. 77
31. McAleer, John, ''Royal Decree''; 1983, Pontes Press, Ashton MD; p. 48
32. McAleer, John, ''Rex Stout: A Biography'', p. 324
33. McAleer, John, ''Rex Stout: A Biography'', p. 324
34. Townsend, Guy M., ''Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography,'' p.126
35. McAleer, John, ''Rex Stout: A Biography'', p. 325 and 487
36. MacNiven, Elina, "Nero Wolfe: Wolfe's verbal coups rendered on radio"; ''Globe and Mail'' (Toronto, Canada), January 16, 1982
37. Hickerson, Jay, ''The Ultimate History of Network Radio Programming and Guide to All Circulating Shows'', 1992, Box 4321, Hamden, CT 06514, p. 6; The Thrilling Detective, ''Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe''
38. Bawden, Jim, "Born-again TV stars resurface for deja viewing"; ''The Toronto Star'', October 10, 1987
39. McAleer, John, ''Rex Stout: A Biography'', p. 488
40. McAleer, John, ''Rex Stout: A Biography'', p. 488
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