Meet Nero Wolfe

While this first Nero Wolfe film seems well-intentioned, it's really of interest only as an historical curiosity. Edward Arnold, one of the great character actors of all time, looks pretty good as the portly Wolfe, but his portrayal of the detective is way off base. Rex Stout created Wolfe as an irascible, egotistical, curmudgeonly man who quaffs beer endlessly from a glass. Arnold portrays him as a jolly, laughing, hale-fellow-well-met who drinks beer directly from the bottle -- something that Wolfe did very rarely.

Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's amanuensis, legman, and sometime tormentor, is supposed to be a tough, smart, courageous detective in his own right. Lionel Stander, also a fine actor when properly cast and directed, turns Goodwin into a clown.

The plot moves rapidly. Too rapidly, in fact, for the charm of the Nero Wolfe mysteries lies largely in the atmospheric familiarity of their milieu. They are written as if they were stately waltzes, and this films zips by like a two-minute jazz riff.

Of all the adaptations of the Nero Wolfe stories, from the Sydney Greenstreet radio version of the 1940's to the lovingly produced A&E network productions almost sixty years later, the nod must be given to the A&E version, and to Maury Chaykin's portrayal of Nero Wolfe.

"Meet Nero Wolfe" (1936) is basically a radio play on the screen: the budget is low, the direction practically nonexistent (apart maybe from the opening sequence, set at a golf course). All that matters is the plotting (which is dense enough), the dialogue (which is sometimes lively), and the acting, primarily from the two leads: I have seen Edward Arnold as a supporting character in comedies before, and found him too loud, but this time as the lead he finds the right tone and makes Nero Wolfe pleasingly eccentric. Lionel Stander, looking younger than ever, plays his loyal sidekick. Rita Hayworth, also looking younger than ever, has a very small part. **1/2 out of 4.

I first came across Nero Wolfe in the excellent 2001 TV series starring Maury Chaykin – this set in stone my image of the man – I even pictured him when I read this Rex Stout story Fer-de-Lance. Back in the '30's Edward Arnold was a fine and serious actor but he over-egged Wolfe's character in all departments for this one, making him totally unsympathetic and a wonder anyone put up with him. Nowadays of course the character would sneer and laugh at us "fools down on the street" for not using the internet to do everything for them.

A man has a heart attack on a country golf course – sedentary guffawing beer guzzling orchid growing New Yorker Wolfe proves it was murder and the wrong man without moving a muscle but with a lot of help from his comic stooge (in this) Archie. The only person he seems to care for is Marie who supplies him his booze, she plays a significant part as Wolfe's helper in return for finding her brother's killer. There's some ingenious detective work going on here taken at a breakneck speed, but it would have been much better had it been at a more lugubrious pace. And Maisie's repeated question to Archie "When are we gonna get married?" wears awful thin! Favourite bits: John Qualen making up the kitchen table for Archie to sleep on with very mixed emotions in the crowded house; Wolfe's treatment of the young and spry Victor Jory throughout.

All in all some fun moments and I enjoyed it, although utterly unlike the recent TV series - I'm not surprised it didn't work back then based on this screenplay.

I never read Rex Stout books yet, so I can't compare this film adaptation of Fer-De-Lance to that book or the character presentation in this pacey mystery. But as a mystery film it's fairly entertaining with Nero Wolfe, from his home, taking on a case of a man dying on the golf course. There are a number of suspects, and some good deductions.

Nero Wolfe, as played by Edward Arnold, is jolly, and chortles a lot but is sharp-minded, however, I didn't like how he treated his assistant, Archie, played by Hart to Hart star Lionel Stander, like a thicko. Well he is, I guess, but he should get some credit for running around and questioning people.

A good mystery that keeps one watching and the denouement at the end was quite a surprise.

A man playing golf is stung by a mosquito and has a heart attack. When Nero Wolfe's favorite bootlegger's brother disappears, he sends Archie Goodwin out to look for clues, telling him "Just write down anything that looks unimportant to you."

Edward Arnold was the obvious choice to play Wolfe in this adaptation of Rex Stout's FER-DE-LANCE Lionel Stander makes a fine Archie, and John Qualen is at home with a Scowhegian accent as cook Olaf. Unhappily, the writers lard in all of Wolfe's eccentricities as early and often as possible, and Arnold plays this one chuckling all the time. Director Herbert Biberman's direction seems to have been to let Arnold do pretty much what he wanted. Noteworthy for Rita Hayworth's first appearance in a Columbia feature.

Columbia would try again the following year with THE LEAGUE OF FRIGHTENED MEN. Walter Connally would play Wolfe in that one. Stander, still as Archie, wouldn't seem to notice the switch.