Meet Nero Wolfe

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Meet Nero Wolfe
Directed by	Herbert Biberman
Produced by	B.P. Schulberg
Written by	Howard J. Green Bruce Manning Joseph Anthony Rex Stout (story)
Starring	Edward Arnold Lionel Stander Nana Bryant Joan Perry Victor Jory
Music by	Howard Jackson
Cinematography	Henry Freulich
Editing by	Otto Meyer
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures Corporation
Release date(s)	July 16, 1936
Running time	73 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Followed by	The League of Frightened Men
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Meet Nero Wolfe is a 1936 mystery film based on the 1934 novel Fer-de-Lance, written by Rex Stout. Set in New York, the story introduced the detective genius Nero Wolfe (Edward Arnold) and his assistant Archie Goodwin (Lionel Stander). The partnership endured through 33 novels and 39 short stories written by Stout, but continued in only one more film for Columbia Pictures.

The titles of the film begin with the November 1934 issue of The American Magazine — in which the abridged version of Fer-de-Lance appeared — lying on a table. The magazine is taken from the table and opened to an illustrated spread that reads, "Edward Arnold in Meet Nero Wolfe."

[edit] Plot

Wolfe: When I swing down to hit the ball so, the end of this homemade gun is pointing just above my waistline.
Archie: Waistline?
Wolfe: It's an imaginary line like the equator.

– Meet Nero Wolfe (1936)

At the West Hills Golf Club in Westchester, only foursomes can play on Sunday. E.J. Kimball (Walter Kingsford) and his son Manuel (Russell Hardie) are welcomed into the party of elderly Professor Barstow (Boyd Irwin Sr.) and his young golf partner Claude Roberts (Victor Jory). Barstow sends his caddy back to the clubhouse to fetch his visor, and he finds himself without his clubs when it is his turn to tee off. The elder Kimball offers his driver to Barstow. Immediately after driving the ball, Barstow flinches. "A mosquito bit me just as I hit the ball," he complains with good humor. "Too bad," Kimball replies sympathetically, taking the club from Barstow and making his own drive. As the foursome sets out on the course, Barstow is stricken. He succumbs quickly to an apparent heart attack.

Sitting at a table in a modest room, a young man cuts a news story about the death of Professor Barstow from the newspaper. Upset and on his guard, he walks out into the night. On the street he reacts as if he has been bitten by an insect, but his expression changes with the realization that he has just been murdered. As he falls to the sidewalk, a hand takes the newspaper clipping from his dead fingers.

The cast and characters of Meet Nero Wolfe (left to right, from foreground):
Dennie Moore (Mazie Gray), Lionel Stander (Archie Goodwin), Edward Arnold (Nero Wolfe), Victor Jory (Claude Roberts), Joan Perry (Ellen Barstow), Frank Conroy (Dr. Nathaniel Bradford), John Qualen (Olaf), Nana Bryant (Sarah Barstow), Walter Kingsford (E.J. Kimball), and Russell Hardie (Manuel Kimball)

Ringing the doorbell of the brownstone house of his boss, detective Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin (Lionel Stander) explains to his fiancée Mazie Gray (Dennie Moore) that he does not have a key, that Nero Wolfe himself doesn't have one. "He doesn't need one, he never goes out," she says. Mazie has persuaded Archie to quit working for that "beer-guzzling orchid grower," marry her, and settle down in the furniture business. The front door of the brownstone is opened by Wolfe's Scandinavian chef, Olaf (John Qualen), and the couple enters to find Nero Wolfe (Edward Arnold) in a crisis.

Marie Maringola is the only person who can make home brew that Nero Wolfe can drink — and Marie has disappeared. Wolfe, who has not ventured out of his comfortable Manhattan brownstone in seven years, has sent Archie to bring Marie to him, but Archie has come back without her. Archie has just stated with authority that Marie is nowhere in the city when Marie (played by Rita Hayworth, then billed as Rita Cansino) is announced by Olaf.

Consumed with worry, Marie offers Nero Wolfe $50 to help her find her brother. Although he is an expert metal worker, Carlo Maringola has had such trouble finding work in America that he planned to return to the old country. On the eve of his departure he called Marie to tell her he could stay in America after all — he got a job. They had arranged a celebration for the following night, but Carlo never came — he has disappeared. Wolfe tells Marie he will return her brother to her or it will not cost her a penny.

Archie brings a housemaid from Carlo Maringola's boarding house to the brownstone. Wolfe ascertains through her that Carlo had clipped an item from the first page of a newspaper she found in his room, and that the clipping was about the death of Professor Barstow. Wolfe tells Archie to return the money Marie has given them, because they will never find her brother. At best, they will find only his body. "Carlo didn't just disappear, he died, and he didn't just die, he was murdered," Wolfe declares. When Archie asks what this has to do with the clipping about Professor Barstow, Wolfe replies, "Oh that poor fellow didn't just drop dead. No. He was murdered, too."

A set of golf clubs is delivered to the brownstone. Lt. O'Grady of the Westchester County Police arrives just in time to watch Archie demonstrate a golf swing at Wolfe's direction. The exercise convinces Wolfe that Professor Barstow was killed by a specially constructed golf club, one that was converted into an air rifle that propelled a poisoned needle into his midsection when he struck the ball.

O'Grady has come because the body of Carlo Maringola has been found, and he has learned about Archie's visit to Carlo's room. Wolfe advises him to autopsy both Carlo and Professor Barstow, because the professor was murdered and Carlo was the craftsman hired to devise the weapon.

"My interest is only aroused by the fee," Wolfe tells Archie and Mazie as he refuses to take the case any further. When Archie tells him that Professor Barstow's widow (Nana Bryant) has offered a $50,000 reward for the apprehension of her husband's murderer, Wolfe sends Archie to get Sarah Barstow's pledge in writing.

Archie's meeting with Mrs. Barstow is interrupted by her protective daughter Ellen (Joan Perry) and her fiancé, Claude Roberts. Ellen's concern about her mother's mental well-being is justified when Mrs. Barstow attributes her husband's death to the intervention of mystical forces.

Archie calls on the Kimballs. In a combative conversation with Manuel he learns that E.J. Kimball is on a business trip to Chicago with no set date for his return. Dr. Nathaniel Bradford (Frank Conroy) is next to be interviewed. Bradford had certified that Barstow died of a heart attack, and he regards Archie's questions as an attack on his reputation.

A short time later, an impromptu conference begins in Wolfe's office when Dr. Bradford and Sarah Barstow arrive to insist that Wolfe's investigation stop, that Professor Barstow had died of heart failure. Ellen Barstow arrives with Claude Roberts, to accuse Wolfe of gathering information about her family for the purpose of blackmail. Manuel Kimball arrives to put Wolfe on notice that if any insinuations about him or his father end up in the newspapers, he will sue. The conference is interrupted by a phone call from the district attorney, who confirms Wolfe's conclusion that Barstow was murdered by a poisoned needle.

Wolfe has a luncheon for the four boys who caddied for Professor Barstow's party. Hearing their accounts, he concludes that the intended murder victim had been E.J. Kimball, not Barstow. He reads that Kimball will return that evening from his business trip, and sends Archie and Mazie to intercept his train. Kimball dismisses as "twaddle" the idea that anyone wishes to kill him, but agrees to accompany Archie to the brownstone to see Wolfe, sending his bags home with his chauffeur.

Wolfe, too, is unable to convince Kimball that his life is in danger, until he receives a phone call from Lt. O'Grady. Wolfe informs Kimball that his car has been wrecked and his chauffeur is dead — killed by "a fer-de-lance, probably the most poisonous snake in the world." Further, the autopsies of Professor Barstow and Carlo Maringola indicate that they were poisoned, by the venom of the fer-de-lance. Kimball now knows his life is in deadly peril and he pleads for Wolfe's help.

After learning about E.J. Kimball's past, Wolfe concludes that at least six people had reason to wish him dead. While living in South America many years before, when Manuel was a child, Kimball came home unexpectedly from a business trip and found his wife with another man. By coincidence, this man was the first husband of Mrs. Barstow, and was Ellen's father. The next day Kimball's wife was found dead, and her lover had vanished without a trace. Kimball was tried for his wife's murder, and was acquitted. With Manuel in school, he left South America for 15 years, but returned because he wanted his son with him.

Wolfe assigns Archie to watch over the old man, telling him to prepare to stay with the Kimballs for up to a month. After a long game of Monopoly on the Kimballs' terrace that evening, the three men begin to go in for dinner — and shots are fired.

When Archie reports the attack, Wolfe tells him to round up all of the principals in the case and bring them to the brownstone. They are to spend the night, and stay as long as necessary. He tells his reluctant guests that he will charge them for their rooms, and for their meals, but he can assure their safety. The next evening a deadly parcel arrives, addressed to Wolfe. The killer now has Wolfe in his sights — and Wolfe now has the killer under his roof.

[edit] Cast

• Edward Arnold as Nero Wolfe
• Lionel Stander as Archie Goodwin
• Dennie Moore as Mazie Gray
• Victor Jory as Claude Roberts
• Nana Bryant as Sarah Barstow
• Joan Perry as Ellen Barstow
• Russell Hardie as Manuel Kimball
• Walter Kingsford as E.J. Kimball
• Boyd Irwin Sr. as Professor Barstow
• John Qualen as Olaf
• Gene Morgan as O'Grady
• Rita Cansino (Rita Hayworth) as Maria Maringola
• Frank Conroy as Dr. Nathaniel Bradford
• Juan Torena as Carlo Maringola
• Martha Tibbetts as the apartment house maid

[edit] Production

"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," reported John McAleer in Rex Stout: A Biography (1977). "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."^[1]

Meet Nero Wolfe was the second film directed by Herbert Biberman (1900–1971), a director rooted in the theater who became best known as one of the Hollywood Ten.

"Fresh from the theater, Biberman blocked shots instead of composing them," wrote Bernard F. Dick in Radical Innocence: A Critical Study of the Hollywood Ten (1989):

Biberman opened up the action a bit, but the plot, based on Stout's Fer-de-Lance (1934), defeated him. He simply did not understand the medium; the cast reacts as it would on stage, but in film a stage reaction is overacting. Apart from some filmic touches — swish pans, dissolves, wipes, and an eerie shot of a dead man's hand clutching a newspaper clipping that another hand reaches down to retrieve — Meet Nero Wolfe is like a West End melodrama aimed at the tourist trade — slick, but so ephemeral that two days later the plot has vanished from the memory.^[2]

The film's greatest departure from the original story is the creation of Mazie Gray, who can indeed call herself Mrs. Archie Goodwin at the end of Meet Nero Wolfe. The decidedly un-Wolfean character is played by Dennie Moore, memorable for her performance as Olga the gossipy manicurist in the 1939 film, The Women.

[edit] Reception

"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) [1].

"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. For seven years this corpulent sleuth, with a craving for nothing but good food and ease, has not ventured from his home. When he isn't unraveling a crime for the cash it will bring him, he gravitates between two hobbies, bottle tilting and orchid growing.

Task of digging up evidence and following out leads for Wolfe on the outside falls to Lionel Stander. It's a typical mugg role for Stander but the performance he turns in pegs him as an important entertainment factor in the film.

In 2002 Scarlet Street magazine revisited Meet Nero Wolfe — little seen in the years after its release — and found it neither the travesty it is sometimes thought to be, nor a faithful recreation of the world of Nero Wolfe.

Is it absurd and a "betrayal" of Stout to make Wolfe's orchid room a kind of greenhouse offshoot to his office? Of course, it is, but it's also a clever device that keeps the orchid-growing obsession in the action without breaking from the fairly complicated plot. Other departures — such as transforming chef Fritz Brenner into the Swedish Olaf ... are less explicable. ...

What goes wrong — at least from a purist's standpoint — is the decision to portray Wolfe as a far too jolly character. This is odd in itself, since Arnold was rarely an actor who specialized in projecting good humor. ...

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. Certain things — such as a sequence involving Archie playing the then new game of Monopoly — have a nice time capsule quality that has nothing to do with the Wolfe books, but have a value all their own. 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.^[3]

[edit] External links

• Meet Nero Wolfe at the Internet Movie Database
• Meet Nero Wolfe at Allmovie

[edit] Notes