This was the first of the two Columbia
films with Nero Wolfe from the Rex Stout novels. It is very fast paced with
some comedy thrown on top of a good mystery. Edward Arnold is terrific as
Wolfe and displays a lot more of the characteristics of the Wolfe in the
books than the second film (The League of the Frightened Men) - he hates
going outside, drinks beer throughout the film, is very tight with his money,
loves his orchids, is very personable and is as sharp as a newly honed blade
- though perhaps he is a bit too jovial here for the Wolfe of the books.
It is a good robust performance for a fairly small film, but apparently Arnold
had no desire to do more and becoming identified as Nero Wolfe in the public
mind. He was an A cast actor.
A man is murdered on the golf course in
a rather clever manner and everyone but Wolfe thinks it is a heart attack.
Another "heart attack" later and Wolfe is on the case when the attractive
sister of the second victim shows up to ask him to find her brother (who
is already dead). Then she sadly leaves the film until near the very end
when she pops in again. Played by Rita Cansino - who within a few months
was to change her name to Rita Hayworth. Just two years earlier she was in
Charlie Chan in Egypt and she was nearly unrecognizable but by this time
you can see that the process to make her a star was well-underway - her eye
brows that were so thick have now been thinned down and her hairline pushed
back. Quite lovely. So as is the usual scenario in the mysteries of that
period - a group of suspects are created and at the end Wolfe calls them
all together to reveal the killer. I was actually surprised but in fact they
could have played musical chairs to pick a killer and it would have been
just as believable.
One kind of fun note - while Wolfe's assistant
Archie Goodwin (Lionel Stander) is baby sitting a potential victim and his
son, they play a game of Monopoly for a while. It had just been created in
1935 by Parker Brothers and it made me want to play again. I never won in
the family contests and want to try again.
