Meet Nero Wolfe (1936)

Director:

Herbert J. Biberman

Writers:

Joseph Anthony
Howard J. Green
(more)

Release Date:

17 July 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery

Plot Keywords:

Nero Wolfe | Based On Novel | Character Name In Title

Cast

Edward Arnold	...	Nero Wolfe
Lionel Stander	...	Archie Goodwin
Dennie Moore	...	Mazie Gray
Victor Jory	...	Claude Roberts
Nana Bryant	...	Sarah Barstow
Joan Perry	...	Ellen Barstow
Russell Hardie	...	Manuel Kimball
Walter Kingsford	...	Emanuel Jeremiah (E.J.) Kimball
Boyd Irwin	...	Prof. Edgar Barstow
John Qualen	...	Olaf
Gene Morgan	...	Det. Lt. O'Grady
Rita Hayworth	...	Maria Maringola (as Rita Cansino)
Frank Conroy	...	Dr. Nathaniel Bradford
Juan Torena	...	Carlo Maringola
Martha Tibbetts	...	The Apartment House Maid
Eddy Waller	...	Golf Starter
George Offerman Jr.	...	Mike, E.J.'s caddy
William 'Billy' Benedict	...	Johnny, Barstow's caddy
Raymond Borzage	...	Tommy, Roberts' caddy
Eric Wilton	...	Kimball's Butler
Roy Bliss	...	Delivery Boy
David Worth	...	Kimball's Chauffeur
Allen Mathews	...	Attendant
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
William Anderson	...	Bill, Manuel's caddy

Directed by
Herbert J. Biberman

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Joseph Anthony
Howard J. Green
Bruce Manning
Rex Stout		novel "Fer-de-Lance"

Produced by
B.P. Schulberg	....	producer

Original Music by
Howard Jackson		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Henry Freulich

Film Editing by
Otto Meyer

Art Direction by
Stephen Goosson

Costume Design by
Lon Anthony

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
George Rhein	....	assistant director

Sound Department
George Cooper	....	sound recordist

Music Department
Howard Jackson	....	musical director

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1936) (USA) (theatrical)
• Silver Screen Archive (????) (USA) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

73 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "M*A*S*H: Your Retention Please (#9.7)" (1981)

A missed opportunity, but still great fun for what's there

In the 1930's, when the motion picture mystery was having a golden age and studios were sending the latest best sellers straight to film as fast as the top mystery writers could come up with new characters and scenarios, Columbia looked at the success of S.S. van Dine's Philo Vances (First National, Warner Brothers), Dashiel Hammett's Nick & Nora Charles (MGM), Earl Derr Biggers' Charlie Chans (20th Century Fox) and others building on the oft filmed legacy of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and thought they had a winning entry in Rex Stout's soon to be classic detective Nero Wolfe.

A combination of the irascible brilliance of a Holmes (even author Rex Stout speculated on the intellectual debt if not direct lineage of Wolfe to Holmes' brother Mycroft) and the hard boiled practicality of a Sam Spade with the narrative charm of a Doctor Watson in Wolfe's side-kick/assistant, Archie Goodman, how could a series based on the new characters fail? It probably shouldn't have, but in producing a relatively faithful adaptation of Stout's first Nero Wolfe novel, "Fer de Lance" (the name of a poisonous snake that figures late in the plot), they just missed the challenging tone that won Wolfe fans on the page.

The casting of character actor Edward Arnold, famed for playing outrageous incarnations of the Devil and devilish industrialists was probably a master stroke, but fearing that such an acerbic character might not win viewers, they softened the character and made him too given to "fat man jollity" and too light on the irritated "phoeys." Legman (in more ways than one) Archie followed the unfortunate studio pattern of consigning "Dr. Watson" side-kick characters to comic relief with the miscasting of fine (all too soon to be blacklisted) character actor Lionel Stander. As conceived in both the Nero Wolfe films Columbia managed, Stander's "Archie" was eager but not the skilled detective Stout had created whose own capability made Wolfe all the more brilliant in comparison.

Failings in tone which ultimately doomed the series notwithstanding (along with the failure to find a definitive Nero - Walter Connolly essayed the role in the second and final Columbia film, the 1937 LEAGUE OF FREIGHTENED MEN, based on Stout's second Wolfe novel), MEET NERO WOLFE is a highly entertaining film in its own right.

The murder on the golf course is beautifully filmed with clues clearly enough laid out the sharp viewer can have the fun of guessing ahead of Archie and Nero "whodunnit" and why. Even with too many self conscious laughs from his character, it's a pleasure to see the lighter side of Edward Arnold for a change, and while wrong for a true "Archie Goodman," Lionel Stander gives one of his best performances, and isn't quite as befuddled as Nigel Bruce's classic (but decidedly non-Sherlockian) Dr. Watson.

1936's MEET NERO WOLFE isn't the great Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodman we would eventually get from Maury Chaykin and Timmothy Hutton on TV's A&E Network, but it's solid entertainment and an interesting "might-have-been" look at what should have been one of the classic 30's mystery series in the hands of a studio more sensitive to the demands of producing a classic mystery series.