"Ellery Queen," based on literary characters rather than stories, was classy for the mid-1970s. But this episode was something else.
Nice faux-Egyptian trappings. As usual, a cast of famous names used for shorthand. Nehemiah Persoff overacts as usual. Simon Oakland is mean and yelly because by the mid-1970s Simon Oakland played parts that were short-tempered and loud-mouthed. See "Kolshak: The Night Stalker." June Lockhart is more or less just there.
More interesting is radio star Simon Bremner (John Hillerman) not in the stories but a regular foil for the Queens.
The problem "Ellery" had was that it was light and fun until the end, when the killer was revealed and they got a few maudlin words to explain why they did it.
Then they went back to jolliness at the end. But awful as the victim is in this episode, the ending is particularly affecting and the closing jokes pall.
Ross Martin is good, as usual, though his accent is ill-advised.
Also on the comic side is a temp secretary Ellery uses while he has a sore finger. She's very comically gung-ho; but one humorous trope that never amuses me is people forever correcting others about difficult names.
Overall, low ranking on "Ellery" episodes.
Nice faux-Egyptian trappings. As usual, a cast of famous names used for shorthand. Nehemiah Persoff overacts as usual. Simon Oakland is mean and yelly because by the mid-1970s Simon Oakland played parts that were short-tempered and loud-mouthed. See "Kolshak: The Night Stalker." June Lockhart is more or less just there.
More interesting is radio star Simon Bremner (John Hillerman) not in the stories but a regular foil for the Queens.
The problem "Ellery" had was that it was light and fun until the end, when the killer was revealed and they got a few maudlin words to explain why they did it.
Then they went back to jolliness at the end. But awful as the victim is in this episode, the ending is particularly affecting and the closing jokes pall.
Ross Martin is good, as usual, though his accent is ill-advised.
Also on the comic side is a temp secretary Ellery uses while he has a sore finger. She's very comically gung-ho; but one humorous trope that never amuses me is people forever correcting others about difficult names.
Overall, low ranking on "Ellery" episodes.