And Be A Villain

 

A few weeks ago, my "Friday's Favorite OTR" post was an episode of Murder is My Hobby, in which a guest on a live radio broadcast is poisoned while the show is on the air.

Someone on Facebook posted a comment saying that he thought a Nero Wolf novel used the same premise. I've read all the Wolfe novels, but I've never re-read the series methodically. So it's been many years since I've read some of them and simply didn't remember this particular plot.

Well, by brilliant and beautiful wife Angela saw the comment and remembered the novel right away: And Be a Villain. Rex Stout wrote this one in 1948, during the run of Murder is My Hobby. Since the episode I highlighted is undated, it's impossible to know if it was broadcast before or after the Nero Wolfe tale. It's not impossible that the show's writers lifted the idea from the novel, though to be fair, they did wrap an original story around the concept. It could be just a coincidence. I suppose it's not impossible that Stout heard the episode and decided to improve on the premise with a better and more intricate plot. In any case, Murder is My Hobby was an entertaining but still second-tier OTR show. Rex Stout's novel are classics of the mystery genre. 

The novel is unique among most of the other entries in the series for several reasons. First, it's one of the few times that Wolfe goes out looking for a job because he needs the money. He's been hit with a big income tax bill and the fee he asks for in exchance for solving a recent murder will cover that bill.

Second, it's the only time I can think of when Wolfe, after uncovering a key fact, gives this information to Inspector Cramer and then sits back expecting the cops to finish the job. He assumes that the case can be wound up through regular police routine. When he's proven wrong, he gets involved again.

The case involves a guest on a radio show who is murdered on the air, during a bit when the host and her guests drink the product of one of their sponsers. The guest's bottle is poisoned.

It's Wolfe who eventually figures out that the poison was probably intended for the host, which naturally changes the direction of the police investigation. But when Cramer still hits a dead end, Archie uses a clever trick to play on Wolfe's ego and get the corpulent detective working again. Or rather, to get the corpulent detective to think about the case and get Archie to do the legwork.

Another murder, at first apparently unconnected, is carried out, leading to the possibility that the motive is linked to a cleverly run blackmail ring. At this point, Wolfe receives a vaguely threatening phone call from Arnold Zeck, a master criminal that Stout was gradually building up to be Wolfe's Professor Moriarty. 

It's only when a third person is abruptly murdered that Wolfe is able to link everything together and identify the killer. Arnold Zeck calls Wolfe one more time, foreshadowing the day when Wolfe will actually have to leave his brownstone and go into hiding while he deals with the master crook. 

All the usual strengths of Rex Stout's brilliant novels are here--Archie's humorous and mildly cynical narration, his interactions with Wolfe, and a well-constructed murder mystery with a satisfying denoument. And the unusual aspects--primarily Wolfe and Cramer playing nice together rather than clashing--adds additional spice to the tale. 

Reading a classic mystery always makes me want to solve a murder. But I never get to do so.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Nero Wolfe: "Phantom Fingertips" 1/26/51

There is no question that a murder was committed by one of three suspects. There is no question of this. But the fingerprints on the murder weapon don't match with any of them.

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I wish we had seen more of Hattie

I wish we had seen more of Hattie Annis. She was an eccentric, somewhat annoying and absolutely wonderful character. But she pops up in one story and then fades away into pop culture limbo. That's a pity.

But perhaps a character like Hattie only works once and would become tiresome if she continued to appear in later stories. Besides, I have no idea how she would have realistically been sandwiched into any additonal Nero Wolfe mysteries.

The novella in which Hattie appears is "Counterfeit for Murder," which was first serialized in the Saturday Evening Post in 1961 (under the title "The Counterfeiter's Knife") and later published with two other novellas in the 1962 book Homicide Trinity.

She shows up at Wolfe's brownstone with a large package of $20 bills. Her idea is for Wolfe to find the owner and then they would split the reward. She didn't want to take it to the cops, because she doesn't like cops. And I mean she really doesn't like cops.

Because after the money turns out to be counterfeit and someone tries to run down Hattie and one of the borders at her home is murdered, she locks herself in her room and refuses to allow the police in to question her. They have to break in and literally carry her from the home.

Wolfe and Archie just sort of end up with Hattie as a client without really meaning to. Hattie wants to hire them to make the cops eat dirt. Wolfe interprets the job as figuring out who the killer is. The cops-eating-dirt part may or may not be a by-product of that.

I like Rex Stout's novels featuring Wolfe and Archie more than the novellas, largely because there's more room to portray more of the always entertaining interactions between the residents of that Manhattan brownstone.

But this one has both a good, tight mystery (involving Wolfe getting a hint at the killer's identity and Saul Panzer then doing his usual effective field work) and the presence of Hattie. Her tendency to call Archie "Buster" and Wolfe "Falstaff," combined with her eccentric behavior and unique sense of honor makes her a delight. It's is indeed very possible that she works best as a one-off character, but I still kind of wished we had seen more of her.

Friday's Favorite OTR

Nero Wolfe: "The Case of the Malevolent Medic" 2/23/51

The wife of a wealthy man dies of a heart attack while in her doctor's office. Or was it a heart attack?

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All History Would Have Been Altered!

Why didn't I know about this? How have I survived in life without knowing about this? It's inexcusable that I didn't know about this!

In 1959, seven years before he became Captain Kirk, William Shatner played Archie Goodwin, the wise-cracking assistant to the brilliant and corpulent Nero Wolfe.

Nero Wolfe was filmed as a pilot for a possible weekly series. In fact, according to IMDB, one or two additional episodes were filmed as well, though none of them ever aired. As far as I know, only a single episode survives--which has recently been released on DVD.

That one episode is not based on any of the original Rex Stout stories, involving the murder of a rocket scientist at the exact moment a rocket is being launched. Everyone thinks it was a heart attack brought on by the stress of the moment. But Wolfe, after hearing Archie read the first few lines of a newspaper account, realizes that it was actually murder. A few moments later, when Archie points out that their bank account is shrinking, he decides to publicly announce that the death was a murder, then charge the various suspects for finding the real killer and saving them trouble from the police.

Shatner and Kurt Kaszner are both excellent as Archie and Wolfe. The script is superb, cleverly borrowing elements from a number of Rex Stout's stories and novels. For instance, Wolfe researches the personal finances of each of the people involved, then charges each an amount based on what they can afford. He did the same thing in the novel The League of Frightened Men.

The dialogue catches the personalities of both protagonists perfectly as well. Even little touches--such as Archie drinking milk--are there. The writer, veteran scribe Sidney Carroll, obviously knew and respected the source material. The Wolfe adaptation that aired on A&E in the early 2000s is justly considered faithful and excellent, but this series could really have given that one a run for its money in quality.

The only thing I miss was that neither Fritz nor Inspector Cramer put in appearances in this particular story.

It's too bad it didn't catch on. Or is it too bad? What if it had been a hit? What if it ran long enough to keep Shatner from becoming Captain Kirk? What if the absence of one of the key actors kept the Kirk/Spock/McCoy triumvirate from hitting just the right note? What if Star Trek last only a half-season, then disappeared into obscurity?

Consider how influential Star Trek has been, both in pop culture and in inspiring technological advancement. Gee whiz, the history of the entire world might have been altered--and possibly not for the better!

Kurt Kaszner went on to appear in Land of the Giants in 1968, so another TV science fiction show would have suffered. Perhaps not as significant as Star Trek, but maybe that would have been the same as stepping on a butterfly while hunting dinosaurs. (Note: If you don't understand that reference, I'm not speaking to you anymore.)

But that one surviving episode of Nero Wolfe really was superb. It would have been nice if there had been more. But then, perhaps it would have been worth the downfall of civilization to if there had been more.

I guess we'll never know.

Friday's Favorite OTR

Nero Wolfe: "The Case of the Disappearing Diamond" 3/9/51

A sneak thief is indeed guilty of petty theft, but is he also guilty of murder? It's up to Wolfe and Archie to find out.

Click HERE to listen or download.

Friday's Favorite OTR

The New Adventures of Nero Wolfe: "The Case of the Midnight Ride"  3/16/51

Two phone calls--one from a frightened dentist and one from a frightened woman---result in Archie being taken on a "ride" by a ruthless gunman.

Howard McNear gives a wonderfully funny performance as the ditzy and perpetually confused dentist.

Click HERE to listen or download.

"I then believed that all misguided or cruel people should be shot, and I shot some."

When Rex Stout created the obese detective Nero Wolfe, he was performing a rather delicate balancing act. Wolfe works as a detective only because he needs money to maintain his brownstone, care for his orchids and keep to a gourmet diet. Some of his most obvious traits are less-than-admirable. He's stubborn, sometimes a little childish, and is quite often a quarter-ton pain in the butt.

But if Wolfe was too obnoxious without any traits to balance this out, then we would get tired of visiting him. We might enjoy a few Nero Wolfe novels or novellas simply because they are nifty mysteries or because we like Archie Goodwin, but if we didn't like Wolfe, we wouldn't come back.

Of course, it probably helps that we spend most of our time with Archie and get Wolfe in relatively small doses.

So why do we like Nero Wolfe? There are a number of reasons, but one of them is that he does have a sense of right and wrong. He does have a code of honor, even if he doesn't care to admit to this if he doesn't have to. The novel Over My Dead Body (abridged in American Magazine in 1939; published as a novel in 1940) is perhaps the best example of this.

A recent immigrant from Montenegro needs Wolfe's help--she's been accused of theft by one of the clients of the fencing school at which she works. Wolfe's bank account is full at the moment, so he's not interested. But then it turns out the young lady might be Wolfe's adopted daughter.

We get to learn a little bit about Wolfe's background--that he wasn't always fat and that he spent a few years in what is now Yugoslavia during the World War. ("I then believed that all misguided or cruel people should be shot, and I shot some." One of the best lines ever.) While there, he stumbled across a starving three-year-old girl and took her in. Later, the two lost track of each other. Now she seems to be back.

So Wolfe sends Archie to the fencing school, despite the fact that no fee is likely to be collected. The theft thing is cleared up pretty quickly, but then a corpse turns up and Wolfe's daughter (if she is his

daughter) is a suspect. And the murder weapon turns up in the pocket of Archie's coat. It's the sort of thing that happens with surprising frequency to poor Archie.

What follows is a very faced-paced story. The action covers only two days (with Wolfe and Archie only getting a few hours sleep during this time), so there is an inherent excitement to everything. But the pacing never gets ahead of the story--when the complex mystery is finally sorted out, everything falls nicely into place. The twist at the end  is absolutely wonderful. Oh, and we learn that Wolfe is still perfectly capable of looking after himself in dangerous situations.

Along the way, Rex Stout has fun with his characters. Inspector Cramer realizes that Wolfe's clients always turn out to be innocent and that the corpulent detective often digs up vital information before the cops. So he eventually camps out in the brownstone, even following Wolfe up to the greenhouse during orchid-time.

But the best part comes in the last chapter, when Wolfe finally has time to talk to his daughter without worrying about solving a mystery. Boy, is that awkward. But its also legitimately sweet and if you want to know why people like Nero Wolfe despite all his annoying traits--well, here's your answer. It is this as well as the great mystery that makes it one of my favorite in the series.

A hopeless case, an unfriendly cop and a nervous breakdown

It's always fun to re-visit a Nero Wolfe story. Of course, that's true of all the Great Detectives. It's as much their unique personalities as the well-constructed mysteries that draw us to them.

If you're not familiar with Mr. Wolfe, you need to be. Both he and his assistant Archie Goodwin are wonderful character that you always enjoy spending time with.

One thing about Wolfe is that he hates to work. If it were up to him, he'd stay inside his Manhatten brownstone forever, sticking to his rigid schedule that includes meals, a total of four hours with his orchids in his rooftop greenhouse and reading. But that lifestyle costs money, so he occasionally has to earn a (preferably large) fee solving a seemingly unsolvable murder.

The Silent Speaker (1946) gets off to an unusual start in that Wolfe actually solicits his services when the bank account runs a bit low. Of course, he does this in a way that brings the clients to him in a way that makes them think hiring him was their idea.

The murder victim in this case was an important government official who was killed just before giving a speech to an unfriendly organization of businessmen. That means there's something like 1400 suspects and the police are stumped. Wolfe seems to be stumped as well through much of the book, much to Archie's chagrin. When a second person is murdered right on Wolfe's door step, that narrows the suspect list down a bit, but there still seems to be no evidence pointing to the real killer.

Stout always seems to bring in new situations to his novels that give each one a truly unique feel. In this one, their usual police contact--the usually unfriendly Inspector Cramer--is replaced because of political pressure. His replacement--the even more unfriendly Inspector Ash--immediately issues a warrant for Wolfe, assuming that the corpulent detective is holding out on the cops. In a way, Ash is somewhat justified--Wolfe actually holds out on the cops all the time. But his method of dealing with Wolfe simply makes him an enemy that, in the end, he's not smart enough to deal with.

A bit later on, the situation becomes such that Wolfe knows something he does will bring the cops, his clients and a parade of newspapermen to his door. So he fakes a nervous breakdown, spending three days confined to his bedroom with a doctor's orders that he not be disturbed. Archie fends off the often very insistent visitors as he grows more and more worried. By now, everything hinges on finding a recording cylinder made by the victim not long before his death. But that seems hopeless and Wolfe's actions seem to be desperate ones.

But it just may turn out that Nero Wolfe had a plan all along.



The Silent Speaker is near the top of the list of the best Nero Wolfe novels. Wolfe may drive Archie to despair on a regular basis, but the rest of us need never regret spending some time with him.

1937--A Good Year for Adventure

By pure coincidence, I just read a couple of books that were both originally published in 1937. Both were good mysteries featuring established characters and it got me to thinking. What were all the famous detectives and adventurers doing that year?


We’ll start with the Whisperer—the secret identity of James “Wildcat” Gordon, police commissioner of an unnamed big city. Gordon isn’t satisfied with the slow course of official justice and the corruption that slows it down even more. So, on top of his efforts as a cop, he often assumed the identity of the Whisperer. Using specially designed dental plates to disguise his voice, he wielded a pair of silenced automatics to dispense a somewhat faster method of justice than the court system allows.


In The Red Hatchets, he finds himself caught between two opposing forces when a Chinese tong wages brutal warfare against a local gangster. A lot of mobster skulls get split with red-handled axes while the Whisperer tries to rescue a kidnapped girl and sort out exactly what’s going on.


Beautiful girl reporter Torchy Blane (the inspiration for Lois Lane) had several 1937 adventures chronicled in the movies. One of them, Fly-Away Baby, had her traveling around the world to keep tabs on a suspected murderer. She and her boyfriend, NYPD Lt. Steve McBride, eventually confront a killer aboard the zeppelin Hindenburg.


Interestingly, Charlie Chan had been aboard the Hindenburg (though traveling in the opposite direction) while pursuing a spy in Charlie Chan at the Olympics. Of course, though that film was released ’37, it was recounting events that took place the previous year. For Charlie’s 1937 adventure, we need to look to Charlie Chan on Broadway, where he sorts out a killer’s identity from among a bevy of Damon Runyon-esque gamblers.



Terry Lee and Pat Ryan (from the comic strip Terry and the Pirates), while still bumming around the Far East, begin the year escaping from the bandit leader Pyzon, though Pat gets shot in the process. While recovering, he encounters his long-lost love Normandie Drake and her sleezy husband Tony Sandhurst. Terry and Pat rescue Sandhurst from kidnappers, but the chubby villain then attempts to frame Pat for several felonies.


Dick Tracy spent a large part of 1937 breaking up an insurance fraud ring. In the end, he is forced to track the main bad guy through a pitch-dark theater.

Hercule Poirot was in England that year, responding to a letter for help from a rich woman who feared one of her relatives was trying to off her. The letter is delayed and the poor woman is dead before Poirot arrives. But he can at least put the finger on the killer, as recounted in the book The Dumb Witness.


Back in New York City, gargantuan detective Nero Wolfe looks into a murder in The Red Box. It’s a case complicated when one of the suspects has the bad taste to die in Wolfe’s office, presenting him with a possible conflict of interest in his further investigations. But, with the help of his hard-boiled assistant Archie Goodwin, the overweight genius manages to figure it all out.


There was, in fact, quite a bit of action in the Big Apple that year. The Shadow was quite busy, but his most notable case that year was recorded in The Shadow Unmasked. While looking into some jewel thefts, the Shadow is forced to abandon his usual secret identity of Lamont Cranston. For the first time, we learn who he really is—Kent Allard, an aviator who was supposedly killed in a crash years before.


The Spider had a busy year as well. In Dictator of the Damned, he prevented a madman from using assassinations and an army of thugs to take over the city. It all comes to a head with a desperate gun battle inside a riverfront building, while the lovely Nita Van Sloan is caught up a yet another death trap. I think that poor girl may have even beat out Lois Lane for the number of death traps various villains tossed her into.


Ellery Queen had a quieter but still fascinating adventure when he tried to deduce who had plunged a pair of scissors into the neck of a famous novelist in The Door Between.


Doc Savage was hopping around the globe quite a bit that year (as he was throughout the ‘30s and ‘40s.) His adventures included battling an evil dwarf armed with a super-weapon in Repel and preventing some mercenaries from taking over a Central American nation in The Golden Peril. That latter case was especially important—the country is the source of Doc’s great wealth, regularly supplied to him in gold by some grateful Mayans he once helped out.


Over in Los Angeles, famed criminal attorney Perry Mason solved a murder aboard a gambling ship in The Case of the Dangerous Dowager. A little later that same year, Della Street gets tossed in jail for a short time helping her boss figure out The Case of the Lame Canary. She also gets the first of what will be several marriage proposals from Perry in that book. But she believes Perry needs a secretary who will back his plays no matter what more than a wife, so she always turns him down.


Even when I read the books, my mental image of Della is that of Barbara Hale from the TV series. I don’t blame Perry for being persistent in his proposals. Gee whiz, that gal was purty!


And that’s only a small portion of the vigilantes, detectives, and explorers that had adventures that year. It was an adventurous year indeed. But whatever problems might arise, whether it was a single murder or the threat of world domination, there were more than enough heroes scattered about the globe to keep the innocent safe.

If it's 9 o'clock, then he's up with the orchids.

The Golden Spiders, by Rex Stout (1953)


It's always a lot of fun to spend some time with Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. The two play off each other so well. In fact, the two men do a remarkable job of combining the traditional whodunit with the hard-boiled detective genre.


The obese but brilliant Wolfe represents the traditional detective. "I have no talents," he once said. "I have genius or nothing!" So he becomes a private investigator, using his genius to earn often very high fees.


Archie represents the hard-boiled P.I. When Wolfe takes a case, it's Archie who does the footwork, collecting facts and interviewing witnesses. Archie is a skilled detective in his own right, quite able to make intelligent decisions while out on his own. But it's Wolfe who puts all the facts together and solves the case.


But it's the prose and the dialouge of the Wolfe stories that really make them the classics they are. Wolfe and Archie are also just plain fun to listen to. Wolfe's grammatically precise sentences, peppered with obscure words, nicely counterpoints Archie's cynical wit. And Rex Stout's excellent storytelling skills allow the sometimes complex plots to unfold in a staightforward and intelligent fashion.


Wolfe and Archie are perfect partners, but often get on each other's nerves. That's pretty much how they got involved in solving a trio of murders in The Golden Spiders. Wolfe had gotten into a snit when his personal chef unexpectedly changed a recipe for the main course at dinner. This leads Archie to decide that Wolfe needs to be taught a lesson.


So when a 12-year-old boy shows up on the doorstep, demanding to see Wolfe, Archie lets him in. But Wolfe gets back in turn at Archie by politely listening to the boy (who thinks he's seen a woman in danger) and obligating Archie to forgo a night out to take notes.


Everything gets a bit more serious the next day when the boy is murdered. A couple of other deaths follow and an odd chain of circumstances (and a $10,000 check) obligate Wolfe to investigate.


What follows is an expertly constructed mystery with a satisfying conclusion. The novel also includes some great scenes with some of the series' regular supporting characters, including the perpetually aggravated Police Inspector Cramer and the three independent private eyes (Saul Panzar, Orrie Cather and Fred Durkin) often hired by Wolfe when they need more help on a case. It all comes to an end, as it usally does, in Wolfe's study, with the corpulant genius explaining to a roomful of suspects and cops who killed whom. It's a great novel from start to finish--one of the best of the series.


Next month, we'll visit with P.I. Philip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler's The High Window.