Meet Nero Wolfe

Edward Arnold makes a decent Nero Wolfe in "Meet Nero Wolfe," a 1936 B film based on Rex Stout's first novel about the detective, Fer de Lance.

Wolfe here is much more cheerful and talkative than in the books, and Archie (Lionel Stander) is a less sophisticated Archie, with a nagging girlfriend (Dennie Moore) who wants to get married.

Wolf still drinks his special beer and tends to his orchids. He's an agoraphobic by choice - he could leave the house, but he doesn't want to. Here his chef (John Qualen) is renamed Olaf instead of Fritz.

The plot concerns the missing brother of his beer supplier (a totally unrecognizable Rita Hayworth) - Wolfe discovers he cut out put a newspaper article concerning the alleged death by heart attack of a man on a golf course.

Learning that Carlo made the springs for guns, he concludes that Carlo is dead and the death on the golf course was murder.

Of interest, the widow of the murdered man offers a $50,000 reward. The buying power in 1936 was over a million dollars!

Solid mystery.

Many actors have played Nero Wolfe on film, television, and radio, including Sydney Greenstreet, Walter Connelly, William Conrad, Thayer David, Kurt Kaszner, Francesco Pannofino, etc. My dream Wolfe was Raymond Burr. Back in the '30s, Stout wanted Charles Laughton.

What is Nero Wolfe here....

1) Wolfe is a genius... 2) Wolfe prefers to stay at home... 3) Wolfe drinks Beer and tosses the caps in his desk drawer.... 4) Wolfe has an assistant named Archie Goodwin.

What is not Nero Wolfe here.....

1) Wolfe is a generally friendly, avuncular fellow who chuckles and smiles constantly. 2) Wolfe welcomes guests to his home, telling them to return "anytime". 3) Wolfe guzzles Beer...straight from the bottle! 4) Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin is a gravel-voiced moron with a Brooklyn accent, who only wants to get away from Wolfe to marry his stereotype dumb blonde Brooklyn accented "galfriend" and Honeymoon at Coney Island, (then become a furniture salesman!)

I could add the other assorted differences...The lack of Archie's narration ( a blessing given this Comic Relief version of "Archie")... Wolfe's 'cook' named Olaf...The stereotype Irish Detective named O'Grady...etc...

Bottom Line: If you are a fan of Nero Wolfe, you will strain to perceive him here. Stick with the A&E series or the books. If, as a collector, you feel you must see this ( as I did ) do not expect anything of consequence and you shall not be disappointed.

After watching this, it is easy to understand why Rex Stout did not care for Hollywood getting it's uncaring hands on his creations.

To start with, this was a very enjoyable detective mystery from the 1930s, but it just wasn't Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe. The story is based on Stout's novel "Fer-de-Lance" but considerably altered, probably due to the difficulty of filming the novel's airplane scenes and to time constraints. The most egregious fault with this movie is turning Archie Goodwin into a psuedo-buffoon and saddling him with a fiance who contributes absolutely nothing to the story line. Nitpicking, Wolfe is too mobile, jolly, and penurious and drinks his beer from the bottle; none of these inaccuracies are necessary. Still, if you can get it to watch (ah, there's the rub) it is an entertaining hour and a half.

A great who-done-it mystery film told with the true spirit of author Rex Stout's genius detective Nero Wolfe.Perfect in size,girth,and bellicosity Edward Arnold portrays the heavyset armchair private investigator as fans of the novels would expect.His man of all tasks,Archie Goodwin(played here for laughs),is portrayed by gravel-voiced character favorite Lionel Stander. Adapted from the first Nero Wolfe novel'Fer De Lance',the mystery in the film begins with a strange death at a golf course which was actually murder.It is a very young Rita Hayworth who hires Nero Wolfe to solve the crime before the police prosecute a loved-one for the murder.The story moves quickly with marvelous red-herrings,interesting clues,murder attempts,and plenty of suspects to choose from(Victor Jory,Walter Kingsford,Frank Conroy). All of the elements from the novels are included :the brownstone mansion,the huge library and red-leather chair,the orchid room upstairs,the endless beer supply,and Wolfe's personal chef played by John Qualen.Columbia pictures had a winner here and there were hopes of a series but,because of Edward Arnold's commitments elsewhere he bowed out after this entry.There was one more Nero Wolfe film following the success of this one.It was 'The League of Frightened Men'(1937),and starred Walter Connolly as Wolfe and Stander returning as Archie Goodwin.

A man playing golf is stung by a mosquito and has a heart attack. When Nero Wolfe's favorite bootlegger's brother disappears, he sends Archie Goodwin out to look for clues, telling him "Just write down anything that looks unimportant to you."

Edward Arnold was the obvious choice to play Wolfe in this adaptation of Rex Stout's FER-DE-LANCE Lionel Stander makes a fine Archie, and John Qualen is at home with a Scowhegian accent as cook Olaf. Unhappily, the writers lard in all of Wolfe's eccentricities as early and often as possible, and Arnold plays this one chuckling all the time. Director Herbert Biberman's direction seems to have been to let Arnold do pretty much what he wanted. Noteworthy for Rita Hayworth's first appearance in a Columbia feature.

Columbia would try again the following year with THE LEAGUE OF FRIGHTENED MEN. Walter Connally would play Wolfe in that one. Stander, still as Archie, wouldn't seem to notice the switch.