Ellery Queen: Meurtres à New York

In this adaption of an Ellery Queen novel obviously meant to be a TV pilot for a series, Peter Lawford essays the part of the famed mystery writer Criminologist. The case that he solves for the NYPD involves the seemingly random strangulations of certain men and women who have no apparent connection to each other. They're strangled with ribbons, blue for the men and pink for the women. And the press has given the serial killer the name of the Hydra.

The colors of the ribbons might give you a clue to what common denominator the victims have. And the motive is a twisted one from a very twisted mind.

Harry Morgan was a very good choice to play the part of Inspector Queen of the NYPD. Given their relative ages I thought that Peter Lawford was too old to be believable as Morgan's son. But fans of Ellery Queen must have been shocked when Morgan becomes Ellery's uncle and only a half brother at that to his father.

That helped the believability in ages, but Lawford turns out to be quite the swinger, something the cerebral Ellery Queen never was in the novels. Purists must have been aghast. Later on in the Seventies, Jim Hutton was perfect as the cerebral intellectual Ellery with David Wayne as his detective father. Too bad that series didn't have a longer life as well as it star should have.

E.G. Marshall plays a consulting psychiatrist who has an agenda himself and Coleen Gray his wife. Possible suspects and victims include Stefanie Powers and Skye Aubrey.

The film is all right, but Ellery Queen fans no doubt were disappointed.

When I got my first VCR in 1980, I set out to get as many detective films as possible, and looked forward to each as a gem in my collection. After reading about several such films, and having seen the Jim Hutton/David Wayne series, I thought when I found that Harry Morgan would be Inspector Queen, I knew there would be some fun watching it. I was not disappointed with Morgan's performance, but Peter Lawford seemed an unlikely choice to play the crime solver, Ellery Queen. I could easily see why this TV pilot was not picked up as a series. The casting. Simple as that. Lawford was all wrong. Now, I have yet to see more than still photos and reviews of the other E.Q. movies or several TV series (there were at least 4 different Ellerys) so I cannot compare one to the other, but I can tell you that I remember a TV guide article written by the son of one of the two Ellery Queen creators (I forget whether it was Manfred B. Lee or Frederick Dannay) and he said that his dad would agree that Jim Hutton was the closest to what Ellery Queen would be, and also David Wayne as the irascible Inspector. (Both actors for Inspector Queen were perfectly cast in my humble opinion.) It was a fairly good mystery as I remember it, and will have to watch it again sometime if I can ever dig it out of my over-sized collection. I remember loving the little animated "bumper" that was used at each commercial break. The book title was something about a "cat-o-nine tales." (Not that is not a typo either.) Now if only we could have seen the series that almost happened starring the seventh of a ton, orchid loving, gourmand detective Nero Wolfe, with Orson Welles (another time it was to be Raymond Burr) and John Ritter (still another time, Bill Cosby) as Archie Goodwin.

But that's another topic altogether.

Peter Lawford as Ellery Queen is called in by his half-uncle, Harry Morgan as Inspector Queen, to investigate a serial killer dubbed 'the Hydra' who is terrorizing New York City.

It's based on the Ellery Queen novel Cat of Many Tails. Published in 1949, it may have been the first mystery novel to deal seriously with serial killers, and it made use of several novelties in telling its tale, including lengthy vignettes of the victims to begin the book. By 1971, serial killers were much more a commonplace of the world and fiction, and this TV movie soon gets bogged down in cliches. Lawford in a ridiculous toupee is poorly cast. While there was extensive shooting in Manhattan to provide atmosphere, the pieces are put together in a way that is clearly wrong; a commonplace of movie geography, alas. Finally, the solution to the mystery of who the murderer was turned out not to be too difficult. I had it figured out by the 40-minute mark. Well in advance of the intrepid crime novelist. With E. G. Marshall and Stefanie Power.

When NBC began the television series in 1975, they wisely used Jim Hutton as Ellery, and David Wayne as the Inspector.

I caught this on Youtube last night. I am a devotee of giallo and 70s horror and 60s/70s stylish detective/mystery films. The cast in particular intrigued me: Peter Lawford, Stefanie Powers, EG Marshall, Harry Morgan. The film itself is about a serial murderer in NYC, and there are scenes of public demonstrations as the entire city bunkers down to avoid being slain by the Hydra, who mysteriously strangles people based upon their age.

Stylistically, this is the pinnacle of 70s coolness. There are all of the decor elements (lamps with huge shades, shag carpeting, everyone with luxurious hair, groovy overcoats) and 1970 NYC is filmed beautifully, with its parks and sidewalks and traffic creating a very iconic backdrop for the acting.

The acting. Stefanie Powers can give a line reading like almost no one else. She really is in command of every dimension of the craft of acting, from microexpressions to posture to movement to speaking. She drops her voice down and uses a hushed girl-next-door tone when she speaks alone with Peter Lawford, and it's unbelievably warm and compelling. I found myself wishing that there were more scenes with her.

Lawford plays an annoying narcissistic juvenile of sixty whose only interests are substance abuse and promiscuity, and although I raised my eyebrow and was repulsed at first, I was won over quite soon. Harry Morgan is funny, and EG Marshall is a pompous and cold psychiatrist who makes me think of every TV psychiatrist I've ever seen.

The story is fun. They reveal the killer far earlier than I expected, and the rest of the film is a cat-and-mouse caper. There is one scene on the World Trade Center roof that suddenly becomes a Hitchcock-styled surrealist fantasy. NYC was beautiful in 1971, and the film uses the city for maximum effect.

I recommend this movie for fans of stylish and hip comedic murder mystery films.

Don't Look Behind You does deserve to be judged separately, but the comparisons will be inevitable, it's just that when you watch this film and then the TV series or vice versa it is easy to see which is superior(in this case the TV series with Jim Hutton, one of my personal favourite shows of the 70s). Don't Look Behind You is not bad though, certainly better than it is given credit for despite its debits being really quite problematic. It is far from cheap, the soft grained image has a real charm to it, the lighting does give off a sinister and not too obvious atmosphere and it is evocative detail-to-period wise. The music has a real suavity and liveliness, there is some amusing smart dialogue especially between Ellery and Inspector Queen and the story and mystery is mostly diverting and keeps us guessing. The animation images for the hydra are genuinely creepy and still look good today, and the acting is serviceable with solid if fairly careful support acting and good chemistry between them. Harry Morgan is very good as Inspector Queen and Stefanie Powers is beautifully seductive. Peter Lawford from personal opinion however is miscast, that he is too old is not so much a problem but, while there are moments where he is very suave(and he has a pleasant speaking voice), he does come across as too aloof and too self-assured. The opening credits are cool but go on for far too long, the suspense is rather dragged out at times and when my house mates and I watched this all of us correctly guessed the identity of the killer too early. Some of the lighting at the end is a little too bright and somewhat surrealist as well. In conclusion, better than it's given credit for but not great. 6/10 Bethany Cox