The Adventure of the Pharaoh's Curse

Episode 10, "The Adventure of the Pharaoh's Curse," begins with Norris Wentworth's unveiling of his latest discovery, the mummy of ancient Egyptian pharaoh Amon-Ra, in the museum of Dr. Otis Tremaine (Ross Martin), much to the dismay of native Egyptian Dr. Mustafa Haddid (Nehemiah Persoff), who objects to the desecration involved and mentions the curse that had claimed the lives of the mummy's previous six owners. Wentworth (Simon Oakland) naturally dismisses the notion of a curse but is later found dead of a heart attack in the museum after closing hours. Ellery suspects murder, especially after Wentworth's car is found to have been broken into through the driver's side window. Mrs. Wentworth (June Lockhart) confirms that her husband had a heart condition, also that she has been seeing a good deal of Dr. Tremaine in the meantime. There was also no love lost between the dead man and his son (Joel Steadman), who reveals that he never saw a dime of the Wentworth fortune, built on airplane manufacturing. John Hillerman returns as Simon Brimmer, whose investigation of Dr. Haddid includes bribing the bellhop (John Larroquette, whose appearance lasts barely ten seconds) into allowing him access to the Egyptian's room searching for evidence. For once, the solution does not involve an absent Brimmer (and was never guessed by this author). There is a slight love interest for Ellery in the person of Margie Coopersmith (Nancy Belle Fuller), taking dictation for the author's latest novel due to his injured finger, who later objects to being 'pumped' for information by an inquiring Brimmer. Charles Macaulay, making a brief early appearance as an art critic, is perhaps best known as the actual Dracula who puts the curse of the undead on an African prince in the popular "Blacula" (1972).

Just finished this episode and I may be wrong. But I don't think men during 1946 were wearing red slacks, like the one's Ellery was wearing. During that time period the color may have been a little too bold for men.

"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.