I watched the Nero Wolfe movie on A&E last night, and
thought the thing was nicely done. I'm very happy with it,
especially Maury Chaykin as Wolfe, who seemed to have the
irritable character down cold.
I've always been a big fan of the Wolfe books, seeing them as
a blend of hardboiled street work and Sherlock Holmes, with a
much more interesting and idiosyncratic detective. I like the
compulsiveness of the guy, and I like that Archie and Wolfe
form this symbiotic pair that need each other to do the
work--and that makes the arguing more interesting. While
these detectives never really change from book to book, (I've
said here before how much I like the more modern ones that
do), I don't mind because, as Lawrence Block wrote about them
in an article, the appeal is not so much the mystery as it is
being able to spend time in this unique household.
While the hardboiled lingo and street work from Archie is
adequeste, the REAL hardboiled stuff here is just in Wolfe's
treatment of other people. A real tough attitude, masking
something--fear? Whatever it is, it drives this guy. He needs
order, control, obsessive handling of details.
All in all, Hutton was a good Archie, Chaykin a great Wolfe,
and the whole cast played the thing like an episode of
"Remember WENN", but all for the fun of it. I hope they do
more of these movies.
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