Cheap The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery (Video) (Bill Duke) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery

Excellent Nero Wolfe adaptation!
"The Golden Spiders" is more than an average mystery. This film and the Nero Wolfe shows that followed were a tribute to Rex Stout's unique characters. Maury Chaykin plays the eccentric, brilliant Nero Wolfe to perfection. Timothy Hutton is outstanding as Wolfe's wise-cracking sidekick, Archie Goodwin. All of the actors make the viewer feel as if they are suddenly transported back to the stylish 1950's of New York City. The acting is only one of the reasons this is such a great film. High praise should be given to the set and costume designers for creating a warm, rich set and snazzy costumes. The wonderful music helps to recreate the times. Best of all, the script remains true to the novel. The production company has done a superb job bringing the characters from the Nero Wolfe stories to life. Fortunately, there is another episode on VHS to enjoy, "The Doorbell Rang", as well as the first season of the series on DVD. If you're looking for an intelligent show with character and style, "The Golden Spiders" delivers.

A Worthy Beginning for an Undeservedly Short-Lived Series
A small boy comes to Nero Wolfe with a problem, then dies violently. Wolfe has a few dollars given him by the boy's mother. Archie Goodwin cajoles him into spend the money, but no more, seeking the boy's slayer. His efforts bring him another person in need, who gives Wolfe a check for $10,000.00 to help her in a certain matter. She refuses to elucidate exactly what she wants, but says she will explain after making a few inquiries on her own. She also dies violently.

Wolfe doesn't really know what the woman wanted him to do to earn his money, but he decides that she would not be displeased if he used it to solve her murder. He is immediately beset by lawyers seeking the return of the money to the woman's estate.

Wolfe fends off the lawyers and Inspector Cramer as he tries to solve the murders with almost nothing to go on. He does have a similarly executed third murder to consider, a pair of golden spider earrings, and a half-dozen or so suspects. He makes an assumption, acts on it, "stirs things up" a little, almost gets his confidential assistant Archie Goodwin arrested for blackmail, gets his ace operative Saul Panzer blackmailed, and gets his loyal-but-not-so-smart operative Fred Durkin tortured. Wolfe's brain can concoct the most Byzantine situations, but Archie's brawn must oftentimes carry them through to fruition. As Fred undergoes torture, Archie steps in and saves the day by delivering a performance worthy of Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry."

With Archie's help, Wolfe uncovers a scandal, hands a gang of thugs over to Inspector Cramer, and earns his fee by not only solving the woman's murder but also clearing up the matter she wanted him to handle in the first place. All good fun, and one of the more action-oriented of the Nero Wolfe stories.

I missed the original airing of this made-for-TV movie and had become comfortably familiar with Archie, Nero, Inspector Cramer, and the other regulars on the series before viewing this first effort. As the actors were just becoming familiar with their roles, the interplay among the characters wasn't quite as fluid as it became in later episodes. Saul Rubinek was slightly miscast as Saul Panzer, but the series corrected that error by moving him to the character of Lon Cohen.

TV drama seldom has the quality of the Nero Wolfe series. I mourn A&E's decision to cancel it.