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(More customer reviews)The 1975 Cult-Classic TV whodunit Ellery Queen starring the brilliant Jim Hutton is finally being released on DVD in its entirety, thanks to E1 Entertainment.
The series was based on the popular classic Ellery Queen mystery books from the 1930's. The show lasted only one season on NBC, but has remained a fan favorite.
Set in the post-WWII 1947, the show closely followed the format of the Ellery Queen mystery novels, which carefully laid out the clues before the reader/audience and invited them to attempt to solve the mystery before Ellery Queen presented the solution.
The show premiered March 23, 1975 with a telepilot, "Too Many Suspects," which was adapted from the book, The Fourth Side of the Triangle. Beloved veteran character actor, David Wayne, portrayed Ellery's crusty but loveable father, Inspector Richard Queen throughout the series. Wayne perfectly delivered folksy dialog ostensibly from the 1940's like, "Why don't we cut all the banana oil?"
Hutton (the father of actor Timothy Hutton) played Ellery to perfection, blending absent-minded goofiness with genuine emotional depth and boyish charm. Together, he and Wayne had the perfect on-screen chemistry, creating an authentic charm that remains undiminished after all of these years.
In all, 22 fun one-hour episodes followed beginning on Sept. 11, 1975, the last show airing on April 4, 1976.
In the early Queen books, just prior to the presentation of the solution to the mystery, a "Challenge To The Reader" was issued during which the suspects and clues were reviewed and the reader challenged to guess the solution to the crime.
This tradition was preserved in the series, when Hutton as Ellery turns from the scene to the camera and speaks directly to viewers. This occurs prior to the commercial break that led into the final act. Ellery provides a brief recap, then invites the audience to add up the clues, and to identify the guilty party.
The final act always employed the time-honored detective cliché of calling all of the suspects together (it was made famous by Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, who often gathered the crowd in together in the drawing room) with Ellery presenting the solution to the group, frequently upstaging and skewering the solution proposed by whichever rival sleuth was also in the episode.
Rounding out the cast was John Hillerman, who portrayed Radio Mystery Master, Simon Brimmer. Brimmer constantly tried to upstage the Inspector and also embarrass Ellery by solving the crime first -- and he always failed.
In addition, Ken Swofford portrayed yellow journalist Frank Flannigan; Tom Reese, as the stalwart and stone-face Lt. Thomas Velie, the Inspector's right-hand man; and Nina Roman, who portrayed the Inspector's secretary, Grace, in seven episodes.
The show as also known for its clever opening montage, in which an announcer relays that this so-and-so is about to be murdered. Who is guilty? Is it ...? Next, each suspect (guest star) is shown in a brief clip, speaking a short humorous phrase. It ends with, "Match wits with Ellery Queen and see if you can guess whodunit!"
The series was created by the writing/producing team of Richard Levinson and William Link, who also created the Classic TV mystery/police shows Mannix, Columbo and Murder, She Wrote.
"Too Many Suspects," the pilot episode, IS included in this six-disc complete series boxed set entitiled: "Ellery Queen Mysteries." The other 22 episodes included are: The Adventure of Auld Lang Syne; The Adventure of the Lover's Leap; The Adventure of the Chinese Dog; The Adventure of the Comic Book Crusader; The Adventure of the 12th Floor Express; The Adventure of Miss Aggie's Farewell Performance; The Adventure of Colonel Niven's Memoirs; The Adventure of the Mad Tea Party; The Adventure of Veronica's Veils; The Adventure of the Pharaoh's Curse; The Adventure of the Blunt Instrument; The Adventure of the Black Falcon; The Adventure of the Sunday Punch; The Adventure of the Eccentric Engineer; The Adventure of the Wary Witness; The Adventure of the Judas Tree; The Adventure of the Sinister Scenario; The Adventure of the Two-Faced Woman; The Adventure of the Tyrant of Tin Pan Alley; The Adventure of Caesar's Last Sleep; The Adventure of the Hard-Hearted Huckster; and The Adventure of the Disappearing Dagger.
In addition to these fabulous episodes, which have been completely remastered, E1 Entertainment has included a special collector's book in the set.
Guest stars truly included the cream of 1970's acting talent on the small and big screens, including: Kim Hunter, Ray Milland, Tim O'Connor, Gail Strickland, Joan Collins, David Doyle, Ray Walston, Anne Francis, Don Ameche, Susan Strasberg, Orson Bean, Dee Wallace, Lynda Day George, Tom Bosley, Pat Harrington Jr., Eve Arden, Bert Parks, Betty White, Robbert Loggia, Rene Auberjonois, Pernell Roberts, Jim Backus, Larry Hagman, George Burns, Hayden Rorke, June Lockhart, John Larroquette, Eva Gabor, Dean Stockwell, Tab Hunter, Roddy McDowall, Susan Stafford, William Schallert, Robert Alda, Arthur Godfrey, Ed McMahon, Bobby Sherman, Dick Van Patten, Tricia O'Neil, Cesar Romero, Dick Sargent, Bill Dana, Diana Muldaur, Noah Beery Jr., Troy Donahue, Vincent Price, James Sikking, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Edward Mulhare, Vera Miles, Victor Buono, Polly Bergen, Ken Berry, Norman Fell, Edward Albert, Kevin Tighe, Bibi Besch, Bob Crane, Juliet Mills, Gary Burghoff, Ronny Cox, and Walter Pidgeon.
(Important FYI: Here's a quick word about the "real" Ellery Queen in the literary world. "Ellery Queen" is actually the pseudonym used by two cousins, Frederick Dannay and Manfred B. Lee to write detective fiction. Some of the later Ellery Queen novels were ghost-written by Theodore Sturgeon, Jack Vance, and other prominent writers.
In their successful series of novels, Ellery Queen is not only the name of the author, but also the detective-hero of the stories. The writing team also wrote four novels under the name of Barnaby Ross about a Shakespearian actor/detective named Drury Lane. These novels were later reiussed under the Ellery Queen byline.
For a while in the 1930s "Ellery Queen" and "Barnaby Ross" staged a series of public debates in which one cousin impersonated Queen and the other impersonated Ross.
The early Queen novels encouraged the reader to attempt to solve the puzzle, with an explicit note in the text when the reader had all the necessary information.
There were many paperback novels written by "Ellery Queen" in the 1960s that did not feature the detective Ellery Queen. For instance, three novels featuring the governor's "troubleshooter" Mike McCall - The Campus Murders (1969, written by Gil Brewer); The Black Hearts Murder (1970, written by Richard Deming); and The Blue Movie Murders (1972, written by Edward D. Hoch) -- were published under the "Ellery Queen" byline. Jack Vance also wrote four of these book.)
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From the creators of Columbo and Murder, She Wrote' Match wits with Ellery Queen (Jim Hutton) in all 22 digitally restored, uncut and unedited episodes of this classic NBC series following the exploits of the famed writer as he assists his father, Inspector Richard Queen (David Wayne), in solving the mysteries that baffle the New York City police force.
Guest Stars include: Don Ameche, Dana Andrews, Tom Bosley, George Burns, Joan Collins, Troy Donahue, Anne Francis, Eva Gabor, Larry Hagman, June Lockhart, Robert Loggia, Roddy McDowall, Ed McMahon, Sal Mineo, Donald O'Connor, Dean Stockwell, Dick Van Patten, Vincent Price, Cesar Romero, Betty White, and many more!
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