The Doorbell Rang
Encyclopedia
The Doorbell Rang is a Nero Wolfe
detective novel by Rex Stout
, first published by the Viking Press
in 1965.
.
The Doorbell Rang generated controversy when it was published, due largely to its unflattering portrayal of the FBI, its director and agents. It was published at a time when the public's attitude toward the FBI was turning critical, not long after Robert F. Kennedy
and J. Edgar Hoover
clashed and the Bureau was coming under fire for its investigations of Martin Luther King. Some critics did not care for the book: one called it the "most overrated Wolfe." But Clifton Fadiman
, quoted in a Viking Press advertisement for The Doorbell Rang, thought it was "… the best of all Nero Wolfe stories."
The backdrop to The Doorbell Rang is supplied by J. Edgar Hoover's redirection of the FBI's resources away from its role in criminal investigation and toward its director's own political and ideological ends.
In 1964, American investigative journalist Fred J. Cook
published The FBI Nobody Knows — collecting in book form several of his articles on FBI abuses that had previously appeared in The Nation
. Cook's writings affected Stout profoundly – to the degree that he wrote The Doorbell Rang largely in reaction to The FBI Nobody Knows and the direction that Hoover had taken the FBI. Stout had not before used a Wolfe book to air his own political views so extensively, and it didn't happen again until 1975's A Family Affair
.
Mrs. Rachel Bruner inherited a large real estate investment business from her husband, and has run it successfully for some time. She has read The FBI Nobody Knows and thinks it should get a wider distribution than it has so far. Mrs. Bruner has attracted the Bureau's attention by buying 10,000 copies of the book and sending them to persons of influence, including cabinet members, Supreme Court justices, members of Congress, various state legislators, heads of corporations and banks, and so on.
Mrs. Bruner believes that, in retaliation, the FBI is following her and her family, that it has tapped her phones, and that it has questioned some of her employees. She blames the Bureau's director, J. Edgar Hoover, and she wants Wolfe to stop him.
Wolfe accepts the job, over Archie's objections. Archie believes that the task is an impossible one and that taking it on will make a powerful enemy of the FBI. But Mrs. Bruner has offered a $100,000 retainer, and will pay both expenses and a fee to be determined by Wolfe, contingent on a successful outcome. Wolfe will not return the retainer. To do so would be to imply that he is afraid of what he terms a "bully."
Wolfe plans to get evidence of FBI malfeasance and use it to force the FBI to leave Mrs. Bruner alone. At first, Archie pursues various leads with little success, but then Doc Vollmer conveys to Archie a message that calls him to a meeting in a hotel room, and that warns him to "be sure you're loose." Although suspicious of being set up by the FBI, Archie goes to the hotel room, where he finds Inspector Cramer and a carton of milk.
Cramer has news, but he doesn't want it known that he's passed it along to Wolfe – hence the secret meeting. The FBI knows by now that Wolfe has accepted Mrs. Bruner's job and it has asked the state government to revoke Wolfe's and Archie's licenses to do business as private investigators. In turn, the state has asked the Police Commissioner for whatever negative information he has on Wolfe, and the Commissioner has asked Cramer for a report. Cramer knows that Wolfe has already annoyed the FBI, but before he writes the report he wants the full picture. Archie surmises that Cramer brought the milk, Archie's beverage of choice, to show that he's not eager to cooperate with the FBI's plan to harass Wolfe.
Archie is at first undecided. Normally he would check with Wolfe before opening up to Cramer, but he can't – their phone's surely tapped. Archie's intelligence, guided by experience, tells him to empty the bag for Cramer, and he does so. Then Cramer completes his own agenda by giving Archie some unpublished information about the recent, unsolved murder of Morris Althaus, shot to death in his apartment.
Althaus was a free-lance magazine writer and it is known that he had been preparing an article on the FBI. However, neither a draft of an article nor background information was found in his apartment. (Not even the bullet that killed him was found, although evidence indicates that the bullet passed through his chest, hit the wall and fell to the floor.) Furthermore, an eyewitness saw men leaving the scene and got their car's license number, which Cramer says belongs to the FBI. Cramer's inference is that FBI agents entered Althaus' apartment for a search, that they were surprised to find him there, that Althaus threatened them with his own gun and that they shot him.
Cramer has tried to get the FBI's cooperation in his investigation, but its special agent in charge in New York, Richard Wragg, stonewalls him. With no evidence and no cooperation from the FBI, Cramer is both blocked and seriously angry.
Later, in conference with Wolfe, Archie conjectures that Cramer "… knew we had stung them somehow, and he had a murder he couldn't tag them for, and he decided to hand it to you." Archie and Wolfe agree that, even if they were able to establish that the FBI was responsible for Althaus' death, it wouldn't help them complete their job for Mrs. Bruner. The only leverage they would have would be to trade their silence about the murder for the FBI's agreement to stop harassing Mrs. Bruner. That's not Wolfe's style.
So Wolfe chooses to demonstrate instead that the FBI did not kill Althaus. But he still needs leverage, and he decides that the best way to obtain it is to entice the FBI into an illegal entry. Wolfe enlists the help of his old friend Lewis Hewitt, a millionaire orchid fancier with an estate on Long Island. Hewitt will host a dinner of the Ten for Aristology
, a group of gourmets (one that also figures in "Poison à la Carte"
). The publicity given the newspapers states that Wolfe and Archie will attend and that Fritz will prepare the dinner. Two actors who strongly resemble Wolfe and Archie in superficial physical respects go in their place, thereby giving any FBI agents who might be watching the brownstone the impression that it is unoccupied. In fact it is not: Wolfe and Archie remain hidden in the darkened house; also present are Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin and Orrie Cather, who were smuggled, along with the actors, into the house the day before.
Meantime, Archie, acting on his own, has located evidence pointing to the identity of Althaus' actual murderer. To secure the evidence, though, he has to leave it roughly where he found it. The situation preys on Archie's nerves: the timing of Wolfe's trap forces Archie to wait for a couple of days, and he worries that the murderer will decide to dispose of the evidence permanently.
Wolfe's plan to trap the FBI works as intended, and Wolfe catches two of its agents inside his house, with witnesses who can testify that they broke in. He allows the agents to leave, but only after appropriating their credentials, which FBI agents are permitted to display but not to relinquish. When Archie later describes this scene to Inspector Cramer, he sees a rare and broad smile crease the Inspector's face.
The credentials provide the leverage Wolfe needs to complete his job for Mrs Bruner. Wragg comes to Wolfe's office. Wolfe engages to leave the credentials in a safe deposit box and take no action against the FBI, if the harassment of Mrs. Bruner, her family and her employees stops. Wragg agrees. And as to the murder, Archie is at last able to tell Cramer that the FBI did not in fact kill Althaus, and where the evidence identifying Althaus' murderer can be found. Wragg then hands over the missing bullet, taken by the agents who searched the apartment, so that Cramer can close the case without having to put any of Wragg's men on the witness stand at a trial.
In the final scene, a new visitor arrives at the front door. Though he is not mentioned by name, Archie refers to him as "the big fish," suggesting that J. Edgar Hoover has come in person to retrieve the agents' credentials. Wolfe refuses to let him in, leaving him to keep ringing the doorbell.
discovered that Stout had been under FBI surveillance since the beginning of his writing career. Most of the heavily censored pages he was allowed to obtain from Stout's FBI dossier concerned The Doorbell Rang:
In April 1976, the Church Committee
found that The Doorbell Rang is a reason Rex Stout's name was placed on the FBI's "not to contact list," which it cited as evidence of the FBI's political abuse of intelligence information.
(2001–2002), a Jaffe/Braunstein Films coproduction with the A&E Network. The first of four Nero Wolfe episodes directed by executive producer and star Timothy Hutton, "The Doorbell Rang" made its debut April 22, 2001, on A&E.
Timothy Hutton
is Archie Goodwin; Maury Chaykin
is Nero Wolfe. Other members of the cast are Debra Monk
(Mrs. Rachel Bruner), Francie Swift
(Sarah Dacos), Colin Fox
(Fritz Brenner), Saul Rubinek
(Lon Cohen), Conrad Dunn
(Saul Panzer), Fulvio Cecere
(Fred Durkin), Trent McMullen
(Orrie Cather), Bill Smitrovich
(Inspector Cramer), R.D. Reid (Sergeant Purley Stebbins) and James Tolkan
(Richard Wragg).
"The Doorbell Rang" was filmed in Toronto, with select Manhattan exteriors. Composer Michael Small
wrote the jazzy score, including the title music and series theme, "Boss Boogie." The soundtrack also includes music by Ib Glindemann
, Alan Moorhouse, Bill Novick and Paul Lenart, and Giuseppe Verdi
.
In North America, A Nero Wolfe Mystery is available on Region 1 DVD from A&E Home Video (ISBN 076708893X). "The Doorbell Rang" is one of the Nero Wolfe episodes released on Region 4 DVD in Australia in 2008, under license by FremantleMedia
Enterprises. In 2009 the film was released on Region 2 DVD in the Netherlands, by Just Entertainment. All of these DVD releases present "The Doorbell Rang" in 4:3 pan and scan
rather than its 16:9
aspect ratio for widescreen
viewing.
filmed Nero Wolfe, a Paramount Television production based on the novel The Doorbell Rang. Written and directed by Frank D. Gilroy
, the film costarred Tom Mason http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0556985/ (Archie Goodwin), Brooke Adams (Sarah Dacos), Biff McGuire
(Inspector Cramer), John Randolph
(Lon Cohen), Anne Baxter
(Mrs. Bruner), David Hurst (Fritz Brenner), John O'Leary (Theodore Horstmann) and Sarah Cunningham
(Mrs. Althaus). Intended as the pilot for a TV series, the made-for-TV movie was shelved due to Thayer David's death in July 1978. Nero Wolfe was finally broadcast December 18–19, 1979, as an ABC TV late show.
A year later, Paramount produced Nero Wolfe
, a weekly series that ran January 16–August 25, 1981, on NBC TV. The second episode, "Death on the Doorstep," was an original story by Stephen Downing that also incorporated elements of the novel The Doorbell Rang. William Conrad
and Lee Horsley
star as Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Other members of the cast include George Voskovec
(Fritz Brenner), Robert Coote
(Theodore Horstmann), George Wyner
(Saul Panzer) and Allan Miller
(Inspector Cramer). Directed by George McCowan
, "Death on the Doorstep" aired January 23, 1981.
The series of black-and-white telemovies stars Tino Buazzelli
(Nero Wolfe), Paolo Ferrari
(Archie Goodwin), Pupo De Luca (Fritz Brenner), Renzo Palmer
(Inspector Cramer), Roberto Pistone (Saul Panzer), Mario Righetti
(Orrie Cather) and Gianfranco Varetto (Fred Durkin). Other members of the cast of Il pesce più grosso include Paola Borboni
(Signora Bruner), Silvia Monelli (Signora Dacos), Enrico Luzi (Quayle), Lia Angeleri (Signorina Althaus), Bruno Smith (Jarvis), Simone Mattioli (Kirby) and Fernando Cajati (Wragg).
Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective, created in 1934 by the American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe's confidential assistant Archie Goodwin narrates the cases of the detective genius. Stout wrote 33 novels and 39 short stories from 1934 to 1974, with most of them set in New York City. Wolfe's...
detective novel by Rex Stout
Rex Stout
Rex Todhunter Stout was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. Stout is best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe, described by reviewer Will Cuppy as "that Falstaff of detectives." Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the...
, first published by the Viking Press
Viking Press
Viking Press is an American publishing company owned by the Penguin Group, which has owned the company since 1975. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim...
in 1965.
Plot introduction
Nero Wolfe is hired to force the FBI to stop wiretapping, tailing and otherwise harassing a woman who gave away 10,000 copies of a book that is critical of the Bureau and its director, J. Edgar HooverJ. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
.
The Doorbell Rang generated controversy when it was published, due largely to its unflattering portrayal of the FBI, its director and agents. It was published at a time when the public's attitude toward the FBI was turning critical, not long after Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy , also referred to by his initials RFK, was an American politician, a Democratic senator from New York, and a noted civil rights activist. An icon of modern American liberalism and member of the Kennedy family, he was a younger brother of President John F...
and J. Edgar Hoover
J. Edgar Hoover
John Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Appointed director of the Bureau of Investigation—predecessor to the FBI—in 1924, he was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935, where he remained director until his death in 1972...
clashed and the Bureau was coming under fire for its investigations of Martin Luther King. Some critics did not care for the book: one called it the "most overrated Wolfe." But Clifton Fadiman
Clifton Fadiman
Clifton P. "Kip" Fadiman was an American intellectual, author, editor, radio and television personality.-Literary career:...
, quoted in a Viking Press advertisement for The Doorbell Rang, thought it was "… the best of all Nero Wolfe stories."
The FBI and The FBI Nobody Knows
In 1964, American investigative journalist Fred J. Cook
Fred J. Cook
Fred James Cook was an investigative journalist whose prime years of reporting spanned from the 1950s to the late 1970s...
published The FBI Nobody Knows — collecting in book form several of his articles on FBI abuses that had previously appeared in The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
. Cook's writings affected Stout profoundly – to the degree that he wrote The Doorbell Rang largely in reaction to The FBI Nobody Knows and the direction that Hoover had taken the FBI. Stout had not before used a Wolfe book to air his own political views so extensively, and it didn't happen again until 1975's A Family Affair
A Family Affair (novel)
A Family Affair is the final Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1975.-Plot summary:A waiter at Rusterman's Restaurant turns up at Wolfe's front door late one night, claiming that a man is going to kill him. Shortly after Archie puts him in one of the spare...
.
Plot summary
Mrs. Bruner believes that, in retaliation, the FBI is following her and her family, that it has tapped her phones, and that it has questioned some of her employees. She blames the Bureau's director, J. Edgar Hoover, and she wants Wolfe to stop him.
Wolfe accepts the job, over Archie's objections. Archie believes that the task is an impossible one and that taking it on will make a powerful enemy of the FBI. But Mrs. Bruner has offered a $100,000 retainer, and will pay both expenses and a fee to be determined by Wolfe, contingent on a successful outcome. Wolfe will not return the retainer. To do so would be to imply that he is afraid of what he terms a "bully."
Wolfe plans to get evidence of FBI malfeasance and use it to force the FBI to leave Mrs. Bruner alone. At first, Archie pursues various leads with little success, but then Doc Vollmer conveys to Archie a message that calls him to a meeting in a hotel room, and that warns him to "be sure you're loose." Although suspicious of being set up by the FBI, Archie goes to the hotel room, where he finds Inspector Cramer and a carton of milk.
Cramer has news, but he doesn't want it known that he's passed it along to Wolfe – hence the secret meeting. The FBI knows by now that Wolfe has accepted Mrs. Bruner's job and it has asked the state government to revoke Wolfe's and Archie's licenses to do business as private investigators. In turn, the state has asked the Police Commissioner for whatever negative information he has on Wolfe, and the Commissioner has asked Cramer for a report. Cramer knows that Wolfe has already annoyed the FBI, but before he writes the report he wants the full picture. Archie surmises that Cramer brought the milk, Archie's beverage of choice, to show that he's not eager to cooperate with the FBI's plan to harass Wolfe.
Archie is at first undecided. Normally he would check with Wolfe before opening up to Cramer, but he can't – their phone's surely tapped. Archie's intelligence, guided by experience, tells him to empty the bag for Cramer, and he does so. Then Cramer completes his own agenda by giving Archie some unpublished information about the recent, unsolved murder of Morris Althaus, shot to death in his apartment.
Althaus was a free-lance magazine writer and it is known that he had been preparing an article on the FBI. However, neither a draft of an article nor background information was found in his apartment. (Not even the bullet that killed him was found, although evidence indicates that the bullet passed through his chest, hit the wall and fell to the floor.) Furthermore, an eyewitness saw men leaving the scene and got their car's license number, which Cramer says belongs to the FBI. Cramer's inference is that FBI agents entered Althaus' apartment for a search, that they were surprised to find him there, that Althaus threatened them with his own gun and that they shot him.
Cramer has tried to get the FBI's cooperation in his investigation, but its special agent in charge in New York, Richard Wragg, stonewalls him. With no evidence and no cooperation from the FBI, Cramer is both blocked and seriously angry.
Later, in conference with Wolfe, Archie conjectures that Cramer "… knew we had stung them somehow, and he had a murder he couldn't tag them for, and he decided to hand it to you." Archie and Wolfe agree that, even if they were able to establish that the FBI was responsible for Althaus' death, it wouldn't help them complete their job for Mrs. Bruner. The only leverage they would have would be to trade their silence about the murder for the FBI's agreement to stop harassing Mrs. Bruner. That's not Wolfe's style.
So Wolfe chooses to demonstrate instead that the FBI did not kill Althaus. But he still needs leverage, and he decides that the best way to obtain it is to entice the FBI into an illegal entry. Wolfe enlists the help of his old friend Lewis Hewitt, a millionaire orchid fancier with an estate on Long Island. Hewitt will host a dinner of the Ten for Aristology
Aristology
Aristology is the art or science of cooking and dining. It encompasses the preparation, combination, and presentation of dishes and the manner in which these dishes are integrated into a meal....
, a group of gourmets (one that also figures in "Poison à la Carte"
Three at Wolfe's Door
Three at Wolfe's Door is a collection of Nero Wolfe mystery novellas by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1960. The book comprises three stories, one of them published previously:* "Poison à la Carte"...
). The publicity given the newspapers states that Wolfe and Archie will attend and that Fritz will prepare the dinner. Two actors who strongly resemble Wolfe and Archie in superficial physical respects go in their place, thereby giving any FBI agents who might be watching the brownstone the impression that it is unoccupied. In fact it is not: Wolfe and Archie remain hidden in the darkened house; also present are Saul Panzer, Fred Durkin and Orrie Cather, who were smuggled, along with the actors, into the house the day before.
Meantime, Archie, acting on his own, has located evidence pointing to the identity of Althaus' actual murderer. To secure the evidence, though, he has to leave it roughly where he found it. The situation preys on Archie's nerves: the timing of Wolfe's trap forces Archie to wait for a couple of days, and he worries that the murderer will decide to dispose of the evidence permanently.
Wolfe's plan to trap the FBI works as intended, and Wolfe catches two of its agents inside his house, with witnesses who can testify that they broke in. He allows the agents to leave, but only after appropriating their credentials, which FBI agents are permitted to display but not to relinquish. When Archie later describes this scene to Inspector Cramer, he sees a rare and broad smile crease the Inspector's face.
The credentials provide the leverage Wolfe needs to complete his job for Mrs Bruner. Wragg comes to Wolfe's office. Wolfe engages to leave the credentials in a safe deposit box and take no action against the FBI, if the harassment of Mrs. Bruner, her family and her employees stops. Wragg agrees. And as to the murder, Archie is at last able to tell Cramer that the FBI did not in fact kill Althaus, and where the evidence identifying Althaus' murderer can be found. Wragg then hands over the missing bullet, taken by the agents who searched the apartment, so that Cramer can close the case without having to put any of Wragg's men on the witness stand at a trial.
In the final scene, a new visitor arrives at the front door. Though he is not mentioned by name, Archie refers to him as "the big fish," suggesting that J. Edgar Hoover has come in person to retrieve the agents' credentials. Wolfe refuses to let him in, leaving him to keep ringing the doorbell.
Cast of characters
- Nero WolfeNero WolfeNero Wolfe is a fictional detective, created in 1934 by the American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe's confidential assistant Archie Goodwin narrates the cases of the detective genius. Stout wrote 33 novels and 39 short stories from 1934 to 1974, with most of them set in New York City. Wolfe's...
, private detective - Archie GoodwinArchie Goodwin (fictional detective)Archie Goodwin is a fictional character and detective in Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries. The witty voice of all the stories, he recorded the cases of the detective genius from 1934 to 1975 . He lives in Nero Wolfe's brownstone in New York City.Archie was born on October 23 in Chillicothe, Ohio,...
, Wolfe's assistant, narrator of all the Wolfe stories - Rachel Bruner, Wolfe's client, a wealthy business owner who, along with her family and employees, is being harassed by the FBI
- Sarah Dacos, Mrs. Bruner's secretary
- Morris Althaus, a writer whose murder is somehow connected to the FBI's activities in Manhattan
- Ivana Althaus, Morris's mother, who quotes both Leviticus and Aristotle on the subject of vengeance
- Richard Wragg, special agent in charge of the FBI's New York office
- Ashley Jarvis and Dale Kirby, actors hired to stand in for Wolfe and Goodwin, respectively
- Inspector Cramer, head of West Manhattan Homicide
The unfamiliar word
In most Nero Wolfe novels and novellas, there is at least one unfamiliar word, usually spoken by Wolfe. The Doorbell Rang contains these three:- Thaumaturge. Chapter 1.
- Twaddling. Chapter 4.
- Rodomontade. Chapter 7.
The FBI and The Doorbell Rang
Researching his book Dangerous Dossiers: Exposing the Secret War Against America's Greatest Authors (1988), journalist Herbert MitgangHerbert Mitgang
Herbert Mitgang is an author, editor, journalist, playwright, and producer of television news documentaries.- Work :During World War II Mitgang served as an army correspondent and became the managing editor of the...
discovered that Stout had been under FBI surveillance since the beginning of his writing career. Most of the heavily censored pages he was allowed to obtain from Stout's FBI dossier concerned The Doorbell Rang:
- About one hundred pages in Stout's file are devoted to the novel, the FBI's panicky response to it and the attempt to retaliate against the author for writing it. The FBI's internal memorandum for its special agents told them that "the bureau desires to contribute in no manner to the sales of this book by helping to make it the topic of publicity." Orders came from headquarters in Washington that any questions concerning the book should be forwarded to the Crime Records Division, thereby putting book and author in a criminal category.
- An internal memorandum by Special Agent M.A. Jones (name surprisingly not censored) summarized the novel and went on to write a critique for the FBI's top command — a rare "literary" honor accorded to few books in its files ... Following the review came a series of recommendations — first, Stout was designated as a person "not to be contacted" without prior approval by FBI headquarters in Washington ...
In April 1976, the Church Committee
Church Committee
The Church Committee is the common term referring to the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, a U.S. Senate committee chaired by Senator Frank Church in 1975. A precursor to the U.S...
found that The Doorbell Rang is a reason Rex Stout's name was placed on the FBI's "not to contact list," which it cited as evidence of the FBI's political abuse of intelligence information.
Reviews and commentary
- Jacques BarzunJacques BarzunJacques Martin Barzun is a French-born American historian of ideas and culture. He has written on a wide range of topics, but is perhaps best known as a philosopher of education, his Teacher in America being a strong influence on post-WWII training of schoolteachers in the United...
and Wendell Hertig Taylor, A Catalogue of CrimeA Catalogue of CrimeA Catalogue of Crime, by Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor, is a critique of crime fiction first published in 1971. A revised edition was published in 1989 by Barzun after the death of Taylor in 1985. The book was awarded a Special Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America in...
— The plot is transparent and the detection is fairly simple, but one or two of the dodges practiced here by Wolfe are new (for him). The scene in which the New York head of the FBI is "rated" in Wolfe's office and told he can't have a set of credentials belonging to one of his own men is rich. The anti-"bugging" scheme is also amusing. - Harper'sHarper's MagazineHarper's Magazine is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts, with a generally left-wing perspective. It is the second-oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. . The current editor is Ellen Rosenbush, who replaced Roger Hodge in January 2010...
, Books in Brief (December 1965) — One always feels that Mr. Stout is having fun with his Nero Wolfe and Archie, but never has it been more apparent than in this complicated but easily followed tale. It's a story of sleuthing, harassment, murder, the FBI — very especially the FBI — and the police, with the usual delicious decor of orchids, fine foods, and happily unconventional and pungent dialogue. Almost everybody's role is unexpectedly askew and you don't see how they can all possibly get their deserts, but they do, convincingly and rather hilariously. - The NationThe NationThe Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, The Nation Guide to the Nation — No doubt about it — the best civil liberties mystery of all time. - Nancy PearlNancy PearlNancy Pearl is an American librarian, best-selling author, literary critic and was, until August 2004, the Executive Director of the Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library...
, Book Lust — When Stout is on top of his game, which is most of the time, his diabolically clever plotting and his storytelling ability exceed that of any other mystery writer you can name, including Agatha Christie, who invented her own eccentric genius detective Hercule Poirot. Although in the years since Stout's death I find myself going back and rereading his entire oeuvre every year or two, I return with particular pleasure to these five novels: The Doorbell Rang; Plot It YourselfPlot It YourselfPlot It Yourself is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1959, and also collected in the omnibus volume Kings Full of Aces .-Plot introduction:...
; Murder by the BookMurder by the BookMurder by the Book is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout published in 1951 by the Viking Press, and collected in the omnibus volume Royal Flush .-Plot summary:...
; Champagne for OneChampagne for OneChampagne for One is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by the Viking Press in 1958.The back matter of the 1995 Bantam edition of this book includes an exchange of correspondence between Stout and his editor at Viking Press, Marshall Best...
; and GambitGambit (novel)Gambit is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by the Viking Press in 1962.-Plot introduction:A chess prodigy is poisoned during a club tournament, and the police arrest the member who served the victim hot chocolate...
. - Terry TeachoutTerry TeachoutTerry Teachout is a critic, biographer and blogger. He is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal, the chief culture critic of Commentary, and the author of "Sightings," a column about the arts in America that appears biweekly in the Friday Wall Street Journal...
, About Last Night, "Forty years with Nero Wolfe" (January 12, 2009) — Rex Stout's witty, fast-moving prose hasn't dated a day, while Wolfe himself is one of the enduringly great eccentrics of popular fiction. I've spent the past four decades reading and re-reading Stout's novels for pleasure, and they have yet to lose their savor ... It is to revel in such writing that I return time and again to Stout's books, and in particular to The League of Frightened MenThe League of Frightened MenThe League of Frightened Men is the second Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout. The story was serialized in six issues of The Saturday Evening Post under the title The Frightened Men. The novel was published in 1935 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc...
, Some Buried CaesarSome Buried CaesarSome Buried Caesar is the sixth Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout. The story first appeared in abridged form in The American Magazine , under the title "The Red Bull." It was first published in book form by Farrar & Rinehart in 1939...
, The Silent SpeakerThe Silent SpeakerThe Silent Speaker is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by the Viking Press in 1946. It was published just after World War II, and key plot elements reflect the lingering effects of the war: housing shortages and restrictions on consumer goods, including government...
, Too Many WomenToo Many WomenToo Many Women is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published in 1947 by the Viking Press. The novel was also collected in the omnibus volume All Aces .-Plot introduction:...
, Murder by the BookMurder by the BookMurder by the Book is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout published in 1951 by the Viking Press, and collected in the omnibus volume Royal Flush .-Plot summary:...
, Before MidnightBefore MidnightBefore Midnight is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout published in 1955 by the Viking Press. The story was also collected in the omnibus volume Three Trumps .-Plot introduction:...
, Plot It YourselfPlot It YourselfPlot It Yourself is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1959, and also collected in the omnibus volume Kings Full of Aces .-Plot introduction:...
, Too Many ClientsToo Many ClientsToo Many Clients is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1960, and collected in the omnibus volume Three Aces .-Plot introduction:...
, The Doorbell Rang, and Death of a DoxyDeath of a DoxyDeath of a Doxy is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by Viking Press in 1966.-Plot introduction:Orrie Cather, one of Wolfe's operatives, has been secretly seeing a wealthy man's kept mistress at her secret lovenest...
, which are for me the best of all the full-length Wolfe novels. - TimeTime (magazine)Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, "The Grand Race" (book review) http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,901814,00.html (November 5, 1965) — Stout once said all that he thinks is important to say. A good mystery writer, he wrote, merely tells the reader: "Let's run a race. Here goes my mind, I'm off, see if you can catch me." In Doorbell, even FBI fans will have to admire his agility.
A Nero Wolfe Mystery (A&E Network)
Executive producer Michael Jaffe adapted The Doorbell Rang for the series premiere of A Nero Wolfe MysteryA Nero Wolfe Mystery
A Nero Wolfe Mystery is a television series adapted from Rex Stout's classic series of detective stories that aired for two seasons on the A&E Network. Set in New York City in the early 1950s, the stylized period drama stars Maury Chaykin as Nero Wolfe and Timothy Hutton as Archie Goodwin...
(2001–2002), a Jaffe/Braunstein Films coproduction with the A&E Network. The first of four Nero Wolfe episodes directed by executive producer and star Timothy Hutton, "The Doorbell Rang" made its debut April 22, 2001, on A&E.
Timothy Hutton
Timothy Hutton
Timothy Tarquin Hutton is an American actor. He is the youngest actor to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at the age of 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in Ordinary People . He currently stars as Nathan "Nate" Ford on the TNT series Leverage.-Early life:Timothy...
is Archie Goodwin; Maury Chaykin
Maury Chaykin
Maury Alan Chaykin was an American-born Canadian actor. Best known for his portrayal of detective Nero Wolfe, he was also known for his work as a character actor in many films and on television programs.-Personal life:...
is Nero Wolfe. Other members of the cast are Debra Monk
Debra Monk
Debra Monk is an American actress, singer, and writer.Monk was born in Middletown, Ohio. She was voted "best personality" by the graduating class at Wheaton High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. She graduated from Frostburg State University in 1963...
(Mrs. Rachel Bruner), Francie Swift
Francie Swift
Francie Swift is an American actress best known for her versality and the wide variety of roles she has played.Swift was born in Amarillo, Texas and attended Tascosa High School...
(Sarah Dacos), Colin Fox
Colin Fox (actor)
Colin Fox is a Canadian actor. His acting credits include playing Jean Paul Desmond and Jacques Eloi Des Mondes in Strange Paradise , as well as voice work in various animated series, and in other roles in film, television and on the stage...
(Fritz Brenner), Saul Rubinek
Saul Rubinek
Saul Rubinek is a Canadian actor, director, producer and playwright, known for his work in TV, film and the stage.-Early life:...
(Lon Cohen), Conrad Dunn
Conrad Dunn
Conrad Dunn is an American actor. He began his screen career with the role of Francis "Psycho" Soyer in Stripes . Working for some ten years under the name George Jenesky, he achieved soap-opera stardom in Days of our Lives as Nick Corelli, a misogynistic pimp who evolved from bad guy to romantic...
(Saul Panzer), Fulvio Cecere
Fulvio Cecere
-Early life:Born to Italian parents, he attended Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles, but after one year he realized that acting, not law, was his true calling. He took acting classes at UCLA and starred in a wide array of television and feature film parts over the next few years...
(Fred Durkin), Trent McMullen
Trent McMullen
Trent McMullen is a Canadian actor known for his portrayal of freelance detective Orrie Cather in the A&E TV original series, A Nero Wolfe Mystery , and the series pilot, The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery . In 2010 McMullen starred in Ed Gass-Donnelly's second feature film Small Town Murder...
(Orrie Cather), Bill Smitrovich
Bill Smitrovich
-Personal life:Bill Smitrovich was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Anna and Stanley William Zmitrowicz, a tool and die maker. Bill is a graduate of the University of Bridgeport and holds an MFA from Smith College . He is married to Shaw Purnell from Pittsburgh, PA...
(Inspector Cramer), R.D. Reid (Sergeant Purley Stebbins) and James Tolkan
James Tolkan
James S. Tolkan is an American actor, often cast as a strict, overbearing, bald-headed authority figure.-Personal life:He was born in Calumet, Michigan, the son of Ralph M. Tolkan, a cattle dealer, and attended the University of Iowa, Coe College, the Actors Studio and Eastern Arizona College...
(Richard Wragg).
"The Doorbell Rang" was filmed in Toronto, with select Manhattan exteriors. Composer Michael Small
Michael Small
Michael Small was an American film score composer best known for his scores to thriller movies such as The Parallax View, Marathon Man, and The Star Chamber. Relatively few of his scores are available on compact disc...
wrote the jazzy score, including the title music and series theme, "Boss Boogie." The soundtrack also includes music by Ib Glindemann
Ib Glindemann
Ib Glindemann is a Danish jazz musician, the big band leader of the Ib Glindemann Orchestra . When in Europe, saxophonist Stan Getz was a frequent guest star of the orchestra.-External links:*...
, Alan Moorhouse, Bill Novick and Paul Lenart, and Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
.
In North America, A Nero Wolfe Mystery is available on Region 1 DVD from A&E Home Video (ISBN 076708893X). "The Doorbell Rang" is one of the Nero Wolfe episodes released on Region 4 DVD in Australia in 2008, under license by FremantleMedia
FremantleMedia
FremantleMedia, Ltd. is the content and production division of Bertelsmann's RTL Group, Europe's second largest TV, radio, and production company...
Enterprises. In 2009 the film was released on Region 2 DVD in the Netherlands, by Just Entertainment. All of these DVD releases present "The Doorbell Rang" in 4:3 pan and scan
Pan and scan
Pan and scan is a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of a standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition's most important aspects...
rather than its 16:9
16:9
16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ...
aspect ratio for widescreen
Widescreen
Widescreen images are a variety of aspect ratios used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than the standard 1.37:1 Academy aspect ratio provided by 35mm film....
viewing.
Nero Wolfe (Paramount Television)
In 1977, Thayer DavidThayer David
Thayer David was a film, stage and television actor. He was best known for his work on the cult ABC serial Dark Shadows and as the fight promoter George Jergens in the Oscar-winning movie Rocky . He also appeared as Count Arne Saknussemm in the film Journey to the Center of the Earth in 1959...
filmed Nero Wolfe, a Paramount Television production based on the novel The Doorbell Rang. Written and directed by Frank D. Gilroy
Frank D. Gilroy
Frank Daniel Gilroy is an American playwright, screenwriter, and film producer and director. He received the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play The Subject Was Roses in 1965.-Early life:...
, the film costarred Tom Mason http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0556985/ (Archie Goodwin), Brooke Adams (Sarah Dacos), Biff McGuire
Biff McGuire
William "Biff" McGuire is an American actor. In recent years he has used the name William Biff McGuire professionally....
(Inspector Cramer), John Randolph
John Randolph (actor)
John Randolph was an American film, television and stage actor.-Early life:Randolph was born Emanuel Hirsch Cohen in New York City, the son of Jewish immigrants Dorothy , an insurance agent, and Louis Cohen, a hat manufacturer...
(Lon Cohen), Anne Baxter
Anne Baxter
Anne Baxter was an American actress known for her performances in films such as The Magnificent Ambersons , The Razor's Edge , All About Eve and The Ten Commandments .-Early life:...
(Mrs. Bruner), David Hurst (Fritz Brenner), John O'Leary (Theodore Horstmann) and Sarah Cunningham
Sarah Cunningham (actress)
Sarah Cunningham was an American film, stage and television actress.-Personal life:Sarah Cunningham was born Sarah Lucie Cunningham in Greenville, South Carolina, United States. She was married to film and Tony award winning broadway actor John Randolph from January 3, 1942 until her death on...
(Mrs. Althaus). Intended as the pilot for a TV series, the made-for-TV movie was shelved due to Thayer David's death in July 1978. Nero Wolfe was finally broadcast December 18–19, 1979, as an ABC TV late show.
A year later, Paramount produced Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe (1981 TV series)
Nero Wolfe is a television series based on the characters in Rex Stout's classic series of detective stories that aired January 16 – August 25, 1981, on NBC. William Conrad fills the role of the detective genius Nero Wolfe, and Lee Horsley is his assistant Archie Goodwin...
, a weekly series that ran January 16–August 25, 1981, on NBC TV. The second episode, "Death on the Doorstep," was an original story by Stephen Downing that also incorporated elements of the novel The Doorbell Rang. William Conrad
William Conrad
William Conrad was an American actor, producer and director whose career spanned five decades in radio, film and television....
and Lee Horsley
Lee Horsley
Lee Arthur Horsley is an American film, television, and theater actor known for starring roles in the television series, Nero Wolfe , Matt Houston , and Paradise . He starred in the 1982 cult film, The Sword and the Sorcerer, and recorded the audiobook edition of Lonesome Dove...
star as Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Other members of the cast include George Voskovec
Jirí Voskovec
Jiří Voskovec was a Czech-American actor, playwright, dramatist, director, translator, and poet...
(Fritz Brenner), Robert Coote
Robert Coote
Robert Coote was an English actor. He played aristocrats or British military types in many films, and created the role of Colonel Hugh Pickering in the long-running original Broadway production of My Fair Lady.-Biography:Coote was educated at Hurstpierpoint College in Sussex...
(Theodore Horstmann), George Wyner
George Wyner
George Wyner is an American film and television actor. He is probably best known for his role as ADA Bernstein on the series Hill Street Blues. Wyner graduated from Syracuse University in 1968 as a drama major, and was an in-demand character actor by the early 1970s. To date, Wyner has made guest...
(Saul Panzer) and Allan Miller
Allan Miller
Allan Miller is an American actor, best known for the role of Harland Richards in Santa Barbara.Miller was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Anna and Benedict Miller....
(Inspector Cramer). Directed by George McCowan
George McCowan
George McCowan was a Canadian film and TV director in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.McCowan began his career working for the Canadian Broadcasting Company...
, "Death on the Doorstep" aired January 23, 1981.
Il pesce più grosso (Radiotelevisione Italiana)
The Doorbell Rang was adapted for a series of Nero Wolfe films produced by the Italian television network RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana). Directed by Giuliana Berlinguer from a teleplay by Edoardo Anton, Nero Wolfe: Il pesce più grosso first aired March 11, 1969.The series of black-and-white telemovies stars Tino Buazzelli
Tino Buazzelli
Tino Buazzelli was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 46 films between 1948 and 1978.-Selected filmography:* Totò Tarzan * Against the Law * Ghosts of Rome...
(Nero Wolfe), Paolo Ferrari
Paolo Ferrari
Paolo Ferrari , Italian dramatist, was born at Modena. His numerous works, chiefly comedies, and all marked by a fresh and piquant style, are the finest product of the modern Italian drama. After producing some minor pieces, in 1852 he made his reputation as a playwright with Goldoni e le sue...
(Archie Goodwin), Pupo De Luca (Fritz Brenner), Renzo Palmer
Renzo Palmer
Renzo Palmer was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 65 films between 1957 and 1988.He was born and died in Milan, Italy.-Selected filmography:* Shivers in Summer * Obiettivo ragazze...
(Inspector Cramer), Roberto Pistone (Saul Panzer), Mario Righetti
Mario Righetti
Mario Righetti was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.He was born at Bologna He became a pupil of Lucio Massari. In Bologna, he painted an Archangel Michael for the church of S. Guglielmo; a Christ appearing to the Magdalen for San Giacomo Maggiore; an Adoration of the Magi for S. Agnese;...
(Orrie Cather) and Gianfranco Varetto (Fred Durkin). Other members of the cast of Il pesce più grosso include Paola Borboni
Paola Borboni
Paola Borboni was an Italian film actress whose career spanned nine decades of cinema. She also made a substantial contribution to theatre....
(Signora Bruner), Silvia Monelli (Signora Dacos), Enrico Luzi (Quayle), Lia Angeleri (Signorina Althaus), Bruno Smith (Jarvis), Simone Mattioli (Kirby) and Fernando Cajati (Wragg).
Of further interest
- Reading The Doorbell Rang may pique the reader's interest in the FBI. Fred Cook's book provides valuable historical perspective, but is out of print. A more recent book with a similar focus is The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI, by Ronald Kessler; 2002, St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0312304021
Publication history
- 1965, New York: The Viking PressViking PressViking Press is an American publishing company owned by the Penguin Group, which has owned the company since 1975. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim...
, October 8, 1965, hardcover
- In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #10, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part II, Otto PenzlerOtto PenzlerOtto Penzler is an editor of mystery fiction in the United States, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, where he lives.-Biography:...
describes the first editionEdition (book)The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed “from substantially the same setting of type,” including all minor typographical variants.- First edition :...
of The Doorbell Rang: "Reddish marbleized boards, black cloth spine; front and rear covers blank; spine printed with red and white. Issued in a mainly gold-colored dust wrapper." - In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of A Right to Die had a value of between $100 and $200. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.
- 1965, New York: Viking (Mystery GuildBook of the Month ClubThe Book of the Month Club is a United States mail-order book sales club that offers a new book each month to customers.The Book of the Month Club is part of a larger company that runs many book clubs in the United States and Canada. It was formerly the flagship club of Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc...
), December 1965, hardcover
- 1965, New York: Viking (Mystery Guild
- The far less valuable Viking book club edition may be distinguished from the first edition in three ways:
-
- The dust jacket has "Book Club Edition" printed on the inside front flap, and the price is absent (first editions may be price clipped if they were given as gifts).
- Book club editions are sometimes thinner and always taller (usually a quarter of an inch) than first editions.
- Book club editions are bound in cardboard, and first editions are bound in cloth (or have at least a cloth spine).
- 1965, Toronto: MacmillanMacmillan PublishersMacmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
, 1965, hardcover - 1966, London: Collins Crime ClubCollins Crime ClubThe Collins Crime Club was an imprint of UK book publishers William Collins & Co Ltd and ran from May 6, 1930 to April 1994. Customers registered their name and address with the club and were sent a newsletter every three months which advised them of the latest books which had been or were to be...
, January 3, 1966, hardcover - 1966, ArgosyArgosy (magazine)Argosy was an American pulp magazine, published by Frank Munsey. It is generally considered to be the first American pulp magazine. The magazine began as a general information periodical entitled The Golden Argosy, targeted at the boys adventure market.-Launch of Argosy:In late September 1882,...
, April 1966 (abridged) - 1966, New York: BantamBantam BooksBantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by Random House, the German media corporation subsidiary of Bertelsmann; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine...
#F-3254, October 1966, paperback - 1968, London: Fontana, 1968, paperback
- 1976, London: Penguin, The First Rex Stout Omnibus ISBN 0140040323 (with The Second ConfessionThe Second ConfessionThe Second Confession is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by the Viking Press in 1949. The story was collected in the omnibus volume Triple Zeck ....
and More Deaths Than OneAnd Be a VillainAnd Be a Villain is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by the Viking Press in 1948...
) 1976, paperback - 1992, New York: Bantam Books ISBN 0553237217 June 1, 1992, paperback
- 1997, Burlington, Ontario: Durkin Hayes Publishing, DH Audio ISBN 0886464439 August 1997, audio cassette (abridged, read by Saul RubinekSaul RubinekSaul Rubinek is a Canadian actor, director, producer and playwright, known for his work in TV, film and the stage.-Early life:...
) - 2000, Pleasantville, New York: Reader's Digest Association, Inc. (ImPress) ISBN 076218857X 2000, hardcover
- 2010, New York: Bantam Crimeline ISBN 978-0-307-75589-6 June 9, 2010, e-bookE-bookAn electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
- 1965, Toronto: Macmillan
-
External links
- Leonard, John, "Super Nero"; New York Magazine (April 23, 2001)
- Levesque, John, "Wolfe back on the case in jolly, stylish 'Doorbell Rang'"; Seattle Post-Intelligencer (April 20, 2001)
- Salamon, Julie, "A Sleuth Who Has Flair (And Maybe a Thesaurus)"; The New York Times (April 20, 2001)
- Urbani, Laura, "A&E's new series brings top talent to television"; Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (April 22, 2001)
- Moore, Frazier, "Nero Wolfe returns to A&E"; Associated Press (May 5, 2001)
- Mystery*File, TV Review — A Nero Wolfe Mystery: The Doorbell Rang (February 5, 2009)
- Doorbells Ringing, consultant Winnifred Louis' notes on the A&E TV series and "The Doorbell Rang" (September 2000)
- A Nero Wolfe Mystery — "The Doorbell Rang" at The Wolfe Pack, official site of the Nero Wolfe Society
- Classroom study guide for The Doorbell Rang (BioClassroom and A&E Classroom)