The Silent Speaker
Encyclopedia
The 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 regulation of prices, featuring the conflict between a federal price regulatory body and a national business association, paralleling the conflicts between the Office of Price Administration
and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers
.
The Silent Speaker was Stout's first full-length Nero Wolfe novel since Where There's a Will in 1940. "Thereafter, though he would continue writing for another thirty years, his stories would all be Nero Wolfe stories," wrote biographer John McAleer. "He liked Wolfe and Archie. After all, they were an essential part of himself. 'During the war years I missed them,' he told me."
There is considerable bad blood between the BPR and the NIA and the public is generally aware of the antagonism. Members and officers of the NIA are frantic because the public has assumed that someone in the association instigated Boone's murder.
When the NIA hires Nero Wolfe to investigate the murder, Wolfe calls a meeting of principals related to the case. The meeting includes Boone's widow and niece, the BPR's acting director Solomon Dexter, Alger Kates, the NIA's executive committee, and Don O'Neill. Also present are Inspector Cramer, Sergeant Stebbins and a representative of the FBI. Phoebe Gunther had been invited but does not attend. As the meeting's participants discuss, it is discovered that anyone present at the dinner could have murdered Boone – hundreds of attendees had opportunity, and none of them have an alibi provided by anyone who would not already be inclined to protect them.
After the meeting's participants depart, Wolfe sends Archie for Phoebe Gunther. Entering her apartment, Archie finds both her and Kates. Miss Gunther accompanies Archie to the brownstone and agrees to answer Wolfe's questions if he will answer hers. She states that she lost a leather case containing dictation cylinders, which Boone gave her shortly before his death, through pure carelessness, and that Boone had not told her what was on them.
Don O'Neill has received in the mail a claim check from the parcel room at Grand Central Station. Alerted by an otherwise bogus telegram, Archie follows O'Neill, sees him exchange the claim check for a leather case, and intercepts him. Archie gives O'Neill the choice of going to the police, or going to Wolfe's office to open the case. Eventually O'Neill agrees to go with Archie to the brownstone, where the leather case is found to contain ten dictation cylinders. A machine is procured and the cylinders played. When Archie and Wolfe listen to the cylinders, Boone's references to dates and events makes it clear that these are not the cylinders that he gave Miss Gunther prior to his speech. Wolfe notes in disgust that he and Archie have been "sniggled."
Wolfe calls another meeting of the NIA and BPR representatives, but once again Phoebe Gunther is absent. The BPR people come to help advance the search for Boone's murderer; the NIA people come to try to get the case solved and off the front page. Wolfe has just begun speaking when Fritz comes to the office door and beckons Archie urgently. Fritz takes Archie to the area under the front stoop, where Miss Gunther lies dead. They find the length of rusty iron pipe used to bludgeon her, and also a scarf belonging to the NIA's Winterhoff, dirty with rust flakes and concealed in the pocket of Kates' topcoat.
There is no evidence that points directly at anyone present, however. Cramer instructs the well connected members of the NIA to remain in New York – thus alienating the NIA's out-of-towners. Wolfe is annoyed when he learns that a search of Phoebe Gunther's apartment in Washington has turned up some dictation cylinders, but only nine instead of the expected ten. Wolfe is convinced that the only way to identify the murderer is to locate the missing dictation cylinder.
The NIA's sense of urgency to get the case solved soars as public opinion turns more decisively against it. Inspector Ash, who has been assigned to replace Cramer due to political pressure, calls Wolfe to police headquarters and threatens a search warrant to force entry to the brownstone. Wolfe reacts violently, and Archie has to step between the two men to head off a physical confrontation.
Police Commissioner Hombert, also in the meeting with Wolfe and Ash, just wants the case to go away. He instructs Ash to continue the investigation and placates Wolfe by vacating the open warrants. Wolfe controls himself and draws the picture everyone else: that Phoebe Gunther wanted to use Boone's death to damage the NIA by keeping the public's attention on it; that she did so by concealing evidence on the missing cylinder, hiding it where she could eventually retrieve it; that the recording would unmistakably identify the murderer; and that Cramer was correct to focus his resources on finding the cylinder.
Wolfe then dictates a letter to the NIA, terminating his engagement and returning their $30,000 retainer. Having broken with his client, Wolfe anticipates a renewed assault by the police, since he is no longer shielded by his arrangement with the NIA. So he stages a mental breakdown, persuading his doctor to certify him as suffering from a persecution complex and to deny the police access to him.
Archie gets word that the police are sending a doctor with a court order to see Wolfe. Wolfe bestirs himself and gives the matter further consideration. He urges Archie, Fritz, and Theodore to search the office for the cylinder, which is eventually located behind some books. When the cylinder is played back, both Wolfe and Cramer are vindicated:
The murderer was the ostensibly mild-mannered Alger Kates, who had been providing confidential BPR information to Don O'Neill in exchange for money. An associate of O'Neill had informed Cheney Boone of the scheme, and Boone had dictated a cylinder — the missing cylinder — for Phoebe Gunther, detailing the bribery scheme, his conversation with the associate, and his feelings on the matter. When Kates happened to bring some papers to Boone before the reception, Boone confronted him with what he knew. Kates reacted by grabbing the monkey wrench that was lying nearby and killing Boone.
Phoebe Gunther, having been told by Boone of the bribery and now possessing the dictation cylinder with the incriminating evidence, resolved to keep the cylinder away from the police until the maximum possible damage had been done to the NIA in the court of public opinion. Knowing that the cylinder was the key to the entire case, she hid it in Wolfe's office when she was left alone there the night of the first gathering of suspects. Unfortunately for her, she also showed her hand in insisting later that certain items Kates had retained after the murder be returned to Boone's wife. Kates, now knowing that she knew of his guilt, killed her, lying in wait in the shadows around Wolfe's brownstone until she arrived.
When confronted by Wolfe, Cramer, and the incriminating cylinder, Kates acknowledges his guilt and brags about how even O'Neill is now afraid of him. O'Neill denies his part in the bribery scheme, but Kates signs a confession that will seal both men's fates.
In a scene set after the disposition of the case, Archie informs Wolfe that he is not, in fact, a sap, and is aware that Wolfe had found the missing cylinder well before the frantic hunt in his office; he is simply unsure of whether Wolfe waited so long for "art's sake," or simply to ensure that he could collect the $100,000 reward offered by the NIA. Wolfe does not disagree with either hypothesis, but suggests another motivation: that, if he had simply revealed the cylinder immediately, Phoebe Gunther's death would have been wasteful, and that perhaps the least Wolfe could do was continue as far as possible along her objective: damage to the NIA.
For the BPR:
For the NIA:
For New York law enforcement:
, he tells Archie, "You would sentimentalize the multiplication table."
(2001–2002). The only episode to be both written and directed by Nero Wolfe executive producer Michael Jaffe, "The Silent Speaker" made its debut in two one-hour episodes airing July 14 and 21, 2002, on A&E.
Timothy Hutton
is Archie Goodwin; Maury Chaykin
is Nero Wolfe. Other members of the cast (in credits order) are Debra Monk
(Mrs. Boone), Colin Fox
(Fritz Brenner), Bill Smitrovich
(Inspector Cramer), Cynthia Watros
(Phoebe Gunther), Joe Flaherty
(Dr. Vollmer), George Plimpton
(Winterhoff), James Tolkan
(FBI Agent Richard Wragg), Conrad Dunn
(Saul Panzer), Fulvio Cecere
(Fred Durkin), David Schurmann (Frank Erskine), Christine Brubaker
(Hattie Harding), Bill MacDonald (Breslow), Matthew Edison
(Edward Erskine), R.D. Reid (Sergeant Purley Stebbins), Nicky Guadagni
(Mrs. Cramer/Secretary), Richard Waugh (Don O'Neill), Manon von Gerkan
(Nina Boone), Julian Richings
(Alger Kates), Robert Bockstael (Solomon Dexter), Gary Reineke (Hombert), Steve Cumyn (Skinner) and Doug Lennox (Inspector Ash).
In addition to original music by Nero Wolfe composer Michael Small
, the soundtrack includes music by Anton Rubinstein
(titles) and Dick Walter.
A Nero Wolfe Mystery is available on DVD from A&E Home Video (ISBN 076708893X). The bonus 16:9 letterbox version http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=21386#ws of "The Silent Speaker" is the only episode of Nero Wolfe that A&E Home Video has made available in widescreen
format. "The Silent Speaker" is one of three telefilms initially aired in two parts that A&E released as a "double episode," with a single set of titles and credits.
, to The Viking Press
, which would remain his (first edition) publisher for the remainder of his writing career.
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 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 regulation of prices, featuring the conflict between a federal price regulatory body and a national business association, paralleling the conflicts between the Office of Price Administration
Office of Price Administration
The Office of Price Administration was established within the Office for Emergency Management of the United States government by Executive Order 8875 on August 28, 1941. The functions of the OPA was originally to control money and rents after the outbreak of World War II.President Franklin D...
and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers
National Association of Manufacturers
The National Association of Manufacturers is an advocacy group headquartered in Washington, D.C. with 10 additional offices across the country...
.
The Silent Speaker was Stout's first full-length Nero Wolfe novel since Where There's a Will in 1940. "Thereafter, though he would continue writing for another thirty years, his stories would all be Nero Wolfe stories," wrote biographer John McAleer. "He liked Wolfe and Archie. After all, they were an essential part of himself. 'During the war years I missed them,' he told me."
Plot introduction
The head of a Federal agency is bludgeoned to death just before giving a speech to an industrial association. Public opinion quickly turns against the association, which is thought to have been involved in the murder. The association hires Wolfe to find the murderer in hope of ending the public relations disaster.Plot summary
Cheney Boone is the Director of the Bureau of Price Regulation (BPR), an agency of the Federal government. At a dinner in New York hosted by the National Industrial Association (NIA), he is beaten to death with a monkey wrench shortly after his confidential secretary, Phoebe Gunther, brings him items to use as props for the speech he was to give that night. The body is discovered by Alger Kates, a BPR researcher.There is considerable bad blood between the BPR and the NIA and the public is generally aware of the antagonism. Members and officers of the NIA are frantic because the public has assumed that someone in the association instigated Boone's murder.
When the NIA hires Nero Wolfe to investigate the murder, Wolfe calls a meeting of principals related to the case. The meeting includes Boone's widow and niece, the BPR's acting director Solomon Dexter, Alger Kates, the NIA's executive committee, and Don O'Neill. Also present are Inspector Cramer, Sergeant Stebbins and a representative of the FBI. Phoebe Gunther had been invited but does not attend. As the meeting's participants discuss, it is discovered that anyone present at the dinner could have murdered Boone – hundreds of attendees had opportunity, and none of them have an alibi provided by anyone who would not already be inclined to protect them.
After the meeting's participants depart, Wolfe sends Archie for Phoebe Gunther. Entering her apartment, Archie finds both her and Kates. Miss Gunther accompanies Archie to the brownstone and agrees to answer Wolfe's questions if he will answer hers. She states that she lost a leather case containing dictation cylinders, which Boone gave her shortly before his death, through pure carelessness, and that Boone had not told her what was on them.
Don O'Neill has received in the mail a claim check from the parcel room at Grand Central Station. Alerted by an otherwise bogus telegram, Archie follows O'Neill, sees him exchange the claim check for a leather case, and intercepts him. Archie gives O'Neill the choice of going to the police, or going to Wolfe's office to open the case. Eventually O'Neill agrees to go with Archie to the brownstone, where the leather case is found to contain ten dictation cylinders. A machine is procured and the cylinders played. When Archie and Wolfe listen to the cylinders, Boone's references to dates and events makes it clear that these are not the cylinders that he gave Miss Gunther prior to his speech. Wolfe notes in disgust that he and Archie have been "sniggled."
Wolfe calls another meeting of the NIA and BPR representatives, but once again Phoebe Gunther is absent. The BPR people come to help advance the search for Boone's murderer; the NIA people come to try to get the case solved and off the front page. Wolfe has just begun speaking when Fritz comes to the office door and beckons Archie urgently. Fritz takes Archie to the area under the front stoop, where Miss Gunther lies dead. They find the length of rusty iron pipe used to bludgeon her, and also a scarf belonging to the NIA's Winterhoff, dirty with rust flakes and concealed in the pocket of Kates' topcoat.
There is no evidence that points directly at anyone present, however. Cramer instructs the well connected members of the NIA to remain in New York – thus alienating the NIA's out-of-towners. Wolfe is annoyed when he learns that a search of Phoebe Gunther's apartment in Washington has turned up some dictation cylinders, but only nine instead of the expected ten. Wolfe is convinced that the only way to identify the murderer is to locate the missing dictation cylinder.
The NIA's sense of urgency to get the case solved soars as public opinion turns more decisively against it. Inspector Ash, who has been assigned to replace Cramer due to political pressure, calls Wolfe to police headquarters and threatens a search warrant to force entry to the brownstone. Wolfe reacts violently, and Archie has to step between the two men to head off a physical confrontation.
Police Commissioner Hombert, also in the meeting with Wolfe and Ash, just wants the case to go away. He instructs Ash to continue the investigation and placates Wolfe by vacating the open warrants. Wolfe controls himself and draws the picture everyone else: that Phoebe Gunther wanted to use Boone's death to damage the NIA by keeping the public's attention on it; that she did so by concealing evidence on the missing cylinder, hiding it where she could eventually retrieve it; that the recording would unmistakably identify the murderer; and that Cramer was correct to focus his resources on finding the cylinder.
Wolfe then dictates a letter to the NIA, terminating his engagement and returning their $30,000 retainer. Having broken with his client, Wolfe anticipates a renewed assault by the police, since he is no longer shielded by his arrangement with the NIA. So he stages a mental breakdown, persuading his doctor to certify him as suffering from a persecution complex and to deny the police access to him.
Archie gets word that the police are sending a doctor with a court order to see Wolfe. Wolfe bestirs himself and gives the matter further consideration. He urges Archie, Fritz, and Theodore to search the office for the cylinder, which is eventually located behind some books. When the cylinder is played back, both Wolfe and Cramer are vindicated:
The murderer was the ostensibly mild-mannered Alger Kates, who had been providing confidential BPR information to Don O'Neill in exchange for money. An associate of O'Neill had informed Cheney Boone of the scheme, and Boone had dictated a cylinder — the missing cylinder — for Phoebe Gunther, detailing the bribery scheme, his conversation with the associate, and his feelings on the matter. When Kates happened to bring some papers to Boone before the reception, Boone confronted him with what he knew. Kates reacted by grabbing the monkey wrench that was lying nearby and killing Boone.
Phoebe Gunther, having been told by Boone of the bribery and now possessing the dictation cylinder with the incriminating evidence, resolved to keep the cylinder away from the police until the maximum possible damage had been done to the NIA in the court of public opinion. Knowing that the cylinder was the key to the entire case, she hid it in Wolfe's office when she was left alone there the night of the first gathering of suspects. Unfortunately for her, she also showed her hand in insisting later that certain items Kates had retained after the murder be returned to Boone's wife. Kates, now knowing that she knew of his guilt, killed her, lying in wait in the shadows around Wolfe's brownstone until she arrived.
When confronted by Wolfe, Cramer, and the incriminating cylinder, Kates acknowledges his guilt and brags about how even O'Neill is now afraid of him. O'Neill denies his part in the bribery scheme, but Kates signs a confession that will seal both men's fates.
In a scene set after the disposition of the case, Archie informs Wolfe that he is not, in fact, a sap, and is aware that Wolfe had found the missing cylinder well before the frantic hunt in his office; he is simply unsure of whether Wolfe waited so long for "art's sake," or simply to ensure that he could collect the $100,000 reward offered by the NIA. Wolfe does not disagree with either hypothesis, but suggests another motivation: that, if he had simply revealed the cylinder immediately, Phoebe Gunther's death would have been wasteful, and that perhaps the least Wolfe could do was continue as far as possible along her objective: damage to the NIA.
The unfamiliar word
In most Nero Wolfe novels and novellas, there is an unfamiliar word, usually spoken by Wolfe. The Silent Speaker contains just this one:- Gammer. Chapter 29.
Cast of characters
- Nero Wolfe — The private investigator
- Archie Goodwin — Wolfe's assistant (and the narrator of all Wolfe stories)
- Doctor Vollmer — Wolfe's neighbor and practitioner of choice when medical treatment is needed
For the BPR:
- Solomon Dexter — Acting Director of the BPR following Cheney Boone's death
- Phoebe Gunther — Boone's confidential secretary, and second in command at the BPR in all but title
- Alger Kates — A researcher for the BPR
- Mrs. Cheney Boone — Widow of the murdered BPR director
- Nina Boone — Boone's niece
For the NIA:
- Frank and Edward Erskine — Father and son members of the NIA's Executive Committee
- Messrs. Breslow and Winterhoff — Other members of the Executive Committee
- Don O'Neill — Chairman of the dinner committee for the NIA event at which Boone was murdered
- Hattie Harding — Assistant Director of Public Relations
For New York law enforcement:
- Inspector Ash, Inspector Cramer, Sergeant Purley Stebbins, Commissioner Hombert and District Attorney Skinner
Sentiment
The reader is given the opportunity to see how much Wolfe's attitude toward sentiment changes over a brief span of time. In The Silent Speaker, he tells Archie, "One of your most serious defects is that you have no sentiment." Only two years later, in And Be a VillainAnd Be a Villain
And Be a Villain is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by the Viking Press in 1948...
, he tells Archie, "You would sentimentalize the multiplication table."
Reviews and commentary
- Isaac Anderson, The New York Times Book ReviewThe New York Times Book ReviewThe New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
(October 27, 1946) — In this new Nero Wolfe story we are introduced to two organizations whose feelings toward each other are somewhat less than tepid. The NIA, composed of tycoons of high and low degree, is dedicated to the preservation of the American Way of Life. The BPR, a Government bureau, is believed by NIA to have for its chief purpose the throttling of Free Enterprise — which, as everybody knows, is just another name for the aforesaid A. W. of L. The chairman of BPR is fatally conked with a monkey wrench just before he was to have addressed a meeting of NIA — and there are those who believe that NIA has resorted to murder when other attempts to curb BPR have failed. Such a case as this is right up Nero Wolfe's alley. He even neglects his beloved orchids for three whole days. Whether he also neglects his beer deponent sayeth not. It is a humdinger of a story with Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin at their uproarious best. - 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 least likely suspect is well hidden, Wolfe does some thinking, and Archie is Archie. Not too much wrangling with the police, and in truth one of Rex Stout's best in the semi-demi form. - Saturday Review of Literature (November 9, 1946) — Head of govt. price regulating bureau monkey-wrenched out of life just before industrialists' banquet. Enter much-missed Nero Wolfe. Slightly subdued Archie Goodwin narrates Nero's adventures with inimical groups; which include second murder, sharp-edged satire, and Dupinesque solution. Welcome home, Nero.
- 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 Speaker, 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 RangThe Doorbell RangThe Doorbell Rang is a Nero Wolfe detective novel by Rex Stout, first published by the Viking Press 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...
, 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. - J. Kenneth Van Dover, At Wolfe's Door — Wolfe's return to the novel-length mystery is a strong one: the plot is solid and the characters — especially Phoebe Gunther — are interesting. There are also strong ideological implications to the action. Miss Gunther refers to the capitalists of the NIA as "the dirtiest gang of pigs and chiselers on earth." Solomon Dexter calls them "the dirtiest bunch of liars and cutthroats in existence." Archie and Wolfe evidently share this estimation. Wolfe deliberately prolongs the public rancor against the NIA until events force him to disclose the criminal and to accept the NIA's gratitude and money.
A Nero Wolfe Mystery (A&E Network)
The Silent Speaker was adapted for the second season of the A&E TV series 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). The only episode to be both written and directed by Nero Wolfe executive producer Michael Jaffe, "The Silent Speaker" made its debut in two one-hour episodes airing July 14 and 21, 2002, 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 (in credits order) 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. Boone), 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), 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), Cynthia Watros
Cynthia Watros
Cynthia Michele Watros is an American television actress, who also starred in films and on stage. She is known for her roles as Libby on the ABC TV series Lost, Kellie in The Drew Carey Show, Erin in Titus, and Annie Dutton in Guiding Light...
(Phoebe Gunther), Joe Flaherty
Joe Flaherty
Joe Flaherty is an American-Canadian actor and comedian. He is best known for his work on the Canadian sketch comedy SCTV, from 1976 to 1984, and as Harold Weir on Freaks and Geeks...
(Dr. Vollmer), George Plimpton
George Plimpton
George Ames Plimpton was an American journalist, writer, editor, and actor. He is widely known for his sports writing and for helping to found The Paris Review.-Early life:...
(Winterhoff), 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...
(FBI Agent Richard Wragg), 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), David Schurmann (Frank Erskine), Christine Brubaker
Christine Brubaker
Christine Brubaker is a Canadian actress. Well known for her work in the ensemble cast of the A&E TV original series, A Nero Wolfe Mystery , she is a member of the creative and performing arts faculty of Humber College in Toronto....
(Hattie Harding), Bill MacDonald (Breslow), Matthew Edison
Matthew Edison
Matthew Edison is a Canadian actor born in 1975.A great, great, great grand-nephew of Thomas Edison, he has appeared in the television series At The Hotel and A Nero Wolfe Mystery, and in various television movies....
(Edward Erskine), R.D. Reid (Sergeant Purley Stebbins), Nicky Guadagni
Nicky Guadagni
Nicky Guadagni is a Canadian actress who has worked on stage, radio, film and television.-Career:Originally from Montreal, Nicky Guadagni majored in drama at Dawson College and went on to train at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Her first role after graduation was playing Miranda, with...
(Mrs. Cramer/Secretary), Richard Waugh (Don O'Neill), Manon von Gerkan
Manon von Gerkan
Manon von Gerkan is a German model and actress. who reached the height of her popularity during the 1990s. She is the daughter of German architect Meinhard von Gerkan and a former girlfriend of American illusionist and stunt performer David Blaine.- External links :...
(Nina Boone), Julian Richings
Julian Richings
Julian Richings is an English-born Canadian actor. He appeared in over 50 Canadian films and 20 separate television series.-Life and career:...
(Alger Kates), Robert Bockstael (Solomon Dexter), Gary Reineke (Hombert), Steve Cumyn (Skinner) and Doug Lennox (Inspector Ash).
In addition to original music by Nero Wolfe 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...
, the soundtrack includes music by Anton Rubinstein
Anton Rubinstein
Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein was a Russian-Jewish pianist, composer and conductor. As a pianist he was regarded as a rival of Franz Liszt, and he ranks amongst the great keyboard virtuosos...
(titles) and Dick Walter.
A Nero Wolfe Mystery is available on DVD from A&E Home Video (ISBN 076708893X). The bonus 16:9 letterbox version http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=21386#ws of "The Silent Speaker" is the only episode of Nero Wolfe that A&E Home Video has made available in 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....
format. "The Silent Speaker" is one of three telefilms initially aired in two parts that A&E released as a "double episode," with a single set of titles and credits.
Publication history
The first edition of The Silent Speaker marks the change from Stout's previous publisher, Farrar & RinehartFarrar & Rinehart
Farrar & Rinehart was a United States book publishing company founded in New York. Farrar & Rinehart enjoyed success with both nonfiction and novels, notably, the landmark Rivers of America Series and the first ten books in the Nero Wolfe corpus of Rex Stout...
, to 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...
, which would remain his (first edition) publisher for the remainder of his writing career.
- 1946, New York: The Viking Press, October 21, 1946, hardcover
- In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, 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 Silent Speaker: "Green cloth, front cover and spine printed with yellow lettering and red rules; rear cover blank. Issued in a mainly green and yellow pictorial dust wrapper." - In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of The Silent Speaker had a value of between $400 and $750. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.
- 1946, 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:...
, 1946, hardcover - 1946, New York: Detective Book Club #55, December 1946, hardcover
- 1947, New York: Armed Services EditionArmed Services EditionsArmed Services Editions were small, compact, paperback books printed by the Council on Books in Wartime for distribution within the American military during World War II. This program was in effect from 1943 to 1946. The ASEs were designed to provide entertainment to soldiers serving overseas,...
#1222, January 1947, paperback - 1947, 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...
, March 10, 1947, hardcover - 1948, 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...
#308, October 1948, paperback - London: Collins (White Circle) #215c, not dated, paperback
- 1956, London: Fontana #150, 1956, paperback
- 1994, New York: Bantam Crimeline ISBN 0553234978 January 1994, paperback
- 2002, Auburn, California: The Audio Partners Publishing Corp., Mystery Masters ISBN 1572702702 May 2002, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
- 2009, New York: Bantam Dell Publishing Group (with Black OrchidsBlack OrchidsBlack Orchids is a Nero Wolfe double mystery by Rex Stout published in 1942 by Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. Stout's first short story collection, the volume is composed of two novellas that had appeared in abridged form in The American Magazine:...
) ISBN 9780553386554 August 25, 2009, trade paperback - 2011, New York: Bantam Crimeline ISBN 978-0-307-78389-9 February 16, 2011, 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...
- 1946, Toronto: Macmillan
External links
- A Nero Wolfe Mystery — "The Silent Speaker" at The Wolfe Pack, official site of the Nero Wolfe Society
- Script (PDF) for "The Silent Speaker," written by Michael Jaffe (December 7, 2001)
- Farkash, Michael R., "Nero Wolfe: Silent Speaker"; Hollywood Reporter, July 12, 2002