Nero Wolfe (film)
| Nero Wolfe | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Drama |
| Based on |
The Doorbell Rang by Rex Stout |
| Written by | Frank D. Gilroy |
| Screenplay by | Frank D. Gilroy |
| Directed by | Frank D. Gilroy |
| Starring |
Thayer David Tom Mason Brooke Adams Biff McGuire John Randolph Anne Baxter |
| Theme music composer | Leonard Rosenman |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Emmet G. Lavery, Jr. |
| Producer(s) | Everett Chambers |
| Location(s) | Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California |
| Cinematography | Ric Waite |
| Editor(s) | Harry Keller |
| Running time | 120 min. |
| Production company(s) | Emmet C. Lavery, Jr. Productions Paramount Television |
| Distributor | ABC |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | December 19, 1979 |
Nero Wolfe is a 1977 TV film adaptation of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe novel The Doorbell Rang. Thayer David stars as Nero Wolfe, gourmet, connoisseur and detective genius. Tom Mason costars as Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's assistant. Written and directed by Frank D. Gilroy, the made-for-TV movie was produced by Paramount Television as a pilot for an ABC television series, but the movie was shelved by the network for more than two years before finally being broadcast December 19, 1979.
Disappointed with the Columbia Pictures films based on his first two Nero Wolfe novels, mystery writer Rex Stout was leery of further Hollywood adaptations in his lifetime. "I've had offers," Stout told author Dick Lochte in 1967, "but I haven't been to a movie in 30 years and I despise television. ... Anyway, the money, in addition to what the books are bringing in, would put me in a tax bracket where I wouldn't see much of it. If the characters are any good for films or television they'll be just as good 10 years from now." Ten years later, a little more than a year after Stout's death, literary agent H.N. Swanson negotiated an agreement for a Nero Wolfe television movie.
In 1976 Paramount Television purchased the rights for the entire set of Nero Wolfe stories for Orson Welles. Paramount paid $200,000 for the TV rights to eight hours of Nero Wolfe. The producers planned to begin with an ABC-TV movie and hoped to persuade Welles to continue the role in a mini-series.Frank D. Gilroy was signed to write the television script ("The Doorbell Rang") and direct the TV movie on the assurance that Welles would star, but by April 1977 Welles had bowed out.
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