ELLERY QUEEN 1975-76 b a c k
|
This is the spoiler free page. If you want to access the same pages with comments (spoilers included) by film critic Christopher J. Mulrooney click here |
|
In his article "Confessions of a Mystery
Writer" (William
Link, 2002) Link says: "Thinking back, the
Queen series was too complicated for its own good. I remember spending
an entire afternoon with Dick trying to
|
 Above: Ellery Queen moves to Sunday night bag and baggage starting January 4. Doing their bit in making the move are series stars Jim Hutton and David Wayne. |
 |
|
Part 2: 1976 Episodes
"I swear to you, Ellery, if he tries to bust open my case I'll detain him on his own lousy broadcast."
14* "The Adventure of the Sunday Punch"
A prizefighter is killed while training for a Championship bout and when
guilt points toward his sparring partner Joe Adams, Joe's girlfriend seeks
out
15* "The Adventure of the Eccentric Engineer" "Son, when it comes to women you'd better leave character analysis to your old man"
Above right: In TV drama debut -- Ed McMahon, of NBC-TV's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, plays a toy trainer enthusiast in his TV drama debut as "The Eccentric Engineer" on the NBC Television Network's Ellery Queen colorcast Sunday, Jan. 18 (8-9 p.m. NYT). (1/9/76).
16* "The Adventure of the Wary Witness"
One of the
more serious episodes of the series, and one of
the best. Can Ellery help the accused murderer of mobster
Guest star Sal Mineo was murdered on February
12, 1976, just 18 days after this episode first aired.
17* "The Adventure of the Judas Tree"
Ellery and his Dad investigate when wealthy industrialist
and former war profiteer George Sherman is stabbed to death with a Chinese
ceremonial
.
18* "The Adventure of the Sinister Scenario" "I didn't know...I finessed him, Dad."
An interesting concept: the Queens go to Hollywood to watch the filming
of an adaptation
of an Ellery Queen novel
|
| 19* "The Adventure of the Two-Faced Woman" Airdate 2/29/76 Directed by Jack Arnold With: Vera Miles (Celeste Wakefield), Joyce Brothers (Lillian McGraw), Theodore Bikel (Sergio Vargo), Woodrow Parfey (Dr. Saltzman), Edward Mulhare (Myles Prescott), Victor Buono (Dr. Friedland), James Andronica (Eddie Hummel), Alfred Ryder (Claude Gravette), Forrest Tucker (Clint McGraw), Ben Wright (Anton Luchek). "Paperwork! Pretty soon you'll need a judge's permission to question a suspect."
20* "The Adventure of the Tyrant of Tin Pan Alley"
A popular songwriter is murdered during the musical interlude on a
21* "The Adventure of Caesar's Last Sleep"
A mobster who is to be the star witness for an ambitious
prosecutor is killed. Trouble is, Inspector Queen's office was in charge of guarding the
witness, who has yet to complete his testimony about organized crime. So the
crusading prosecutor goes after IQ's scalp. Before you know it, the finger of suspicion points to
Inspector Queen's right hand man, Sgt. Velie, whose
22* "The Adventure of the Hard-Hearted Huckster" "The plot is too complicated Mr. Queen. Save it for one of your books"
23* "The Adventure of the Disappearing Dagger" "I know exactly what I
was doing five years ago. What?
According to Fred Dannay the series drew as many as
twenty million viewers per week. Unfortunately, the networks did not consider
such numbers sufficient, and Ellery Queen
was taken of the air after a single season.
(top)
References
Page first published 2015 |
| Introduction | Floor Plan | Q.B.I. |
List of Suspects | Whodunit? | Q.E.D. | Kill as directed | New | Copyright Copyright © MCMXCIX-MMXXIV Ellery Queen, a website on deduction. All rights reserved. |
llery Queen
(2)
Simon arrives at a restaurant where he will give a live-remote broadcast
of his show and reveal his results of a murder investigation. The Queens
arrive since the Inspector is
concerned that Simon's expected
revelations will undercut the
official investigation. Before
Simon can reveal his solution, a murder is committed in the restaurant.
One of the owners is
poisoned by a bottle of wine. 
Ellery to prove his innocence. The autopsy discovers death due to
poison, but who could have done it? Was it the fiancée that he abused? Her
father, the fight doctor? The mobster who needed him to take a dive? His
manager who was being muscled?
Nick Danello find
a missing witness to prove his innocence? Ellery feels obligated and
more emotionally involved than in other cases, as the defendant is his old
college buddy, Lin Hagen. But things don't seem to be adding up. The missing witness (a mysterious woman in a green dress) has left her fingerprints
nowhere in the apartment. And her description could match most of the women
in New York.
dagger
and then dragged out of the house and hung from a tree. The tree is
popularly known as a Judas tree, and a crown of flowers has been placed on
his head. Six sets of fingerprints, and plenty of motive to go around, leave
the Queens with much to sift through. And when they discover the victim was
dying of acute lymphoma, and had only months left to live, the plot thickens.
into a movie. The good Inspector
is just positive they'll be mixing with the glamorous Hollywood elite any
moment now, but it never seems to happen. At the studio, they meet the
fellow who will be playing Inspector Queen (Noah Beery
Jr.), as well as the star, Gilbert Mallory (Troy Donahue), who'll be
the "Ellery Queen" of the epic
(right). Mallory is a real ass to
everyone on the set, from fellow actors to director, and proves himself to be
a philandering husband as well. So we aren't terribly shocked when he is
murdered. 
While
visiting Simon Brimmer's radio studios, Ellery gets a call telling him that socialite Lillian McGraw
has been stabbed. Learning of this, Simon shares with Ellery the events of the day,
during
which he was present as Mrs. McGraw purchased three hundred and fifty thousand dollars
worth of paintings at the Prescott Galleries. A price which enrages both her
husband and the artist, she removes the signature revealing another
painter's name and is killed. This affords the episode the luxury of a
series of flashbacks, as told through Brimmer, where we get to know the murder victim a bit
more than usual.
radio
interview show, and Ellery tries to clear a friend who has just publicly accused the
victim (a songwriter at a radio station) of stealing a hit tune from him.
brother-in-law owns a restaurant that
mobster Benny Franks frequents. When things get publicly hot Inspector Queen is told he's
too old for the job and relies too much on his son. In fact, this time Dad spots the
crucial clue (although it's clear Ellery sees it first) and gets to do the final
"exposure of the killer" scene.
James Bevin Long doesn't want
his company, Quick Silver Tobacco, to get to much
involved in this new medium: television. When Mr. Long makes one enemy too
many he gets stabbed in the back, whilst taking his
lunch alone in his office. Several people could have entered. The
pizza delivery boy is seemingly the last to have heard Long alive.
Ellery Queen is on the premises gathering some information for a new
novel (Can cigars be hollowed out to make some kind of weapon, e.g. a blow
gun?).
the unused scripts, and one
of the best, "The Adventure of the Grand Old Lady" (in which a famous mystery writer
dies and Ellery recalls a old case that the writer was personally involved in),
was re-tooled and used as a
Murder, She Wrote episode. The same
writing team that created the Hutton-series was also responsible for the
immensely popular Columbo, and in the first episode of that
series, "Murder
by the Book"