"Meet Nero Wolfe" is a thriller/detective movie based on one of the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout. (Sadly, I'm mostly unfamiliar with this oeuvre.) The movie does have some assets, such as an entertaining lead performance by Edward Arnold, whose self-satisfied and happily insensitive detective is a joy to behold. It's also a logically coherent movie with a beginning, a middle and an end. This may sound like small praise, but it's more than can be said about a lot of modern - and often more prestigious - competitors in this field.
However, most of the characterizations are thin, which causes the various suspects and victims to feel like much of a muchness. The Archie Goodwin character does stand out, but looks and behaves like something out of the mists of prehistory. It's difficult to imagine him as the trusted right-hand man of a brilliant but reclusive detective : he would be much more at ease sitting in a cave, scraping the meat off a bear skull.
Lastly it needs to be said that the various makers of the movie did not take the "show, don't tell" advice to heart. As a viewer, you get to hear all sorts of stunning revelations about tragic and violent events, but it's all words, words, words. Don't tell us, show us : give us a few flashbacks, show us black-clad relatives crying at a funeral, show us gossiping neighbors staring at a departing back, show us a majestic ship docking in a foreign harbor, etcetera. Unless I'm very much mistaken even the fer-de-lance - a sinister snake if there ever was one - fails to put in an appearance.
Unlikely to linger in the memory.
However, most of the characterizations are thin, which causes the various suspects and victims to feel like much of a muchness. The Archie Goodwin character does stand out, but looks and behaves like something out of the mists of prehistory. It's difficult to imagine him as the trusted right-hand man of a brilliant but reclusive detective : he would be much more at ease sitting in a cave, scraping the meat off a bear skull.
Lastly it needs to be said that the various makers of the movie did not take the "show, don't tell" advice to heart. As a viewer, you get to hear all sorts of stunning revelations about tragic and violent events, but it's all words, words, words. Don't tell us, show us : give us a few flashbacks, show us black-clad relatives crying at a funeral, show us gossiping neighbors staring at a departing back, show us a majestic ship docking in a foreign harbor, etcetera. Unless I'm very much mistaken even the fer-de-lance - a sinister snake if there ever was one - fails to put in an appearance.
Unlikely to linger in the memory.