Three Doors to Death
| Three Doors to Death | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Author(s) | Rex Stout |
| Cover artist | Bill English |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Nero Wolfe |
| Genre(s) | Detective fiction |
| Publisher | Viking Press |
| Publication date | April 21, 1950 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 244 pp. (first edition) |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | The Second Confession |
| Followed by | In the Best Families |
Three Doors to Death is a collection of Nero Wolfe mystery novellas by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1950 — itself collected in the omnibus volume Five of a Kind (Viking 1961). The book comprises three stories that first appeared in The American Magazine:
- "Man Alive" (December 1947)
- "Omit Flowers" (November 1948)
- "Door to Death" (June 1949)
Contents |
[edit] Man Alive
A high-fashion designer consults Wolfe after she sees her uncle — believed to have committed suicide a year before — in disguise and in the audience at one of her shows.
[edit] Omit Flowers
As a favor for his oldest friend Marko Vukcic, Wolfe takes the case of Virgil Pompa, a chef who traded his genius for a high-paying job as the supervisor of a restaurant chain. He is in jail, charged with murder. Archie begins the story with the statement, "In my opinion it was one of Nero Wolfe's neatest jobs, and he never got a nickel for it."
[edit] Door to Death
When orchid nurse Theodore Horstmann leaves the brownstone indefinitely to tend to his sick mother, Nero Wolfe goes out — in the snow and on foot — into the raging wilds of Westchester to find a replacement. He and Archie find a corpse in the greenhouse, as well.
[edit] Adaptations
[edit] A Nero Wolfe Mystery (A&E Network)
"Door to Death" was adapted for the first season of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002). Directed by Holly Dale from a teleplay by Sharon Elizabeth Doyle, the episode made its debut June 24, 2001, on A&E.
Timothy Hutton is Archie Goodwin; Maury Chaykin is Nero Wolfe. Other members of the cast (in credits order) are Colin Fox (Fritz Brenner), James Tolkan (Mr. Joseph Pitcairn), Marian Seldes (Mrs. Pitcairn), Kari Matchett (Lily Rowan), Nicholas Campbell (Andy Krasicki), Beau Starr (Lieutenant Noonan), Conrad Dunn (Saul Panzer), Ken Kramer (Neil Imbrie), Kristin Booth (Dini Lauer), Christine Brubaker (Sybil Pitcairn), Boyd Banks (Donald Pitcairn), Nancy Beatty (Vera Imbrie) and Francie Swift (Margot Dickey, uncredited).
In addition to original music by Nero Wolfe composer Michael Small, the soundtrack includes music by Angel Villaldo and Tony Clout.[1]
In international broadcasts, the episodes "Door to Death" and "Christmas Party" are linked and expanded into a 90-minute widescreen telefilm titled "Wolfe Goes Out."[2]
A Nero Wolfe Mystery began to be released on Region 2 DVD in December 2009, marketed in the Netherlands by Just Entertainment.[3] The third collection released in April 2010 made the 90-minute features "Wolfe Goes Out" and "Wolfe Stays In" available on home video for the first time; until then, the linked episodes "Door to Death"/ "Christmas Party" and "Eeny Meeny Murder Mo"/"Disguise for Murder" were available only in the abbreviated form sold in North America by A&E Home Video (ISBN 0-7670-8893-X). The A&E and Just Entertainment DVD releases present the episodes in 4:3 pan and scan rather than their 16:9 aspect ratio for widescreen viewing.
[edit] Nero Wolfe (CBC Radio)
"Man Alive" was adapted as the seventh episode of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's 13-part radio series Nero Wolfe (1982), starring Mavor Moore as Nero Wolfe and Don Francks as Archie Goodwin. Written by Ron Hartmann, the hour-long adaptation aired on CBC Stereo February 27, 1982.
[edit] Publication history
[edit] "Man Alive"
- 1947, The American Magazine, December 1947[4]
- 1999, Canada, Durkin Hayes Publishing, DH Audio ISBN 1-55204-627-3 December 1999, audio cassette, read by Saul Rubinek
[edit] "Omit Flowers"
- 1948, The American Magazine, November 1948[5]
[edit] "Door to Death"
- 1949, The American Magazine, June 1948[6]
- 1951, reprinted alone as Door to Death, New York: Dell Ten Cent Paperback #21, 1951, paperback
[edit] Three Doors to Death
- 1950, New York: The Viking Press, April 21, 1950, hardcover[7]
- In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of Three Doors to Death: "Green cloth, front cover and spine printed with black; rear cover blank. Issued in a mainly reddish-orange dust wrapper."[8]
- In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Three Doors to Death had a value of between $300 and $500. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.[9]
- 1950, New York: Viking (Mystery Guild), August 1950, hardcover
- 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).[10]
-
- 1950, London: Collins Crime Club, September 18, 1950, hardcover
- 1952, New York: Dell (mapback by Rafael de Soto), 1952, paperback
- 1961, New York: The Viking Press, Five of a Kind: The Third Nero Wolfe Omnibus (with The Rubber Band and In the Best Families), July 10, 1961, hardcover
- 1966, New York: Bantam #F3154, June 1966, paperback
- 1995, New York: Bantam Crimeline ISBN 0-553-25127-9 February 1995, paperback
- 2010, New York: Bantam Crimeline ISBN 0-307-75623-8 June 9, 2010, e-book
[edit] References
- ^ Angel Villoldo, "El Choclo," arranged by Colin Frechter; Carlin Production Music CAR 164, Latin American (track 13). Tony Clout, "La Concordia"; Carlin Production Music CAR 164, Latin American (track 10). Additional soundtrack details at the Internet Movie Database and The Wolfe Pack, official site of the Nero Wolfe Society
- ^ Sky Movies (UK) summary retrieved October 4, 2007; run length of "Wolfe Goes Out" is recorded as 90 minutes. Program listings for Sunday, November 7, 2004, broadcast on Sky Movies 2 records broadcast as widescreen format.
- ^ Just Entertainment, accessed December 30, 2010
- ^ Townsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1980, New York: Garland Publishing; ISBN 0-8240-9479-4), pp. 60–61. John McAleer, Judson Sapp and Arriean Schemer are associate editors of this definitive publication history.
- ^ Townsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1980, New York: Garland Publishing; ISBN 0-8240-9479-4), pp. 61–62
- ^ Townsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1980, New York: Garland Publishing; ISBN 0-8240-9479-4), p. 62
- ^ Townsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1980, New York: Garland Publishing; ISBN 0-8240-9479-4), p. 81
- ^ Penzler, Otto, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I (2001, New York: The Mysterious Bookshop, limited edition of 250 copies), p. 25
- ^ Smiley, Robin H., "Rex Stout: A Checklist of Primary First Editions." Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine (Volume 16, Number 4), April 2006, p. 33
- ^ Penzler, Otto, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, pp. 19–20
[edit] External links
- A Nero Wolfe Mystery — "Door to Death" at the Internet Movie Database
- A Nero Wolfe Mystery — "Door to Death" at The Wolfe Pack, official site of the Nero Wolfe Society
