- Curtains for Three
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Curtains for Three 
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 February 23, 1951 Media type Print (Hardcover) Pages 247 pp. (first edition) ISBN NA Preceded by In the Best Families Followed by Murder by the Book Curtains for Three is a collection of Nero Wolfe mystery novellas by Rex Stout, published by the Viking Press in 1951 and itself collected in the omnibus volume Full House (Viking 1955). The book comprises three stories that first appeared in The American Magazine:
- "The Gun with Wings" (December 1949)
- "Bullet for One" (July 1948)
- "Disguise for Murder" (September 1950, as "The Twisted Scarf")
Contents
The Gun with Wings
The police are satisfied that a top tenor at the Metropolitan Opera shot himself, but his widow and the man she hopes to marry know it was murder.
Bullet for One
An industrial designer is shot to death while riding horseback in Central Park.
Disguise for Murder
The garden editor of the Gazette persuades Nero Wolfe to play host to the Manhattan Flower Club. While a couple of hundred people are upstairs in the plant rooms looking at Wolfe's orchids, a woman is strangled in his office.
Adaptations
A Nero Wolfe Mystery (A&E Network)
"Wolfe Stays In" was released on DVD for the first time in April 2010
"Disguise for Murder" was adapted for the first season of the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002). Directed by John L'Ecuyer from a teleplay by Sharon Elizabeth Doyle, the episode made its debut June 3, 2001, on A&E.
Timothy Hutton is Archie Goodwin; Maury Chaykin is Nero Wolfe. Other members of the cast (in credits order) include Bill Smitrovich (Inspector Cramer), Saul Rubinek (Lon Cohen), Colin Fox (Fritz Brenner), James Tolkan (W.J.), Debra Monk (Mrs. Carlisle), Kathryn Zenna (Cynthia Brown), Trent McMullen (Orrie Cather), Conrad Dunn (Saul Panzer), R.D. Reid (Sergeant Purley Stebbins), Aron Tager (Mr. Carlisle), Nicholas Campbell (Colonel Percy Brown), Nancy Beatty (Mrs. Orwin), Philip Craig (Gene Orwin), Beau Starr (Malcolm Vedder), Richard Waugh (Dr. Morley) and Ken Kramer (Dr. Vollmer).
In addition to original music by Nero Wolfe composer Michael Small, the soundtrack includes music by Ib Glindemann (titles) and David Cabrera and Phil McArthur (opening sequence).[1]
In international broadcasts, the episodes "Eeny Meeny Murder Mo" and "Disguise for Murder" are linked and expanded into a 90-minute widescreen telefilm titled "Wolfe Stays In."[2] The two episodes are connected by scenes of Archie playing poker with Saul, Orrie and Lon — extensions of the Stout originals written by head writer and consulting producer Sharon Doyle.
"These poker scenes were put in for marketing reasons," executive producer Michael Jaffe told Scarlet Street magazine. "Nero Wolfe airs as a two-hour show overseas and the two episodes had to be tied together. So we looked for ways to do that. We've heard Archie talk about poker a million times. So there was nothing abnormal about seeing them play poker, except that we don't see them do it in the book."[3]
A Nero Wolfe Mystery began to be released on Region 2 DVD in December 2009, marketed in the Netherlands by Just Entertainment.[4] 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.
Nero Wolfe (CBC Radio)
"Disguise for Murder" was adapted as the premiere episode of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's 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 January 16, 1982, with guest stars Fiona Reid, Jack Creley and Neil Munro.
Publication history
"The Gun with Wings"
- 1949, The American Magazine, June 1949[5]
- 1965, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March 1965
- 1972, Ellery Queen's Anthology, Spring–Summer 1972
- 1977, Masterpieces of Mystery: The Golden Age, Part Two, ed. by Ellery Queen, New York: Davis Publications, 1977
"Bullet for One"
- 1948, The American Magazine, July 1948[6]
- 1950, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, June 1950
- 1970, Crimes and Misfortunes, ed. by . Francis McComas, New York: Random House, 1970
- 1970, Ellery Queen's Anthology, 1970
- 1978, The Great American Detective, ed. by William Kittredge and Steven M. Krauzer, New York: New American Library, October 1978
"Disguise for Murder"
- 1950, The American Magazine, September 1950, as "The Twisted Scarf"[7]
- 1951, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, April 1951, as "The Affair of the Twisted Scarf"
- 1964, Ellery Queen's Anthology, 1964, as "The Affair of the Twisted Scarf"
- 1975, Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories to be Read with the Door Locked, ed. by Alfred Hitchcock, New York: Random House, 1975, as "The Affair of the Twisted Scarf"
Curtains for Three
- 1951, New York: The Viking Press, February 23, 1951, hardcover[8]
- In his limited-edition pamphlet, Collecting Mystery Fiction #9, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe Part I, Otto Penzler describes the first edition of Curtains for Three: "Gray cloth, front cover printed with red lettering (and decoration on front cover only) and black rules; rear cover blank. Issued in a black, orange and white dust wrapper."[9]
- In April 2006, Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine estimated that the first edition of Curtains for Three had a value of between $300 and $500. The estimate is for a copy in very good to fine condition in a like dustjacket.[10]
- 1951, New York: Viking (Mystery Guild), 1951, 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).[11]
-
- 1951, London: Collins Crime Club, October 22, 1951, hardcover
- 1955, New York: The Viking Press, Full House: A Nero Wolfe Omnibus (with The League of Frightened Men and And Be a Villain), May 15, 1955, hardcover
- 1966, New York: Bantam #F3063, June 1966, paperback
- 1995, New York: Bantam ISBN 0-553-76294-X January 2, 1995, paperback
- 1997, Newport Beach, California: Books on Tape, Inc. ISBN 0-7366-3747-8 July 21, 1997, audio cassette (unabridged, read by Michael Prichard)
- 2010, New York: Bantam ISBN 978-0-307-75582-7 May 12, 2010, e-book
References
- ^ Ib Glindemann, "Moonlight Promenade"; Carlin Production Music CAR 202, Big Band / Jazz / Swing (track 10). David Cabrera and Phil McArthur, "Zoot Suit Blues"; Koka Media KOK 2188, Back in the Swing of Things (track 7). 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 Stays In" is recorded as 90 minutes. Program listings for Saturday, November 6, 2004, broadcast on Sky Movies 6 records broadcast as widescreen format.
- ^ Vitaris, Paula, "Miracle on 35th Street: Nero Wolfe on Television"; Scarlet Street, issue #45, 2002, p. 76
- ^ 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), p. 62. 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), p. 61
- ^ Townsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1980, New York: Garland Publishing; ISBN 0-8240-9479-4), p. 63
- ^ Townsend, Guy M., Rex Stout: An Annotated Primary and Secondary Bibliography (1980, New York: Garland Publishing; ISBN 0-8240-9479-4), p. 82
- ^ 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. 26
- ^ 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
External links
- A Nero Wolfe Mystery — "Disguise for Murder" at the Internet Movie Database
- A Nero Wolfe Mystery — "Disguise for Murder" at The Wolfe Pack, official site of the Nero Wolfe Society
Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout Novels Fer-de-Lance · The League of Frightened Men · The Rubber Band · The Red Box · Too Many Cooks · Some Buried Caesar · Over My Dead Body · Where There's a Will · The Silent Speaker · Too Many Women · And Be a Villain · The Second Confession · In the Best Families · Murder by the Book · Prisoner's Base · The Golden Spiders · The Black Mountain · Before Midnight · Might as Well Be Dead · If Death Ever Slept · Champagne for One · Plot It Yourself · Too Many Clients · The Final Deduction · Gambit · The Mother Hunt · A Right to Die · The Doorbell Rang · Death of a Doxy · The Father Hunt · Death of a Dude · Please Pass the Guilt · A Family AffairShort story
collectionsCategories:- 1951 short story collections
- Nero Wolfe short story collections
- Works originally published in The American Magazine
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