Ellery Queen Mysteries

The 1975 Cult-Classic TV whodunit Ellery Queen starring the brilliant Jim Hutton is finally being released on DVD in its entirety, thanks to E1 Entertainment.The series was based on the popular classic Ellery Queen mystery books from the 1930's. The show lasted only one season on NBC, but has remained a fan favorite.Set in the post-WWII 1947, the show closely followed the format of the Ellery Queen mystery novels, which carefully laid out the clues before the reader/audience and invited them to attempt to solve the mystery before Ellery Queen presented the solution.The show premiered March 23, 1975 with a telepilot, "Too Many Suspects," which was adapted from the book, The Fourth Side of the Triangle. Beloved veteran character actor, David Wayne, portrayed Ellery's crusty but loveable father, Inspector Richard Queen throughout the series. Wayne perfectly delivered folksy dialog ostensibly from the 1940's like, "Why don't we cut all the banana oil?"Hutton (the father of actor Timothy Hutton) played Ellery to perfection, blending absent-minded goofiness with genuine emotional depth and boyish charm. Together, he and Wayne had the perfect on-screen chemistry, creating an authentic charm that remains undiminished after all of these years.In all, 22 fun one-hour episodes followed beginning on Sept. 11, 1975, the last show airing on April 4, 1976.In the early Queen books, just prior to the presentation of the solution to the mystery, a "Challenge To The Reader" was issued during which the suspects and clues were reviewed and the reader challenged to guess the solution to the crime.This tradition was preserved in the series, when Hutton as Ellery turns from the scene to the camera and speaks directly to viewers. This occurs prior to the commercial break that led into the final act. Ellery provides a brief recap, then invites the audience to add up the clues, and to identify the guilty party.The final act always employed the time-honored detective cliché of calling all of the suspects together (it was made famous by Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, who often gathered the crowd in together in the drawing room) with Ellery presenting the solution to the group, frequently upstaging and skewering the solution proposed by whichever rival sleuth was also in the episode.Rounding out the cast was John Hillerman, who portrayed Radio Mystery Master, Simon Brimmer. Brimmer constantly tried to upstage the Inspector and also embarrass Ellery by solving the crime first -- and he always failed.In addition, Ken Swofford portrayed yellow journalist Frank Flannigan; Tom Reese, as the stalwart and stone-face Lt. Thomas Velie, the Inspector's right-hand man; and Nina Roman, who portrayed the Inspector's secretary, Grace, in seven episodes.The show as also known for its clever opening montage, in which an announcer relays that this so-and-so is about to be murdered. Who is guilty? Is it ...? Next, each suspect (guest star) is shown in a brief clip, speaking a short humorous phrase. It ends with, "Match wits with Ellery Queen and see if you can guess whodunit!"The series was created by the writing/producing team of Richard Levinson and William Link, who also created the Classic TV mystery/police shows Mannix, Columbo and Murder, She Wrote."Too Many Suspects," the pilot episode, IS included in this six-disc complete series boxed set entitiled: "Ellery Queen Mysteries." The other 22 episodes included are: The Adventure of Auld Lang Syne; The Adventure of the Lover's Leap; The Adventure of the Chinese Dog; The Adventure of the Comic Book Crusader; The Adventure of the 12th Floor Express; The Adventure of Miss Aggie's Farewell Performance; The Adventure of Colonel Niven's Memoirs; The Adventure of the Mad Tea Party; The Adventure of Veronica's Veils; The Adventure of the Pharaoh's Curse; The Adventure of the Blunt Instrument; The Adventure of the Black Falcon; The Adventure of the Sunday Punch; The Adventure of the Eccentric Engineer; The Adventure of the Wary Witness; The Adventure of the Judas Tree; The Adventure of the Sinister Scenario; The Adventure of the Two-Faced Woman; The Adventure of the Tyrant of Tin Pan Alley; The Adventure of Caesar's Last Sleep; The Adventure of the Hard-Hearted Huckster; and The Adventure of the Disappearing Dagger.In addition to these fabulous episodes, which have been completely remastered, E1 Entertainment has included a special collector's book in the set.Guest stars truly included the cream of 1970's acting talent on the small and big screens, including: Kim Hunter, Ray Milland, Tim O'Connor, Gail Strickland, Joan Collins, David Doyle, Ray Walston, Anne Francis, Don Ameche, Susan Strasberg, Orson Bean, Dee Wallace, Lynda Day George, Tom Bosley, Pat Harrington Jr., Eve Arden, Bert Parks, Betty White, Robbert Loggia, Rene Auberjonois, Pernell Roberts, Jim Backus, Larry Hagman, George Burns, Hayden Rorke, June Lockhart, John Larroquette, Eva Gabor, Dean Stockwell, Tab Hunter, Roddy McDowall, Susan Stafford, William Schallert, Robert Alda, Arthur Godfrey, Ed McMahon, Bobby Sherman, Dick Van Patten, Tricia O'Neil, Cesar Romero, Dick Sargent, Bill Dana, Diana Muldaur, Noah Beery Jr., Troy Donahue, Vincent Price, James Sikking, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Edward Mulhare, Vera Miles, Victor Buono, Polly Bergen, Ken Berry, Norman Fell, Edward Albert, Kevin Tighe, Bibi Besch, Bob Crane, Juliet Mills, Gary Burghoff, Ronny Cox, and Walter Pidgeon.(Important FYI: Here's a quick word about the "real" Ellery Queen in the literary world. "Ellery Queen" is actually the pseudonym used by two cousins, Frederick Dannay and Manfred B. Lee to write detective fiction. Some of the later Ellery Queen novels were ghost-written by Theodore Sturgeon, Jack Vance, and other prominent writers.In their successful series of novels, Ellery Queen is not only the name of the author, but also the detective-hero of the stories. The writing team also wrote four novels under the name of Barnaby Ross about a Shakespearian actor/detective named Drury Lane. These novels were later reiussed under the Ellery Queen byline.For a while in the 1930s "Ellery Queen" and "Barnaby Ross" staged a series of public debates in which one cousin impersonated Queen and the other impersonated Ross.The early Queen novels encouraged the reader to attempt to solve the puzzle, with an explicit note in the text when the reader had all the necessary information.There were many paperback novels written by "Ellery Queen" in the 1960s that did not feature the detective Ellery Queen. For instance, three novels featuring the governor's "troubleshooter" Mike McCall - The Campus Murders (1969, written by Gil Brewer); The Black Hearts Murder (1970, written by Richard Deming); and The Blue Movie Murders (1972, written by Edward D. Hoch) -- were published under the "Ellery Queen" byline. Jack Vance also wrote four of these book.)

I remembered watching these mysteries when I was younger and always loved reading the books! It’s great to have the complete series and wish they had made many more. Definitely worth having.

As a lifelong fan of Golden Age mystery writers, I count Ellery Queen as one of my favorite American authors, and I remember being thrilled when this show came out. Watching it again with a new perspective, I find it an interesting amalgamation of the "old" and "new" Ellery, yet it is a wholly original creation of the scriptwriters and actors who played these roles.The character of Ellery Queen went through a complete transformation during his reign as the cousins who created him, Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, began to allow their own political, social and spiritual concerns to pervade their writing. The early Ellery was a rather obnoxious fop, along the lines of S.S. Van Dine's Philo Vance, and the mysteries he solved were pure puzzling delights! Each book was titled after a different nationality (The Dutch Shoe Mystery, the Egyptian Cross Mystery, and on and on, including my very favorite, The Greek Coffin Mystery). In terms of puzzle alone, the TV series draws more on these early cases for inspiration, with stylized settings and characters and odd clues, including Queen's specialty, the dying message clue. It was in these early books that Queen issued his "Challenge to the Reader," and Jim Hutton's Queen continues that tradition in the series.Naturally, a 45 minute long television program cannot hope to create as complex a mystery as Queen's novels allow, so the characters tend to be thinly drawn and the clues minimal. I remember reading The French Powder Mystery, set in a NYC department store. During the denouement, which incorporated nearly one hundred pages, Ellery gathered the suspects together and sifted through what seemed like DOZENS of clues, accusing suspect after suspect until he narrowed in on the actual culprit. The TV mysteries are much more straightforward, and some are thinner than others, giving ample time (sometimes a little too ample) to the comical interactions between Ellery and his dad, or to the sneering misdirection of Simon Brimmer's theories. But the mysteries are great fun, for all the reasons that fans have stated: great guest stars, clever clues, and a willingness to include the audience in on the game.It's interesting that the show is set in the post-war 40's because by then the authors had transformed Ellery from a high-handed twit to a real human being, troubled by the world around him, spiritually bereft, lonely for companionship and connected to his father by much more complex threads. On the one hand, their father/son bond was deeply drawn, warm and rich. But more often than not, Ellery resented his entry into crime-solving, as the cases began to take a much more emotional toll on the detective, the suspects, and even the killer at times. These mysteries are better written, if less clue-centered. They still play fair with the audience; some of them have terrific twists. But now Dannay and Lee are dealing with some really hard-hitting issues: post-traumatic stress disorder on returning soldiers, the unhappy willingness of society to embrace fascism, the question of the existence of a deity! Sounds like fun, no? But some of these later books are true classics: Calamity Town, The Murderer is a Fox, Cat of Many Tails, Ten Days Wonder, and so on.None of the stuff of later works is present in the TV show, except for the warm filial bond of the Queens. It doesn't belong in this series, but I sure wish someone would consider dramatizing these later books. The one attempt at it, a TV movie based on Cat of Many Tails, was fairly mediocre due to the modernized setting and the miscasting of Peter Lawford as Ellery. I'd love to see a whole series based on the Wrightsville novels. (Wrightsville was the perfect small town of yesteryear that Ellery loved to visit when he needed to get away from the dirty city. Unfortunately, his arrival always - ALWAYS - heralded one or more murders. It's a wonder that the town didn't drive him out!!)I've spoken more about the books than the series. I really am enjoying revisiting this show, but more than that, I hope it sparks a renewed interest in Ellery Queen the writer and that more mystery lovers will seek out his books.

This is a series I never saw when it originally ran on TV as it was only broadcast on NBC, and we didn't have cable. I had seen it listed on Amazon and in some shops, but despite the many good reviews it had, I was reluctant to buy it sight unseen. Eventually, I spotted it at my local library and borrowed it. I enjoyed the series so much as a rental, I bought it a couple of weeks later, and watched the entire series again. I have watched many of the episodes three or four times since 2011. The series is really that good. I especially like the rapport between Ellery and his father. There is genuine chemistry between Jim Hutton as Ellery and David Wayne as his father. The mysteries themselves are mostly quite engaging, and this armchair detective usually had to wait until the end when Ellery unraveled it for me. A special mention also needs to be made to two supporting characters: Simon Brimmer and Frank Flanagan. They are hilarious and bring a lot of humour to the series. This series is perfect family entertainment. As the series is set in 1947 and was made in the mid 1970s, it is not dated. As many others have expessed, this wonderful series lasted only one season, apparently because of Hutton's health. Such a shame that we lost Jim Hutton at such a young age and that this series never went beyond a single season.

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For many years I have been waiting to purchase the complete list of Ellery Queen Mysteries, but I have found only DVD's with low quality and no English subtitles (I am not native English speaker and, if you want to try to solve the mysteries, you have to pay attention to every little details). Well, that is no longer the case.Video and audio quality is very good if you think the series was originally aired in the early 70's with no HD available, episodes have been remastered and I think the result is pretty good.Definitely it worth the price!

Product came sooner than expected. Overall good shape, Discs are in excellent shape. Wonderful purchase, as discs play flawlessly.

Ciao, serie cult e superclassico della mia infanzia, audio originale e sottotitoli. Si guarda sempre volentieri, consegna veloce, prodotto valido.