One of the joys of writing about classic films is occasionally exploring favorite stars’ performances on the small screen. Eve Arden, veteran of stage and films, had also enjoyed a thriving career on radio as the beloved Our Miss Brooks. In a guest appearance on Ellery Queen in the mid-1970s, she plays a pompous radio show star with panache. It is a joy to watch her; too bad she dies early in the episode. But it’s a mystery program and somebody’s got to be murdered.
This is my entry into the 11th Annual Favourite TV Show Episode Blogathon hosted by Terence at his great A Shroud of Thoughts blog. Have a look at the other lovely posts at thislink.
The episode “The Adventure of Miss Aggie’s Farewell
Performance” stars Eve Arden as Miss Aggie, “beloved principal” of a small-town
high school on a daytime soap opera. Her
role as principal is a promotion in job title and tribute to her longtime
Connie Brooks character, who was a lowly high school English teacher. Except for that carefully intoned, crystal
voice, the characters are nothing alike.
Hapless Connie had a wry sense of humor, and the character of Miss Aggie
is all hearts and flowers, though the actress playing her is a bit of a phony,
full of venom and self-aggrandizement.
She rules the roost in the small radio studio, demanding and getting
attention, favor, and tribute, if not affection from her cast, which includes
Bert Parks playing the football coach, and Penelope Windust as the ingenue, of
whom she is jealous.
In the middle of a broadcast, Eve sips water and begins to choke, and collapses, as the organist covers with a burst of incidental melody, as was common on radio, where in some shows it seemed every dramatic moment was punctuated by a blast on the Wurlitzer. The shy, mousy organist is played sweetly by Bernice Colen, a common face on 1970s television.
Not dead yet, Eve Arden is taken to the hospital, where she lords it over the floor in her private room swamped with floral tributes from fans. Reigning in her feathery bedjacket, she holds court for the press, and is especially pleased that Ellery Queen is on the case to investigate who poisoned her. She is so used to acting a part, she asks him to call her by her character name, “Miss Aggie.”
Jim Hutton plays a bumbling but clever Ellery Queen and David Wayne is his crusty father, Inspector Richard Queen of the New York City Police. The time period of the show is post-World War II in New York, with some foggy establishing shots of the Empire State Building and late-model cars driving past their brownstone where father and son share an apartment. Ellery is a mystery writer, and the program, as fans will know, is inspired by the series of books and short stories written from 1929 through 1971 by the writing team of Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, who published under the pseudonym “Ellery Queen.”
The TV series lasted only one year, from the fall of 1975 through the spring of 1976, and it was probably my favorite show, or at least one of them, when I was entering my teen years. I loved everything about it, from the saxophone wail of the jazzy theme, to the opening credits, to the accuracy of its period setting, to the parade of favorite classic film stars, and younger familiar TV character actors, that made it such a kick to watch. I don’t know why it didn’t last longer, but it was terrific show. It managed to carry off an irresistible blend of whimsical storytelling with sentimental nostalgia.
It led to me reading the Ellery Queen books, and Agatha Christie, and eventually led to writing my own post-War II mystery series here are Barnes & Noble, or here at Amazon. Or here, directly from me. Oh, come on. All TV shows have commercials.
I really only had one complaint of the series, but it can be traced to the books and classic mysteries of this sort: the well-worn device of the victim leaving a dying clue. Some of the episodes’ dying clues are little overreaching. Personally, were I shot in my poofy bedjacket in my hospital room, I would not be trying to figure out how to create an elaborate clue to the identity of my killer that only Ellery Queen could solve. I would be trying to attract the attention of a nurse, or even a janitor, somebody who could get me some help. Or franticly making my peace with the Creator. But then, I have never been very clever, not enough to spend my last breath devising an intricate clue.
Eve Arden, does, indeed, succumb to a gunshot wound while in the hospital, and Ellery solves the case in such a roundabout way that we kind of forgot he was even investigating it. His casual solutions also baffle and infuriate his rival, Simon Brimmer, who is a professional radio criminologist, desperately trying to get his ratings up and his sponsor dollars increased. Simon is played by the wonderful John Hillerman, just as dapper and acerbic, with his ascot and cigarette holder, as his later role on Magnum P.I., for which most people probably remember him better.
Another feature to the program is that just before the final scene, and just before the commercial break before the final scene, Jim Hutton would break the fourth wall and speak directly to the TV viewers and review the clues and the suspects, and ask them if they had figured it out yet. Try as I might during that commercial, I don’t think I ever got the answer right.
Also in the cast is Betty White, who plays Eve Arden’s agent. John McGiver plays the show’s stern and stuffy sponsor. It would be Mr. McGiver’s last role; he died of a heart attack in September 1975. This program was broadcast a few weeks later on October 16, 1975.
The series is apparently now in public domain and you can
watch it here at the Internet Archive.
Scroll down to the episode.
Please have a look at the other blogs participating in the
11th Annual Favorite TV Show Episode Blogathon hosted by Terrence at
A Shroud of Thoughts.
Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. and Movies in Our Time - Hollywood Mirrors and Mimics the Twentieth Century and Hollywood Fights Fascism and Christmas in Classic Films. TO JOIN HER READERS' GROUP - follow this link for a free book as a thank-you for joining.
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