Wolfe Pack -- Official Site of the Nero Wolfe Society

My lasting impressions were of the solidity, reality and size of these sets - from outside, raw new plywood; from inside, richly painted solid walls. It was exactly like being inside a very nice, very large house, which was beautifully furnished with good quality antiques; only the views from doors and through windows spoiled the illusion.. oh, and the absence of a roof!

For viewing, the group of 22 was split into two groups of eleven; and Gina and I were fortunate enough to be in the first group to be shown the set. Fortunate, because Timothy Hutton decided to show us around himself - so, as we went from room to room, people rushed around setting lights for us, while he gave a personal take on what was what. This meant that not only did we see all the sets - the office, the kitchen, the stoop and hall, Wolfe's bedroom, the plant rooms, the dining room, and the basement room (complete with antique snooker table!) - but Mr. Hutton told us what had been filmed where; so the dining room brought a story about Julie Jaquette in 'Doxy'; the basement had doubled for a gangster's club, a restaurant, and a night club; and so on. It was totally fascinating. I can't over-emphasize the 'genuine' feel of the sets; it really was like being inside an actual house - and, to a Wolfe enthusiast, it actually did feel like the real thing. The set designers and dressers had clearly worked their magic after close scrutiny of the books...

The groups then swapped, and our group were shown costumes (including yellow Wolfe pajamas!) followed by a look at props, and set dressing. This time we were without Mr. Hutton, but a personal guide from the production company was a mine of information. Incidentally, props included specially made plastic Cramer cigars (he apparently got sick after chewing real ones in the first series) and numerous bottles of specially labeled beer...

We then had a really good lunch, followed by another all too brief visit to the set, to watch filming of the final scenes of 'Silent Speaker'.

And then Jonathan announced the coach had to leave, as someone had a plane to catch. However, we didn't have a plane to catch, despite having flown 4000 miles to get there... so I asked Mr. Hutton if we could stay on. "Yes, of course!"

And the most magical part of the whole day began.

Briefly, I spent around 5 hours tucked into a corner of the set, watching as the production team and actors worked to finish the last two scenes of 'Silent Speaker'. Mr. Hutton was absolutely incredible; had he been a lifelong friend, he could not have been nicer to me. For example, in the prop. room we'd been shown the flat leather embossed sheet which was the prototype of Archie's wallet, that gift from Wolfe described in LFM. Mr. Hutton asked me 'Do you know what this is?', pulling the actual wallet from Archie's desk. He opened it, showing me it contained a note book 'When I have to take notes for Wolfe I use this; I pretend to write, but production have written in it what I would have written, if I'd actually made notes of the conversation' - and they had! The wallet also contained his driving license and two different detective licenses, together with some visiting cards:

Archie Goodwin
Representing Nero Wolfe
Private Investigator
257 West 35th Street

New York 5, New York
Klondyke 5-0173

I know this, because he GAVE me one of those cards! (And later signed it, both as himself and 'AKA Archie Goodwin'!) The depth of authenticity of the props was stunning - Mr. Hutton also gave me an envelope from Wolfe's desk, which was stamped and addressed correctly - but it was also franked, and contained an actual letter to Mr. Wolfe... how realistic was that?!!

Finally, one scene being shot included Archie waving a $100,000 reward check from the National Industrial Association... and, yes, he gave THAT to me, too! It's an actual printed and typed check, and, if it wasn't dated March 18 1954 and my name was Nero Wolfe, I'm sure I could deposit it.

Quite apart from these stunning gifts, Mr. Hutton constantly returned to chat, talking about the filming, his fascination with Stout's work, and much else. Over the many hours I was there, numerous members of the technical crew stopped to talk, too. I was keeping a low profile, for obvious reasons, but was treated exactly like a crew member. Even Michael Jaffe, who was directing, did this; he often paused to explain to me what he was doing, and what effect he was going for - it was just like a personalized director's commentary! He even once apologized for moving in front of me...

I also chatted for ages with Bill Smitrovitch (Cramer) - a very funny guy, who apart from everything else went out of his way to find out things for us to do in Toronto during the rest of our stay - notes which he wrote on the back of a script. Conrad Dunn (Saul Panzer) was also incredibly friendly; but so were camera people, assistant directors, producers- indeed, everyone.

And after the wrap, when we asked if we could call for a cab - we were instead given a ride back to the hotel in a production company car.

What a day - and those were just some of the highlights...

- duncan

Odd notes

Maury Chaykin was friendly, too, but I saw much less of him, as he spent most of the time in his dressing room, while a 'stunt Wolfe' stood in for him.

Wolfe's chair is actually quite uncomfortable; the red leather chair is much more relaxing.

The office set has a removable wall (where the safe is); they plan on removing another wall (to Wolfe's left) for the next series, to make more interesting shots.

Outside the window behind Wolfe is a brick wall with ivy; this was moved twenty feet back to make room for a through-the-window shot.

The camera when running on rails has eight wheels; special bogies with lots of small wheels are added for long tracking shots, to smooth out the bumps.

Wolfe's yellow shirts fade in the wash, and need re-dying.

Two cameras were used, although not every scene had both.

Filming was for HD-TV, and was therefore digital; state-of-the-art equipment was used - but, sadly, it wasn't filmed in wide screen!

ADDENDUM
With sincere apologies for the memory lapse:

On arrival at the hotel, we were given a large brown envelope from the Nero Wolfe production company...

It contained an 8x10 personally signed colour glossy of Maury Chaykin ('to Duncan and Gina...') A welcoming letter, plan of the brownstone, production schedule, and an actual copy of the script for 'Death of a Doxy', SIGNED by both Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton... and a black hat*, with 'NERO WOLFE' on it in red capitals!