Thanks to the diverse scheduling of satellite tv, I’ve finally caught up with the 1970s American whodunit series featuring Jim Hutton (father of Timothy) as Ellery Queen.
‘The Adventure of the 12th Floor Express’ was a pretty good ‘impossible crime’, or ‘locked elevator’, story that I really enjoyed seeing. The mystery was neatly constructed, and included a pleasing dying message clue. I thought Hutton did a fairly good job of playing Ellery – which is about as difficult as anyone trying to play Peter Wimsey. Perhaps he wasn’t quite quirky enough, and that might just explain why the show didn’t run beyond the first series. But I’d be happy to watch more episodes.
One of the cast members in this episode, incidentally, was George Furth, who died just the other day. Furth was best known as the hapless bank employee in that marvellous feel-good movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid .
As for Jim Hutton, he died tragically young, of liver cancer, in 1979.
I watched this show as a kid, having recently discovered Agatha Christie, and was disgusted when it was canceled--quite qickly as I recall.
ReplyDeleteIt made no impact in the UK in the 70s, Curt, but I've enjoyed the two episodes I've now seen.
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