The doorbell rang

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The doorbell rang (original title The Doorbell Rang ) is a detective novel from the Nero Wolfe series by the American author Rex Stout . The book was published in 1965, a year after journalist Fred J. Cook's reveal book "The FBI Nobody Knows" was published. In his book Satirical Evil, Stout describes the attacks and illegal methods used by the FBI . The Doorbell Rank became one of his most successful and spectacular novels.

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The novel begins in the home of New York private investigator Nero Wolfe on West Forty-fifth Street in Manhattan . Wolfe is an eccentric, gourmet, orchid breeder, and avid reader. Other residents of the house are Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin, the first-person narrator of the novel, and the Swiss chef Fritz Brenner. Wolfe is supported by a number of hand-picked external employees as well as by Theodore Horstmann, who looks after the orchid house on the top floor of the house. Goodwin is on friendly terms with Lon Cohen, a journalist for the Gazette , who helps him obtain information - not always legally - for which Goodwin returns with exclusive inside information. Wolfe's unconventional way of investigating, his success in solving unsolved murder cases are the cause of his tense relationship with the police, embodied in the novel by Inspector Cramer.

The first client in early January 1965 is Mrs. Brunner, the richly wealthy widow of a businessman, who sees herself and her family harassed by the FBI after buying ten thousand copies of the book “The Unknown FBI” and sending them nationwide. The addressees were senators and representatives of the House of Representatives, judges, governors, representatives of the media, high-ranking police officers and teachers in schools and universities. She also has some vague information that the murder of the journalist Morris Althaus, who opened a dossier on the FBI, was carried out by the FBI. However, the police believed this information to be worthless and did not investigate any further.

Wolfe, who actually doesn't want to mess with the FBI, initially hesitates to take the case because he thinks it is hopeless. The contingency fee alone is so high that it would allow him to get through to the end of the financial year in a financially sound manner with just one assignment, without accepting additional clients. Because 75% of everything he earns over a certain amount goes to the state as tax. But if he solves the case to the satisfaction of his client, then he could only devote the rest of the year to his hobbies. So, despite violent protests from his assistant, he signs the contract with his client and accepts an advance of $ 100,000.

Woolf and Goodwin are aware that the FBI has targeted them since Mrs. Brunner's visit, that all of their steps will be monitored from now on and that the house may be bugged. From now on, relevant conversations will take place in Brenner's apartment with the radio turned on. What is to be said is whispered in the ear. A game of cat and mouse begins between Goodwin and his guards, in which Goodwin determines the moves. By persistently questioning people close to the journalist, by contacting the allegedly worthless witness whom he eagerly courted, he gradually gets on the track. With the help of Cramer, who had investigated the crime scene after the murder, and a cleverly concocted deception, Wolfe succeeds in misleading the FBI and in finding out how and why the journalist was killed.

The book ends when an unknown visitor rings the doorbell. Wolfe and Goodwin look at the silhouette behind the glass door, it is probably J. Edgar Hoover , whose figure is well known from the many press photos - "the really big fish", as Goodwin says. The visitor rings the doorbell in vain.

Quotes

"Modern science makes it possible for anyone to do anything, but nobody knows what the hell is going on."

- The doorbell rings, p. 54

“You know damn well that you can't win against the FBI. Not even the White House. "

- The doorbell rings, p. 63

Film adaptations

The novel has been filmed four times for television.

In 1969 Italian television brought out a film adaptation of a Nero Wolf series under the title “Il pesce più grosso” (= the really big fish), directed by Giuliana Berlinguer , with Tino Buazzelli as Nero Wolfe and Paolo Ferrari as Archie Goodwin.

In 1979 Frank D. Gilroy directed the television movie Nero Wolfe with Thayer David as Nero Wolfe and Tom Mason as Archie Goodwin. The film was intended as a pilot for a series that was not continued until 1983 because David died in 1978 shortly after filming was finished. The film won two Primetime Emmy Awards .

In 1981 Paramount Television started the television series "Nero Wolfe", with William Conrad in the title role and Lee Horsley as Goodwin, which was broadcast from January 1981 by NBC . The second episode of the first season is based on The Doorbell Rank , directed by George McCowan.

In 2001 the novel was adapted as an episode within the television series A Nero Wolfe Mystery . The film was directed by Timothy Hutton , who also played the role of Archie Goodwin, and Maury Chaykin played Nero Wolf.

Rex Stout, The Doorbell Rang, and the FBI

After an eventful career as a businessman, Stout published his first Nero Wolfe novel in 1934, which was to be followed by 33 more by 1975. Since his beginnings as a writer he has been under observation by the FBI, as the journalist Herbert Mitgang found out while researching his book "Dangerous Dossiers". Since the publication of "Over My Dead Body" and "Sisters in Trouble" in 1940, the FBI kept a file on Stout. It says u. a. that he has contact with a number of people and organizations that are allegedly under communist influence. His FBI dossier grew to hundreds of pages in the years that followed. When Mitgang got access to the files, he only got partial access because large passages were blackened.

Over a hundred pages of the dossier deal with The Doorbell Rank alone and contain a detailed book review, an award that, after Mitgang's research, only a few authors have received. Even the pre-publication of parts of the novel in a magazine aroused lively interest in the media, so that Viking-Verlag started the book with an increased first edition. It also earned Stout the heightened FBI attention and personal dislike of Hoover. Hoover ordered a nationwide watch of the reaction to the novel, and the files state that in an interview on The Today Show, Stout called him a tinhorn autocrat (≈ high-handed boasting ) on the verge of senility. However, Hoover forbade any direct action to avoid attracting additional attention to the book; Any personal contact with Stout was only allowed with the consent of the headquarters.

The dislike between Stout and Hoover was mutual. In an ironically playful interview with Life magazine , in which Stout talks about his views and his way of writing novels, he says of Hoover: “I think the FBI syndrome will collapse with the death of J. Edgar. Hoover has what I call a homemade halo. The next man won't have it so well ”.

In 1976 the Church Committee put the novel on the FBI's “Not to contact list” because of “FBI's political abuse of intelligence information”.

Expenses (selection)

  • The doorbell rank. New York: Viking 1965.
  • The doorbell rank. Introduction Stuart Kaminsky . New York: Random House 1992.
German translations
  • By address Murderer X. From America. by Brigitte Weitbrecht. Frankfurt / Main, Berlin: Ullstein 1968. (Ullstein books. 1167.)
  • The doorbell rang . A case for Nero Wolfe. From d. american. English by Conny Lösch. With an afterward from Jürgen Kaube . Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta 2017.

literature

  • Thomas S. Hischak: American Literature on Stage and Screen: 525 Works and Their Adaptations . Jefferson (North Carolina), London: McFarland 2012. pp. 57-58.
  • Herbert Mitgang: Monitored - Great Authors in the Dossiers of American Secret Services . Droste 1992. ISBN 978-3-77000992-3

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ Nero Wolfe series, 47 works , accessed May 22, 2017.
  2. ^ Fred J. Cook: The FBI Nobody Knows. New York: Macmillan 1964.
  3. ↑ All quotations from: Nero Wolfe: The doorbell rang. Stuttgart 2017.
  4. ↑ IMDb , accessed on May 21, 2017.
  5. ↑ IMDb , accessed on May 21, 2017.
  6. ↑ Herbert Mitgang: Dangerous Dossiers: Exposing the Secret War Against America's Greatest Authors . 1988.
  7. ↑ Herbert Mitgang: Dangerous Dossiers: . 1988
  8. ↑ Quoted from: Michael Newton. The FBI Encyclopedia. London: McFarland 2003. p. 326.
  9. ^ "I think the FBI syndrome will collapese when J. Edgar dies. Hoover has what I call a self-made halo. The next man won't have it so good ". Quoted in: Life, December 10, 1965.
  10. ^ Final report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, United States Senate ... 1976 .