The League of Frightened Men (1937 film)

Infobox Film
name = The League of Frightened Men

---

image_size =
caption =
director = Alfred E. Green
producer =
writer = Rex Stout (story)
Edward Chodorov
narrator =
starring = Walter Connolly
Lionel Stander
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor =
released = May 25, 1937
runtime = 71 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget =
preceded_by = "Meet Nero Wolfe"
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:99184
imdb_id = 0029127

"The League of Frightened Men" is a 1937 mystery film based on the second Nero Wolfe novel by Rex Stout. Directed by Alfred E. Green, the Columbia Pictures film stars Walter Connolly as Nero Wolfe, a role played by Edward Arnold in the previous year's "Meet Nero Wolfe". The role of Wolfe's assistant Archie Goodwin was reprised by Lionel Stander.

Cast

* Walter Connolly "as" Nero Wolfe
* Lionel Stander "as" Archie Goodwin
* Eduardo Ciannelli "as" Paul Chapin
* Irene Hervey "as" Evelyn Hibbard
* Victor Kilian "as" Pitney Scott
* Nana Bryant "as" Agnes Burton
* Joseph Allen (Allen Brook) "as" Mark Chapin
* Walter Kingsford "as" Ferdinand Bowen
* Leonard Mudie "as" Professor Hibbard
* Kenneth Hunter "as" Dr. Burton
* Charles Irwin "as" Augustus Farrell
* Rafaela Ottiano "as" Dora Chapin
* Edward McNamara "as" Inspector Cramer
* Jameson Thomas "as" Michael Ayers
* Ian Wolfe "as" Nicholas Cabot
* Jonathan Hale "as" Alexander Drummond
* Herbert Ashley "as" Fritz
* James Flavin "as" Joe

Reception

* "The New York Times", July 2, 1937 — "The League of Frightened Men" is a new Nero Wolfe episode for the screen, and it finds Walter Connolly, the incumbent Nero, prissily substituting chocolate for the more familiar Wolfe diet of beer. This is rather hard on Lionel (Archie) Stander, because chocolate makes him boip, whereas the beer used to be right to his taste... It should be reported that "The League of Frightened Men" is a well-knit mystery, and well played out.

* Jon Tuska, "The Detective in Hollywood" — Unhappily, Lionel Stander's Archie in "The League of Frightened Men" is far too much of a bungler. The plot follows the novel, which ran initially in "The Saturday Evening Post". A group of ten men is threatened by one of their number, and murders begin. Eduardo Ciannelli is the logical suspect, since he was crippled in a hazing while the men were all in college. ... The film was in no way the equal of its predecessor. [Tuska, Jon, "The Detective in Hollywood", 1978, Doubleday and Company ISBN 0385120931 page 59]

External links

*imdb title|id=0029127|title=The League of Frightened Men

References