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''The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery'' is a 2000 made-for-television film based on the 1953 novel by Rex Stout. Set in 1950s Manhattan, the A&E Network production stars Maury Chaykin as the heavyweight detective genius Nero Wolfe, and Timothy Hutton as Wolfe's assistant, Archie Goodwin, narrator of the Nero Wolfe stories. Veteran screenwriter Paul Monash adapted the 1953 novel by Rex Stout; Bill Duke directed. When it first aired on the A&E Network March 5, 2000, ''The Golden Spiders'' was seen in 3.2 million homes, making it the fourth most-watched A&E original movie ever.〔Greppi, Michele, "Sleuths super for A&E record"; ''The Hollywood Reporter'', March 10, 2000〕 Its success led to the A&E original series, ''A Nero Wolfe Mystery'' (2001–2002). ==Plot== The voice of Archie Goodwin (Timothy Hutton) introduces us to the seventh-of-a-ton master sleuth Nero Wolfe (Maury Chaykin) — "a man who thinks he's the world's greatest detective. Truth being, he is." Wolfe lives in an opulent Manhattan brownstone on West 35th Street, where he enjoys reading, the cultivation of rare orchids, beer, and fine food prepared by his resident chef, Fritz Brenner (Colin Fox). The brownstone is also home to Archie, Wolfe's confidential assistant and legman, whose responsibilities include goading his sedentary boss into working occasionally to replenish the coffers. When Archie joins him in the dining room, Wolfe is unfazed by the news that he is overdrawn at the bank — but he is taken aback at the discovery that Fritz has altered one of his favorite dishes without consulting him. The resulting tantrum prompts Archie to do something uncharacteristic when the doorbell rings: admit one of the neighborhood kids, Pete Drossos (Robert Clark), who says he has to see Nero Wolfe. Pete has a case. He tells Wolfe he works the wipe racket — cleaning the windshields of cars stopped at intersections, for the occasional tip. About an hour before, Pete saw a good-looking woman wearing large gold earrings shaped like spiders, at the wheel of a 1952 Cadillac. As Pete wiped her windshield the woman mouthed the words, "Help. Get a cop." A male passenger stuck a gun in her ribs and the car drove off. Pete wrote down the license number. If the woman is found dead, Pete believes he can claim a reward by identifying the man who was with her. Since the case is too big for him to handle alone, Pete asks Nero Wolfe to go 50-50. Wolfe instructs Archie to call the police, to suggest they do a routine check on the license plate number, and Pete hurries home to his mother. The next evening Sergeant Purley Stebbins (R. D. Reid) of Manhattan Homicide visits Wolfe's office. The car Archie had called the police about the previous evening has just been seen to run down and kill a boy — a boy named Peter Drossos. Stebbins' visit is interrupted by the arrival of Pete's mother (Nancy Beatty), who is there to do what her dying boy asked her to do: "Go to Mr. Wolfe. Tell him what happened. Give Mr. Wolfe the money. Tell him to find the guy who ran me down." After Mrs. Drossos leaves, Wolfe tells Archie to return Pete's money — $4.30 — or give it to the Red Cross. Archie refuses and instead drafts a newspaper ad directed at the woman Pete saw at the wheel of the Cadillac. Archie is sure the ad will never be answered, but it will give Wolfe the feeling that he has earned his fee. But the ad does draw Inspector Cramer (Bill Smitrovich) of Manhattan Homicide, who wants to know what Wolfe is up to. The Cadillac has been found, along with evidence that it was used for another murder: that of an Immigration and Naturalization Service agent named Matthew Birch. The ad then attracts a woman reluctant to give her name — and she is wearing golden spider earrings. She offers $500 for information about the boy who saw her driving the car. After Wolfe explains that the boy is dead and the police are searching for the driver, the woman is shaken. She identifies herself as Laura Fromm (Mimi Kuzyk), a wealthy widow and philanthropist. She admits she was not driving the car, presents Wolfe with a $10,000 retainer for his expert advice, and promises to return the next day. First she must see someone, find out something. Wolfe accepts the retainer and warns Mrs. Fromm sternly about the danger of asking any questions herself, since two people have already been killed. Mrs. Fromm is not on time for her appointment the next day. Instead, Wolfe is visited by two attorneys who report that Mrs. Fromm has been run down and killed by a car. One is executor of her estate; the other is Dennis Horan (Gary Reineke), an attorney for the Association of European Refugees, a humanitarian organization with which Mrs. Fromm was closely involved. When asked to return the hefty retainer, Wolfe tells the lawyers that he intends to earn the money by finding the murderer. Freelance operatives Saul Panzer (Saul Rubinek), Orrie Cather (Trent McMullen) and Fred Durkin (Fulvio Cecere) are called in to assist — to investigate the refugee organization, trace the distinctive golden spider earrings, and see if anything comes of Wolfe's conjecture that Matthew Birch was the passenger in the Cadillac. The inquiry reveals a blackmail ring that is victimizing hundreds of vulnerable people. In the final scene, Archie meets with Pete's mother in the office and gives her half of Laura Fromm's $10,000 retainer, saying that Pete and Wolfe had agreed to take equal shares of any proceeds from the case. Even though she begins to cry — something Wolfe cannot bear — Archie reports to Wolfe that she kept her composure until she made it out the door. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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