Sun 21 Jul 2019
Stories I’m Reading: STUART PALMER “The Riddle of the Dangling Pearl.”
Posted by Steve under Stories I'm Reading[9] Comments
STUART PALMER “The Riddle of the Dangling Pearl.” Novelette. Hildegarde Withers. First published in Mystery, November 1933. Collected in Hildegarde Withers: Uncollected Riddles (Crippen & Landru, 2002). Reprinted in The Big Book of Reel Murders: Stories that Inspired Great Crime Films, edited by Otto Penzler (Vintage Crime, softcover, forthcoming November 2019). Film: The Plot Thickens, RKO, 1936, with Zasu Pitts as Miss Withers and James Gleason as Oscar Piper.
Things were different back in 1933. When Inspector Oscar Piper of the NYPD gets a call from an associate curator at the Cosmopolitan Museum of Art asking for police assistance, he being shorthanded at the moment, sends schoolteacher Miss Hildegarde Withers to act in his stead.
It’s a good thing she’s on hand, though, for as soon as she arrives she sees the man she is to meet falling down a long flight of stairs and landing on the floor below, quite dead. This is only the prelude to several other extraordinary things happening at the museum that day, including the disappearance of a extremely valuable Cellini cup, ordinarily kept under close guard at all times.
While I was reading this early Miss Withers tale, I was somewhat annoyed by the clutter of characters, much more than usual, I thought, not to mention the flurry of activity surrounding them, almost non-stop. Once finished, though, and looking back, it’s easy to see how well the story was constructed, brick by brick, and everything in its place, precisely when needed.
While there’s no depth to either the characters or the story, it is a lot of fun to read.
I’ve not seen the movie based on this story in a long time, but I have to agree with Otto Penzler’s assessment in his introduction to the story that Zasu Pitts was the wrong person chosen to replace Edna May Oliver in the leading role. He adds that “The screenplay provides a different motive for the murder, different suspects, and a different murderer.” He does go on to say that the movie retains the same comic tone as the story, however.
July 21st, 2019 at 6:34 pm
I really like “Riddle of the Dangling Pearl” too.
Palmer was an all-around talent. He could plot, invent characters, tell stories and create lots of humor. He tends to be a bit underrated today. Much of his work is delightful.
July 21st, 2019 at 7:57 pm
Most of the Withers and Malone crossover novellas were penned by Palmer who nailed Craig Rice’s voice and style perfectly. Aside from his entertaining mystery novels he also wrote some good screenplays which may be why his work tended to adapt to the screen well. His writing voice was perfectly adapted to that of most mystery films.
Unfortunately Zazu Pitts is far too physical as Hildy and much too young. Though she was a gifted comic actress her style of comedy and screen persona was almost the opposite of Hildy, and like Helen Broderick she proved a poor substitute for Edna May Oliver, though to be honest I’m not sure there was anyway who could have replaced Oliver in that role, even Angela Lansbury proved inadequate.
July 22nd, 2019 at 10:01 am
Angela Lansbury never played Hildegarde Withers.
If you’re referring to that TV movie from the ’70s, that was Eve Arden.
(A Very Missing Person, ABC-1972, with James Gregory as Oscar Piper.)
July 22nd, 2019 at 11:31 am
By the way, the book mentioned “Hildegarde Withers: Uncollected Riddles” has a lot of good short stories in it. Recommended!
I’ve read the novel “Hildegarde Withers Makes the Scene”.
But haven’t seen the Eve Arden film apparently based on it.
July 22nd, 2019 at 12:49 pm
I’ve not seen the Eve Arden version either, but the reviews are only so-so. It turns out, though, we can all see for ourselves. For as long as it’s available on YouTube, here it is:
July 22nd, 2019 at 3:16 pm
… and hey there!
Three and a half minutes in, reporting the disappearance –
– it’s Woodrow Parfrey!
You pick up something new every day …
July 22nd, 2019 at 6:13 pm
Oh, that guy!
Thanks, Mike.
July 22nd, 2019 at 6:43 pm
Sorry, right, Eve Arden, I guess I was confusing Hildy with Mrs. Pollifax, though the Arden was disappointing too despite the divine Miss Arden’s presence.
I’m not sure anyone could be Hildy after Edna May Oliver.
Certainly not Marjorie Main’s Mrs. O’Malley.
July 22nd, 2019 at 6:48 pm
A little research reveals the following, “Hildegarde Withers Makes the Scene” was finished by Fletcher Flora after Stuart Palmer’s death.
Also there is a lost TV pilot from the fifties THE AMAZING MISS WITHERS with Agnes Moorehead and Paul Kelly. That might have been worth a look.