Guest Who: Fit for a "Queen"

Ever since my mother dragged my tender 7 year-old frame to see Murder on the Orient Express (1974), which I watched with terror through semi-closed fingers (thanks to the creepy opening sequence and, later, a murder victim riddled with knife wounds), I've had a thing for mysteries, especially ones with all-star casts. I was a little too young when Columbo first aired to fully grasp its concept (the killer being revealed right away and the mystery being how they would be caught), though I learned to appreciate it later on. Needless to say, I never got to see Burke's Law in its mid-1960s hey-day. I recall loving a short-lived 1978 show called The Eddie Capra Mysteries, but it was gone before it started. Prior to that was a show that only lived as a glimmer in my memory. I must have only seen little bits of it, or perhaps only commercials for it. Based on a series of popular books and a prior radio version, it was called Ellery Queen.

The TV version of Ellery Queen was conceived by Richard Levinson and William Link, who had already brought the hit show Columbo to the airwaves. Queen only ran for one season, despite offering up some fine entertainment and a plethora of familiar faces. Today, we'll be checking out some famous gals who graced the show.

The atmospheric credits sequence featured a chess board and a variety of clues and pertinent props. The character of Ellery Queen was a mystery writer who helped to solve murders. Busy writers Levinson and Link would later bring the world a similar type of show, one that was a smash hit.

As a mystery writer who solves murders (most often peppered with a gallery of known Hollywood names as suspects), Angela Lansbury scored a stunning late-career success on Murder, She Wrote.

Jim Hutton, of movies such as Where the Boys Are (1960), Period of Adjustment (1962), The Hallelujah Trail (1965) and Walk Don't Run (1966), played the title character. Hutton, at 6'4-3/4", was a gangling, yet deeply committed, solver of the mysteries at hand. Close to the end of each episode, he'd break the first wall and announce that he'd figured it all out and would ask the viewer if they'd done the same. The father of Oscar-winning actor Timothy Hutton, he'd be dead of liver cancer just three years after Queen, at only age 45.

Costarring as Ellery's father, Inspector Richard Queen, was veteran actor David Wayne. Wayne as a member of the police force worked hand-in-hand with his son to solve the show's crimes. Wayne had a son named Timothy as well who, sadly, disappeared in a canoe accident in 1970 and was presumed dead. A two-time Tony Award winner, Wayne enjoyed a long career on TV and in movies like How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), The Tender Trap (1955) and The Three Faces of Eve (1957) before retiring in 1987. Lung cancer claimed him in 1995 at age 81. Now, on to the reason for this post. A glimpse of some of the famous ladies who popped up on the show, set in late-1945 and soon thereafter!

The 90-minute pilot for the show featured Oscar-winner Kim Hunter, who had enjoyed success (beneath prosthetic makeup!) in Planet of the Apes (1968) and its sequels.

The victim in the pilot was a very non-period looking Nancy Kovack, who I couldn't get a decent shot of, but here are a couple more looks of the always-excellent Hunter.

Also on hand here was Gail Strickland. (By the way, I will offer no spoilers here about the victims or suspects. There were never any doubts about the victims anyway because each episode began with a shot of the person who was going to be murdered that week!)

Recognize this "beaut?" It's none other than Barbara Rush, deliberately downplaying her dewy beauty to play a dowdy secretary. This first regular episode was set on New Year's Eve of 1946.

Some much-needed glitz was provided by our lifelong favorite, Miss Joan Collins.

The ever-glamorous Collins was engaged in the episode to Charles Robinson (shown in the prior photo), but was also seen with one of her old costars, Farley Granger from The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955!)

The next installment featured more old-style Hollywood sparkle as Ida Lupino was cast as a wealthy, fretful socialite.

Lupino was one of several guest stars on the series who'd been successful working actors in the actual 1940s or before.

Playing Lupino's stepdaughter was Susan Strasberg.

Strasberg was one of several guest stars who got the chance to go the turban route when depicting the period setting.

Rounding out this ep was wide-eyed Anne Francis.

It's sort of fun to wonder which old-style looks the stars might be aping in their appearances here. Even more fun, though I wasn't able to do so, would be discovering that some of the costume pieces had seen the light of day in 1940s Hollywood movies!

No '70s series would be complete without a visit from Lynda Day George.

Likewise, we have here Miss Dina Merrill, a longtime Underworld fave.

Merrill very rarely veered from her signature hairstyle, so it was fun to see her reworking it into a more appropriate 'do for her appearance here.

It suits her well, I think, and added a lot of period flavor to her look.

Another episode gave us Miss Eve Arden, aptly cast as a radio star (Arden had successfully starred in the radio series "Our Miss Brooks" back in the day!)

Arden wasn't one to miss out on giving good face to the camera!

An unexpected treat, though, was getting to see her interact with another wondrous comedienne...

I certainly hadn't counted on seeing the legendary Miss Betty White on this show!

She also got to sport a turban. It was a nice, and rare, opportunity to see her in a fairly dramatic show versus the sitcoms she came to be most known for.

It isn't hard to guess who Nina Van Pallandt was trying to channel in this outing. That hair is reminiscent of one Veronica Lake.

Flame-haired Rhonda Fleming turned up in an episode as well.

This green getup was one that I felt sure had been seen in some vintage Hollywood product. I had to chuckle at the fall that someone attached to her here, though. Somehow it just seemed like a banana clip with hair attached to it to me!

Speaking of falls, check out this one which was placed on the head of Miss June Lockhart.

Having starred on Lost in Space and then Petticoat Junction, we were by now used to her having shorter, bouffant hair.

Another sitcom veteran popping up was Green Acres' Eva Gabor.

One wasn't about to get any Barbara Rush-style dowdiness experiments out of her!

Somehow the turban thing just did no favors for the usually fetching Joanna Barnes. She's too washed out and that color was not hers.

Another Oscar-winner landed on the show in the form of Miss Dorothy Malone.

Malone was outfitted with a pretty elaborate 'do as well!

Rare was any show from the 1960s & '70s that didn't feature a guest appearance from Diana Muldaur.

I find that many ladies suit up-swept hair like this, something that's not in fashion to any degree now, but maybe someday...

Wholly unrecognizable from her prior guest role on the show, Barbara Rush returned as a different person in a later ep!

She was given a fun hat to wear for one of her scenes.

Another one of our faves, Miss Vera Miles, turned up in an installment of the show.

She's wearing a fall, too, though generally the stylists did a pretty decent job of at least matching the colors fairly well.

Polly Bergen got to do a sort of dry run for her later role in the highly successful 1983 miniseries The Winds of War (and its sequel War and Remembrance.)

Wasn't it Betty Grable who wore her hair in a style similar to this?

Here we find the lovely (and still active) Juliet Mills.

I really don't know what about Carolyn Jones' wig is meant to suggest the 1940s. It looks more like something from The Toni Tennille Collection to me....

Or maybe it's Bette Davis' (who she seems to resemble) from Burnt Offerings (1976!) I've learned the hard way that, apart from her Morticia Addams wig, Jones generally could not be trusted to select an appealing hairstyle for many of her TV appearances.

Our last lady is Miss Dana Wynter, playing a sculptress.

She was the final gal on the show to sport a turban on her head. The ladies I've pointed out today are not the only ones to show up on Ellery Queen, but they are generally the most famous ones. I will provide a link right here to some beautifully rendered examples from the show. Among the male guests to be found are people as diverse as Ray Milland, Bob Crane, Edward Albert, Stuart Whitman, Tab Hunter, Troy Donahue, Sal Mineo and Vincent Price, among many others!

~~~~ Bonus Pics ~~~~

Here is a publicity shot of the aforementioned Farley Granger and Joan Collins being reunited for their appearance on Ellery Queen. Also seen are Guy Lombardo (it was, after all, New Year's Eve!), Ray Walston, David Doyle and Thayer David.

One thing sorely lacking on the show was beefcake. But I couldn't resist sharing this little sequence set in a steam room between Paul Shenar and recurring cast member John Hillerman.

And that's a wrap! Till next time.