The League of Frightened Men (1937)

Walter Connolly is Nero Wolfe in this mystery, and Lionel Stander is Archie Goodwin, his leg-man and assistant. A noted art dealer is dead, believed to be suicide. Professor Hibbard comes to see Wolfe. He and his fellow-students hazed a student they were in college, but it ended in Paul Chapin being crippled. Chapin has since become wealthy. He gave a party, and one of the hazors fell over a cliff. All of the others got a letter after the accident. Then another was killed. Hibbard is frantic with fear, but Wolfe refuses the case, because he also wants the "business" of the other remaining seven.

Wolfe calls a meeting of the hazors, and Chapin crashes the meeting. He claims to be harmless. The League hires Wolfe nonetheless. Goodwin begins his investigation. It includes his getting slipped a mickey. Chapin's younger brother is in love with Hibbard's niece, and Wolfe assures them that Chapin is not guilty.

Wolfe invites a bum to his house for dinner. The bum looks suspiciously like Hibbard. At the final meeting of the League, the bum reveals himself. Wolfe says that Chapin's only role in the subsequent murders was in hazing the men. Then he reveals the real murderer.

Wolfe's character is usually an enthusiastic beer-drinker, but in this movie he is addicted to chocolate.




Connolly