User Reviews

This show has the unique distinction of being one of the few detective shows to feature Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians set on New Year's Eve 1947. The shows plot is a little too contrived and not quite up to some of the other scripts. When I watch it, I am in awe as this guest cast is loaded.

We have Joan Collins, Farley Granger and Ray Walston heading up a major guest cast. This was the first episode of the only and only season sadly of the show and this being weaker than most episodes script wise, it is sad to think this one show might have been the ratings killer for the entire series. Historic footnote, this one originally aired on September 11, 1975 - 26 years exactly before the infamous 2001 attacks.

Now this is really a historic timepiece as it portrays 1947 New Year's Eve with Lombardo who would be exiting New Years in a few short years after. The murder happens in a phone booth at the Hotel Astor where Lombardo is playing and in a bit of gimmickry, after most of the show focus on Inspector Richard Queen getting all the suspects together, Ellery shows up a 6 minutes to midnight and solves the case in that 6 minutes.

Trouble is it would have been better if the script had employed the clock a little more skillfully. Somehow the suspense just isn't accomplished the way it could have been.

Where's Ellery? Certainly, we see Jim Hutton's Ellery character through-out the episode's run. However, he's nowhere near the murder scene. He's off wandering the streets in search of cabs, carnations and beautiful women. Or rather, a beautiful woman whom he has accidentily stood-up on this, New Years Eve.

Ellery manages to find (basically) everything and everyone he's looking for. Including, eventually (very near the episode's conclusion) the location of the murder. This comes across as a terrible mistake by the production. Keeping the main character far from the mystery for nearly the entire show just simply takes all the fun out of it and leaves the viewer wondering if this is how things might always proceed in future outings. Simply a bad idea for kicking off the premiere of a brand new series.

David Wayne as Ellery's Inspector Father gets to shine as he carries the majority of the murder aspect of the story. Guest Star Ray Walston also gets to show some range as a meek wallflower type who eventually grabs a cop's gun, handcuffs him to a men's bathroom stall and points that gun directly into the face of Chief Inspector Queen. Oddly, he later gets to go skipping off carefree when someone else is proven to be the actual murderer. I suppose Police in the 1940's weren't so highstrung when would-be assailants steal their guns and then threaten other Officers with them.

When Ellery does manage to show-up at the murder scene, he pretty much just takes a glance around then informs the at-home viewers that he knows who the murderer is. Then that beautiful woman he had earlier stood-up, shows up with the makeshift corsage and plants a big smooch on Ellery's mouth. These two are obviously a match made in Heaven! She's never seen again.

Not the most promising first episode of a series. Perhaps viewers in 1975 thought the same thing. Could this have in some way contributed to the reasons why this eventually very fun series lasted only one year?

You can tell the show aired in 1975, and it never would have passed muster with the laid-back master detective who shows up at the last minute and readily solves the case. In the 2020s, there would have been a car chase and a shootout, and the suspects would be generic TV no-names.

In fairness, many 70s detective shows were like that. Look at 'Columbo'. And there were shows of the time like 'McCloud' that reveled in oddball chases each episode. So I suppose I shouldn't complain. It's just that 'Ellery Queen' seems so... old-fashioned

No fault to Hutton and Wayne, who play their roles to a T. Despite that, "Auld Lang Syne" isn't a great showcase for Hutton/Ellery. He's off-scene most of the episode, although there's a gentle irony to Ellery dealing with the New York traffic and his romantic life, then sweeping in at the last minute to solve the case for his father with a single glimpse at the clue and figuring out what really happened. Hutton plays Ellery as... well, a dweeb. More of an absent-minded professor who accidentally mails his car keys away and has to deal with hailing a cab on New Year's Eve.

So the protagonist as what amounts to a secondary character seems old-fashioned. So does the clue, which rely on telephones of the 40s. There are some also dated bits, like Ray Walston's character being a World War I draft-dodger. Again, not to fault the set dressing, which expertly recreates the time period. These days TV producers would probably update the setting to the 2020s, like they did with 'Sherlock'. But the... 40s setting does give the show an old-fashioned feel, as does the detective stylings.

No fault to the guest cast, either. The uncredited Thayer David plays the victim of the week in a serpentine style, which he was good for back in the 70s. Joan Collins and Peggy Rae ham it up as Lady Daisy and Velie's wife Madge, respectively. Madge disappears from the screen as the mystery and crime-solving settles in. I like how Collins has Daisy occasionally slip in her shady background that Halliday hints at, but it's never confirmed.

Only Ray Walston seems miscast, as both a "milquetoast" and a draft-dodger. Walston as a mild-mannered non-assertive type? Okay. He's more convincing when he grabs a gun and tries to take Richard hostage.

The theme by Elmer Bernstein is cool: 40ish and provocative, in a jazzy/mysterious sort of way.

Overall, both "Auld Lang Syne" "and "Too Many Suspects" were good but relatively weak pilots for the series. Better ones came along.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?