Episode 14, "The Adventure of the Eccentric Engineer," features TONIGHT SHOW sidekick Ed McMahon as Lamont Franklin, a brilliant inventor currently working on a special automated system using his elaborate train workshop located away from his house, who has led everyone around him to believe that he has regressed to the point of adolescence over the previous three months. Mrs. Franklin (Dorothy Malone) believed the ruse, but her brother, Doug Carmichael (Bobby Sherman), remained well aware of Lamont's continued financial wizardry. Roger Woods (David Hedison), Lamont's friend and associate, and his employer, Claude Sitwell (Arthur Godfrey), were kept informed on Lamont's progress on the new automation system, and both men stand to lose their high positions when Lamont returns to the company. One night, Roger sends a Broadway invitation by train to his reclusive engineer friend, only to have Lamont respond in the negative; Franklin is later found dead in his workshop, shot at close range by someone he knew, since only friends with a pass were allowed to gain access to his domain. Caught stealing a book of notes is Billy Geeter (Dick Van Patten), who aided the dead man in his designs before being fired months before. Art Balinger appears unbilled as a newscaster, and Ann Reinking ("All That Jazz", "Annie") debuts as Lorelie Farnsworth, an aspiring author hoping to get Ellery to help her write a love story, but ends up aiding his investigation. After trying to avoid her throughout the episode, Ellery is finally won over by her persistence, adding that he tried to write love stories, but that his heroines always got killed off!
Ellery Queen (TV Series)
The Adventure of the Eccentric Engineer (1976)
User Reviews
Review this title4 Reviews
Ed Silenced
DKosty12310 May 2011
Warning: Spoilers
This one is for the fascinated toy train dreamer. Johnny Carson's sidekick Ed is murdered by someone while he is running a major toy railroad. This happens quick. Meanwhile Ellery is distracted by a young woman who wants him help her write a romance novel.
No doubt this one is murder by a gun and there seem to be lots of suspects. The question is sorting them out and figuring out how the advanced toy rail road might have been employed to assist in the killing and what else it might have contributed.
The trains remind me of a plot on a first season Wild Wild West only in that one, only Dr. Loveless was the killer. Still, the set looks a little like the one in the other show 11 years earlier.
The mystery here is top notch and is one of the later casts to feature radio personality Authur Godfrey.
No doubt this one is murder by a gun and there seem to be lots of suspects. The question is sorting them out and figuring out how the advanced toy rail road might have been employed to assist in the killing and what else it might have contributed.
The trains remind me of a plot on a first season Wild Wild West only in that one, only Dr. Loveless was the killer. Still, the set looks a little like the one in the other show 11 years earlier.
The mystery here is top notch and is one of the later casts to feature radio personality Authur Godfrey.
Rather simple, as it turned out
VetteRanger24 January 2023
Ed McMahon get a rare and quite brief appearance as a technical genius and business owner who someone wants dead ... and they make him dead in the first two minutes of the episode.
From there it becomes a semi-locked room mystery, except it's obvious he must have known and trusted his murderer and let him in. David Hedison and Arthur Godfrey are welcome sightings in the show, and I'd been a Hedison fan since his days on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
The episode adds an interesting touch in a young lady who's an aspiring author who wants some tips from Elery, who is reticent since he doesn't write romance. However, once she let's her hair down and helps solve the mystery, she becomes a more attractive prospect in a companion. ;-)
From there it becomes a semi-locked room mystery, except it's obvious he must have known and trusted his murderer and let him in. David Hedison and Arthur Godfrey are welcome sightings in the show, and I'd been a Hedison fan since his days on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
The episode adds an interesting touch in a young lady who's an aspiring author who wants some tips from Elery, who is reticent since he doesn't write romance. However, once she let's her hair down and helps solve the mystery, she becomes a more attractive prospect in a companion. ;-)
Writers Should Have Engineered A Tighter Script
chashans21 March 2023
Warning: Spoilers
A bit of a strange episode in which the murder victim himself has an odd motive for his own actions. By the end of the story, it becomes clear that the victim, (a quick cameo from Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" sidekick, Ed McMahon) isn't what he claims to be. But he didn't even let his loving wife in on the secret. There is no good explanation as to why the victim would leave the wife in the dark. Doing so seems to have been completely unneccessary to his - the victim's- motivations.
The plotting is a bit difficult to follow as there are characters who appear whose reasons for being there are not clearly explained. Actor Dick Van Patten portrays a character who suddenly shows up, goes for a bit of a run, then ends up being interrogated by Inspector Queen. This character is allowed to refuse answering any questions, then doesn't show up again until the concluding "Big Reveal" scene. Puzzling, but not so in the context of the actual murder mystery.
There's a toy train layout involved in the plot. Unfortunately, the production apparently didn't have the resources to set up anything convincing. Meaning neither the money, nor anyone with any expertise in building a train layout. This is a shame as the toy trains are integral to the mystery.
Also, we're to believe that the victim built tunnels underground between the main house and the shed in which the trains are set up. Small tunnels, for the toy trains alone to travel through. Ellery, at one point, states that the tunnels will not have to be dug up. He has taped a makeshift "plow" to a train engine and has used that to retrieve a clue which he "some how" knows is located in the underground tunnel. Then it's said that the killer had put that clue in the tunnel. How???
Arthur Godfrey guest stars as a business associate of the murder victim. He gets a terrific line regarding a bathtub. Very unexpected, considering the 1975 filming date. Too bad his character isn't given much else to do.
Ellery deals with an unwanted tag-along, would-be author. She's seeking advice for her romance novel. Ellery is at first dismissive of her as her appearance is more like that of a studious young man. Later she shows up in a beautiful evening gown and flowing hairstyle. Ellery then happily realizes she is definitely all woman. These two might just hit it off fine, providing Inspector Queen with a fine, new daughter-in-law. She's never seen again.
Jim Hutton and David Wayne carry the episode. They are excellent, as usual. They just could have used a bit more help when it came to the script.
The plotting is a bit difficult to follow as there are characters who appear whose reasons for being there are not clearly explained. Actor Dick Van Patten portrays a character who suddenly shows up, goes for a bit of a run, then ends up being interrogated by Inspector Queen. This character is allowed to refuse answering any questions, then doesn't show up again until the concluding "Big Reveal" scene. Puzzling, but not so in the context of the actual murder mystery.
There's a toy train layout involved in the plot. Unfortunately, the production apparently didn't have the resources to set up anything convincing. Meaning neither the money, nor anyone with any expertise in building a train layout. This is a shame as the toy trains are integral to the mystery.
Also, we're to believe that the victim built tunnels underground between the main house and the shed in which the trains are set up. Small tunnels, for the toy trains alone to travel through. Ellery, at one point, states that the tunnels will not have to be dug up. He has taped a makeshift "plow" to a train engine and has used that to retrieve a clue which he "some how" knows is located in the underground tunnel. Then it's said that the killer had put that clue in the tunnel. How???
Arthur Godfrey guest stars as a business associate of the murder victim. He gets a terrific line regarding a bathtub. Very unexpected, considering the 1975 filming date. Too bad his character isn't given much else to do.
Ellery deals with an unwanted tag-along, would-be author. She's seeking advice for her romance novel. Ellery is at first dismissive of her as her appearance is more like that of a studious young man. Later she shows up in a beautiful evening gown and flowing hairstyle. Ellery then happily realizes she is definitely all woman. These two might just hit it off fine, providing Inspector Queen with a fine, new daughter-in-law. She's never seen again.
Jim Hutton and David Wayne carry the episode. They are excellent, as usual. They just could have used a bit more help when it came to the script.
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