Only two Nero Wolfe films were made, the first and best being Columbia's Meet Nero Wolfe. Edward Arnold portrayed "Rex Stout's super-intellectual Wolfe...a well-to-do, lazy, and very fat detective-but a shrewd one. Most of his cases he solved at home, with his faithful handyman Archie doing all the necessary footwork. He was also devoted to two basic hobbies: raising hothouse orchids and eating gourmet food. Obviously the role was made-to-measure for Arnold, since the personality traits not only overlapped into Arnold's own, but also into some of his previous movie roles. The film was a thoroughly satisfying mystery, unusually generous in its supply of suspects, and in those days of relaxed, pre-Marlowe detecting, was able to milk even the simplest ingredients for maximum suspense. The arrival of a ticking brown paper parcel (which may or may not conceal a bomb) was a beautifully built sequence of tension which in these days of ultra-shock and sensation wouldn't be considered worthy of inclusion." William K. Everson, The Detective in Film