I Loved How Jim Hutton Broke the Fourth Wall to Lead to the Solution Each Week

Jim Hutton was a pleasant almost-star in the 1960s.

Tall, gangly, boy-next-door handsome with a crisp and funny speaking voice...Hutton was paired by MGM with an equally tall, equally eccentric (and pretty actress) named Paula Prentiss in several movies as a "romantic team." (First Where the Boys Are, then with Bob Hope in Bachelor in Paradise, then on their own in The Horizontal Lieutenant). Prentiss noted that people thought she and Hutton were REALLY married, when, of course, Prentiss instead ended up in a long term marriage to Richard Benjamin(still going as I post this -- they are both quite old now.)

Anyway, Hutton was well launched in the 60's -- as yet another "new Jimmy Stewart'" -- but rather lost his star chances in the 70's and did what many actors did then: TV.

He was great in Ellery Queen -- particulary as paired with the silver-tongued David Wayne as his policeman father, and I think the series "one season and out" run has made it kind of a cult item.

Noteable: Ellery Queen went off the air in 1976..but Jim Hutton only lived until 1979! So even if the series had stayed on the air, Hutton would have only lasted three more years with it...probably less due to health. (Cancer took him young, at 45.)

Putting this all together, one "gimmick" I truly loved was how Jim Hutton -- with his folksy, eccentric and elegant way of talking -- would suddenly turn to the camera near the end of each episode and speak to US(breaking the fourth wall), saying something like:

"And what do YOU think? Have you picked up enough clues to figure out who did it? (I think he would speak of specific suspects in each episode.)

Then off to commercial and then back to Hutton to "wrap up the case" in a room ful of suspects. (Classic.)

The short star career(the 60s) and tragically short life(ending in 1979) of Jim Hutton is in many ways a sad thing, but I will always value his winning ways as an actor -- wry, funny, pleasant with an edge -- and when he looked out to speak to US near the end of each Ellery Queen -- I felt his full star power. It was like listening to a friend.