The Case of the Libertine Belle

The Golden Girls article

"It's like we say in St. Olaf, Christmas without fruitcake is like St. Sigmund's Day without the headless boy." This article is incomplete. You can help the Golden Girls Wiki by expanding it.

The Case of the Libertine Belle is the second episode of the seventh season of The Golden Girls and the one-hundred and fifty-sixth episode overall. Directed by Lex Passaris and written by Tpm Whedon, it premiered on NBC-TV on September 28th, 1991.

Summary[]

The ladies participate in a murder-mystery weekend where Dorothy excels as a keen amateur sleuth. But after she solves the murder, there is a real stabbing, and Blanche is the prime suspect.

Plot[]

Blanche Devereaux, who has been employed at a museum, comes upon a new job opportunity--an assistant's position under a man named Kendall Nesbitt. She is also revealed to be a member of the Maltese Falcon Club and organizes the museum's first annual outing. The outing is a murder mystery weekend at the Queen of the Keys Hotel.

Two guest actors, eighty-eight year-old philanthropist Giles Forsythe and his twenty-two year-old wife Candy, at the hotel are first part of the murder mystery at dinner the first night there, one having been "shot" and his 22 year old wife; Candy, having had her throat "slit" with a Mayan sacrificial dagger. Dorothy solves the "murder" single-handedly -- it it is unlikely for Forsythe's spinster daughter; Gloria, to murder him and that patricide is a male crime. If Gloria had committed the murder, she would NOT have tried to conceal the gun in her purse, it was planted in her purse to frame her. Dorothy then states that Giles' son; Philip, the well-known collector of pre-Columbian artifacts, would never pick a Mayan sacrificial dagger as the murder weapon, because that would be too obvious, but it wouldn't be a problem for Gloria to sneak the weapon out of his collection. The dagger was found to the left of the victim and a throat is almost always cut from behind. Since the murder weapon was dropped to the left of the victim, the murderer is left-handed, like Gloria and most left-handed people, wears her wrist watch on her right wrist. It's perfectly clear that Philip and Gloria both committed the murders and they meant to frame each other. They knew the lights would be turned off, when the cake appeared, because siblings often think alike. The motive is that Gloria and Philip were both afraid that Candy would persuade Giles to change his will, so Candy would get everything and they would get NOTHING and they both hoped that pinning the crime on the other person would make them the sole inheritor.

Everybody applauds Dorothy, while Rose Nylund is just being...Rose and Sophia Petrillo merely wants some birthday cake. Soon after that, Blanche is told by Kendall that he needs to be alone with her and she gives him her hotel room key. She gets the second key from Rose and tells her that she can "bunk with Dorothy and Sophia". Blanche then goes to the room, later takes a shower and puts on a negligee as she waits on Kendall. She assumes that it is Kendall, but it is a young male waiter with a bottle of champagne. The waiter discovers Kendall's dead body on Blanche's bed and she is the only prime suspect in his murder.

Dorothy argues her case and that the real murderer is Posey McGlinn, a rival of Blanche's for the assistant's job. Dorothy states that the only people who saw the room after the murder other than Lt. Alaverz and his staff, were the waiter, the security chief and the four ladies. Posey accidentally gives herself away by stating what the room looked like after the murder and Dorothy states that she could’ve only known that if she was there prior to the murder. Dorothy continues to solve the mystery.

"Last evening at dinner, when Ms. McGlinn saw Blanche give Kendall Nesbitt her key, she was furious. She dropped a steak knife into her purse and when she felt that she wouldn't be missed, she slipped out of the dining room and headed upstairs. Kendall had let himself into Blanche's room while she was in the shower and was making himself comfortable, when there a knock at the door. Thinking it was champagne, he opened the door. Posey was there, she accused him of two-timing, he denied it, Posey pulled out the steak knife, plunged it into his chest and left the room, before Blanche could discover her. Jealous-rage was the motive, all right, but Blanche wasn't the murderer, there's her murderer; Posey McGlinn."

However, it turns out that it was the second part of the murder mystery and Rose helped, only to get back at Blanche for stealing her earrings before the party and when Dorothy checked for breath with her hand mirror, Rose had used Defogger on it.^[1]

Tall Tales[]

Back in St. Olaf...[]

To be added.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

• Bea Arthur as Dorothy Zbornak
• Rue McClanahan as Blanche Devereaux
• Betty White as Rose Nylund
• Estelle Getty as Sophia Petrillo

Guest Stars[]

• Todd Susman as Spade Marlowe
• Tony Plana as Lieutenant Alvarez
• Richard Roat as Kendall Nesbit
• Claudette Sutherland as Posey McGlynn
• Nicholas Kepros as Maitre 'D
• Zach Grenier as Vaczy
• Leland Orser as Waiter
• Gloria Cromwell as Gloria
• Tim Haldeman as Man
• Margery Nelson as Woman

Notes[]

Production[]

• Richard Roat appeared in Season 1's "In A Bed of Rose's" as Al Beatty, who also died.
• Giles Forsythe’s children, Gloria and Phillip, share the same names as both of Dorothy’s siblings.
• The dress Gloria wears is the same one Rose wears during the dance marathon in "One for the Money",^[2] and the same dress the woman from the Daughters of the Old South is wearing in “Witness”.^[3]
• The hotel room that Blanche stays in looks to be the same hotel room layout that Dorothy stayed in in "Sick and Tired, Part 1".^[4]
• The hotel set was later reused in Season 7's "Room 7" as Blanche's grandmother's house.^[5]

Cultural references[]

• This episode was meant as a parody of the CBS series Murder, She Wrote, starring Angela Lansbury, a close friend of Bea Arthur.
• The hotel shares its name with the hotel from the 1941 noir murder mystery The Maltese Falcon.

Continuity[]

• When Dorothy checks for Kendall's breath, she reveals that she does it to Sophia when she's asleep, referencing the series premiere.^[6]
• Blanche references Mel Bushman from Season 6's "Melodrama", confirming that the pair have remained good friends and casual romantic partners.^[7]

Goofs[]

• When Blanche approaches the ladies and takes Rose's key, you can see Posey placing the steak knife in her purse behind them.
• When Sophia enters the dining room right after the fake murder, the birthday candles go out between shots without anyone extinguishing them. A single one keeps going out and then lighting again.
• The cut throat of the Murder Mystery actress portraying Candy has one slit throughout most of her scenes. This makes sense, as her throat was said to only be slit once. In her final two scenes, however, her wound is shown as two slits.

Site Navigation[]

V - E - H List of The Golden Girls episodes
Season 1	The Engagement • Guess Who's Coming to the Wedding • Rose the Prude • Transplant • The Triangle • On Golden Girls • The Competition • Break-In • Blanche and the Younger Man • The Heart Attack • The Return of Dorothy's Ex • The Custody Battle • A Little Romance • That Was No Lady • In a Bed of Rose's • The Truth Will Out • Nice and Easy • The Operation • Second Motherhood • Adult Education • The Flu • Job Hunting • Blind Ambitions • Big Daddy • The Way We Met
Season 2	End of the Curse • Ladies of the Evening • Take Him, He's Mine • It's a Miserable Life • Isn't It Romantic • Big Daddy's Little Lady • Family Affair • Vacation • Joust Between Friends • Love, Rose • 'Twas The Nightmare Before Christmas • The Sisters • The Stan Who Came to Dinner • The Actor • Before and After • And Then There Was One • Bedtime Story • Forgive Me, Father • Long Day's Journey into Marinara • Whose Face is This, Anyway? • Dorothy's Prized Pupil • Diamond in the Rough • Son-in-Law Dearest • To Catch a Neighbor • A Piece of Cake • Empty Nests
Season 3	Old Friends • One for the Money • Bringing Up Baby • The Housekeeper • Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself • Letter to Gorbachev • Strange Bedfellows • Brotherly Love • A Visit from Little Sven • The Audit • Three on a Couch • Charlie's Buddy • The Artist • Blanche's Little Girl • Dorothy's New Friend • Grab That Dough • My Brother, My Father • Golden Moments, Part 1 • Golden Moments, Part 2 • And Ma Makes Three • Larceny and Old Lace • Rose's Big Adventure • Mixed Blessings • Mister Terrific • Mother's Day
Season 4	Yes, We Have No Havanas • The Days and Nights of Sophia Petrillo • The One That Got Away • Yokel Hero • Bang the Drum, Stanley • Sophia's Wedding, Part 1 • Sophia's Wedding, Part 2 • Brother, Can You Spare That Jacket • Scared Straight • Stan Takes a Wife • The Auction • Blind Date • The Impotence of Being Ernest • Love Me Tender • Valentine's Day • Two Rode Together • You Gotta Have Hope • Fiddler On the Ropes • Till Death Do We Volley • High Anxiety • Little Sister • Sophia's Choice • Rites of Spring • Foreign Exchange • We're Outta Here, Part 1 • We're Outta Here, Part 2
Season 5	Sick and Tired, Part 1 • Sick and Tired, Part 2 • The Accurate Conception • Rose Fights Back • Love Under the Big Top • Dancing in the Dark • Not Another Monday • That Old Feeling • Comedy of Errors • All That Jazz • Ebb Tide • Have Yourself a Very Little Christmas • Mary Has a Little Lamb • Triple Play • Clinton Avenue Memoirs • Like the Beep Beep Beep of the Tom-Tom • An Illegitimate Concern • 72 Hours • Twice In a Lifetime • Sisters and Other Strangers • Cheaters • The Mangiacavallo Curse Makes a Lousy Wedding Present • All Bets Are Off • The President's Coming! The President's Coming!, Part 1 • The President's Coming! The President's Coming!, Part 2
Season 6	Blanche Delivers • Once, In St. Olaf • If At Last You Do Succeed • Snap Out Of It • Wham, Bam, Thank You Mammy • Feelings • Zborn Again • How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sophia? • Mrs. George Devereaux • Girls Just Wanna Have Fun... Before They Die • Stand By Your Man • Ebbtide's Revenge • The Bloom Is Off the Rose • Sisters of the Bride • Miles to Go • There Goes the Bride, Part 1 •There Goes the Bride, Part 2 • Older and Wiser • Melodrama • Even Grandmas Get the Blues • Witness • What a Difference a Date Makes • Love for Sale • Never Yell Fire in a Crowded Retirement Home, Part 1 • Never Yell Fire in a Crowded Retirement Home, Part 2 • Henny Penny — Straight, No Chaser
Season 7	Hey, Look Me Over • The Case of the Libertine Belle • Beauty and the Beast • That's For Me to Know • Where's Charlie? • Mother Load • Dateline: Miami • The Monkey Show, Part 1 • The Monkey Show, Part 2 • Ro$e Love$ Mile$ • Room Seven • From Here to the Pharmacy • The Pope's Ring • Old Boyfriends • Goodbye, Mr. Gordon • The Commitments • Questions and Answers • Ebbtide VI: The Wrath of Stan • Journey to the Center of Attention • A Midwinter Night's Dream, Part 1 • A Midwinter Night's Dream, Part 2 • Rose: Portrait of a Woman • Home Again, Rose, Part 1 • Home Again, Rose, Part 2 • One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest, Part 1 •One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest, Part 2

References[]