Right from the wonderful Perry Mason opening theme by Fred Steiner I was hooked. I hadn't seen these shows in many years. I watched Perry Mason when I was a kid and enjoyed them. I think I saw some of them in the 1980's but that might have been the series of TV movies that started in 1985. I had read some of the Perry Mason books by Earl Stanley Gardner. My mother used to read them and they were around the house. I liked Gardner's Donald Lam and Bertha Cool series better than the Mason books. I have a whole set of the 29 books somewhere and I've been thinking about re-reading them again. If only I knew where they are. Oh, well, sometimes the search is half the fun. You never know what you'll find.
Raymond Burr plays Perry Mason and he's a lot better in this series than he was in Godzilla. The 1st series started September 21 1957 and there were 39 episodes. All but three were taken from one of the 82 Perry Mason novels and 5 short stories. The production company optioned the whole of Earl Stanley Gardner's fiction, 272 novels and stories. Looking at the credits on the whole series they used 74 novels and 1 short story in the 9 years. After the first couple of years the number of adaptations decline to two or three a year.
Barbra Hale plays Secretary Della Street, William Hopper plays Investigator Paul Drake, William Talman plays District Attorney Hamilton Burger and Ray Collins plays Police Lieutenant Arthur Tragg. They all do their jobs well but Perry is always one step ahead of everyone. He gets caught off guard or in the act but manages to wiggle his way out of his trouble. The shows follow a pretty solid formula. We meet some people, they get their asses in trouble, Perry gets involved, Paul investigates as Perry directs and the last 30-40% of the show is spent in the courtroom. Perry usually gets people to give up by sheer yakking at them. Of course, he's got some good proof to rub their faces in. He knows the law, he works the law and he plays fast and loose with the law. Tragg and Burger want to catch him up to something.
There were plenty of guest stars that I remembered: John Archer, Margaret Hayes, Frances Bavier, Whit Bissell, L Q Jones, Angie Dickinson, Denver Pyle, Werner Klemperer, Jack Weston, H M Wynant, Les Tremayne, Yvonne Craig, Fay Ray and John Hoyt. There were plenty of other good actors that were familiar but I didn't recognize their names.
The murders vary and the settings vary. Someone is up to something and people need to die. Most often Perry's client has been charged with murder. Perry thinks quickly and comes up with a plan for the defense. Della and Paul assist where they can and they all spend a lot of time together. They get sandwiches a lot and occasionally they eat out at a restaurant. A couple of episodes had the trial out of Los Angeles, and a couple had Perry trip up the murder out of courtroom, usually while the trial was in recess. The stories aren't overly complex, the crimes interesting, and the deduction and investigation top notch. Gardner practiced law but gave it up for writing. He was very strict about accuracy of the law on the program. I really enjoyed the first series and will get around to more of them before too long.
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