What did you think of "Perry Mason"?

[ralph124c]

Originally Posted by Chicagojeff

"It's Incompetent.. Irrevelant and Immaterial!!!"
Hamilton Burger gettin his ass kicked by Perry all of the time.. Great show.. Paul Drake was soo badass.. when they brought it back and had some dimwit as his son.. terrible idea..

Great show.. pace..story..

NOW I know where the lawyer who represented Kramer in the "coffee scalding" case got his lines! ("Outrageous, fallacious, salacious!")

[astorian]

Originally Posted by Jim's Son

Now that I think of it, I wonder if having Hedda Hopper's son in the cast helped shield Raymond Burr. She couldn't well expose him as gay if it would end the show and her son's job. Of course Hedda's bitter enemy and fellow dingbat Louella Parsons could but may even putting Hedda's kid on the unemployment line was something that Louella's few scruples couldn't abide.

Just how many stars did she EVER out?

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

Originally Posted by Cayuga

. . . Also, she loved to refer to the DA as "Ham Burger."

And so did a lot of people. And it wasn't coincidence. Erle Stanley Gardner created the name withe exactly that in mind, so that Perry Mason would grind the prosecutor into "hamburger."

[Johnny Angel]

Originally Posted by Greg Charles

Also, was Paul Drake cool? I remember him as sort of a buffoon in a badly-cut, ridiculously loud check coat.

He was always depicted as highly competent and trustworthy in the books, though his appearance heralded exposition and jokes about the soggy hamburgers he finds himself having to eat on stakeouts.

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

What did you think of "Perry Mason"?

DENNY CRANE!


...I'm just sayin....

[Jim's Son]

Originally Posted by astorian

Just how many stars did she EVER out?

Apparently she spread rumours about Michael Wilding (who?) and Stewart Granger. Wilding won a lawsuit. Also she wanted to expose Cary Grant and Randolph Scott but Grant was too big

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedda_Hopper

[Sam A. Robrin]

Hope this doesn't spoil it for too many people, but it's said that the real murderer is always

SPOILER:

the person who's on the stand twenty-five minutes into the show.

What's that work out to when the commercials are omitted?

[KneadToKnow]

As the courtroom scenes almost always start at about the halfway point in the show, I don't see how that could be the case.

[terentii]

Originally Posted by Sam A. Robrin

What's that work out to when the commercials are omitted?

Right after the halfway point....

[JohnT]

Originally Posted by Sam A. Robrin

Hope this doesn't spoil it for too many people, but it's said that the real murderer is always

SPOILER:

the person who's on the stand twenty-five minutes into the show.

What's that work out to when the commercials are omitted?

Today, an hour-long show is 40 minutes of show, 20 minutes of commercials/station breaks/etc. Assuming the same was true in the 50's (a shaky assumption), "25 minutes in" is going to be about 18 minutes of "show-time".

Having not watched PM since the 70's, I have no idea if your spoiler is correct.

[KneadToKnow]

Originally Posted by JohnT

Assuming the same was true in the 50's (a shaky assumption)

Yep, very shaky. On DVD, episodes of Perry Mason tend to run about 48 minutes*. Even taking that into account, "25 minutes in" would almost always be the very first person on the stand.

Which would be Lt. Tragg a very large percent of the time.


*At least though season 4, which is the latest I have and just finished watching about two weeks ago.

[jabiru]

I used to really like Perry Mason - both the television series and the books - until I got sick of his 'helping' his latest client would invariably end up in that person being charged with the crime, usually murder.

[terentii]

The two most bizarre episodes I remember seeing were

(a) Perry knew his client was innocent, but had convinced himself a relative (I think) of hers was the guilty party. During his cross examination of the client, he kept pausing and looking at the relative, giving her multiple opportunities to break down and confess. Finally, as I recall, a third person whom no one suspected actually confessed to the crime, and very dramatically too.

(b) A guy threatened the owner of a modeling agency/escort service in the parking lot outside his office. Later, the owner was found shot dead in his automobile just a few blocks from the other guy's apartment. Acting on a tip from a witness to the altercation in the parking lot, the police showed up at the guy's apartment and found the murder weapon in his trash can.

How Perry sprung him, I do NOT recall, but it turned out the owner was shot during an attempted holdup, and the real murderer/carjacker had tossed the murder weapon in the other guy's trashcan. In the tag, Della asked Perry how the murderer knew which trash can to toss the gun into. Perry's reply was "He didn't. It was just a coincidence. They happen."

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight! In a huge city with teeming with people, a coincidence like that can "just happen"....

[Philliam]

We love the re-runs of "Perry Mason". One of our favorite side-lines is to play the 'Bad Hat Game' (pick the murderess, false witness or accomplice by the hat they wear on the stand.) Strong correlation. I could be a Lawyer, I tell 'ya.

[Kenm]

I wanna Tragg hat.