The Ides of Perry Mason 45

On the 15^th of every month, we deal with a topic related to Our Favorite Lawyer.

Famous Later

A season in the Perry Mason TV series would have about 30 episodes. So the casting department was constantly hiring talent. Some had good careers in TV, like Dick Clark, Alan Hale Jr., Barbara Eden and Marion Ross. But others had stellar careers in the movies.

Louise Fletcher

In 1975, she won an Academy Award for her portrayal of joyless cruel scary Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Though she has a smile as dazzling as Barbara Hale, she’s rather tall and her athletic build gives her a striking bearing and manner in keeping with the stereotype of “there’s a steel magnolia in every southern belle” (she’s from Alabama). Somehow you can tell Fletcher from the get-go that she’s serious about life, acting, and everything, though I readily admit that may be confirmation bias.

She was the defendant in two episodes, the only actress to come close to Lureen Tuttle’s record of four times in the dock. In The Case of the Larcenous Lady, Fletcher’s character Susan Connolly has a small role as a secretary that loves her married boss and for her pains ends up accused of murder. The episode is notable as one in which most of the characters are awful - such as victim Patricia Huston who often played The Designing Woman - since the maguffin everybody wants is high political position and prestige.  

Fletcher’s part as Gladys Doyle in The Case of the Mythical Monkeys gives her a better chance to display her acting chops. She plays an independent minded but still somewhat naive young person. Beverly Garland plays a dishonest writer who gets in over her head with Wise Guys and is so scared that she’s quite willing to sacrifice poor Gladys to very bad people. All the acting is quite good in this episode, which sticks pretty closely to the original story.

Burt Reynolds

The man known for being able to swagger even while sitting down has only a couple of scenes in The Case of the Counterfeit Crank. But he’s got the star quality that makes the viewer pay attention to his lines. He is the loyal employee of August Dalgren, played by Otto Kruger. Uncle August is faking madness to throw his scheming rotten nephew off the scent of a big deal August is cooking up.  Kruger, a veteran character actor since 1915, appeared in four diverse roles on Perry Mason: tough businessman, visionary businessman, doting grandfather, and judge.

Ryan O'Neil

In The Case of the Bountiful Beauty the actor females love to look at plays a small part as John Carew, the boyfriend of Debra Dearborn (pixie-like Zeme North). John has told Debra stories of his monstrous step-mom Stephanie (Sandra Warner, a Joan Collins bad girl type). Budding writer Debra has woven these stories together into a lurid novel like Peyton Place. The book becomes a best-seller, attracting the attention of an evil movie producer (John Van Dreelan, a caddish George Saunders type). This episode illustrates the tendency of this series to paint the entertainment industry in the worst colors. The best character is an agent man who protests his innocence and calls our favorite lawyer “Perry baby.”

Robert Redford

Redford appears in The Case of the Treacherous Toupee (season 4, 1960). On top of his good looks, he has screen presence and acting chops. He reads the little line “And stop crying” with just the right notes of exasperation, anger, and concern. The real star, however, Thomas Browne Henry (on the left in this picture), who plays the victim Hartley Basset, in his only turn on the show as the villain.

Basset has returned from a two-year bunk he doesn’t bother explaining. His over-confident bearing suggests a selfishness that makes the viewer loathe him on sight. Alternately ingratiating and threatening, he expects to pick up with his family and business as if he never disappeared, as if he never hurt anybody. He bulldozes his weak-willed wife, played excellently by Peggy Converse, who deals with the situation by trying to be good and sweet to Hartley but is breathless with anxiety that he has returned out of nowhere. Basset is ushered to his Eternal Deserts. Perry Mason must defend Basset’s abused business partner, played by Philip Ober who often plays the upright guy.