The Ides of Perry Mason 51

Note: On the 15th of every month for about the last three years or so, a review of a Perry Mason-related mystery or episode from the original TV series has been posted. For the hell of it.

In Tribute to Stuart "Stu" Erwin 

Stu Erwin was a familiar face by the time he appeared in four episodes in the early Sixties. Born in 1903 in California, he first got interested in acting at college during the 1920s. After a stint in stock theater, he broke into the movies in 1928 in Mother Knows Best. He put together a solid career as a B-movie staple, on radio and then on television. He put his distinctive voice and his basset hound face to comic use by playing wise working-class guys, small town professionals, office drones, and main chancers on whom you’d better keep an eye. His TV show Trouble with Father, in which he played a mild-mannered high school principal, was among the first family sitcoms and well worth a look on Youtube. 

Clearly, he was ever-ready with the homespun line, saying his favorite hobby was shaving and his great ambition was paying his income tax (at a time $100K earners paid like 60% of that in tax). His roles in the Perryverse ranged from the comic to the devious.  

The Case of the Posthumous Painter (1961) as Austin Durrant 

 Erwin plays an art dealer who teams up with an ethics-free painter to fake the artist’s death and sell his paintings at higher prices, thus taking advantage of the truism that death is the best publicity agent. The producers and writers loved a story about the dark side of the businesses of arts and entertainment so the art dealer is stereotypically sly and slippery. Erwin brings to the role an oily, obsequious manner that makes the stock character of the nervous accomplice come to life. 

The Case of the Double-Entry Mind (1962) as Clem P. 'Sandy' Sandover

In a fine episode Erwin gets a lot of screen time playing a selfish sneaky bookkeeper who embezzles thousands without anybody noticing. In a great noir scene, he’s furtively returning to the bank stolen money that was planted on him. Menacing is the night setting (of course), crazy camera angles, ominous staircases, and the elevator with barred doors like a cell. 

The overwrought tone and an eccentric culprit are as if a Cornell Woolrich story came to life. Sandy’s so proud of his audacious robbery that he can’t resist giving his game away on the stand. Erwin plays this role like he was born to be the narcissistic conniving Sandy Sandover. As an aside, Barbara Hale’s Della appears in moll’s mink stole, platinum blonde wig, and big glamourous sunglasses, an image which reminds us the world is filled with wonderful things to see. 

The Case of the Scandalous Sculptor (1964) as Everett Stanton

Season 8 had many clunkers. The director must have told everybody to overact. The loud voices and frantic gesturing in this one start to grate as the viewer realizes it’s impossible to take the story seriously: archetypal TV mom sensible June Lockhart marrying an out of control artist? No, I can’t believe it. The only believable role is Erwin’s. He plays a publisher of religious and inspirational books. On the stand, he cracks wide open and owns up to horrid deeds we assume typical of sanctimonious people. One wonders if the episode writers were getting their own back against publishers.

The Case of the Impetuous Imp (1965) as Henry Simmons 

Erwin has a great scene in which he storms into Perry’s office to coax and cajole him into helping his niece played by the marvelous Bonnie Jones. He never completes a sentence, speaking in staccato phrases while imperturbable Perry deadpans him with a ‘Who is this guy’ expression on his face (Burr always gave other actors room to do their thing). Erwin speaks as if manically confident that nobody would reject his requests, however incomprehensible or outrageous. His nutty certainty in the soundness of his arguments is strangely persuasive.

Erwin died of a heart attack on December 21, 1967 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California at the age of 64.