Note: In the old Roman calendar, the Kalends, Nones, and Ides were three special days that marked the beginning, middle, and end of a month's counting period. In hat tip to those tough old Romans, on the first, fifth or seventh, and the fifteen of every month, we will run an article about Erle Stanley Gardner's various contributions to the mystery genre. So many are in the can, and it's not like I'm kidding myself I'm exempt from the universal experience of humankind. Below are the memorable episodes from the initial season of the Perry Mason TV series that ran from 1957 to 1966, in 271 episodes.
The Best of Season 1 (1957-58)
The Case of the Restless Redhead. The very first episode features two-gun switcheroos that don’t add to the plot or the reveal but show Mason’s inventiveness in manipulating circumstances, cops, and persons of interest sometimes blew up in his face. Stunning Whitney Blake as the titular redhead puts in a convincing performance as the every-woman waitress who’s not getting any breaks. Her gripping tale is an example of “innocence exonerated,” a theme Gardner knew his audience loved. Whitney's tears of gratitude when Mason gets her off really are wonderful to behold. Vaughan Taylor appears as the motel-keeper who wants out of his go-nowhere existence and boring marriage to harsh pioneer woman Jane Buchanan. It was his first of eight appearances on the show, four as a deceptive guy and then defendant, murderer, and twice the victim who had it comin’. I like this one because it’s emblematic of the noir look of the first couple seasons.
The Case of the Vagabond Vixen. After he picks up a young female hitchhiker and gets her a job, a movie producer lands in trouble deep. Carol Leigh plays the kitten with a whip to perfection. Cast as the vixen’s mother, Barbara Pepper (Arnold the Pig’s mother in Green Acres) plays her usual salt of the earth type. When Perry conceals her in a hotel room he says, “Your stay here is on me so get anything you want,” to which she replies, “That's good. I need a beer.” Catherine McLeod was another fine actress the casting department hired, this time playing a sympathetic person so dedicated to the cinematic arts that she commits terrible crimes for them. After his devastating cross-examination of the wayward girl, Perry offers noir advice “You ought to tell them if they're ever tempted to pick up a lady on the highway, don't. If she's no lady, it could be murder.”
The Case of the Lonely Heiress shines because of the force of nature Anna Navarro. She so convincingly plays her character as a victim of her own muddled thinking that we are reminded of the risks of interpreting what other people say and do through the narrow template of anger and anxiety. When her character on the stand asks Perry in a hurt bewildered voice, “Do you think I’m a bad girl,” we think, “Well, while I usually say that we’re all just people who sometimes do bad things, with your greediness, yelling, dish-throwing, larceny, blackmail, lying, cruelty, exploitation of the vulnerable, battery, assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder, yeh, I’d have to say you’re a very bad girl.”
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