The Nones of Perry Mason 86

Note: Raymond Burr was a demon for work, appearing in more than 50 feature films between 1946 and 1957. He was typecast as the villain because his stoutness gave him a commanding menacing presence. Film historian Alain Silver described Raymond Burr's psycho private investigator in Pitfall as "both reprehensible and pathetic," a characterization also cited by film historian Richard Schickel as a prototype of film noir. 

Pitfall
1948 / 1:26
Tagline: “A man can be as strong as steel … but somewhere there's a woman who'll break him!”
[internet archive]

In an incredible performance, Raymond Burr portrays a brutal private investigator that stalks Lizabeth Scott. She was connected with a case of embezzling that the insurance company, represented by Dick Powell, has to make good. Scott and married-with-young son Powell have brief dalliance that does not amount to much. However, Burr the Burly Brute wants Scott body and soul. He schemes to own her by setting up Powell in an ugly trap. Excellent plotting, pace, and climax with realistic characters.

Burr makes the most of an extended part as an ex-cop turned private investigator. He looks close to 300 pounds, making his head look small on a monolith of a body. The secretaries in Powell’s office nicknamed Burr “Gruesome” because he creeps them out. Doubtless ex-cop for cause, he hulks with repressed violence and moves as slow and leisurely as a cat as if to warn people to run away when he moves fast.

Whether he is redolent of threat or yearning for something nice to happen to him (for once), he stares with a faraway look, as if he has retreated to a place where feverish dreams are fulfilled and sociopathic plans hatched. The scene in which he visits the salon where Scott models clothes and forces her to show more bare shoulders by taking her shawl down will give the movie-goer a full-blown case of the heebie-jeebies.

Burr seems eerily oblivious of the repulsion he provokes. In his narcissism, he figures that if the object of his obsession spends a little time with him, she’ll get over his being horrible and not feel the compulsion to take a shower whenever he looks at her. In his stupidity, he never considers the hazards of driving to desperation a woman who keeps a gun in her apartment. It is too much to expect that imagination-free victimizers to ever conceive of themselves as one day becoming the victim.

The performances make this movie well-worth viewing. Powell looks and talks rather deadpan as he plays the bored suburban husband who makes it easy for noir trouble to find him. It’s his damn fault, he brews his own trouble: he doesn’t tell Scott he’s married – the fink – and, deeply wounded yet again by useless immature men, Scott drops him.

Jane Wyatt is convincing as the dependable wife. When Powell, in a rut, asks her, “You were the homecoming queen and I most likely to succeed, what happened,” she answers matter-of-factly, “We got married. I had a baby.” Quite sensibly, she tries to talk him out of his sulky FOMO and get him to appreciating what he’s got, which is only a life millions would trade their eyeteeth for 

Lizabeth Scott has delightful moments sporting about in a motor boat when she is actually smiling. This is a sea change from her usual defeated look caused by bad luck with the wrong kind of men (see The Strange Love of Martha Ivers). But due to Burr’s menace and stalking, it doesn’t take too long before she assumes her bewildered mien. She’s decidedly not a scheming femme fatale. She’s an ordinary woman who has been kicked around by life. She’s unlucky enough to get unwittingly involved with three clucks: a weak-minded boyfriend (Byron Barr), a bored insurance man (Powell), and a psychopathic detective (Burr).

I'm the kind of movie-goer that's also a moralistic prude so I get the message often sent in film noir: it doesn’t take much to go off the rails and once off, really bad stuff can come down. 

Pre-Mason Burr
Please Murder Me (1956) [internet archive] [my review]
I Love Trouble (1948) [internet archive] [my review]
Sleep, My Love (1948) [internet archive] [my review]
Ruthless (1948) [internet archive] [my review]

Taoist Tradition

The Importance of Living - Lin Yutang

Along with Pearl Buck, Lin enjoyed a vogue in the 1930s when many Americans were interested in our ally the Nationalist Chinese. Lin was not a philosopher but he interpreted Confucianism and Taoism in light, readable essays. Widely read in traditional literature, he translated many obscure Taoists and drunken poet-scamps so in this book, he includes wonderful passages on the Taoist good life that we English speakers won’t find anywhere else.

This book covers topics like fine living, reasonableness, education, art, and wisdom in a refreshing way, though we post-moderns have to be patient with regard to his views on gender and monumental silence about social class. He doesn't provide a counter to the argument of, "Hey, what if everybody listened to his inner layabout all the time? Where would society be then? Buncha slackers!  Huh?"

Lin's voice is humane and mildly dissenting. For instance, he writes

In this present age of threats to democracy and individual liberty, probably only the scamp and the spirit of the scamp alone will save us from becoming lost as serially numbered units in the masses of disciplined, obedient, regimented and uniformed coolies. The scamp will be the last and most formidable enemy of dictatorships. He will be the champion of human dignity and individual freedom, and will be the last to be conquered. All modern civilization depends entirely on him.

His thesis – that it is up to the individual to set his own standards for enjoying life and find her own pleasures – brings to mind Robert Graves' idea that "When people have lost their authentic personal taste, they lose their personality and become the instruments of other people's wills.

In the Taoist tradition, Lin says the point is not to “have a great philosophy or have a few great philosophers” but rather it is “to take things philosophically, to live in a way that makes life not only bearable but delightful.

Reading is key to enjoying life: “… [I]f one knows the enjoyment of reading, one can study anywhere, even in the best schools.”

Also by Lin Yutang

• Moment in Peking 
• My Country and My People

The Kalends of Perry Mason 85

Note: Gardner dedicates this 1953 story to Ralph F. Turner, author of Forensic Science and Laboratory Techniques, a publication that contributed to the field of Criminal Forensic Science. Turner's advances in the field of criminalistics added to the scholarly reputation of then Michigan State College, now my alma mater Michigan State University. The reveal of this mystery is, among Mason fandom, one of the most famous of all.

The Case of the Green-eyed Sister – Erle Stanley Gardner

What has poor old Ned Bain done to deserve such a troubled old age? He’s got the guilts on account of over-dutiful daughter Hattie who’s sacrificed her chance at a loving husband and family so she could nurse him and his dodgy heart. Instead of getting an honest job like any man should, his son Jarret has married rich and spends his wife’s money anthropologizing at ruins – i.e. fallen down buildings --  in the Yucatan. His daughter Sylvia is a loose-cannon manipulator and divorcee to boot. Snooty and cold Sylvia makes a poor impression on intuitive Della Street who sums up Sylvia with, "She'd cut your heart out for thirty-seven cents."

As if his children were not worry enough, a false friend, J.J. Fritch from their sketchy past, is trying to blackmail him. J.J. is threatening to tell the bank that Ned’s fortune is based on money stolen in a heist. Such a tale, of course, would wipe out the Bain family. Pal J.J. is using crooked PI Brogan to plague him. Daughter Sylvia goes to Perry Mason to get the family out from under its vulnerable position.

The actions careens around tight corners with the upshot being Perry Mason finds himself having to defend daughter Hattie on a murder charge. Who would have thought such a mousey woman would take a bad guy out with an icepick?

Gardner has socially-conscious fun as Mason dissects questionable police procedure such as priming witnesses and not bothering to look for evidence because their "gut instinct" tells them they've got the perp. Police corner-cutting happens so often in Perry Mason novels that one wonders if Gardner got guff from cops and DA’s who didn’t like their short-cuts and thinking errors being publicized. 

The trial scene in Chapter Fourteen, about 50 pages, is one of the longest in all the Mason novels. The reveal is clever and counts as one of the more famous endings among Mason fans. Mystery fans who like retro expressions (“lead pipe cinch”) will enjoy this readable story.

European Reading Challenge #6

The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life - Tom Reiss

This biography examines the life and times of Lev Nussimbaum, a stateless Azerbaijani writer who lived between the two world wars.

The narrative is a bit less on the mercurial, magnetic, and elusive personality of the subject than on the major geopolitical upheavals of the 20^th century, such as the collapse of empires after WWI, the rise of Russian Bolshevism, the tragedy of Weimar democracy and the rise of Hitler’s National Socialism.

Reiss departs from the intricate story of Nussimbaum’s short life (from the Caucasus to Central Europe to America to end in Posillipo, Italy) to give primers on the horror of the Cheka; the brutality of the Freikorps; and the global rise of conflicting revolutionary and counter-revolutionary groups. This will interest readers (like me) who knew about such phenomena only superficially.

Reiss’s narrative captures and holds our attention because he continually draws from eyewitness accounts in memoirs and interviews, and Nussimbaum’s letters to intimates and fragments of his autobiography. He compares this evidence against historical sources. Did Nussimbaum soften frightful events due to his own nostalgia? Or conversely when did he see harsh reality but soften it in his fiction? This critical approach allows the biographer to substantiate the claim that Nussimbaum was probably the author Kurban Said, who wrote the iconic novel Ali and Nino ​​(1937).

An exceptional work. The book is well-worth reading if a reader can’t stop reading about the painful history of 20^th century Europe. Historical figures are presented in an interesting way (such as the young bank-robbing Stalin knowing the subject’s mother). The vision of Baku at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries as the Paris of the East brings us closer to the culture, customs and peoples of the Caucasus and neighboring regions that are never mentioned in our schools or the mass media.

Chandler but More Heart & Soul

Ask for Me Tomorrow - Margaret Millar

Gilda was married to B.J. Lockwood, a nice guy that bad stuff just happened to since he never learned from experience and was too dumb to evaluate the risks of impulsive decisions. B.J.’s decision to run off with their pregnant 15-year-old house girl back to her natal village in Mexico left Gilda at loose ends. Gilda then married Marco, who had a paralyzing stroke soon after their nuptials.

Wanting to conclude unfinished business with B.J., Gilda hires young lawyer Tom Aragon to go down Mexico way and find him. Though he’s by no means an experienced detective, Tom is bilingual and quickly finds out B.J. and a con man named Jenkins were jailed on fraud charges. 

Their hapless plan to convert a poor Baja California village into a resort transformed into a criminal enterprise mainly because they were both out of their financial league. As Tom gets closer to his quarry B.J., however, three brutal murders eliminate informants.  

I found the ending a surprising hoot, while harder to please, less willing to be tricked readers of mystery may be less impressed.

Millar’s settings of Southern California and Mexico in the mid-1970s feel authentic and evocative though the attacks on the corruption in both places may put off readers who like those places. The dialogue is snappy and funny, but sometimes we wonder if it is likely that sleazy Mexican cops would really come up with such witty rejoinders. Many scenes shine as Gilda and Tom interact with each other, mainly by phone, and with a variety of curious characters. I think the exposition, dialogue and characterization make this one worth reading.

Margaret Millar was married to Kenneth Millar who wrote mysteries under the pen name of Ross Macdonald.

And the Butler-Blonde Battle was On!

Note: It’s impossible to have the Gail Patrick film festival without talking about this movie though it's hard to come up with anything new to say about one of the most popular screwball comedies ever. Mean Girl Cornelia was the role that typed Gail Patrick as The Sexy Smart Haughty One for the next dozen years. When Patrick retired from acting in 1948, inactivity drove her crazy. So she created the job of executive producer for the TV series Perry Mason and did that from 1957 to 1966.

My Man Godfrey
1936 / 1:34
Tagline: “...and the butler-blonde battle was on!”
[internet archive]

William Powell claimed that the only actress right for the part of Irene was Carole Lombard. Only an amateur critic, I hesitate to argue with a respected professional, but I wonder if at 24 years old Lombard was a little long in the tooth for the role of the giddy socialite Irene Bullock.

But I’m wrong since what trivializes a couple of years too old is that Lombard personified Thalia, the goddess of comedy. Only the powers of a goddess could make uproarious being flopped over Powell’s shoulder when he carries her up the stairs to toss her into a shower. Somehow she still manages to convey that she’s fakin’ and is as content as a puppy being carried. Even the way she lolls her head and shakes her hands is funny. Hilarious when she romps around on the furniture like a four-year-old, gleefully sing-song chanting “Godfrey loves me! He put me in the shower!” Lombard was a fearless actress, not afraid to look a wet and disheveled mess or act the looniest of tunes.

Lombard herself felt the character of Irene Bullock had a sense of tragedy about her. The movie-goer suspects that Irene’s bounteous love and compassion have been frustrated. Family with scads of kiddoes and doggoes or running a charity would be just the thing for her. Any foundation would benefit from her strength and kindness that badly need to find an object.

Also having a sense of the tragedy of the waste of talent was the character of Cornelia, the tough cookie sister played by Gail Patrick.

Godfrey: Very well. You belong to that unfortunate category that I would call the "Park Avenue brat." A spoiled child who's grown up in ease and luxury, who's always had her own way, and whose misdirected energies are so childish that they hardly deserve the comment, even of a butler on his off Thursday.

Cornelia: Thank you for a very lovely portrait.

Cornelia is hurt and angry at this devastating critique because she knows it’s true. She knows that she’s wasting her intelligence, adventurousness, and determination. She is all too aware that she is turning away from the challenge of life by hanging out with wastrels and worldlings. When ex-spoiled child Godfrey is taking his leave of the Bullocks, he has learned even from bad examples. He says to Cornelia:

You taught me the fallacy of false pride. You taught me humility....Miss Cornelia, there have been other spoiled children in the world. I happen to be one of them myself. You're a high-spirited girl. I can only hope that you use those high spirits in a more constructive way.

High spirits, a powerful psychological resource, run in all of us, already there, we don’t get high spirits from somewhere else. High spirits fuel the warrior in Cornelia, making it possible for her to face adversity and overcome obstacles. She needs to fight whatever is stealing her joy and dampening her high spirits, figure out her own values and work toward her own unique goals.

Other Gail Patrick Movies: Click the link below to read the review.

• If I Had a Million
• The Phantom Broadcast
• The Murders in the Zoo
• Death Takes a Holiday
• The Crime of Helen Stanley
• Murder at the Vanities
• The Preview Murder Mystery

Hercule Poirot #32

Mrs. McGinty's Dead - Agatha Christie

First published in 1952, the Belgian series detective is called upon by Superintendent Spence to gather enough evidence to Stay the Executioner’s Chop. Though he worked up the case, Spence doubts that James Bentley committed the murder for which he was tried and convicted. 

But if Bentley was not the culprit, who bashed Mrs. McGinty over the head, got her cash from under the floorboards, and secreted the hoard in a place her boarder James Bentley had easy access to? And why frame harmless Bentley, an out of work, lonely oddball?

Spence asks ageing detective Hercule Poirot to look into the case quietly. Poirot grants Spence’s request. He goes to the village of Broadhinny where the crime took place. To his misery, he is compelled to stay in a guest house with draughts, squalor, half-wild kids and dogs, and bad cooking. 

He meets his old friend the mystery writer Ariadne Oliver. She is having a rough time collaborating with a writer who adopting one of her series characters for a play. Her detective is a middle-aged Finnish vegetarian but the writer wants to make him into a handsome, dashing, meat-eating 35-year-old.

Through logic and method, Poirot quickly enough finds other probable motives and culprits and discovers what brought about Mrs. McGinty’s killing. There is another killing. This causes Bentley's execution to be postponed and gives more time for Poirot, by exciting his little gray cells, to untangle the mystery. Poirot's boundless self-confidence is always on display and always likable.

Agatha Christie was a plot genius. I shake my head in wonder at how she weaves her magic. Happily, Poirot is on stage from the first page. The entire mystery, in fact, is told from his point of view. The unfolding of the plot is smooth and plausible but too many characters make the reader sometimes pause and wonder, “Now who was this.” 

She doesn’t spend time describing and moves incidents along. When we readers are misdirected we know we are being conned and marvel that we still feel the suspense. High entertainment value, with all suspects gathered in a room for the climax and period references – still rationing in the early Fifties!