The Ides of Perry Mason 39

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

Difficult Women: It is better to be hated for who you are, than to be loved for someone you are not.

The Perry Mason show often presented talented actresses playing difficult women, making us consider the perspectives of others - such as the unlikeable and toxic - and improving our emotional intelligence and empathy. 

Katherine Squire

A graduate of Ohio Wesleyan College, Squire practiced her art on stage at the Cleveland Play House and made her Broadway debut in a small role in Much Ado About Nothing in 1927. More successful on stage than on screen, she made her way to television and appeared in three Mason episodes. Probably because of her stage training, Squire had a lot of poise, an impressive presence that compelled the attention. When she puts a ‘don’t mess with me’ look on her face, you don’t have to be an expert in micro-expressions to know you’d better not test her patience. She seems to channel every no-nonsense aunt, demanding teacher and harsh supervisor we’ve ever met.

In her final outing The Case of the Wrongful Writ (1965), she plays the widow of a navy man who died heroically. Unfortunately, her role as Esther Norden has her in only a couple of scenes. Though the acting is fine, the script is not very strong – by season eight, the writers were struggling rather. Besides Squire’s fine performance the other draw of this episode is James Shigeta, a Japanese-American actor when such a demographic was scarce to the point of vanishing at the time.

In her late fifties she made her first appearance in The Case of the Credulous Quarry in 1960. As Clara Thorpe, she plays the victim’s aunt who in search of the missing $15,000 the victim supposedly had on her when she was killed. Seeing as how that amount is worth about $140,000 these days, we understand why she is so relentless in scenes with the accused and Mason where she demands the money. Show me the money. I want the money. She more than a little scary in her fierce persistence. Then on the stand she is pitch perfect in portraying the kind of kiddish adult who finds it strange people don’t know what she knows. Squire, in fact, is a bright spot in an otherwise lame episode, which features people acting in unbelievable ways even for whodunnits.

In The Case of the Nervous Neighbor (1964), Squire put in her best performance on Mason as Vera Hargrave, the caretaker of a woman who has lost her memory in a terrible incident in which she killed her husband. Squire is the menacing center of the Hitchcockian action, in fact. She subtly reveals the inner workings of Vera’s motives for taking care of her charge. She is really frightening but never goes over the top in the great scene where her charge thinks out loud to an unfortunate conclusion about Vera. The other draws in this must-see episode are Paul Winchell and Francis X. Bushman and a fine interrogation scene in which Burger grills the accused in the cells to show the accused he should follow his lawyer’s advice and not take the stand.

Constance Ford

The actress that showed the widest range in the Perryverse was Constance Ford. After Broadway success in the late 1940s, she worked in TV and movies. One of her most notable parts was the abusive mother smacking around poor Sandra Dee in In a Summer Place.

In The Case of the Deadly Double (1958), she plays a Jekyll and Hyde character. Helen Reed is quiet and mousy while Joyce Martel is a boisterous party girl that quiet guys that like to read avoid like the plague. Ford puts in an outstanding performance, even if the viewer is skeptical of stories that utilize soap opera stand-bys like amnesia and split personalities.

In The Case of the Potted Planter (1963) she plays cruel sister Frances who wages war against her sister-in-law so she can run her brother’s household and get at his money. It’s an exceptional episode, with adult themes, plausible motivations and superb acting.  The writers were as down on small-town idiocy and malice as they were on Hollywood greed and philistinism. This episode feels comfortably small since the businesses involved are a greenhouse and tiny local radio station.

In The Case of the Shifty Shoebox (1963) her portrayal of Sylvia Thompson is a change of pace. Instead of the hard-bitten fighter, she plays a defeated woman stuck in a crappy job, in a crappy town, dealing with crappy boyfriend Flick, excellently played by Benny Baker, a jerk or pencil neck in the Perryverse. Sylvia re-purposes her life by taking care of a little boy, well-played by Billy Mumy who I disliked at the time, jealous of him being slightly older than me and already highly successful in his career. Other solid performances are put in by Denver Pyle and Dianne Ladd. The mystery side of things is not strong, but setting, characters and atmosphere make this episode exceptional.