The Ides of Perry Mason 41

On the 15th of every month, we publish something about Our Fave Lawyer.

Sulu, Bones, and Spock in the Perryverse

Three actors who later starred the 1960s version of the greatest science-fiction[1] TV show of all time put in creditable performances on the greatest TV courtroom drama of all time.

George Takei puts in a persuasive performance as a Japanese-American accountant in The Case of the Blushing Pearls (season 3, 1959). It’s too much to expect Hollywood writers to get every Asian thing right. While “Kimura” could be a Japanese surname, “Kamuri” could not. Calligraphy so inept that even I can tell it’s inept appears on a scroll that shows up in a jewelry shop and a girl’s apartment. Nobu McCarthy plays a stereotypically gentle and submissive Asian female. These infelicities may or may not be balanced by the presence of Asian-Americans at the center of the plot and an extended speaking part for African-American actor Bill Walker, both phenomena as rare as hen’s teeth on TV in 1959.

With his suggestion of nervous energy, nervous intelligence, and nervous goodwill, DeForest Kelley was often cast as a guy on whom we depended not for his nerves of steel but for his heart of gold. True to form, he plays the soft-touch Peter Thorpe in The Case of the Unwelcome Bride (season 5, 1961). He is the hen-pecked husband of Amanda Thorpe, the daughter of successful and intolerant Walter Frazer. Viewers of a certain age who watched Dark Shadows after school in the early 1970s will recognize the scrumptious Diana Millay as Sue Ellen Frazer, wrongly accused of murder though patently guilty of looking petulant in the first degree. Alan Hale Jr. shows up as a dodgy PI, doing almost as good a job as he did as the con-man Texan in The Case of the Bouncing Boomerang.

Leonard Nimoy appears as a cranky crook in The Case of the Shoplifter’s Shoe (season 6, 1963). With an intentionally bad haircut, squinty eyes, and agitated manner, he acts belligerently with everybody including Perry. Worst, he slaps around his girlfriend. He totally convinces us of his innate rat-nature. But other familiar faces put in solid performances in this one too. Veteran character actor Lurene Tuttle puts in a fine turn as an eccentric old lady and fussy JamesMillhollin shows up as a fussy floorwalker in a department store (remember those?). Finally, most impressively, a grown-up Margaret O’Brien plays the niece of the eccentric old lady. In a running joke, she gets cut off every time she tries to explain somebody’s behavior with Freudian psychology. Plus on the stand she gets to cry and wail, demonstrating yet again what TCM calls “her startling facility for tears.”

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] Science fiction explores the human condition in situations not of our current world (original Star Trek), while sci-fi is about square-jawed heroes battling aliens and killer robots and driving star cruisers and shit blowing up in non-stop action that makes you feel sick and tired by the time you escape the theater (rebooted Star Trek).