Happy Belated Birthday Philip MacDonald

Classic Whodunnit from the Golden Era. I don’t read mysteries from 1920s often. The writing is too stiff, the plots formulaic, the racism casual, the reveal too protracted. Born November 5 in 1900 was Philip MacDonald, British-born writer of faction and screenplays, best known for thrillers.

 The Rasp - Philip MacDonald

It was in the year of 1924 - a year not without its mystery milestones like Poirot Investigates - that a certain Philip MacDonald, a name now remembered only in the fringes of whodunnit fandom, first introduced to the reading public his series character, Colonel Anthony Gethryn. The tale, slender in length but labyrinthine in design, was the inaugural entry in a series that would, in time, see its protagonist softened and reshaped by the author’s pen. But here, in this first appearance, Gethryn is a creature of arrogance and loftiness, a man of government - though what precise department or duty he serves is left as vague as an ICE agent’s home address.

The plot is a tangled skein. A baronet of wealth and consequence is discovered most brutally murdered in his study - beaten, no less, as if by the hand of some vengeful god. No clue is apparent to the eye of the common man. But enter Gethryn, with his cold logic and sharper instincts, and the mystery begins to uncurl - though not without strain upon the reader’s credulity. The solution, when it comes, is far-fetched, and yet I confess I turned the pages with a kind of skeptical fascination.

In a moment of bravado, Gethryn concocts a tale to ensnare the killer - a tale involving doppelgängers, illegitimate heirs, and the switching of corpses. Alas, this fiction, bordering on parody of the nascent genre, proves more thrilling than the truth, which, when revealed, is disappointingly ordinary. One cannot help but wish the lie had been the reality.

The characters, I regret to say, don’t rise above caricature. Gethryn himself is not a man to inspire liking, and his sudden, unconvincing infatuation with a murder suspect - Miss Lucia, whose whiteness of complexion is described with such obsessive frequency that a hardcore reader begins to suspect the author of a peculiar bee in the bonnet - does little to endear him.

For a moment his eyes closed. Behind the lids there arose a picture of her face – a picture strangely more clear than any given by actual sight.

“You,” said Lucia, “ought to be asleep. Yes, you ought! Not tiring yourself out to make conversation for a hysterical woman that can’t keep her emotions under control.”

“The closing of the eyes,” Anthony said, opening them, “merely indicates that the great detective is what we call thrashing out a knotty problem. He always closes his eyes you know. He couldn’t do anything with ’em open.”

She smiled. “I’m afraid I don’t believe you, you know. I think you’ve simply done so much to-day that you’re simply tired out.”

“Really, I assure you, no. We never sleep until a case is finished. Never.”

Their romance, such as it is, unfolds with all the subtlety of a tightly-lace corset.

Elsewhere, we find Mr. Spencer Hastings, Gethryn’s friend, mooning over his secretary, whom he refers to as “that little white darling” - a phrase that might have passed unnoticed in 1924 but now strikes the post-modern ear with a clang. Indeed, the book is marred by the casual bigotries of its time. Anti-Semitic remarks are made without irony or rebuke, and a Jewish character is portrayed with all the offensive tropes of the era. It is a stain upon the narrative that no amount of literary merit can quite erase.

And yet, MacDonald writes with a certain fluency. His prose is never dull and his pacing is brisk. The country house setting, the locked-room mystery, the parade of suspects - all are handled with competence, if not brilliance, considering how early in the Golden Era of Whodunnits it was released. The final chapter, sad to report, is a ponderous affair: in the Dover edition I read sixty pages of explanation served only to belabor what the reader was told during the reveal.

In sum, this first case of Colonel Gethryn is a curiosity - flawed, dated, and at times distasteful, yet not without its charms. It is a relic of its age, and like many such relics, it is best approached with caution, context, and a generous measure of patience on the part of reading gluttons – me, us – who are interested the development of the whodunnit.

The Nones of Perry Mason 98

Note: Conventional wisdom claims that by 1960, 71 years and 80 novels down the pike, the creator of Perry Mason was past his prime. Some blame going over TV scripts for distracting Gardner from the novels, for the writing getting clunkier and stories more formulaic even by his own standards. Too true, I’ve found late-career Gardner a mixed bag. TCOT Troubled Trustee from 1965 is not worth reading but 1963’s TCOT Stepdaughter’s Secret and the last one from 1969 TCOT Fabulous Fake certainly are fun. This one is enjoyable too.

The Case of the Shapely Shadow – Erle Stanley Gardner

Janice Wainwright is a secretary with a secret: she’s in love with her boss, the worthless Morley Theilman. To avoid triggering his wife’s jealousy, Janice plays the wallflower - dressing down, staying quiet. But when she walks into Perry Mason’s office with a locked briefcase and a wild story, things get weird fast.

Della Street, Mason’s razor-sharp assistant, convinces him to take Janice’s case. Janice suspects Theilman is being blackmailed by someone named A.B. Vidal. She wants to open the briefcase  - legally - before dropping it in a train station coin locker. Mason cracks it open: it’s stuffed with cash. They document the serial numbers, stash the case, and mail the key to Vidal.

Next day, Mason and PI Paul Drake stake out the locker. Too late—the briefcase is gone. Then Janice vanishes. Theilman disappears after meeting his sketchy partner, Cole B. Troy, who claims a mysterious woman was tailing Theilman.

Drake tracks Janice to Vegas, where Mason also meets Theilman’s ex-wife, Carlotta. Turns out Theilman was blackmailed into handing over Carlotta’s stock. Cue drama: Lt. Tragg arrests Janice for Theilman’s murder.

DA Hamilton Burger is sure he’s got Mason beat. The evidence? Janice’s car was at the scene, she bought scissors and newspapers (classic ransom letter kit), and post-makeover, she’s got femme fatale vibes.

The courtroom showdown is intense. Mason warns Janice her testimony could land her in the gas chamber. The judge calls a mistrial, and Burger's carotid artery nearly pops.

Verdict: Highly recommended. Even late in his career, Erle Stanley Gardner delivers a twisty, stylish legal thriller. If you like noir vibes, courtroom drama, and smart women who don’t play by the rules, this one’s a ride.

Happy Birthday John Bingham

Note: John Bingham, 1908 – 1988, British spy and novelist, 7th Baron Clanmorris, worked with John le Carré in British intelligence. Le Carre says that Bingham objected to Le Carre’s telling tales out of MI-5 but Bingham is said to be one of the inspirations for George Smiley. Bingham, who died in 1988 at the age of 80, wrote his own espionage and police procedural novels. His highly developed characters and plots are believable and stand up well 50 years after their creation.

The Paton Street Case - John Bingham

In this 1955 thriller, also known as Inspector Morgan’s Dilemma, John Bingham crafts a taut, melancholic tale of murder and moral compromise, set against the backdrop of post-war Britain’s frayed civility.

Inspector Morgan, a Welshman with a poet’s soul and a policeman’s burden, finds himself partnered with Shaw - a man of clipped tones and colder instincts. Together, they probe the death of a gambler whose life was a litany of petty deceit and grubby transactions.

Morgan’s instincts, steeped in Celtic intuition, lead him down shadowed paths. Sometimes they illuminate; sometimes they betray. One such path leads to Otto Steiner, a refugee from Nazi brutality, whose trauma simmers beneath a veneer of graciousness. Steiner’s unpredictability in moments of crisis makes him both a suspect and a tragic cipher.

Another thread unravels through a quiet interview, where adultery is revealed not with scandal but with weary resignation. The betrayed spouse, driven by wounded pride and long-nurtured bitterness, takes actions that defy logic but not emotion long bottled-up.

The case becomes less about justice and more about understanding the fragile grammar of motive. Morgan, caught between duty and empathy, must decide whether truth is always the noblest pursuit - or merely the most convenient.

James Sandoe of the New York Herald Tribune Book Review called the novel “an uncommonly compelling narrative, artfully wrought and compassionately conceived.” It is that rare crime story where the murder is only the beginning, and the real mystery lies in the hearts of those left behind.

After Stoic Week 2025

Why Stoics Should Volunteer for Research Projects

Stoicism teaches us to live in harmony with nature, embrace virtue, and act for the common good. Volunteering as a human subject in research aligns perfectly with these principles. By participating, you contribute to the advancement of knowledge - a rational pursuit that benefits humanity. Research drives progress in medicine, psychology, organizational behavior, rehabilitation science and communicative disorders, reducing suffering and improving lives. What could be more virtuous than aiding such efforts?

A Stoic understands that our choices define our character. Choosing to volunteer is an exercise in courage and wisdom. It is not reckless; ethical research prioritizes safety and informed consent. You act not for personal gain, but for the greater good - a hallmark of justice and benevolence. And even when a payment is made, it can be used to buy books by Dr. Lopez, Dr. Robertson and Dr. Pigliucci so they will be encouraged to write more books about Stoicism for us moderns.

Moreover, volunteering offers an opportunity to practice indifference to discomfort. 

• I admit I’ve found it dull to fill out surveys.  
• I almost fell asleep doing nothing but listening to individual words while my pupil dilation was being measured. 
• Though I was patting myself on the back for undertaking a test of bravery, I found more tedious than bracing Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation, a form of electrical stimulation that involves applying a small amount of current over different areas of my brain. 

Whether the study involves a questionnaire, boredom, or a minor inconvenience (or major – like dealing with parking lots at any university), you can view it as training in resilience. By accepting these challenges calmly and in generous spirit, you embody Stoic ideals in action. 

You don't need to be suffering an ailment to qualify to enter a study - you can provide data as a normal, healthy control subject that fits the inclusion criteria of the study.

In short, research participation is a rational, virtuous, and socially responsible choice. It is a way to live your philosophy - put it into action and make a difference. Will you seize this chance to generate knowledge and serve humanity?

Ways to find Research Projects to Volunteer For

Call the office of your local university’s VP of Research. Ask for the web address of the college’s Research Registry (Portal). An example can be found here.

ClinicalTrials.gov – The largest global registry of clinical trials. You can search by condition, location, or study type. [clinicaltrials.gov]

ResearchMatch – A free, NIH-funded platform that connects volunteers with researchers across the U.S. for health-related studies. [researchmatch.org]

The Kalends of Perry Mason 97

In Tribute to Hugh Marlowe

This well-respected actor with a rich baritone worked in radio before he broke into the movies. He appeared in TCM perrennials such as Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Twelve O'Clock High (1949), All About Eve (1950), and The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). He appeared in six – really five – episodes of Perry Mason, one of a dozen actors who played what Perry fandom calls the trifecta - the victim, the defendant, and the culprit.

The Case of the Fraudulent Foto (1959)

In serious horn-rimmed glasses, Hugh plays an idealistic DA aiming to battle graft in the awarding of construction contracts in small city. The dedicated DA is so focused on his goal that he doesn’t see big trouble coming his way from an obvious direction. The bad guys sic the comely Leora Matthews on him to lure him into a compromising position, complete with photographer. Hugh’s DA is arrested on a charge of murder when the blackmailer ends up killed on the floor, where many other blackmailers in Mason stories land.

However, the real star of his episode is the noir look of this season two episode. It is cool beyond belief. Black, white, and shades of grey never looked better in stock shots of cars old even in 1959. The city and the police station at night are made to look huge, cold, harsh, and pitiless, like places you enter as yourself but you come out not yourself any more. The 1890s hotel has incredible woodwork that looks great in monochrome. Mason drives a black 1959 Cadillac convertible. Hugh wears a trench coat that makes us think of fedoras, fog and Nelson Riddle’s theme for The Untouchables. It’s weird because director Arthur Marks did not have an impressive noir history on his resume until the 1970s.

The Case of the Slandered Submarine (1960)

Often cast as a military man, Hugh was the commander of the good sub U.S.S. Moray in this one. He ends up with a screwdriver in his chest so he did not get a chance to make that baritone resonate.

The Case of the Borrowed Baby (1962)

Somebody who trusts Perry and Della to do the right thing leaves a four-week-old baby in a basket on Perry’s office desk. The mother finally surfaces but ends up in trouble deep after she is arrested for murder. The baby in fact may be the heir to a fortune. Hugh is just okay in not a big part as a business manager. The focus on Barbara Hale bonding with the infant was the centerpiece in this episode. Not aging real well is game and savvy Della Street regretting her choice to be a career woman having adventures with Perry Mason.

The Case of the Nebulous Nephew (1963)

Season 7 was kicked off with one of the better scripted episodes. Hugh plays one of two scamsters who aim to con two harmless old ladies. But after living with the two women for a little while, Hugh’s partner in fraud becomes fond of the aunties and puts the argument to Hugh for abandoning their nefarious plan. But greedy calculating Hugh objects and ends up murdered. Besides the stellar acting, the long set-up is about perfect, without a wasted word or scene. The writers make points about staying in touch with your core values, feeling family loyalty, atoning for past sins, admiring the colorblindness of children, and using love and faith as guides. Up there with The Case of the Perjured Parrot and The Case of the Nine Dolls, this may be my favorite episode ever.

The Case of the Sleepy Slayer (1964)

“How much is it worth,” wonders an exhausted caregiver, “to be a sick, empty creature, drained of every drop of the joy of life?” Poor Rachel Gordon has been driven to distraction by providing care to her tyrant uncle for many years. At the end of her tether she puts a couple of rounds into Uncle as he sleeps. The investigation reveals that the tyrant was poisoned before Rachel shot him. Hugh has a small part as a doctor who says of the miser, “even death despises him” and that the old buzzard’s heart, driven by a jolt of adrenaline “would have been like running a transistor radio on a fifty million volt generator.” Hugh is overshadowed by Phyllis Hill as the hard-pressed caregiver who in her loneliness gets involved with a louse; Robert Brown who plays her user BF persuasively; and finally he of the screaming skull,  Richard Hale, who often played the crooked businessman, sickly pawpaw, and sinister miser. 

The Case of the Hasty Honeymooner (1965)

I detest spoilers so I can only say that Hugh again plays the bounder and dastard as he did in Nebulous Nephew. Oddly enough, in this episode his TV wife is his real-life wife K.T. Stevens.  Noah Beery, Jr. puts in a rip-roaring performance as Lucas Tolliver of Oklahoma. He wants Perry Mason to draw up a will for a future wife. This weird request spurs Perry to send Paul Drake on a quest for information about down-home Luke. Paul finds Luke a man unlucky in marriage, having lost not one but two wives, one to a salad of baneful greens and the other to a passing train. Set in 1965, the story has elements based on the new tech of computer dating and newfound concern for PR fallout. Playing true to his usual good old boy, Strother Martin puts in a great turn as a Bible-thumping tattletale.

Stoic Week 5/5: Integrity

Note: Epictetus, Seneca and Aurelius examined fictional characters like Medea, Odysseus, and Hercules through a Stoic lens. Inspired, I apply the Stoic orientation to the messed-up impressions of characters in the TV stories of the original Perry Mason (1957 - 1966) and then I ordered the ghost in the machine to recast the review in the style of Epictetus.  In TCOT Curious Bride, Perry Mason says, “What right have I got to sit back with that 'holier than thou' attitude and expect [clients] to come clean with a total stranger? They come here when they're in trouble. They're worried and frightened. They come to me for consultations. I'm a total stranger to them. They need help. Poor fools, you can't blame them for resorting to subterfuges.”

The Case the Resolute Reformer (Season 4, Episode 14, 1/14/61)

Let us consider the tale of Hoyt, the County Civil Engineer - a man who sought to raise his son by the book, not just any book, but the one written by the upright sages of cinema, Tracy and Heston, on ethics and integrity. Hoyt believed that if he held his son to the highest standards, the boy would rise to meet them. But the Stoic knows: you cannot force virtue into another as you would pour water into a jar. You may guide, you may model, but you cannot command the soul of another.

Hoyt’s son, unable to meet his father’s impossible expectations, turned instead to wine and folly. And in his drunken missteps, he became the pawn of a ruthless man in construction, who used a society girl to bait the boy and compromise the father. The target was not the son - it was Hoyt. The upright man must fall, so the dishonest may rise.

This is the ingenuity of the wicked: they do not fight fair, because they do not fight with reason. They fight with manipulation, with bribery, with the corruption of the weak. And yet, the Stoic does not despair. For what is corruption but the excessive pursuit of reputation, position, influence inevitable in any political system? Wishing for a world free of corruption is like longing for figs in winter.

Hoyt’s assistant Kent, bribed and broken, confesses in court that Hoyt once told him, “Your judgment is not sound.” And Perry Mason, who speaks here with the clarity of a Stoic, replies, “Well, yes. Hoyt was right. If your judgment had been sound, you wouldn’t have taken bribes.”

This is the heart of the matter. The Stoic does not ask whether the world is fair. He asks whether he himself is just. He does not demand that others be perfect. He forgives their ignorance, their weakness, their vanity. He knows that anger at others’ faults is a kind of madness - a refusal to accept that people are as they are.

High standards? Keep them - for yourself. For others, offer patience. Offer understanding. Offer the kind of mercy you will one day need. For we all stumble. We all forget. We all fall short.

And when the world tries to drag you into its chaos, remember: the only thing up to you is your response. Choose reason. Choose compassion. Choose not to be like them.

Stoic Week 4/5: Spite

Note: Epictetus and Aurelius examined fictional characters like Medea and Hercules through a Stoic template. Inspired, I apply the Stoic orientation to the messed-up impressions of characters in the TV stories of the original Perry Mason (1957 - 1966) and then had the ghost in the machine recast it in the style of Seneca. In the novel TCOT Shoplifter’s Shoe, Perry Mason says, "People have their strong points and their weak points. The true philosopher sees them as they are, and is never disappointed, because he doesn’t expect too much. The cynic is one who starts out with a false pattern and becomes disappointed because people don’t conform to that pattern. Most of the little chiseling practices come from trying to cope with our economic conventions. When it comes right down to fundamentals, people are fairly dependable. The neighbor who would cheat you out of a pound of sugar would risk her life to save you from drowning."

The Case of the Witless Witness (Season 6, Episode 28, 5/16/63)

It is a curious thing, Lucilius, how men of sound judgment and upright character, once content to dispense justice from the bench, are drawn to the theater of politics, where virtue is often mocked and ambition wears the mask of service. Judge Daniel Redmond, a man of probity, has accepted the nomination to be Lieutenant Governor - a role which, to the Stoic, may seem as superfluous as weighing down the wise with the ceremonial chains of spectacle and trumpery.

Why would a man exchange the solemn majesty of the law for the hollow pomp and jibber-jabber of political office? Perhaps he imagines he can steer the ship of state. But the Stoic knows: the sea is not calmed by the hand on the rudder, but by the soul unshaken by storms. Yet before we can ponder this folly further, the judge is accused - of fraud, no less, and of poisoning a witness.

The irony is not lost on those who remember his long-ago lecture on statutory fraud, delivered with romantic fervor at a party teeming with lobbyists and fixers. Madge Eberly, once the object of his near-proposal, recalls this moment with a venomous smile. “Weren’t you advising them on fraud?” she asks, her tone sweet with malice. Redmond protests - he spoke only of how fraud might be done, not how it should be. But Madge, spurned and bitter, has already passed the tale to those who would see him fall.

Spite, Lucilius, is a passion rarely named in our post-modern age, which prefers to dress its wounds in irony and scrolling. But the Stoic sees it clearly: it is the soul’s abject surrender to perceived injury, the abdication of reason to resentment. To be consumed by spite is to give one's tranquility to another, to become the very thing one despises.

Marcus Aurelius, that emperor of the inner citadel, reminds us: “The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.” Madge, in her bitterness, has become the architect of her own unrest. Redmond, if he is wise, will not answer her poison with more poison, but with steadfastness and the legal hocus-pocus of Perry Mason.

Stoic Week 3/5: Ambition and Smarts

Note: Epictetus and Aurelius examined fictional characters like Medea and Hercules through Stoic sunglasses. Inspired, I apply the Stoic orientation to the messed-up impressions of characters in the TV stories of the original Perry Mason (1957 - 1966) and then I had the ghost in the machine recast it in the style of Musonius Rufus. In the novel TCOT Caretaker’s Cat, Perry Mason says on Stoic risk-taking, “What the hell can a man lose? He can't lose his life because he doesn't own that anyway. He has only a lease on life. He can lose money and money doesn't mean one damn thing as compared with character. All that really counts is a man's ability to live life, to get the most out of it as he goes through it, and he gets the most kick out of it by playing a no-limit game.”

The Case of the Larcenous Lady (Season 4, Episode 12, 12/17/60)

On the Pitfalls of Ambition

It is not the pursuit of high office that corrupts, but the manner in which one pursues it. Mona, though professing restraint, reveals herself not as a guardian of virtue but as one enslaved by ambition. She declares she will not interfere in the process of appointing her husband to a high post in state government, yet she proceeds to extort and manipulate, believing that the ends justify the means. But no end, however grand, can sanctify the use of vice. To blackmail is to abandon reason, and to intimidate is to forsake justice.

Such acts are not the marks of a noble soul but of one diseased by desire. The wise do not seek elevation through the exploitation and suffering of others. If a post is to be held, let it be earned through merit and service, not deceit. For what is the value of a crown gained by corruption? It weighs heavier on the conscience than on the brow.

Mona’s fate - death by the very ambition she nurtured - is not tragic but instructive. The Stoic mourns an end to all children of God, but learns from their unhappy fates: that unchecked desire leads not to glory, but to ruin.

On the Missteps of the Young and the Importance of Practical Wisdom

Susan, though kind and intelligent, lacks the prudence that wisdom demands. She gives away a great sum without securing proof in the form of a receipt, and worse, she tampers with death and deceit. To pick up a weapon at a crime scene is not merely foolish - it is a failure to consider what is within one’s control. To lie to one’s attorney about firing the shot from the murder gun to divert suspicion from the man she loved (identical to the one that didn't even know she was alive) is to sabotage the very advocacy one seeks.

Musonius Rufus taught that philosophy is not for idle speculation but for living rightly. Wisdom is not found in books alone, but in the choices we make daily. To act without thought is to live as a child, not as an adult with the slightest pretentions to live like a Stoic philosopher. Susan’s errors are not sins of malice, but of ignorance - and ignorance, though forgivable, is dangerous when left uncorrected.

Let us then teach our youth not only to be kind, but to have good calculation. Let them learn that love, if not guided by wisdom, becomes a tyrant. That truth, even when painful, is the ally of justice. And that in all things, we must ask: Is this within my power? Is this in accordance with virtue?

Stoic Week 2/5: Revenge

Note: Both Epictetus and Aurelius examined fictional characters like Medea and Hercules through a Stoic lens. Inspired, I apply the Stoic orientation to the messed-up impressions of characters in the TV stories of the original Perry Mason (1957 - 1966) and then I had the ghost in the machine recast it in the style of Marcus Aurelius. In the novel TCOT Phantom Fortune, Perry Mason says, “Make up your mind to one thing, Mrs. Warren. After water has run downstream and over the dam, you can't find any way on earth of getting it back upstream and over the dam a second time. Take things as they come. Concentrate on the present, forget the past.”

The Case of the Lonely Heiress (Season 1, Episode 20, 2/1/58)

Observe Delores, as portrayed by Anna Navarro - a force of nature, yes, but one enslaved by her own passions. She lashes out not because others provoke her, but because she has allowed anger and anxiety to become the lens through which she sees the world. She is not free. She is ruled.

And what of her love for Charlie? If it is love, it is love corrupted - possessive, destructive, conditional. “If I cannot have him, no one can.” This is not affection. It is tyranny disguised as longing.

When poor Delores asks, “Do you think I’m a bad girl?” the question pierces the heart. The Stoic does not rush to condemn. We are all flawed, all fallible. But when one’s life is a litany of cruelty - greed, violence, deceit, exploitation - then yes, we must say: this is not the path of virtue. This is the path of ruin.

And yet, Delores is not the only one lost. Marilyn seeks revenge for her sister’s self-destruction, believing Charlie to be the cause. But what is revenge, if not the surrender of reason to emotion? To retaliate is to become the very thing that wounded you. It is to let another’s vice dictate your own virtue.

Marcus Aurelius reminds us: “The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.” To plot revenge is to allow external events to govern your inner state. It is to give away your peace, your judgment, your soul.

Let Marilyn learn from pain. Let her transform grief into wisdom. Let her choose forgiveness - not because the wrong was small, but because her spirit is large. Forgiveness is not weakness. It is strength. It is the refusal to be ruled by bitterness.

And let us remember: rage, revenge, and resentment are thieves. They steal our clarity, our compassion, our capacity for excellence. The Stoic does not deny emotion - but he does not serve it. He serves reason. He serves virtue. He serves the inner citadel.

Stoic Week 1/5: Obsession

Note: Epictetus, Seneca and Aurelius examined fictional characters like Medea, Odysseus, and Hercules through a Stoic lens. Inspired, I apply the Stoic orientation to the messed-up impressions of characters in the TV stories of the original Perry Mason (1957 - 1966). In TCOT Perjured Parrot, Perry Mason says, "We've been talking quite a bit about becoming hypnotized by circumstantial evidence. After a person once gets a fixed belief, he interprets everything which happens in the light of that belief. It's a dangerous habit to get into and I'm afraid I haven't been entirely innocent, myself."

The Case of the Misguided Missile (Season 4, Episode 25; 5/6/61)

Aerospace engineer Dan Morgan’s obsession with rocket propulsion probably started when he was a teenager under the influence of pioneer Robert Godard in the Twenties.  Morgan said “Jets hadn’t been invented when I was talking about missiles.” So in the early Sixties he landed his dream job in NASA’s space program. But a nosy auditor wouldn't let Morgan’s Sceptre blast off, so Morgan killed the auditor. On the stand a starry-eyed Morgan rants, “I built the first Sceptre, and it flew. It flew!”

In a culture that encourages people to pursue obsessions and fanaticisms, the Stoic stance is radical to say aloud but here goes. It’s possible to like and dislike, work and play, think and do in a moderate fashion. When our preference is moderate, it leads us to set reasonable goals and work toward them wisely.  If our preference is immoderate, says Daniel Gilbert in Stumbling Toward Happiness, it leads us to lie, to cheat, to steal, to hurt others, and to sacrifice things of value, like spending time with family, for the sake of work – or whatever our passion is all about. 

European Reading Challenge #10

Note: Alan Watts sometimes spoke of materialists and abstractionists. Materialists are devoted to loafing and savoring the physical and the present while the abstractionists do their damnedest to make us materialist scamps “fit” or “correct” or “productive” or “future-oriented.” Mozart was a materialist: Listen to the waves. Beethoven was an abstractionist: Enjoy listening to the waves!

Mozart: A Life – Peter Gay

Wolfgang’s father Leopold was musically talented but Leopold ascribed to God his daughter’s prodigious musical proficiency and his son’s musical genius. Piety did not stop Leopold from taking the divinely inspired children on grueling road trips to perform at European courts. Uncomfortable carriages. Bad food. Epidemics. Nor could late nights and perpetual instability have been healthy for the two kids. It was on one of these long exhausting tours that our Mozart contracted rheumatic fever. He was to suffer periodic relapses of fever, swelling, rash, and fatigue in youth and adulthood. It’s not a stretch to claim rheumatic fever contributed to his early death, of exhaustion and over-work, at 35 years of age, in 1791.

Gay points out that young Mozart soaked up all the different genres of music he was exposed to: J.C. Bach for cantatas, Handel for fugues, Hayden for symphonies, and Gluck for operas. Mozart started composing when he was only a child of seven years old. Mozart found his own voice when he was about 16 years old, in the finale of KV 134 Symphony No. 21 in A major. His favorite genre was opera and many say he was the greatest opera composer of all time.

Not a musicologist, historian Gay discusses the music in lay terms for the general reader. Gay also mentions Mozart‘s practical jokes and sense of comedy. And quotes scatological passages from letters that may be hilarious or bewildering, depending on the reader’s predispositions. Not a womanizer, Mozart was fond of strong women – wife Constanze was decidedly not a ditz though she was a soprano* - and featured strong women characters in his operas.

The short biography is for readers that want the highlights of the life and times of the subject. Without being callous about it, Gay offers contra-Romantic views of Mozart’s last year and his demise. For instance, though many people sigh at the forlorn image of a simple cart taking the remains of the neglected abused artist to a common grave with no stone or flowers, there was no way Mozart’s estate, facing huge debt, could pay for a private funeral. 

Its only drawback is that while it lists many books for further reading, it does not list recordings that experts would recommend to the lay listener. I know it is beyond the scope of the life, but interesting would have been a chapter on the history of the Mozart legend and how after WWII the Mozart we know today was constructed by the recording industry and notables such as Malcolm Bilson, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Charles Mackerras, Alfred Brendel, Wolfgang Meyer, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

* “Why is there a soprano outside of your door? She can't find the key and doesn't know when to come in” is just one egregious example of the appalling stereotypes that dog sopranos to this day.

Evelyn Venable 5/5

Note: After a promising start in Death Takes a Holiday, Double Door, and two Will Rogers movies, philistine producers decided modest, unassuming Evelyn Venable was not star material and assigned her to low-quality B-movies. While many B-movies (like the one below) are fun watching, nothing could induce me to watch a 1935 biopic of Stephen Foster, produced by Mascot Pictures, with cheap production values, cheap directing and cheap writing.  “I never regretted leaving films,” Venable later said. “If I have any regrets at all it is in leaving the stage. I might have been a really good actress. There simply was no chance in most of my pictures nor was I getting the proper training.”

He Hired the Boss
1943 / 1:12
Tagline: “IT'S AN OUT-AND-OUT RIOT! He's all-out for National Defense....and she's all-out for him!”
[internet archive]

Set in a sleepy California town during WWII, this quirky comedy kicks off with a blackout drill led by a hyper-dedicated air raid warden. While he’s laser-focused on keeping the lights out, a gang of silk thieves is busy looting supplies meant for the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Classic case of missing the forest for the trees.

That warden is Hubert (played by Stu Ervin), a man so punctual people set their watches by his walk to work. He’s a meticulous bookkeeper, a compulsive saver, and a volunteer who collects tinfoil for the war effort (a nod to the real-life use of aluminum “chaff” to jam German radar). But all this civic virtue masks a deeper flaw: Hubert is a world-class procrastinator.

He’s been stuck in the same dead-end job for 15 years, too timid to ask for a raise. He’s in love with his coworker Emily (Evelyn Venable), but insists he can’t afford marriage. Emily, who’s had enough of his dithering, calls him out: life isn’t for the timid, and happiness doesn’t require a zero balance. She’s especially fed up that Hubert keeps loaning money to a guy who never pays him back. Her advice? Be brave, be broke, but be happy.

Hubert finally gets drafted - only to be rejected for a dust allergy. His boss takes him back, but slashes his pay and demotes him. Then, in a rare moment of rebellion (and a bit of liquid courage from partying with sailors), Hubert calls his boss an “old cabbage puss” and gets fired. Emily gets canned too, for failing to stop her sister from eloping with the boss’s son. Cue generational tension (a common theme in the Twenties and Thirties): the young folks are fighting a war and want to live life on their own terms, not under the thumb of the old guard.

This double firing sets off the film’s climax. Hubert stumbles into success in the extraction business and helps bust the silk-stealing traitors. But the ending? Total letdown. Hubert goes back to work for the same boss who treated him and Emily like garbage. It’s a baffling move that ignores both professional logic and basic human dignity. Why reward a toxic employer who ran the company into the ground?

Still, Stu Ervin delivers genuine laughs. One standout scene has him waking up hungover after partying with sailors, muttering, “I’m afraid to look in the mirror because I might not see anybody.” Ervin specialized in playing small-town guys who finally grow a spine. He was a B-movie regular and starred in one of TV’s earliest sitcoms, Trouble with Father, which still holds up (and features a young Sheila Kuehl - yes, that Sheila Kuehl).

Evelyn Venable, tall and graceful with a voice like velvet, shines as Emily. This was her final film, made after a three-year break to raise her daughters. Hollywood never quite knew what to do with her delicate charm. After a tiny role in a forgettable western and an uncredited voice gig as the Blue Fairy in Pinocchio, she walked away from the industry in 1943.

But Venable didn’t fade away - she pivoted. In the early Fifties, she enrolled at UCLA with her daughters, earned a degree in Latin, and later a master’s in classics. She became a professor, teaching Latin prose and directing Greek plays. Her academic career was a quiet triumph, admirable and inspiring for those of us in education. She came from a long line of teachers and found her true calling in the classroom.

So while the movie may fumble its ending, it’s worth watching for Ervin’s comic timing and Venable’s understated brilliance. And if you’re ever feeling stuck like Hubert, remember Emily’s advice: debt’s not the end of the world - but fear might be.

Evelyn Venable 4/5

Note: This week we are looking at some movies with Evelyn Venable. She was considered a "poetic" type of actress with exquisite features and a beautiful speaking voice. Her voice is genuinely warm, friendly and assured in an educated way – she came from a family of teachers. Venable had a gentle, wholesome, and somewhat demure on-screen persona, which stands in contrast to her being cast as bit of a go-getter in this B-comedy.  Her aura of intelligence and dignity might have worked against her in the cashbox minds of producers who wanted  “independent women” like Kay Francis or “sex bombs” like Jean Harlow.

Hollywood Stadium Mystery
1938 / 1:06
Tagline: “Ringside seats for a crime!”
[internet archive]

Let’s be honest: the screwball elements are tepid, and the mystery is strictly by-the-numbers. But what elevates this Thirties B-picture above the usual studio filler is its leads - Neil Hamilton and Evelyn Venable - who bring unexpected sophistication to a noisy genre that usually leans on pratfalls and punchlines.

Hamilton plays Bill Devons, a District Attorney with no patience for pulp fiction nonsense. Venable is Pauline Ward, a mystery writer who’s clearly read her share of Havelock Ellis and Bernard Shaw. Both characters are articulate, ambitious, and refreshingly adult - like they’ve just stepped out of a grad seminar with Cyril Connolly on The Taming of the Shrew. It’s a welcome break from the usual B-movie archetypes: the lunkhead guy and the wisecracking dame.

Hamilton toggles between suave and smug with ease, even when saddled with clunkers like, “Marry me and then I'd have a legal right to box your ears in.” Venable, meanwhile, is a revelation. Her performance is precise and expressive, her voice cultured without being affected. You get the sense that her intelligence may have been a liability in an industry that preferred its leading ladies either glamorously vacant or sassily streetwise. At 5’8” with a her own face that defied the studio mold, Venable may have been too much herself for the system.

Barbara Pepper steals her two scenes as Althea Ames, a brassy actress caught up in the murder of a boxer. She delivers zingers like, “You liked it enough last night,” with the kind of timing that makes you wish she had more screen time. Her resigned line - “All you men ever think about is eating” - lands with a sigh and a wink to all women.

Clocking in at just over an hour, the film moves briskly. The sets - especially the offices and boxing arena - feel surprisingly authentic for a Republic Pictures production, a studio not exactly known for lavish realism.

For fans of 1930s cinema, this film is a time capsule of cultural quirks: brass bands at boxing matches, comic relief via mouth noises (thanks, Smiley Burnett), and yes, the regrettable appearance of blackface as a disguise - an uncomfortable reminder of what passed for humor in the era.

As a bonus for us Perry Mason fans, both Hamilton and Pepper would later appear in the classic TV series - he as the uptight male that thinks he’s got the bead on life, she as the salt-of-the-earth type.

Evelyn Venable 3/5

Note: This week we are looking over some movies with Evelyn Venable. After her really hot period in 1934 and 1935, dimwit producers got it in their minds she wasn’t star material so the remainder of her career was in B-movies whose mere titles are turn-offs (North to Nome, Female Fugitive). She retired to raise a family and later became a Latinist at UCLA.

The County Chairman
1935 / 1:18
Tagline: “He Knew Every Family Skeleton by its First Name”
[internet archive]

In the 1930s, Hollywood occasionally indulged in nostalgia for the Gay Nineties and rural life, evoking a simpler time before urbanization, industrialization, and economic expansion reshaped American society. This light comedy, set in rural Wyoming, captures that sentiment. It’s a world where people laugh at automobiles and their drivers - much like how folks chuckled at cell phones and their early adopters in the 1990s (see Twister, 1994).

Will Rogers stars as Jim Hackler, a seasoned lawyer and political operator. His young law partner, Ben Harvey (Kent Taylor), is running for county district attorney. Hackler touts Harvey’s qualifications with dry wit: he’s never been jailed, he’s an orphan, and he once won an oratory contest.

The film portrays old-fashioned campaigning as a tedious grind. Harvey trudges through the countryside, kissing grubby children and courting low-information voters. Hackler, meanwhile, schmoozes ornery yokels who refuse to commit either way. The campaign leans into the charm and flirtation of politics - Harvey even woos a quirky young woman to win her influential father’s vote. Hackler mocks political clichés, advising Harvey to “just point with pride and view with alarm.” When their opponent starts pontificating, Rogers mutters, “Same old sheep dip.” And if Harvey loses? Hackler’s advice: “Call fraud.”

The rival candidate, Elias Rigby (Berton Churchill), is a classic crooked politician. Complicating matters, Harvey is romantically involved with Rigby’s daughter, Lucy (Evelyn Venable). Harvey tries to keep the campaign civil, but when Rigby publicly attacks Hackler, Harvey retaliates by airing rumors that Rigby swindled a disabled man out of a railroad settlement. Lucy, disillusioned, breaks things off and turns to a smug newspaper editor - the guy with the car.

Venable, from a family of educators, convincingly plays a primary school teacher. She exudes warmth, intelligence, and integrity. In one standout scene, Lucy struggles to reconcile Hackler’s manipulative use of truth with her idealism. Hackler subtly accuses her of hypocrisy for teaching “to err is human, to forgive divine” in the penmanship lesson yet refusing to forgive Harvey. With gentle condescension of the old and treacherous, Hackler suggests that wealthy men with automobiles are more appealing than poor country lawyers, using psychological sleight of hand to sway her.

Among the schoolchildren is Mickey Rooney, whose energetic presence has long divided audiences. At 15, he still convincingly plays a grade-schooler, though his over-the-top personality and small stature raise questions about possible hormonal or chromosomal issues.

Comic relief also comes from Sassafras, played by - steel yourself, dear movie-goer - Stepin Fetchit. The film’s climax hinges on his inability to count votes - a gag rooted in outdated humor about cognitive disabilities. One joke lands: when Rogers wakes him from a nap near a sheep farm, Sassafras says, “I started counting them sheep being dipped and done dozed off.” Still, Fetchit’s stereotyped portrayal - shuffling gait, mumbling speech - has aged poorly. Listening via Bluetooth, I found his monologues are more intelligible, but not necessarily more enjoyable.

Despite its political setting, the film doesn’t feel like satire. It doesn’t aim to expose the absurdities of campaigning or critique democratic processes in our free and happy country. Instead, it presents political rivalry as a natural part of life. For example, in 2024, many lamented how politics divides families, as if that were new. But in this film, such divisions are simply accepted. The tone is grounded, not exaggerated.

The writers maintain a subtle undercurrent of Division Street America. Older voters dismiss young Harvey as a “squirt.” Rural folks distrust town merchants. Sheep farmers and cattlemen openly dislike each other. Hackler and Rigby embody long-standing small-town feuds. Hackler quips, “He's been talking like that 20 years and he hasn't said anything yet.” Their mutual hatred is frank and enduring.

Watching Rogers again after many years - my last memory being the excellent State Fair - I was struck by his natural style and distinctive voice. His portrayal is unmistakably rural, but not gruff like Ward Bond, smarmy like Buddy Ebsen, or volatile like Walter Brennan. This was the second film Rogers and Venable made together. On the set of David Harum, Venable met her future husband, Hal Mohr, an Oscar-winning cinematographer known for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) and The Phantom of the Opera (1943). They married, had two daughters, and remained together until his death in 1974..

Evelyn Venable 2/5

Note: This week we are examining some movies with Evelyn Venable. She and her agent somehow got the studio to agree not to assign her bit parts so in 1934 and 1935 so she appeared in substantial roles. In the opening scene in this movie, Venable in a wedding dress is breathtakingly up there with Ann Harding in a wedding dress in Paris Bound.

Double Door
1934 / 1:14
Tagline: “She'll make your flesh creep and your blood run cold”
[youtube no ads]

This suspense movie opens with a wedding held by one of Manhattan’s old money families. Two spinster sisters are seeing their half-brother Rip married to Ann, a nurse from humble origins. Older sister Victoria, a domestic tyrant, looks down on Ann as an upper servant. The younger sister Caroline, though dominated by Victoria’s demands, welcomes Ann as a breath of life in the gloomy mansion furnished with late Victorian monstrosities.

Mary Morris reprises Victoria whom she played on Broadway for 140 performances. She is a portrait in horror, looking eaten up by hard prejudices and old money. Starting with having The Wedding March cut off in the middle, Victoria is determined to spoil the lives of the newlyweds as thoroughly as she has fouled her own and Carrie’s lives. Victoria’s cruelty to Ann seems especially malicious, as deliberate studied unkindness always is.

It is no surprise that after only a couple of months in the ghastly mansion, Ann is at the edge of her reason. She sees an old boyfriend for comfort and advice. This innocent meeting is exploited by Victoria to drive a wedge between Rip and Ann. She calls a family meeting so that a private detective can report on his surveillance of the movements of blameless Ann. The climax of this short movie is a rocker, with the last fifteen minutes presenting almost unbearable tension.

We movie-goers may wonder why the oppressed have never protested or rebelled against Victoria’s yoke. Raised with Victoria, Caroline has from the time she was a little child been intimidated and coerced by her older sister. Raised by Victoria when his mother died when he was seven, Rip’s spirit was broken a long time ago. He is so demoralized that it is inconceivable for him to crawl out from under his own cowardice and shame at not protecting his own half-sister in the past and his wife in the present. Rip is afraid of gossip and scenes nor can he imagine living any other way, i.e. on his own two feet.

Victoria is nice to the portly poodle but awful to people. New to psychological warfare, Ann makes excuses for the tyrant because Victoria is old and lonely so it’s understandable that she's mean and hateful. Miser Victoria argues that her tyranny is a price family members have to pay for wealth they all live on. With a menacing look on her face, Victoria looks at people the way a king cobra looks at a mongoose, thus imposing her will through sheer stubbornness and killing the victim’s initiative to run or resist.

This Pre-Code movie is based on stage play, but suffers no staid staginess that mars early talkies based on plays like Holiday (1930). Microphones, lighting, and shots from unexpected angles had gone a long way in only four years. This effort definitely looks like a movie. For instance, the lighting and the camera angles on Mary Morris’ face make her look particularly feverish and sinister.  As for Pre-Code themes, I wonder if Rip’s chronicle to Ann of his sleeping in the same room as Victoria as a boy would indicate possible – ugh, it doesn’t bear thinking of, even for those wild Pre-Code days.

Venable’s fine performance brings out Ann’s changing attitude from hope that Victoria will reconcile herself to the marriage to certainty that Victoria’s malevolence will never change. Anne Revere, also reprising Caroline from the stage, overacts here and there but makes us see that Caroline’s warmth has somehow remained indomitable despite Victoria’s incessant browbeating. Carrie’s compassion is a miracle, a tribute to the human spirit. Kent Taylor as Rip conveys that he really loves Ann. His tenderness with her is sweet, but overall like a lot of male actors back then he doesn’t have much going in the pizazz department.

This performance was Mary Morris’ single work for Hollywood. Morris returned to the stage where she felt more at home. She may have felt uneasy with or contemptuous of Hollywood’s plans to typecast her in horror roles. One wonders if she noted Hollywood’s treatment of Maria Ouspenskaya, a genius and teacher of acting.

Evelyn Venable 1/5

Intro: Evelyn Venable was born on October 18, 1913 so this week let’s take a look at her movies. The movie reviewed below gained her much attention at the time and dreamy Grazia is the role she is remembered for today among the hardest of hardcore buffs of classic Hollywood. She was perfectly cast and made the most of her chance. That this movie ever got made in the first place is hard to figure out, since it is pitched an extremely narrow market: folks of above average intelligence (i.e. half the movie-going public) that are interested in spiritual matters (whoa, that takes in only about 30% out of the half we had*).

Death Takes a Holiday
1934 / 1:20
Tagline: “No one died! Because Death was busy making love!”
[internet archive]

From the play by Alberto Casella (1891 - 1957), Fredric March plays the Grim Reaper and Evelyn Venable plays the Spiritual Girl.

March crashes a carefree house-party hosted by expatriate English people in Italy for their American friends. The Grim Reaper conceals his identity by dressing in the height of fashion and adopting the suave manner of a European aristocrat. He obligates his host to keep his identity a secret because he wants to plumb the mystery as to why, given the sorrows and trials of life, people fear and abhor death even more than being alone.

The Reaper tries gambling, ping pong, the ponies, boating, dancing and socializing. He finds no answer in these time-filling activities as why people cling to life. Then an elderly baron suggests love and romance. Luckily the Spiritual Girl, on the lookout for the ineffable, has not yet discovered sitting on the meditation cushion or the usual snares for the unwary called mysticism or occultism or politics.

They fall in love.  

Thus, the Grim Reaper finds the answer to his question as to why people cleave to life though they piss away their precious time with mindless scrolling. For once, Hollywood does not give in to its usual nervous anticipations as to what the folks in Pottsville or Zenith will think of the ending.

The line, “Has it ever occurred to you that death may be simpler than life and infinitely more kind” provides grist for conversation during, say, a third date for a well-read but cute couple in that 15% of the audience that will like this picture. Fredric March makes the human charm believable, but he makes the remoteness, the detachment of the character from human concerns plausible too. March’s Death has an agenda that is not the agenda of us among the quick, his when and how are not our when and how.

March plays his part so as to give us movie-goers the impression that for all the sinister reputation, Death is not a complete bad hat. We are not taken in by the awkward magnetism and tidy attire so much that we want to meet the Grim Reaper before we absolutely have to. But we may become more willing to grant that Death is a part of the necessity of life, the cosmic order of things, so it had better be accepted with grace and bravery, not ferocity or fear. In other words, “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” is just exactly what we shouldn’t do.

Evelyn Venable is perfectly cast because she has the ethereal air of a searcher who feels far away from other people, even from those they love, because they are hunting for an indescribable something. Inward and young, she feels the miraculous is nearby, a knowledge and serenity that she can understand only on her own. Movie-goers who are also seekers will enjoy her in this part because her performance may remind them of themselves. Many years ago. As Jobeth Williams cajoled her husband in Poltergeist, “Now just stand, okay? Now, just be calm. Okay. Now reach back into our past when you used to have an open mind. Remember that? Okay. Just try to use that for the next couple of minutes. Okay?”

And we’ll regret that loutish producers didn’t know what to do with actresses who had that otherworldly aura, spiritual oomph like Ann Harding and Evelyn Venable nor did they assign writers to come up with stories about our search for meaning, a topic hot among The Folks only in dire times (see The Razor’s Edge, 1944, i.e. during WWII).

* According to a study published in iScience, the number of Americans who read for pleasure every day has nosedived from 28 percent in 2004 to just 16 percent in 2023.

Extro: In her collection of reviews of movies from the early Sixties, The Private Eye, the Cowboy, and the Very Naked Girl: Movie from Cleo to Clyde, Judith Crist writes, "… we assuaged our guilt with the conviction that nothing in the outside world could provide the intellectual and emotional equivalent of Fredric March, his holiday over, enfolding Rochelle Hudson in his Death's cape …." Memory problems are understandable since Crist had seen the movie reviewed here 30 years before, when she was only 12 years old.  Plus, Hudson and Venable are easily confused, both young, brunette, and both known for their fresh-faced looks and a gentle presence that become unfashionable in lead actresses and stars as the Thirties went by.

The Ides of Perry Mason 96

Note: Before the Perry Mason TV series, in almost all his movies Raymond Burr played an outlaw. With his heavyset stature, deep commanding voice and expressive eyes, he was the brightest light in forgotten film noir outings such as Walk a Crooked Mile (1948), FBI Girl (1951), They Were So Young (1954), and A Cry in the Night (1956). This movie too - worth it but forgotten. 

The Whip Hand
1951 / 1:29
Tagline: “Foreign Scientist Spies in Vast Germ-Murder Plot!”
[internet archive]

The film opens with a blunt ideological hammer stroke: Kremlin apparatchiks, speaking in grating, caricatured Russian, plot the downfall of America. It’s a Cold War nightmare, rendered with the kind of paranoia that turns Winnoga, Wisconsin - a town whose very name evokes a simpler pastoral Land of the Free - into a focus of realpolitik dread. The choice of setting is no accident; it’s a deliberate inversion of the heartland mythos, a place where the soil is poisoned not by foreign agents but by the complicity of its own citizens.

Enter Elliott Reid, a journalist on a fishing vacation, whose arrival in Winnoga fulfills Tolstoy’s dictum that all stories are either about a journey or a stranger’s arrival. Reid is the latter, and his presence is met with the kind of guarded hostility that suggests not just small-town insularity but something more sinister. The lake, once teeming with trout, is now dead - an ecological mystery that doubles as a metaphor for the moral rot beneath the town’s surface.

Reid’s investigation leads him to Mr. Peterson, a landowner whose opportunism - buying up property after the fish die-off marks him as a man not in simpatico with the rhythms of big nature and cozy community. The townspeople’s evasions, their forced laughter, and their long, appraising stares evoke a kind of Midwestern noir, where the menace is not in shadowy alleyways but in the bright daylight of Main Street.

Raymond Burr plays a hotelier whose joviality is so forced it curdles into menace. His laugh is a performance within a performance, a signal to the audience that the town’s surface charm is a mask for something darker. His henchmen - Peter Brocco’s rodent-like presence and Michael Steele’s Aryan brutality - are less characters than archetypes, personifications of a violence that is both personal and political.

The cinematography captures the piney woods and sandy soil with a documentary-like authenticity, but the close-ups - tight, accusatory - render familiar American faces as foreign, uncanny. It’s a visual strategy that suggests to the movie-goer that the threat is not external but, like contaminants in soil, filth in drinking water, already existing in the nation itself.

The film’s thematic core - biomedical experimentation on unwilling subjects - echoes the darkest chapters of 20th-century science, such as the Tuskegee syphilis study, CIA mind-control programs like MKUltra, and human radiation experiments conducted by government agencies. It’s a narrative that brushes against the ethical abyss, evoking the unease of Oliver Sacks’s Awakenings and the moral inquiries of Deborah Blum’s Ghost Hunters. The horror here is not supernatural but systemic, a reminder that the machinery of progress often runs on the bodies of the powerless.

Critics may dismiss the film as melodramatic, but its sincerity - its willingness to confront the moral compromises of Cold War America - renders it a document of its time. It’s a film that doesn’t just entertain; it indicts, implicates, and ultimately unsettles.

As for the connection with the Perry Mason TV series, Carla Belenda went back to her birth name Sally Bliss by the time she was cast in TCOT Playboy Pugilist. Lurene Tuttle, Burr’s distant and cold mother, was the defendant no fewer than six times in TCOT Substitute Face, TCOT Artful Dodger, TCOT Loquacious Liar, TCOT Shoplifter's Shoe (with Margaret O’Brien and Len Nimoy), TCOT Grinning Gorilla and TCOT Avenging Angel.

Pre-Mason Raymond 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]
Pitfall (1948) [internet archive] [my review]
Walk a Crooked Mile (1948) [internet archive] [my review]
Raw Deal (1948) [internet archive] [my review]
Station West (1948) [my review]
Red Light (1949) [internet archive] [my review]
Abandoned (1949) [internet archive] [my review]
Borderline (1950) [internet archive] [my review]
Unmasked (1950) [internet archive] [my review]
The Whip Hand (1951) [internet archive] [my review]

Everybody is Under Suspicion

Note: Gail Patrick moved beyond ingenue parts when she played Cornelia the mean (albeit breathtaking) sister in My Man Godrey. After 60 or so parts, often as the bad girl, retirement from acting drove her batty. With her husband, Gail Patrick Jackson she formed the company that produced from 1957 to 1966 the greatest courtroom TV series in the history of Creation. She was the soul of the series, said Raymond Burr. One wonders if it was due to Jackson that the writers so often returned to serious themes such as the long row women have to hoe in a world ridden by the lust, anger and greed of men; friction between the social classes; sharp practices in the business world; the dark side of the entertainment industry; and the harsh treatment of vulnerable groups.

Wives under Suspicion
1938 / 1:09 minutes
Tagline: “…THAT JEALOUSY feeds strongest on the heart of a wise man!”
[internet archive]

In this gritty courtroom drama set in a large, unnamed city, a district attorney becomes consumed by his role as a prosecutor, taking disturbing pride in sending convicted murderers to the electric chair. His desktop features a macabre abacus made of skull-shaped beads, tallying the lives he's ended - a detail that unsettles both his secretary and his wife, who fear he’s lost touch with his humanity.

Despite promising his wife a long-overdue vacation, the DA is drawn back into work when a distraught college professor is brought in for questioning. In the pre-Miranda era, the professor is interrogated without legal counsel, and the DA coerces a confession to the murder of the man’s unfaithful wife. The DA’s cold mockery of the professor’s emotional breakdown reveals a chilling lack of empathy, especially given his disdain for an educated man succumbing to mindless violence.

During the trial, the DA’s wife pointedly remarks that he’s treating the proceedings like a “Roman Holiday”—a spectacle enjoyed at the expense of someone else’s suffering. This comment sparks a slow realization in the DA: he and the professor are not so different. The film ultimately suggests that justice must be tempered with empathy.

The opening sequence features a haunting look at the electric chair’s machinery - mid-century technology rendered terrifying through close-ups of switches and turbines. Surprisingly, the film’s visual style is restrained, especially considering it was directed by James Whale, known for the iconic sets of Frankenstein.

Warren William delivers a compelling performance as the DA, balancing dedication with arrogance and cruelty. His shift toward compassion feels slightly stiff, though it’s unclear whether that’s a flaw in the acting or the character’s emotional repression. Gail Patrick stands out with her poised presence and a particularly powerful scene reacting to the professor’s recorded confession. Ralph Morgan plays the stereotypical absent-minded academic, while Lillian “Billy” Yarbo provides comic relief as a maid - a role steeped in racial tropes but given a rare moment of agency.

Though critics at the time have dismissed the film as melodramatic and moralistic, it offers a sincere attempt to entertain and provoke thought. Its message - that justice should be guided by fairness and mercy - is one worth hearing, especially in a system where conviction often overshadows compassion.

Other Gail Patrick Movies: Click on the title to go to 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
·         My Man Godrey
·         Murder by Pictures
·         Artists and Models
·         King of Alcatraz
·         Wives Under Suspicion

The Nones of Perry Mason 95

Note: Who to cast as Donald Lam? Cagney - too pugnacious, not smart enough. William Powell - too old. Alan Ladd - too young. Dick Powell -  perfect in his 30s, yes, but older, no. As Bertha Cool? Marie Dressler had a commanding presence, but too matronly. Thelma Ritter - too small. Lucille Ball - only after 1960, hard to picture her smacking somebody, but possibly.... Geraldine Wall in her 40s - about perfect.

Give 'em the Ax - A. A. Fair aka Erle Stanley Gardner

In this 1944 mystery Donald Lam returns Stateside from duty in the Pacific. The hardcore reader trusts the Navy got a lot of milage out of Lam’s sharp legal mind – which got him disbarred when he talked too much to a gangster about how to get away with murder. Suffering from malaria sequelae, he's been discharged from Navy Intelligence with symptoms such as decreased appetite and unpredictable onsets of sudden fatigue. The sharp legal mind is subject to brain fog like memory problems, difficulty focusing, and slower less efficient processing.

He finds in a precarious state the detective agency that before Pearl Harbor he ran with partner Bertha Cool. Cool and Lam had attracted complex cases with serious money, headlines, and the enmity of the cops involved. But after Lam’s deployment, business fell back to the penny-ante insurance and cheating spouse stuff, though the professional animosity from Sgt Sellars of the authorities continued. Paradoxically, Sgt Sellars has a thing for Bertha because she is what he looks for in a woman: tough and practical.

And that’s Bertha’s problem when she’s client-facing. Bad-tempered Bertha is smarmy when she attempts charm. Her obvious faking of care and concern turns potential clients off. The office manager Elsie Brand, target of Bertha’s acting out, tells Lam that the only reason she stayed on was to try to hold the business together. Another reason is that Elsie is in love with Lam. Manipulative monster Lam pretends not to know her feelings for him though it would a tough lift to find somebody as loyal, smart, and kind as Elsie, an ideal Gardnerian woman like Della Street.

Lam is a client-pleaser because he’s such a good listener. So on his first day of popping into the office, a new case comes their way. It’s hardly a lulu. Admitting to being a home-wrecker, a woman wants a private detective agency to get something on her boss’ new wife. The woman says she and the boss were very “close,” but when she returned from a long vacation, the boss, pining and bereft, married a woman he had met when the two had a car accident together. Angry and hurt, the woman wants the goods on the new wife. Ho-hum, nothing to get excited about here.

Eager to get back in the saddle, Lam luckily finds the wife in the Rimley Rendezvous. This is a nightclub that has tapped the afternoon market of bored married women who are looking for afternoon delight. The operator of the club, a hard case named HJH, recognizes Lam and throws him out since a PI on the cheating side of town is “as welcome as smallpox on an ocean liner.”

Pressed to time, Donald calls Bertha. He describes the owner and tells Bertha to tail him when he leaves the club. The tail job ends in an auto accident, which will be followed by an ax murder. Lam finds himself involved with a cigarette girl with legs up to here, who's way close to the murder.

Highly recommended.

The Kalends of Perry Mason 94

Note: Sure, everybody wants an honest, loyal and efficient lawyer that will fight like the devil when the going gets rough. But even more, everybody wants a supporter, an advocate who knows their weaknesses and understands their messed-up choices but pleads their case eloquently and shrewdly anyway.

The Case of the Negligent Nymph – Erle Stanley Gardner

This 1959 mystery starts with the usual working girl – pretty, naturally; full of moxie, certainly – needing super-lawyer Perry Mason when she finds herself in a jam. Perry is in a canoe scoping out a millionaire’s island on behalf of a client in a real estate case. The naked nymph, pursued by a savage dobie, swims up to the canoe so Perry saves her and takes her to her own battered yacht.

The next day Perry finds out that the game and canny beauty he rescued is wanted by the cops on suspicion of stealing $50K worth of gems from the millionaire’s island mansion. She is apprehended and bound over for trial for grand theft. In an exciting courtroom scene, Perry sets off legal fireworks during a cross-examination and gets her bail whittled down to a manageable $2,500.

Things start looking up for the accused, but, self-reliant to a fault, she makes errors in judgment, the worst of which are not following Perry’s legal advice and then lying to him. Perry ends up defending her on the inevitable murder charge.

He finds his back up against the proverbial wall yet again since he faces as many legal woes as his client does if he doesn’t find out the truth. Perry kicks himself for letting impulse rule him and helping the fibbing brat in the first place, but he defends her with all he’s got. Perry acknowledges his own fallibility and is thus compassionate about the short-comings of others.

Usual. Of course. Inevitable.

Why return again and again to the Perry Mason stories that invariably feature damsels in distress, the powerful exploiting the vulnerable, and the cunning and resourceful hero who combines wise tactics and swift action to exonerate the innocent? Because these irresistible elements, the essentials of heroic myth and folktales, exert a magical appeal over our senses of fairness and courage, shared senses that come easily to us because we are human beings hard-wired with the same nature.

European Reading Challenge #9

The Generation of 1914 - Robert Wohl

This intellectual history was released in 1979, four years after the seminal book The Great War and Modern Memory (Paul Fussell) influenced historians to examine the idea that what people think happened was just as interesting as what really happened. Wohl explores the intellectual and cultural landscape of Europe before, during and after World War I. To study what young educated men regarded as “generations,” Wohl delves into the thoughts and writing of the intelligentsia who came of age during the tumultuous period running up the WWI, focusing on the middle-class elite of five European countries: France Germany, England, Spain, and Italy.

Readers like me who are not so up on European history in the 19^th century will appreciate Wohl's comprehensive approach. He examines briefly the events and how each country’s unique experiences shaped its intellectual climate. For instance, in the example most familiar to us hardcore readers because of Fussell’s book, in England, the concept of the "lost generation" emerged due to the significant losses suffered by the British upper class during the war who happened to be literary guys like Robert Graves, Edmund Blunden, and Wilfred Owen. In contrast, Germany's war generation became a driving force on the political right, emphasizing the supposedly “moral” strength gained through the hardships of the trenches. I had no idea that the war had damaged Ernst Jünger so severely as to drive him to such wrong conclusions about human nature, democracy, and the Weimar Republic.

The book is structured around separate chapters for each country, allowing Wohl to highlight the distinct generational concepts that developed in each culture. Wohl's use of primary sources, including novels, journalism, autobiographies, and political speeches, adds depth to his analysis. He skillfully connects these personal and collective experiences to broader historical trends, such as the rise of Communism and Fascism, and the decline of liberal and humanitarian values.

One of the book's strengths is Wohl’s decision to disregard the definition of a generation, in favor of analyzing what the figures such as Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset thought was a generation. Wohl is careful to point out that the thinkers themselves were well aware of the logical problems with defining what a generation is. Translating theoretical constructs like "generation" into specific variables or factors that can be studied in quantifiable research is a challenging intellectual task, for example, needing the statistical tools of sociology. Wohl captures the sense of disillusionment and sheer confusion that characterized the generation of 1914, making the book both an intellectual history and a poignant human story.

Overall, this is an engrossing study that offers valuable insights into the minds of young, more or less educated or well-read men who lived through one of the most transformative periods in modern history. Serious students of European history will get much from this book, even if they think that terms like ‘generation z,’ ‘boomers,’ and ‘millennials’ are the worst kinds of pseudoscientific horseshit.

Happy Birthday Marcia Muller

Wolf in the Shadows - Marcia Muller

A reader with some pretentions to taste would expect, after a dozen installments in a series, to hear the gears grinding in the thirteenth in a series. But not at all in this case because Sharon McCone, the baddest female PI in San Francisco, learns, grows, and changes from book to book.

This 1993 mystery deals with the issues of immigration and dolphin-protecting environmentalists. With her bosses going all corporate on her and pressuring her to accept sitting at desk and moving papers around, she proves herself to be the Coolest Toughest Girlfriend Ever and works on finding her missing boyfriend Hy Ripinsky who has gone missing.

As usual, the characterizations, even of the secondary characters, are very finely drawn, as are the settings. Nothing mars the elaborate plot but a couple of melodramatic scenes. Worth reading. 

Pre-Mason Raymond Burr 6/6

Note: September 21, 1957 was the date of the first episode of the classic Perry Mason TV series. So this past week we celebrated Raymond Burr’s performances in film noir. Burr built up quite a reputation playing movie villains in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Probably to stay sane and pay the rent, Burr took roles in comedies, too. In Casonova's Big Night (1954), he played Minister Bragadin, a minister in service to the Doge. I’ll watch Brother Ray in westerns if the first 10 minutes are tolerable, but I draw the line at Bob Hope’s silly goldang costume pictures, in beautiful Technicolor or not. 

Unmasked
1950 / 1:00
Tagline: “Smeared by Scandal that led to MURDER!”
[internet archive]

Raymond Burr puts in a turn as an unscrupulous publisher of a scandal sheet. A stoolie analyzes him, “You kinda like to hate in bunches, doncha.” The publisher murders a guy’s wife and then frames the guy.

This was produced by Republic whose competitive advantage was its ability to churn out slick movies to fill out the bottom of bills in the theaters. Clocking in at only 60 minutes, this movie does not have the time to feature well-rounded characters. The crime story script is fast-moving, full of chase and duplicity, with a twist that came out of the blue for me.

Burr, a true professional, puts in a very good account of himself, as he did in the many so-so movies where he played the beast that somehow learned to walk and talk among us humans. Despite the precisely tailored pinstripe suits, bulky Burr seems to loom just sitting behind his desk even without arty camera work. Imposing, menacing, but somehow graceful like the Graf Zeppelin at the end of a tether. When he ponders his next move into blackmail and murder, he seems to withdraw from our common mundane plane to a dark place where moral judgement no longer exists. That is, he makes his face toddler-like in its guile-free mercilessness so that on seeing it the parent or pet parent or movie-goer knows for all his seeming innocence, he’s cooking up nothing good.

This solid B picture also stars Robert Rockwell, who was to appear in the original Perry Mason series five times. Like Denver Pyle, Rockwell is another actor with a solid career with high points to be proud of, totally right that a handful of us fans remember.

Pre-Mason Raymond 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]
Pitfall (1948) [internet archive] [my review]
Walk a Crooked Mile (1948) [internet archive] [my review]
Raw Deal (1948) [internet archive] [my review]
Station West (1948) [my review]
Red Light (1949) [internet archive] [my review]
Abandoned (1949) [internet archive] [my review]
Borderline (1950) [internet archive] [my review]
Unmasked (1950) [internet archive] [my review]