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 week we celebrate 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.