Note: In the first couple of seasons (1957-58-59), the classic Perry Mason had the cool look of film noir. Granted, Raymond Burr in the title role tends to talk rapidly, lots of actors get into hambone territory, and the stories are complicated. As time passed, the stories never become more streamlined or comprehensible. From 1960 on, the plots tended to be ripped from the headlines of the day, which dates the show: ESP, JD's, open wheel race cars, corporate espionage, folk music and beatniks. By the 7th season, many of the story lines and scripts were lame compared to earlier seasons. Exhausted Raymond Burr remarked that the show should have ended after the 5th season. Gutsy, considering that he was making a million a season, amazing money for those days - William Tallman as Hamilton Burger was making only $65K.
The Best of Season 7 (1963-64)
The Case of the Nebulous Nephew. Season 7 was kicked off with this incredible episode. Two heartless scamsters aim to con two harmless old ladies. But after living with the two women for a little while, one fraud becomes fond of them and argues for abandoning the nefarious plan. But his henchman (scoundrel Hugh Marlowe of course) objects and ends up murdered. Besides the stellar acting, the long set-up is without a wasted scene or line. The writers make points about staying in touch with your values, feeling family loyalty, acting as a faithful retainer, undergoing wartime deployment and its effect on romance, and using love and faith as guides to belief, despite having little evidence. Up there with TCOT Perjured Parrot and TCOT Nine Dolls, this may be my favorite episode ever.
The Case of the Deadly Verdict. Janice Barton has played the part of the society party girl to the hilt. Her madcap antics have ended up in the death of a boyfriend who fell from the balcony of an Italian guest house and the partial paralysis of her sister in a car wreck. Now Janice was caught in a lie by DA Hamilton Burger and refuses to tell her lawyer Perry Mason the whole truth. So she has been convicted of murder and sentenced to die in the gas chamber. Perry and Paul pull out the stops to exonerate her. This is a somber, quiet episode with plenty of Hitchcockian moments. Perry broods and in a rare-as-hen's-teeth moment of losing his signature unflappability he throws a medicine ball into a lout’s gut. All the acting is exceptional in this episode, especially videogenic Julie Adams as the troubled accused.
The Case of the Nervous Neighbor. Charles Fuller (Richard Rust) hires the Paul Drake investigation agency to locate his missing mother, Alice Fuller Bradley (Shelia Bromley). Paul’s operatives locate her in an assisted care facility. She is suffering from amnesia, which for once has a reasonable explanation: she sustained a traumatic brain injury and in an unconscious state killed her husband with a fireplace poker. So the first court room scene is Burger waiving prosecution, sympathetic to the case of the accused. However, after the trial the son acts in an ill-considered way that leads to his mother ending up accused of killing a smarmy operator played by, in a bold casting decision, Paul Winchell (Jerry Mahoney puts in no appearance – a mercy). William Talman’s DA Burger tears Richard Rust’s character to shreds in a great interrogation scene. Francis X. Bushman puts in a funny cameo as a nursing home Romeo and ever reliable Les Tremayne pops up too. All the actresses - Katherine Squire (the nurse) and Jeanne Cooper (of The Young and Restless fame) – put in great performances. And the tone, look and ending are as Hitchcockian as we’ll ever enjoy in the series. In my Top Five Fave Episodes.
Honorable Mention: TCOT Shifty Shoebox features the incredible Constance Ford, and overall the acting is quite good in this plausible story of adults have genuine grown-up problems. TCOT Drowsy Mosquito takes Perry and the Gang out of LA and features Arthur Hunnicutt in the crusty prospector role that he owned in scores of TV westerns and Strother Martin as a small-town main-chancer.
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