Gary Collins, and The Fatal Fetish Again

Gah. So I learned that Gary Collins died yesterday. That was a saddening shock. I was already planning to spotlight The Fatal Fetish today for the paranormal themes, but that clinched it. Rest in peace, Gary. You are loved and already missed.

(Also, I’m wondering if I should add The Garrulous Go-Between to my list of episodes to spotlight, since there’s fortune-telling and a séance involved in it, among other things. I haven’t watched it for a long time, so I’d need to see it again before I’d spotlight it. If added, chronologically it would need to be the one today. So it will be out of order. Maybe, since I wanted a post on Halloween, and that's a Wednesday, I could have a post then as well as one the next day, on Thursday.)

Gary Collins plays in two Perry episodes, and if I were spotlighting very dark and disturbing episodes as well as ones with paranormal themes, his other episode would make the Halloween viewing list too. While Gary plays the murderer in that second one, The Crafty Kidnapper, in The Fatal Fetish his role is completely different. Larry Germaine is, of course, one of Hamilton's must trusted assistant district attorneys.

As the devoted son of Mignon Germaine, who knows exactly what Gary's Larry character was exposed to while growing up. Mignon is an entertainer, canonically a cultural dancer, and her current act, at least, involves a vodun ritual and a voodoo doll.

Does Mignon really believe in the religion or is she just a performer? That is never really explained, but it’s certainly implied that she believes. She discusses magic noir with Hamilton, to which he scoffs. She tells him it’s no joke, although it’s possible she’s just being playful.

The voodoo doll from the show is kept in her dressing room. As soon as she hears from Agnes Fanchon that Carina Wileen, who has been leading Larry down a path to destruction, is in the audience, she goes for the doll.

She debuts it in a new form during the dinner show that night. Instead of dropping it in the urn as the script directs, she walks very deliberately to Carina’s ringside table and drops it there. It now has blonde hair and a white dress, like Carina. Stone serious, Mignon runs it through with the dagger, pinning it to the table. Around her, the music has stopped and everyone is watching, bewildered.

Carina knows its meaning, after Mignon told her she would do anything to keep Larry safe from her. But she isn’t afraid of this method. She drunkenly cackles as she rises from the table, intending to walk away. Instead she sways, suddenly having a pain in her side. And as everyone watches in astonishment, she collapses to the floor. Standing by, Mignon does not look surprised. A faint smirk of satisfaction plays at her lips.

The cinematography for the scene is very well-done, making it extremely eerie. As the music winds to its climax, scenes are shown in rapid succession of Carina lying on the floor and a close-up of the stabbed doll, before the scene fades out.

Paul is about as skeptical as Hamilton. At the hospital, when it’s revealed that Carina is being poisoned, he mutters disparagingly about aspects of vodun and wonders if he should take a “non-stop broomstick to Haiti” when Perry wants him to research it. Amused, Perry advises him to take more conventional transportation to a local museum and speak with an expert on the subject.

The “expert” most likely isn’t an expert in reality, as he gives Paul some misleading information along the way. He does admit that it’s a complicated mixture of various things, but he (and Mignon too, actually) still makes it sound as though vodun always involves black magic and wanting to hurt people. It’s a stereotypical Hollywoodized notion, so I don’t really blame writer Samuel Newman for going that path. But in actuality, it’s only renegade vodun sorcerers who practice black magic. The majority of the sorcerers work with white magic and helping people. Voodoo dolls aren’t even supposed to be used to hurt people. They’re often given for good luck.

Paul seems particularly repulsed or weirded out by the idea of snake worship, so it’s a safe bet that he probably hates snakes. Some information is given on the snake god—that its origin is the serpent in the Garden of Eden—to which Paul is further in disbelief. I am trying to research that point, but so far I have not found any corroboration. I imagine it’s possible that snake gods in all or many religions could stem from that, but in any case, this snake god is benevolent. Which is certainly a point no one seems anxious to make here.

Aside from simply dismissing all of the misinformation as bad writing, there is at least another explanation for Mignon using the doll in the stereotypical way. She’s a desperate mother, worried about her son. She might be willing to try anything, as she threatened. Alternately, whether or not she’s actually a follower of the religion, she might have only wanted to give Carina a warning or a threat, instead of thinking the doll would really do something. Her lack of surprise at the collapse, however, certainly suggests that she believed something would happen. Gah, it must have been so horrible for her when Larry ended up accused of Carina’s eventual murder and the real murderer said he got the idea to do it when he saw Mignon stab the doll!

After Paul does his interview, the eerie elements are mostly dropped in favor of investigating the strange goings-on at the Allied Pharmaceutical Company. There is a mysterious scene when he goes to New Orleans to find Mignon, but nothing creepy really happens beyond the tribal drum-type music in the background.

In the epilogue, everyone gathers to watch Mignon and Agnes perform in the dinner show again. Agnes then changes the script by smiling and throwing the doll to Larry, who catches it with a grin. Paul comments, “Uhoh. Here we go again.”

In spite of misinformation, and the paranormal not being responsible for what happened, the scene where Carina collapses is still eerie. And I suppose that it was subconscious power of suggestion when she saw the dagger, but still, to get the pain and fall right after that is chilling. Particularly with the succeeding close-up of the doll.

Assistant District Attorneys and Mr. Burger's Interaction with Them

(I’m late! I’m late! I’m late for an important date!

I apologize; I may be a bit delayed in getting up all the blog posts this month. These June writing prompts are taking up more of my time than the other theme sets I wrote for the 31 Days community. Plus I have work and some other Perry-related projects, the latter of which I may talk about later. Hopefully I won’t be so delayed that I’ll post here on the wrong days.)

Ah, the assistant district attorney. It’s an office we see quite a lot of on Perry, particularly at the last of season 3 and throughout a great deal of season 4. (And in season 2’s The Stuttering Bishop, as an unplanned venture when William Talman had laryngitis.) And we’ve probably only seen a drop in the bucket of the sheer number available; the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has over a thousand of them.

It’s a bit curious that we don’t often see Hamilton interact with these vital members of his staff (aside from the silent communications between them whenever Hamilton is in court and has one in tow). Of course, the main times they have speaking roles are when he is not around, but there are still cases where they and he appear in the same episodes and all speak.

I’m still trying to remember if Hanley from episode 19, The Haunted Husband, is an assistant D.A. or an investigator. In either case, that is probably the first time we ever see Hamilton converse at length with someone from his office. In the uncut version of the episode Hanley even has a scene of his own, as he questions the girl survivor of a car wreck.

A good example of Hamilton’s character development is in his handling of the assistant district attorneys. While he is very mature and sobered with Hanley (whoever he is) in The Haunted Husband, Hamilton in the early episodes certainly has a tendency to be more impulsive, blurt out things he probably shouldn’t, and generally display how young he is at the time. His behavior in the scene with Hanley (and many other scenes) is an intriguing contrast, another side of his personality. Certainly, everyone has many facets.

As the seasons pass, however, Hamilton reflects this. In the later episodes, he is by and large older and wiser. The more mature side of his personality is more prominent than his outbursts. And, no longer as rash as he once was, he counsels those around him who are.

Larry Germaine in The Fatal Fetish is definitely a prime example. Youthful and impetuous, Larry digs himself into a deep mess with the femme fatale Carina Wileen. Hamilton sees what Larry doesn’t and tries to get to the bottom of what’s going on. Larry snaps at him, much as a young boy might do with someone older than he if he feels the counsel is unneeded and unwanted. Hamilton is clearly stunned and hurt by this. He later tells Mignon that he’s worrying about Larry. And when Larry loses his temper and tries to grab Neil Howard, another attorney, Hamilton has to physically pull him back.

The full extent of Hamilton’s concern for Larry is unknown, but considering his canonical admittance that he and Mignon are close friends, it seems likely that Hamilton could have also known Larry quite well even before he joined the D.A.’s office. I certainly believe that Hamilton’s association with him goes deeper than just that Larry works under him. But I’m also sure that Hamilton is concerned for every one of his assistants and that, were any of them to get themselves in the same kind of mess, Hamilton would be just as involved in trying to help them as he was with Larry.

One of Hamilton’s assistants also plays an extended and unique role in season 9’s The Impetuous Imp, a remake of season 1’s The Negligent Nymph. While I’m a bit unsure what to make of the episode overall, I am fascinated by the rarely seen angle of what Hamilton does when one of his assistants has the reins. I’m even more fascinated since it’s really just a subplot and doesn’t directly connect to the main plot (save for the assistant’s impulsiveness in court and his seeming reluctance to let Perry investigate the murder scene until he’s done looking it over himself). Hamilton and his assistant have a whole subplot?! Oh yes!

Hamilton and the young assistant, Bill Vincent, seem to be on quite friendly terms with each other. Showing how congenial Hamilton can be, he even brings the kid along to Clay’s for lunch with Perry and Steve. This is following a robbery hearing at which Bill lost to Perry. They have a very interesting scene where Hamilton good-naturedly tells Bill he should never let Perry talk him into stipulating anything. He describes some of Perry’s methods, still calmly and peaceably, and Perry, Steve, and Clay all join in the conversation. It’s a very nice, relaxed, and friendly scene.

Hamilton supports Bill in his decisions concerning the murder room, once the murder happens. And he is willing to let Bill do as he feels best; under the circumstances Hamilton doesn’t feel that Bill is doing wrong.

But he is not blindly accepting of everything his assistants do, either. That was shown with Larry Germaine and again here, when Hamilton interrupts the preliminary hearing with new information just as Bill is acting out badly in court. Hamilton all but apologizes for him and says that he is taking over the case due to the new information he’s found. It is quite possibly also because he realizes that Bill isn’t ready for these responsibilities yet and that he needs to take over before Bill further embarrasses himself or the D.A.’s office by his upholding of a situation that could be seen as an obstruction.

I have to say, I wish Bill had returned in other episodes. He could have been a wonderful gateway into the goings-on at the district attorney’s office and towards seeing more of this side of Hamilton’s personality. He was so prominently featured that I found myself wondering whether he was the murderer (he wasn’t) or if he was a character they were bringing in to test for a spin-off (who knows). If he was just meant to be there as an interesting twist, they succeeded. And they impressed me for taking that path on a series so often focusing mainly on the defense team.

Hamilton also interacts with an assistant D.A. later in season 9, in The Golfer’s Gambit. When he needs to testify to a phone call in court, he has the assistant take over and question him. From what I recall, the assistant looked a bit nervous or apprehensive. I would have liked to have seen them converse a bit at some other point in the episode (and for that matter, for Hamilton’s whole testimony scene to have been handled better; see my post on that episode for those comments).

Those are the only times I can think of when Hamilton had any kind of extensive scenes with his assistants. I would have liked to have seen him handle the insufferable Sampson from season 4. I wonder a bit if Hamilton did talk to him, off-screen, since in Sampson’s third and final appearance he is more subdued.

The case of the characters' ages

I was originally going to do another episode-centric post, on The Bogus Buccaneers (a rather unremarkable episode save for one scene where Della and another woman are abducted), but then I decided maybe it would be better to try something different.

How old are the characters? Are their ages meant to be contemporary with their actors’? Or are they supposed to be younger?

I’ve been pondering and puzzling over it for some time. For the most part, I would imagine that Yes, their ages are more or less the same as their actors’. Perhaps a few years younger. There’s never any real indication, however.

In one episode, Perry asks Della if she would like to pose as the wife of a handsome man about forty. The initial implication, I believe, is that the audience is supposed to believe he’s talking about himself. He isn’t, but that still stands as the only (and very shaky) clue to his age.

The cast was mostly in their early forties when they begun their nine years as our beloved characters, save for Barbara Hale, who was in her mid thirties, and Ray Collins, who was in his late sixties. And Lieutenant Tragg’s age is certainly the biggest mystery. Is he really supposed to be the same age as his actor? It’s a perplexity that’s left me scratching my head for months.

In season 4 he soberly tells a widow that he’s been on the police force almost 25 years, and telling someone about a loved one’s death never gets easier. If he joined the force at the earliest possible age, he would be somewhere in his forties in that season 4 episode. And that would put him contemporary with the other male cast, which … doesn’t sound quite right. Even though the book and radio character versions were around the same age as the others, it’s generally assumed that the TV show version is older.

Perhaps the only reason for that is because his actor was. But it makes sense. He seems older, more seasoned, than the rest of the characters, as though he’s experienced much more and over a longer period of time.

Now, suppose instead that he joined the police force in his thirties. Then he would be somewhere in his fifties—older than the rest and at a more believable age. To get him the same age as the actor, he would have joined the force in his forties. And that is possible. Apparently, even though each municipality has somewhat their own rules on age restrictions, in general you’re never too old to either become a police officer or stay a police officer, if you’ve graduated the police academy and passed all the physical fitness tests. After 25 years it seems you’re eligible for retiring from the force, but you don’t have to.

It makes me ponder again on Andy’s introduction. I wonder if the character was being groomed by Tragg to take his place, if he intended to retire. Andy first appeared in season 5, and although I don’t know if each season constitutes an approximate year for the characters, it could be thought of as such if one wanted. Perhaps Tragg was approaching 25 years with the force and wanted to retire. Or, if one would rather think that Tragg continued with the force, perhaps he was simply taking a younger policeman under his wing without any intention of having Andy take his place.

(When it comes to Andy's age, by the way, he has stated in season 8 that he's been on the force for 15 years. Supposing he joined at the earliest possible age, he would be around 36, which sounds reasonable. I always thought he was probably a few years younger than Perry, Paul, and Hamilton, as his actor is. Of course, perhaps he's a few years older than 36, but probably not by much. Wesley Lau, incidentally, was around 39 or 40 when he first played the character in season 5.)

In any case, Tragg’s age is a dilemma I’ve been wondering how to deal with in my stories. So far, I’ve never addressed it for lack of needing to and lack of knowing how to do so. I think I’ve always pictured him as being in his fifties. But since it would be technically possible for him to be closer in age to his actor, I might change my mind.

The others I’ve mostly kept contemporary with their actors’ ages, with a slight adjustment here and there. Hamilton and Mignon, for instance, I’ve depicted as closer to two years apart instead of the eight years between their actors.

I had to determine an entire timeline for them while writing The Broken Ties, and moreso for my series of vignettes for February. The main factor determining it was Mignon’s son Larry’s age. Once Hamilton told Paul he had known Mignon since before Larry was born (and that Hamilton had been around college age at the time), I had to work accordingly with that. I ended up placing Larry’s age between 25 and 26 (or 27), taking into my calculations him finishing college and law school before getting into the D.A.’s office. Then I added a year or so to how long he had been there.

With Larry’s age in mind, I juggled the timeline around until it came out with Hamilton approximately 47 by the present day and Mignon approximately 49. That satisfied me quite well.

And I find it amusing that, regardless of Tragg’s age, I kept picturing his wife Maureen looking like Meredith Baxter while writing The Broken Ties.

The Case of the Fatal Fetish

The Fatal Fetish, from season 8, is highly unique in several ways.

First, it, along with The Meddling Medium, are the only episodes I know of where anything supernatural is touched upon at all. Even though a logical explanation is eventually presented, for a while the audience is seemingly led to believe (or at least consider) that something spooky is afoot. The Meddling Medium deals with psychics and automatic writing; The Fatal Fetish, with voodoo.

More importantly, The Fatal Fetish also shows us a great deal of Hamilton and his office’s work. One of his assistants, Larry Germaine, is central to the plot. Larry has gotten himself into quite a terrible mess. Despite being an excellent assistant D.A., he is not so lucky in the women department. The one he has been seeing, Carina Wileen, is up to no good. Everyone around him can see that, including Hamilton and Larry’s mother Mignon. Larry, unfortunately, is oblivious.

Mignon is the other very unique element of this episode. She was the legendary Fay Wray’s third and final Perry character, and my favorite. Aloof and no-nonsense, she refuses to stand by and see Larry take the fall that’s unavoidably encroaching upon him. The episode opens as she confronts Carina and pleads with her to leave Larry alone. Larry’s well-being is the most important thing to her, she states, and she will do anything for him. But even though Mignon knows Carina is poison, she does not realize just how devious the younger woman is.

Mignon is seemingly a believer in vodun. She performs in a floorshow depicting some sort of vodun ritual. The doll from the show is otherwise kept in her dressing room. This becomes important later.

Mignon has the distinction of being one of a handful of oneshot friends of Hamilton’s (and the only woman among them, unless we consider the girl he danced with in The Golfer’s Gambit). By Hamilton’s own admission, he and Mignon have been good friends for a long time. They make an interesting contrast, particularly when discussing voodoo dolls and black magic, which Hamilton thinks is utterly ridiculous.

Hamilton’s genuine caring and concern for both Mignon and Larry comes through loud and clear. Worried over Larry’s involvement with Carina, he tries to talk to Larry about it. Instead, Larry snaps at him, ice in every word. Hamilton, first visibly shocked and then just as clearly hurt, lets him leave. There can’t be any reasoning with Larry in his state.

Immediately Hamilton has a reservation made for him at the nightclub where Mignon performs. After watching the dinner show, he goes with Mignon to her dressing room. His purpose is to talk with her about Larry, but he’s having trouble gathering the right words. He hates to bring up something that will hurt her, yet he knows he must. Mignon opens the door for him by deducing his reason for coming. During the conversation Hamilton expresses his regret that, while Larry has done excellent work for the D.A.’s office, Hamilton may have to fire him. Agonized, Mignon believes it’s because of Larry’s involvement with Carina. Hamilton tries to tell her that it’s because of something he isn’t doing.

The conversation is interrupted by Mignon’s fellow performer Agnes, who was apparently Larry’s close female friend before Carina entered the picture. She mistakes a bewildered Hamilton for Larry at first, but quickly realizes her error.

In addition to being friends with Hamilton, Mignon seems to have associated with Perry a good deal. After Carina’s intricate web frames Larry for soliciting a position in the law firm of the man who is defending a case Larry is handling, Hamilton has no choice but to suspend Larry until the matter can be investigated. Mignon calls Perry for help and notes that she’s aware that he’s been out of the office due to an unexplained accident. Unless the matter was publicized (which is possible), it seems the only other way Mignon would have knowledge of this would be if she had been in contact with Perry or Della—or if Hamilton recommended Perry for Larry but mentioned Perry’s accident.

For some unknown reason, Carina drops in at the nightclub that evening to see Mignon’s show. Furious, and probably desperate, by this point, Mignon takes the voodoo doll and dresses it like Carina. She then presents it to Carina and stabs it. It’s unclear whether Mignon is trying to threaten or scare her or if she genuinely believes that she can inflict harm by doing this. In any case, Carina gets up, laughing, and promptly collapses, clutching her side.

The rest of the episode follows the discovery that Carina was being poisoned, Larry’s fear that Mignon is responsible, and Carina’s eventual murder, for which Larry is accused. The solution involves unraveling the big case Larry was working on, as well as discovering the truth about what happened seven years ago in New Orleans when an explosion claimed the life of a company president.

Hamilton’s concern for the Germaines continues throughout the twisted plot. When Larry is stalling, waiving the hearing and insisting on defending himself at his trial, Hamilton scolds him for his foolishness. Later, when Larry is satisfied that Mignon did not have any involvement in Carina’s death, he wants to have a hearing after all—and for Perry to defend him. When Perry brings this news, Hamilton is excited and thrilled. Now, Hamilton hopes, Larry will have a better chance of being cleared and they can solve the mystery before the case ever has to go to trial.

Season 8 is a series of episodes that I have only seen a handful of recently. Hamilton seems quite friendly with Perry in the ones I’ve seen, particularly this one and The Ruinous Road. He acknowledges that he’s glad Perry could come when they all meet in the hospital following Carina’s mysterious collapse. He and Perry discuss the case, off-screen, and come up with a way to conduct the hearing that they hope will bring the truth to light. And at the end, Perry, Della, and Paul join Hamilton and Larry at the nightclub to watch Mignon and Agnes in their show.

Although of course Perry is vital to the episode, the spotlight really seems to be on Hamilton and the Germaines. This may have been on purpose, as I’ve heard that Raymond Burr was growing weary of the heavy workload and the writers tried to shift the focus to the other characters at times during the last seasons.

In any case, The Fatal Fetish is currently my favorite episode, tied with The Lovers’ Leap from season 6. Perhaps my next episode spotlight will be upon it. Any episode in which Hamilton and Perry team up is an instant favorite of mine, and this one has so many additional, intriguing elements. I love the glimpse into how Hamilton’s office is run and his close friendships with both Mignon and Larry.

The only real downside to the episode is the mistaken portrayal of voodoo/vodun as evil and dark. But that is not the writers’ fault, I’m sure; by then it was such a staple of Hollywood films and TV series to show it in such a way that the Perry writers likely didn’t bat an eye. As I’ve mentioned, I tried to soften the blow in my story The Macabre Mansion by having Mignon tell Hamilton a little about the true religion. When watching the episode, I cringe at the misrepresentation but love the story for all the good in it.