In Memoriam: William Hopper

And so we come to another March 6th, another anniversary of the date William Hopper tragically left us far too soon in 1970. Eerily enough, Erle Stanley Gardner died within the week of the same year and we lost two key figures in the shaping of Perry Mason.

William Hopper brought his immortal contributions to Perry when he showed up to do a screentest for Perry Mason himself. He definitely left an impression and ended up cast as our beloved Paul Drake. That was most certainly a wise choice. He brought so much heart and soul to our cast and the reunion movies feel so lonely without him.

I love when Paul gets a chance to be tough and show his stuff, since sometimes he's used as a comic relief character. One of my favorite scenes is in The Stand-In Sister, when he corners the escaped criminal by calmly and smoothly holding a gun on him at the top of the pier as he starts to climb up.

That season 6 episode also has the curious distinction of being the only one, I think, to actually have kind of a downer epilogue. Even if the courtroom scenes end rather grimly, the epilogue usually tries to cheer things up and end the episode on a happy note. In The Stand-In Sister, however, the epilogue has John Gregory talking to his criminal brother Stefan and wondering why he changed his mind and lied on the witness stand in Gregory's favor instead of telling all the things he threatened to that would make Gregory look horrible. Stefan growls that he has to be nice, since Gregory is holding all his money for him. Gregory, who had apparently hoped that there was some spark of brotherly affection as the reason, goes back over to Perry looking downcast and the episode ends. Um, ouch.

The only other episode I can think of that ends rather grim doesn't even fully count, as it's season 9's The Vanishing Victim and it only appears grim because the version usually shown on television cuts off the epilogue for some bizarre reason. In the televised version, it generally ends with Hamilton talking to the murderer and telling him that he has one more trip to take and this time he can't pass it off on someone else to take for him. The real ending is that silliness with Perry and Paul and the money Paul is charging for expenses that Perry decides to give to Steve for charity tickets without Paul's permission. I still wonder whether Paul is really charging unfairly and hence, Perry might be somewhat justified in his actions, or if Paul is being perfectly fair (aside from maybe nineteen cents, heh) and Perry is not being very nice to just give all of Paul's money away. I usually tend to lean more in Paul's favor, since Perry has unfairly taken money away from him in other episodes such as The Married Moonlighter, although I still wonder.

Paul has some interesting hobbies. Fishing seems to be a casual thing with him, judging by the fact that he fishes with Perry in season 5 yet doesn't seem to know a lot about where specific kinds of fish can be found in season 7. He seems to want to take up golfing, at least in season 9, as he wants those clubs in The Vanishing Victim and then the very next episode is The Golfer's Gambit and he's out practicing on the green. He's in excellent physical shape, as shown in The Carefree Coronary, and he likely works out and exercises to be in top form for the very physically demanding parts of his job.

Of course, Paul's favorite hobby, most likely, is dating. And admiring beautiful women. Several episodes have scenes with him getting distracted by women, and many more have him either on dates or talking about going on dates. Or, unfortunately, being pulled away from dates. But, always the loyal friend, he goes about doing whatever Perry wants done.

Paul is more skeptical than Perry. Many times he's certain that a client is guilty, or at least, is wary of their innocence. But he supports Perry anyway. And in The Angry Astronaut, when Paul brings the case to Perry, he says that he thinks the client is guilty but that he still deserves the best counsel. Paul can be a good judge of people at times, though, such as when he pegged Mark Chester as a weak-kneed slimeball in The Candy Queen.

All of the Perry characters are very human and three-dimensional. Paul is definitely not an exception. He can be funny. He can be serious. He makes good decisions and bad. And all in all, Perry Mason could never be the same without him. William Hopper is still very loved and missed.

William Hopper: Birthday Tribute

I need to come up with some more topics so I don't only update this blog on anniversaries. But regardless, we have the very special occasion of William Hopper's 101st birthday to celebrate!

I've been trying to think of something new I can say about our Paul Drake. As the long-suffering detective for Perry Mason, Paul often gets roped into doing all kinds of bizarre and sometimes slightly illegal things to further the cases and uncover the guilty parties. He goes undercover as a television repairman at least twice in order to search dwellings for important evidence. Other times he passes himself off as an insurance salesman or other random occupations.

Even though I don't accept the television movies as canon, I do find it interesting to muse on the contrasts between Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. Paul Jr. seems to be more of a detective cliche, falling back on lies and masquerades at every turn. Paul Sr. never likes doing anything off-the-wall or law-bending or breaking. Always worried about his license, Paul Sr. is determined to stay on the straight and narrow as much as possible . . . which isn't always as much as he would like when working for Perry Mason!

Sometimes Paul has to collect bizarre items, such as his long list of sugar, hay, horseshoes and other acquisitions as part of The Bashful Burro case or the flies in The Bogus Books. As only William Hopper can do, Paul reacts to some of these outlandish requests with appropriate shock and disbelief. "A couple of dozen flies?!" is a classic line with a priceless expression to match.

Perhaps the weirdest and most appalling things Perry asks Paul to do are the blatantly illegal ones. In one of the last episodes of the series, The Scarlet Scandal, Perry actually wants Paul to saw off part of a hollow pole in the park and bring it to court for a visual aid! When Paul expresses concern about going to jail for damaging county property, Perry simply says he'll have to take that chance. But for once Paul puts his foot down; he hands Perry the saw and says, "We'll have to take that chance." (I do have to wonder why the local law enforcement or the judge doesn't get on Perry's case for that little act of vandalism!)

Paul is a good and loyal friend, the most faithful Perry and Della could have. Although they generally tease and banter, The Carefree Coronary allows Perry and Della to really show how much Paul means to them and that they're definitely aware of how much Paul has done for them through the years. It's a rare look into their special friendship from a more serious point-of-view, one that I think was a long time overdue.

Paul loves the ladies, but always seems to have trouble dating them. Cases dominate his life and always seem to get in the way when he wants to have a social life. We don't ever seem to see the ladies getting frustrated about this, but it would certainly be understandable if they ever do. Paul definitely finds it discouraging. But always a trooper, he knows that work comes first and accepts that.

Paul also has the misfortune of being the only one in the main cast to get knocked out during the show's run, and not just once, but off and on throughout. Season 3's Paul Drake's Dilemma and season 7's The Ugly Duckling are just two of those painful moments. With Paul's dangerous occupation, it's understandable that it would happen sometimes, especially in classic television. Paul can be grateful he wasn't knocked out over fifty times, like fellow detective Joe Mannix!

Travel doesn't happen a whole lot on Perry, at least travel out of the state of California. Most of the time when it does, Paul is the one doing it. He's been to Mexico multiple times and New Orleans a couple of times. He's also visited Boston, Washington D.C., Florida, and other assorted locations. One of his most important and intense trips is to South America in The Deadly Verdict, a trip that directly brings about the solution of the case. It's doubtful whether he ever gets to take vacations; all of those trips were for work. On one occasion he comments that the idea of a vacation must just be him dreaming. Poor Paul.

As with all classic television shows, there were little inconsistencies. In season 5's The Travelling Treasure, Paul is going fishing with Perry and seems to know what he's doing. In season 7's The Frightened Fisherman, Paul acknowledges that he is not a fisherman and doesn't know what Perry is driving at when it comes to the fishing aspects of the case. But it's a minor quibble and the most important things about Paul always stayed the same, thanks in no small part to William Hopper's wonderful acting.

It's hard to imagine Perry without William Hopper's strong presence. I can't even begin to picture the series without him. He is an enduring and glowing part of the series' appeal.

There are those on Facebook who feel likewise. William Hopper has a special corner of the web via Facebook and The William DeWolf Hopper Jr. Fan Page. If you're a William Hopper and Paul Drake fan, this is a lovely place to go to celebrate with other fans.

Happy 101st Birthday, William. You will always be a large part of what makes Perry Mason special.

In Memoriam: William Hopper

I find it amusing that right after I called out MeTV for not airing their supposedly most popular show more than once a week, they make an announcement that they’re going to do just that. Naturally it’s a coincidence; I doubt anyone from MeTV even knows this blog exists. (And of course, even if they did, I highly doubt it would make one bit of difference.) I’m sure their reason is because of Leonard Nimoy’s death. Still, the timing of my post and their announcement amuses me.

The 6^th sadly marks the death of William Hopper, who died much too soon in 1970. It’s saddening how many Perry cast members either met early deaths or otherwise died while the show was ongoing. Both Williams and Wesley died far too young. And it’s always sad that Ray Collins passed away in the middle of the show’s run, even though he was getting on in years. Some guest-stars, such as Theodore Marcuse and Simon Oakland, also died much too young.

I always love discovering more Paul-centric episodes. I finally had a chance to see the uncut Angry Astronaut, which wasn’t as cut as I expected it would be. In either state, it’s quite a good Paul vehicle, starting out by showing Paul being hired by the titular character to find some missing things. Perry doesn’t appear until after the murder, when Paul goes to him to see if he will represent the man. Even though Paul believes he’s nuts and really did commit the murder, he wants to see him have proper representation. (Also, in that case, the astronaut already knew of Perry and specifically asked Paul to ask Perry about representation. Paul always tries to follow through with an owed favor.)

It’s always interesting to me that Paul is the skeptic among Perry’s group. It definitely adds a little more spice, as opposed to everyone just fully believing that the client is innocent because Perry believes that. And it’s moving that in spite of the many times when Paul thinks the client is guilty, he’s still willing as always to help Perry try to dig up proof that the truth is otherwise.

It would have been an intense character study if there had ever been a case where Paul had such strong feelings as to a client’s guilt that he felt he could not help Perry on the case. Either that, or perhaps a situation where Perry wanted Paul to do something on the investigation that Paul absolutely felt he could not do. Although it never happened on the show, it’s always very clear that Paul has his limits and doesn’t want to put his license in jeopardy. I still don’t think Perry has the right to ask him to do things that could indeed disrupt his career. But of course, Paul could refuse if he felt he simply couldn’t do it.

The two have a great friendship, enjoying fishing breaks the few times a caseload eases enough to allow for it. And in spite of when Perry asks things that often don’t seem fair, Paul goes through with it anyway because of their friendship and his belief in Perry. Paul is quite invaluable to Perry; his investigations often bring in the final piece of evidence needed. Paul is likely aware of this, and perhaps that is one reason why he continues to lend his assistance on cases, even when he doesn’t believe in a client’s innocence or doesn’t like something Perry wants him to do.

I still love the intensity in The Carefree Coronary, when Perry finally acknowledges Paul’s value both as a friend and as part of the team. When it feels like Perry often takes Paul for granted, it’s nice to have him really announce that he is aware of Paul’s importance. Although, admittedly, it would have been nice if it hadn’t taken such a huge scare for Perry to say it. Still, it’s Perry’s way to not usually say such things aloud.

It’s very sad that we lost William Hopper so unfairly soon. But it’s awesome that he left us such a legacy of wonderful roles, especially Paul Drake. He will always be remembered for that.

Birthday post for William Hopper and news

I wanted to make sure to get in one more post in January. As an anonymous reader hastened to inform me, I neglected to put up a post for William Hopper’s birthday on Monday. This year, it wasn’t for lack of remembering, but lack of physical capability to make the post. I was feeling miserable all that day. Then Tuesday was rather busy, as has been the rest of the week, but I decided I must make sure to get William H. acknowledged before the month is out.

This is a real milestone birthday for our William H.; he would have been 100 this year! (William Talman and Simon Oakland celebrate the same milestone this year as well.) It’s really quite incredible to think that it’s been that many years. I wish I really had a decent tribute to give, but I haven’t seen any more of his movies yet, nor have I gleaned new insight into Paul-centric episodes or scenes since the last time I posted on that matter.

The best I can do is mention my geeky excitement when I was watching The Stars and Stripes Forever, the biopic for John Philip Sousa, and they mentioned the actor DeWolf Hopper was going to star in a musical play Sousa was writing the music for. I figured that must be William H.’s father, considering his full name is William DeWolf Hopper, Jr., and looking him up, I find that is true. So it was fun to find a little Perry-related connection in that film.

Also, looking up things further, it says that William H. first appeared in one of his father’s silent movies, Sunshine Dad, as a baby. That’s pretty adorable.

William H. had a very illustrious career in the motion picture business during the late 1930s and off and on through parts of the 1940s and 1950s, before he became Paul Drake on Perry Mason in 1957. And it wasn’t just B-grade movies, either; he has quite the impressive resumé—even though many of his early roles were bit parts. Among other well-known films, he appeared in Stagecoach, The Maltese Falcon, Knute Rockne, and Yankee Doodle Dandy! I knew about his later role in Rebel Without a Cause, but I was unaware of these earlier roles. I am excited. It’s been years since I’ve seen The Maltese Falcon; it looks like it’s time I saw it again. And on the B-movie circuit, he was in two of the Bonita Granville Nancy Drew movies. While I did not care for her version of the character, I would definitely be interested in seeing those films to see William H.

I still find it interesting that William H. originally auditioned for the role of Perry Mason himself when they started putting the show together. I really enjoyed his screen test when I saw it on the 50^th Anniversary DVD set, but he just didn’t give off a Perry vibe to me. I guess the producers agreed, since they determined he would be the perfect Paul Drake instead. That was definitely a bit of casting genius!

While I’ll admit that I didn’t think Albert Stratton in The New Perry Mason did a poor job as Paul, it will always be William Hopper’s Paul who is the iconic version of the character. He’s ideal! Smooth, intelligent, always with an eye for a beautiful lady and bewilderment over some of Perry’s desires (“A couple of dozen flies?!”), William H.’s Paul delivers many classic lines and hilarious expressions. And of course, he often brings in the evidence Perry needs to cinch a case just in time.

I love whenever the show devotes a bit more time to showing Paul operating, instead of just having Paul tell Perry things about the investigation after the fact. Every now and then the show would allow some spotlighting of Paul’s work, something that became more prominent later on as Raymond Burr grew tired of always carrying the majority of the show. Mid-series episodes such as The Barefaced Witness, The Impatient Partner, and The Glamorous Ghost are excellent Paul investigation vehicles. Later ventures such as The Bullied Bowler, The Feather Cloak, and The Carefree Coronary also involve Paul as a particularly key figure.

When out-of-town investigating needs doing, Perry often sends Paul instead of going himself. Sometimes Paul’s adventures are off-screen; other times, we see him in assorted locales such as New Orleans, Boston, and Mexico. It would make a good post just to focus on Paul’s travels sometime. I’ll have to start collecting information for such a post.

Paul is such a ladies’ man that another good post subject would be all the times he’s mentioned having dates, shows interest in particular ladies, or is actually shown on dates. Then again, that could take volumes. Paul has an interesting social life, when given the chance to have it.

Paul always adds so much spice to the show. I always enjoy seeing more of his investigations and would have liked to have seen more. There could never be too many private-eye series! Lately I’ve been enjoying a lot of Darren McGavin’s private-eye vehicle Mike Hammer, and it occurs to me how much fun it would have been had there been a series focusing more on Paul’s investigations than on the legal elements. But I love Perry Mason for what it is, and I love Paul for being a part of what it is. There is certainly a big, lonely gap in the reunion movies where Paul should be. No actor could quite fill it.

Happy belated birthday to a wonderful actor and a wonderful man, William Hopper! 100 years of being aware of his existence in the world is a milestone indeed.

And now for a bit of news. I probably shouldn’t have this in the same post, but I’d like to get it out here before any more time goes by. I still wish that there was a Perry video or computer game with all the latest graphics. It would be so fun to see the cast rendered in 3D, possibly even controllable for levels. Imagine playing out investigation levels as Paul! Going to court as Perry and Hamilton! Playing mini puzzle games with Della or Tragg, Andy, and Steve sorting through information! There are so many possibilities.

The old DOS text-based computer game remains the one time Perry ventured into such media. There may be some nice pictures of Paul in that; I’m unsure, as I’ve only seen the first 16 minutes of game play. All I recall is some nice renditions of Hamilton and Tragg. However, for anyone who understands how to work a text-based DOS game, it is now possible to find out the answers to this and any other questions revolving around said game! The Internet Archive has been adding old DOS games to be legally played online for free, and the 1985 Perry game The Mandarin Murder is among them! My friend Crystal Rose (who runs the Simon Oakland blog with me) discovered it here:

https://archive.org/details/msdos_Perry_Mason_-_The_Case_of_the_Mandarin_Murder_1986

I’m looking forward to giving it a try, although I don’t know how handy I’ll be at playing a text-based game.

Also, I do have what appears to be news on the Perry movie front. There is a promo running for MeTV’s current Mystery Movie feature on weeknights, and Perry as he appears in the 1980s and 1990s movies is part of that promo. It looks like at some point, MeTV will indeed air some of the Perry movies as part of their line-up. They seem to rotate each week, so we should get a whole week of Perry movies sometime soon. That should be interesting: a late-night Perry episode followed by a Perry movie.

More book news, and the uncut Barefaced Witness

I bring more exciting news on the book front, as Richard is interviewed about it: http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/articles/7271/1/Hollywood-Actor-Richard-Anderson-Discusses-Acting-and-His-Memoir-With-Norm-Goldman-of-Bookpleasurescom-/Page1.html#.VGbCF9JDvq7 The interview is awesome in general, and now we have confirmation that Perry Mason will be discussed within the book’s pages! I hope there will be a nice, meaty section on it.

And The Barefaced Witness was on MeTV this past night. The television version has never made a great deal of sense to me and I’ve had the feeling that it’s one of the most cut-up episodes, so I decided it would be the perfect time to watch the uncut version.

I was definitely right about it being chopped up. So many scenes were missing, specifically almost everything that specifically showed or mentioned that ridiculous festival the town was having. And since that was kind of pivotal to the whole plot, even being brought up in the episode’s title, it’s absolutely preposterous that those scenes were removed!

I think that concerning that subject, the cut version of The Barefaced Witness only keeps the scene in the café where Paul looks at the list of the nine clean-shaven people arrested during the festival week. But it’s so weird for that to be the only mention of the festival. That makes it seem such a throwaway thing when it’s actually important to the solution of things. I don’t recall the opening sequence at all, which showed the silly signs about clean-shaven people being arrested and guys walking around with beards. And the scene with Paul arriving and ending up being forced to take part in the mock arrest for being clean-shaven was certainly missing.

Paul sure was a good sport about that. The police were pretty nice, contrary to the visions that have been dancing through my mind for years, and it all seemed to be in good fun. I wonder, though, what would have happened had someone not wanted to participate in the silliness. Someone could have arrived not knowing about the festival and have needed to meet someone in a hurry, and I doubt they would have liked being sidetracked into being arrested and fined for such a nonsensical reason! And it wouldn’t have seemed very fair, either. It didn’t seem fair as it was to fine people who didn’t even know anything about it.

One thing that seriously amuses me is that the local reporter played by Adam West apparently refused to be part of things. I suppose he was fined, but he must have been okay with that and preferred it to wearing a fake beard all week or growing a real one.

Adam West’s Perry characters seem to follow a pattern of being very protective of the girls they like. Both this guy and the character Adam plays in The Bogus Books are like that.

One intriguing thing about this episode, which isn’t as clear in the cut version, is that it’s really a Paul vehicle. Perry appears in the scene where Paul’s client wants the folder found, and then he goes to look for it when Paul isn’t available, but other than that, he doesn’t even appear again until they’re actually in court! There’s not even a scene of him talking to the defendant before court convenes. The whole mystery starts because of a past case of Paul’s, as the client is coming to him about some new twists, and Paul is the main player until the case goes to court. That’s neat; I like episodes that cast more of the spotlight on the other characters.

Another thing I was specifically looking for in this episode was the district attorney, Mr. Hale. I found it interesting that the first witness says his name straight-out while being questioned. It certainly shows how laid-back and familiar they are in that town. But I wonder if it was also there because the writer wanted everyone to know that yes, the D.A. was indeed Mr. Hale from earlier episodes and not just another character played by the same actor.

I like Paul Fix and his character is interesting in how he definitely brings a rural, laid-back manner to the courtroom. I wonder if that was why they used him multiple times, to make quite the contrast with Perry the “big city” lawyer.

The episode has never been a particular favorite of mine, but that’s always been partially due to being so puzzled by the cut version. Knowing it’s a Paul episode makes it more intriguing to me. And I like Adam West, both from The Bogus Books and from Batman, so I enjoy seeing him guest-starring. It will probably never rank among my most favorite episodes ever, but in its uncut form I will probably enjoy seeing it now and then, especially in order to see a lot of Paul in action.

And today is Joseph Campanella’s 90^th birthday! Awesome! I wish he was a Perry alumnus, but unfortunately he never appeared on our show. He does have a Raymond Burr connection, having appeared on four Ironside episodes. I saw The Happy Dreams of Hollow Men last month when MeTV aired it and I was thoroughly impressed anew by his acting abilities. He and Raymond Burr are the main players and carry most of the episode alone. It’s highly intense, as Joseph’s character descends into drug withdrawal and desperation and Ironside tries to keep him grounded in reality.

I’m still repulsed by the character flipping out and pitching Ironside to the floor, and later threatening him with a rifle, and it shows what a wonderful and loyal friend Ironside is, to keep believing in his friend amid all of that. The way the episode ends, with Ironside going to him as he sobs on the floor in despair and telling him to lean on him as they leave, is very powerful and poignant.

I will always wish Joseph had been on Perry, but I’m glad to have the four Ironside episodes to showcase his interaction with Raymond Burr and the other excellent cast members.

A return to The Scarlet Scandal

I need to make a better Wesley tribute post. I had an idea a couple of weeks ago, but then I got caught up with the other posts, took smidgens of my ideas for those posts, and then I couldn’t remember the rest of my ideas when it came time to write Wesley’s post. Plus, Wednesday was a busy day, I’d run out of time, and I was desperate to get something up while it was still his birthday. As it was, I didn’t manage to get the Tumblr tribute going (http://lucky-ladybugs-lovelies.tumblr.com) until the following morning. I have been thinking I might do a detailed Amory and Andy personality comparison post, if I haven’t already talked about that subject beyond a few sentences. With so many posts, I often forget exactly what I’ve talked about before!

I also want to do another Tragg tribute post. I’ll definitely be doing one in July, but I had wanted to do one sooner. Keeping it till July, however, will give me time to watch him in season 1 for a good while and hopefully gather material for a unique angle.

At six episodes in, he has been a delight, as he always is. His interaction with all the characters is gold. I would have loved if we had seen more of him interacting with Andy, and also to have seen him interact even once with Steve, the latter of which is something that sadly could never have happened.

My local station has been pledge-driving and that bumped their Perry episodes down farther. They’re still in season 9. (Or at least, still in the few season 9 episodes they still show.) And since Mom suddenly realized Mala Powers is in The Scarlet Scandal, she wanted to see it when the local station aired it. So we watched it (or I watched some of it, anyway; I was away from the TV for some of it) and I came away with a couple more musings.

Aaron Chambers, the ballistics guy for the small town, is awesome. The scene where Paul runs into him and they walk around the murder scene discussing the forensics of it is a lot of fun. Aaron’s reveal at the end of his identity is both amusing and a cringing “Ohh boy”, particularly when seeing Paul’s expression. As Paul says later, “I was only the second-best detective out there today.”

Perry often talks about the efficiency of the police, and forensics have always been an important part of the show dating all the way back to episode 1, but it really isn’t often that we get to see a character on the prosecuting side who is actively depicted as being so good at what he does that when Perry or Paul mentions him as being formidable, it’s totally believable. As much as I love Hamilton and the L.A. police and try to highlight their good points and the times when they are portrayed as efficient, with all the screw-ups they’ve been forced to make due to the formula, sometimes it’s hard to fully believe Perry when he talks about efficiency. Even as early as episode 3, Tragg comes to Perry wanting to know how he figured out a particular forensics element. Tragg’s reaction to the explanation is classic and hilarious, and endearing in how he’s ready and willing to learn something, but it doesn’t help much to make the police look competent that none of them thought of it!

Since Aaron is up on the forensics of the Scarlet Scandal case and actually does peg the correct murderer from the start, and it’s unclear if he personally ever switches to believing the girl is guilty instead, he might not run into the same trouble as the poor Perry policemen, always suspecting and arresting the wrong people. It’s both really cool to see a character like Aaron on Perry in general and to see him in a small town that might ordinarily be behind the times as far as modern forensics are concerned. It would have been great if he had turned up in another episode—as long as he wouldn’t have been alongside the L.A. police while on vacation in L.A. and made them look ridiculous with his forensics expertise. But since he was introduced in season 9, I doubt that would have happened. By season 9, they seemed to have the police as more up and doing forensics-wise, save for perhaps one incident in The Impetuous Imp when no one thinks of a bullet in the ceiling except Perry.

Later on in the episode, I was kind of irritated when Paul expresses worry about losing his license if he saws off the county property post Perry wants him to and Perry simply replies, “You’ll have to take that chance.” Paul is definitely right to be worrying about destroying county property! Good grief. I think this is perhaps one of the most eyebrow-raising stunts yet. (And one of the last, since the series ended soon after.) I appreciate that Perry is seeking justice for his client, but even if he is willing to run the risk for himself, he shouldn’t put it on someone else. It always has bothered me when he does that with Paul, especially since he knows how Paul worries about his license. I love that Paul’s response this time is to hand the saw back to Perry and say, “You’ll have to take that chance.”

Of course, since Paul’s execution of Perry’s less-than-legal plans has always been a key part of the formula, I imagine there are those who don’t like to see that element being altered in any way. But for me, I think it’s about time that Paul doesn’t just resignedly do every law-bending or –breaking thing Perry wants. I wonder if we would have seen Paul balk a little more if there had been a season 10?

Overall, I find it amusing that while I initially found The Scarlet Scandal to be quite a blah out-of-town episode, I have warmed up to it greatly. I think my next Amazon purchase should be the latter half of season 9, so I can finally see the rest of those episodes uncut. And that includes this one.

… Also, this is the 250^th post. Sweet.

The blog lives!

Oh dear. It’s terrible how long I’ve let it stretch without a post. If I’m not feeling ill, I’m lacking a topic or I’ve got so many other things I’m trying to do that the post slips away. But I ended up missing at least a couple of times when I fully intended to post.

I certainly intended to post on the 6^th, for instance—the anniversary of William Hopper’s death. And then today is the anniversary of Erle Stanley Gardner’s death. Both men, curiously and sadly enough, died the same year, 1970, days apart from each other.

They are two people so very key to Perry as we know it now. Naturally nothing would exist if Gardner hadn’t got his ideas for the books and started to write. And if anyone else had played Paul, the dynamics of the series would have been so very different indeed.

I usually like to recommend episodes or other work to watch on the memorial posts. It isn’t always easy thinking of good episode recommendations after a couple such posts! But last night I was watching a DVD copy of an episode I’d missed on MeTV last week and was thinking it would make a great recommendation.

I don’t recall really thinking about it before, but The Nervous Neighbor is really good as a Paul episode as well as a Hamilton episode (the latter of which I usually think of it as). It has some of Hamilton’s best scenes and some of Paul’s most extended screentime. The episode opens in Paul’s office, a very unusual thing, and Paul continues to be extremely prominent throughout the story as he takes Charles Fuller around town and investigates the strange case. Even after Mrs. Bradley’s hearing, when she would have likely also interacted with Perry a great deal, it’s Paul she calls in a panic when son Charles runs off to confront criminal Henry Clement. Normally it’s Perry the person calls, and then Perry either runs out himself or calls Paul to go (or they both go).

Usually episodes also feature scenes of Perry investigating, so it’s very interesting and different to see so much focus on Paul. There’s even that adorable sub-plot where we can see Paul seems to be hanging around the Golden Age Club quite a bit as he sleuths and is getting to know the people, especially Frances—whom he promises a dance with and fulfills that at the end.

It’s known that Raymond Burr was tiring of the role as the show went on and the writers deliberately tried to focus some of the later episodes more on other characters. Seasons 8 and 9 are definitely said to have that focus, and it’s apparent in several of them. The Nervous Neighbor is season 7, and I’m wondering if the focus on Paul was deliberate because of Raymond’s feelings too. But either way, it’s a wonderful episode choice to watch in remembrance of William Hopper.

The episode is just about perfect to me in every way. My only confusion is that once again there’s a title that I don’t fully understand. Who is “The Nervous Neighbor”? There’s certainly a lot of people running around in this episode who are nervous. Which one is considered the “neighbor”? And neighbor of whom? But in any case, it’s a minor quibble.

Generally I recommend reading the books in remembrance of Mr. Gardner. And while that is a logical idea, perhaps other things fans would like to do would be to watch a particular favorite adaptation of a book or to view The Final Fade-Out and see Mr. Gardner onscreen as the second judge.

One of these days I’m going to give that episode another viewing; while it never will be a favorite, the in-jokes are amusing and Richard Anderson has some very nice scenes. And it’s nice to know that so many of the bit parts and extras are people on the crew. In that respect, it’s a nice send-off to the series, as is the epilogue scene.

Farewell again to William Hopper and Erle Stanley Gardner, two people still very often thought of and missed.

I have several topics waiting in the wings; tentatively I’d considered combining this post with at least one of them, but I think it would be more proper to give them separate posts. Hopefully I can get back on-track with posting. I know I keep saying that, but it is an intention!

And a bit of Perry news: MeTV will show The Lost Love movie this Friday! Happy watching to the interested!

The Lady in the Lake

I hope everyone had a good New Year! It isn’t one of my favorite holidays, as we don’t do much to celebrate. (I would love to attend an Oriental New Year’s celebration sometime!) But hopefully it will be a good year, filled with Perry goodness.

I actually had a topic on Thursday, but then I wasn’t feeling well and had to put it on hold. And then Friday night came along and provided another topic, so the original one has been put on hold again.

So for once I caught a Perry movie while it was actually on the air. I kind of wish I hadn’t, because then I would have recorded it for later and we’d have a copy that could be kept. I wasn’t planning to record it since we’d be there to watch it at the time. How was I to know that it would end up having such an exciting twist?

I imagine there are some purists who don’t like that The Lady in the Lake ended up with the murder victim not being dead, considering that a real murder is part of the Perry formula. But considering who the victim was, I’m thrilled!

I had thought the victim would probably be that awful Lisa person. When instead it was the wife, I was deeply disappointed. She was certainly among the handful of characters who didn’t deserve it in the least. To have her be alive and held prisoner was wonderful, in my estimation. And even aside from that, just looking at it from a story structure standpoint, I think it’s good to jar up a formula now and then. It keeps things fresh and new and puts people on their toes, wondering when next something might be different.

The one thing that puzzles me is who the Lisa person is. For a while, I honestly thought she was the sister, having survived and come back for revenge—which would be ungodly depressing, considering how horrible Sarah felt about standing by and watching her end up in the water. In the flashback at the beginning, the sister has red hair, even though the paintings of the girls both feature blonde hair. And Lisa’s hair is very strikingly red. When they found the sister’s brush in that motel room, it seemed to cinch the idea all the more.

Unless the movie was edited, there’s only one point where they could have explained the brush—right after the final commercial break and before the big reveal in court of Sarah’s survival. At that point, our local station made their commercials run so long that it cut into the movie’s return. Ugh. That’s been happening a lot lately and I’m getting sick of it. They need to time their commercials better!

I’m assuming that the Lisa person was instead exactly who she said she was and that she wasn’t the sister at all. Perhaps the brush was something Sarah was keeping. Or perhaps Lisa had it to taunt Sarah with. But I was definitely left confused when that angle didn’t appear to be explained in what I watched.

I also thought the evidence against the husband was rather flimsy. It would have felt more believable if he and Sarah didn’t get along well or even if their argument had been more intense. On the other hand, though, I really loved how their relationship was portrayed, for the most part, and I wouldn’t have liked to have seen that be changed.

I just wish Sarah would have been more receptive to the truth that Lisa was the one engineering the kiss and Sarah’s husband didn’t want it. It always annoys me when one member of a couple shows such a lack of faith in the other half. Of course, if she hadn’t been upset and gone out, then Lisa wouldn’t have cornered and abducted her at that point, but I’m sure they could have reworked the script a bit so that there was another reason why she went out.

I still think Paul Jr. can’t hold a candle to his dad as far as private-eyeing goes. And it really made me roll my eyes when he decided to pretend to be the thug the defendant’s brother thought he was, in order to try to get information from him. It worked for a bit, but it certainly backfired on him! I imagine that’s why Paul Sr. hardly ever did stunts like that. As I recall, he was usually always up front about being a private detective. And he had a pretty good track record of getting information.

At least, though, I liked how determined Paul Jr. was to finally catch up to Lisa and her companion. Paul Jr. was the one who actually rescued Sarah from her captivity, so he must be given credit for that. I was very glad to see him corner Lisa at last, after he kept bumbling through the case. And no matter Lisa’s motives in keeping Sarah alive, I have to be thankful to her that she did.

It was fun to see David Ogden Stiers as the prosecutor. He did a good job, although I was hoping to see him and Perry get a little more involved in having conflicting feelings about how the case was going. I like when that’s happening with Perry and Hamilton, as long as it’s handled without casting a bad light on either side and doesn’t dissolve into wildly flying accusations about the attorneys’ conduct.

I adore the reunion scene in court, when Sarah is brought in alive and she and her husband embrace. I just wish we had seen them again in the epilogue, although it was amusing when the epilogue consisted of Della insisted that Perry wouldn’t be skiing again.

All the cast did an excellent job, although most of them are unknown to me. The only guest-star other than David Ogden Stiers that I’m familiar with is David Hasselhoff. Knight Rider is a fun show that I enjoy watching sometimes. I never saw Baywatch.

Overall, I found it a very satisfying entry in the Perry movie series. And although I don’t consider the movies part of the canon, I like this one so much that I’d like to say that I imagine a version of it happening “off-screen” in the television series, if that makes sense.

I’ve kind of thought of bringing a few of the movies’ characters, including David’s and Scott Baio’s prosecutors, into my stories. They’d be the same ages as they are in the movies, only the Perry they would encounter would be the television series Perry instead of the movie Perry. In other words, they would be part of my extended television series ventures instead of being at work twenty-odd years after the events of the series.

The Bullied Bowler

Two posts in less than 24 hours! Well, after the long stretch of silence, perhaps it’s fitting.

I’ve had the urge to re-watch The Bullied Bowler for a while now. Tonight/this morning I decided I’d do it. I was delighted to find some odd parallels with Mannix, especially considering this episode came three years before the start of the series!

Our lawyer Mr. Kelly, a friend of Paul’s, has the first name of Joe. Thinking of Joe Mannix, it felt very familiar to hear calls of “Joe” throughout the episode.

I was terribly amused by Joe Kelly not knowing how to work a car phone and having to ask Paul how to do it. If the shows had run simultaneously, that would have been a perfect in-joke, since Joe Mannix has a car phone that he uses with ease.

Of course, the characters have some very similar facial expressions, a personal touch Mike Connors bestowed on all of his characters. And Joe Kelly has the same type of compassion and concern for the innocent and guiltless as does Joe Mannix. But Joe Kelly can be grateful he doesn’t attract as much trouble as Joe Mannix in the way of being beat up (although that rotten Jack did pretty much threaten it at one point)!

I adored seeing Paul and Joe Kelly interacting a lot, as well as Della and Joe. It’s the closest I’ll ever come to really seeing them interact with Mannix, outside of the stories I’m hoping to write with them.

Milton Selzer turns out a beautiful and bittersweet and heartbreaking performance as Dr. Max Taylor, a man tormented by his immense guilt over the death of the defendant’s wife, whom he had been trying to save as she gave birth. The girl’s mother twists him around her finger, hoping to make him do things that he really doesn’t want to do, including to shut down the defendant’s bowling alley as a health hazard before he’s finished his investigation into whether it’s really the cause of so much mysterious new illness and bacteria in the town. He persists in investigating anyway, telling his secretary that maybe this time he’s really doing the right thing, and ends up getting too close to the truth. He ends up being one of the series’ few seriously undeserving victims, being murdered for what he’s finding out.

What he’s discovering is that the bowling alley is getting its water through a line that runs too near the sewage of an oil refinery outside of town. It seems that’s been seeping into the bowling alley’s water supply. (Ugh!)

The girl’s mother, called The Duchess by most people in town, has no idea of what’s really going on with the oil refinery she owns. She’s determined to shut down the bowling alley, not just because she really believes it’s a health hazard but more because she’s bitter against the brothers who run it. She blames the one, her daughter’s husband, for the girl’s death. That unfortunately happened because of things Dr. Taylor told her that led her to believe her daughter was sick while traveling with her husband. Judging from what came out in court, however, Dr. Taylor wasn’t trying to cast blame on the husband; he just felt so horrible feeling responsible for the death himself that he tried to tell himself and others that she had already been ill in an attempt to absolve himself of at least some of the heavy burden he carried.

It still seems preposterous to me when The Duchess tries to shut down the bowling alley claiming it’s a den of hoodlums and immorality. It looks like a nice, family-friendly place when we see it. A pool hall would be more understandable as a recipient of The Duchess’s accusations, but a bowling alley?

I love that once The Duchess realizes she’s been gravely mistaken about the husband, she wants to repent of her attitude and try to make up for the heartache she caused him. She comes to him and his brother, wanting to help them keep the bowling alley running and also to see her adorable young grandson (as she did twice before in secret).

One of The Duchess’s friends, the mayor Orson Stillman, seemed very familiar to me in his facial expressions and later, in his voice. After studying him long and hard for a bit, I realized in about his second scene that he must be the same actor who played Joseph Kraft in The Bogus Books. He looked quite different without that wild white hair and those thick glasses, but he was still so distinctive that he was most recognizable. And looking at the man’s credits, I see I was right. The gentleman, Maurice Manson, appeared in three other Perry episodes, too.

This is one of the rare episodes featuring a guest lawyer in which Perry is not seen or heard at all. He’s off in Europe, and the following episode shows us the tail-end of his adventures over there. But Paul and Della keep Perry involved in the story anyway; he’s mentioned several times, including where Della recounts a telephone conversation she had with him.

When a character is absent, I love when it’s handled in this way, with the other characters thinking about and remembering them. And even without Perry, it’s a very good venture. It’s great for all Mike Connors/Mannix fans. Perhaps it’s not so compelling for those who don’t care for either, but there should be something that solely Perry fans can take away from it.

Paul and Della have some excellent amounts of screen-time, for one thing. That’s always a treat. And seeing the brilliant Milton Selzer is a very good thing. Whenever he appears in a cast, I immediately know that there will be a high-quality and immensely enjoyable performance. He was excellent in The Decadent Dean and he is excellent here as well. I just wish his poor character hadn't been so cruelly killed.

And the posting gap ends at last.

I am so sorry for the terrible gap in posts. When I warned they might not come as frequently, I didn’t intend for there to be this much space before the next one!

We have been experiencing the utter frustration that digital television can bring. Our converter box conked out, rendering everything involving live television unusable. And when we finally got a digital television, thinking that would solve the problem, we still couldn’t record because the television didn’t have the converting technology that our VCR needed.

Thank goodness for Rite Aid and a sale they’re having this week. We got hold of a glorious converter box and now everything is set to go once again.

But with what all of that aggravation added onto the more typical havoc of the season, I didn’t have much time to sit and think about good post topics. Hence, this nasty week and a half gap.

A couple of nights ago I considered more notable guest-star posts, specifically a Bruce Gordon one since I ran across one of his Perry episodes again. And then of course yesterday was Ray Collins’ birthday and I had wanted to write a post for that. The only problem was, I haven’t seen anything new with him and I wasn’t sure what kind of angle I could use that I haven’t already used.

I also missed getting up a memorial post for Dan Tobin around November 26^th. I was going to look at his guest-starring appearances on The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, but hadn’t got to it yet, so I wasn’t sure what to write for him, either. It’s both amazing and sad, the utter lack of information available on him.

And just now I started thinking about the times Perry had Paul go undercover as a television repairman. I think it happened at least twice. And though I don’t think Paul actually “repaired” the sets either time, it made me wonder if he really could successfully repair a set, if needed. Maybe sometime I’ll write a silly short story about him dealing with the frustrations of technology and being forced to try to repair a television set or something else because someone keeps hanging around in the room and he can’t start looking for whatever Perry wants him to find.

I wonder how many different “jobs” Paul has had while undercover on cases. Paul often doesn’t seem to like doing that; I remember he didn’t like posing as a television repairman whenever Perry wanted it, fearing he would lose his license. And at the moment, the only other undercover job I remember him having is as a construction worker in The Carefree Coronary. I think that time it may have been his own idea? I’m not sure they specified one way or the other.

MeTV news regarding Perry actors and events: they will be showing both parts of The Fugitive series finale on Friday evening. Richard features in both parts. We caught part 1 on the 1st and he unfortunately had very little screentime in that. Hopefully part 2 will show him more.

Richard will also appear on Ironside Monday the 16th, and on Gunsmoke both Monday and Tuesday! I am not terribly fond of the Gunsmoke episodes, however, which are parts 1 and 2 of The Guns of Cibola Blance. Amanda Blake actually quit the series over those episodes, or so I have heard. She was not at all happy with the abuse Kitty was to take in those episodes, even being raped if I remember right. So she quit and they got a different girl to go through the horrors. Richard played a bad guy, but he does survive. Or at least that's what I got out of it when I tried to watch those episodes when they aired before. I was so confused and unimpressed that I started skipping around after a while and only stopped at all the Richard scenes I could find.

Also, a final note, The Killer Kiss, one of the Perry movies, will air on the 20th. Hopefully I will finally get around to watching The Glass Coffin before then.