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!

Notable Guest-Stars: Lurene Tuttle and Sheila Bromley

Before I get to the topic of the post, a quick announcement: Yes! We’re getting both parts of season 7 this year! Despite my efforts to learn when part 1 would be released, apparently that news has been out for two months, so everyone else probably is aware of it by now. Part 1 releases on August 21st. But what has been announced more recently is that Part 2 will quickly follow on October 23rd!

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Perry-Mason-Season-7-Volume-2/17274

It looks like Wal-Mart has the best price for Volume 1, unless they won’t be offering free shipping from site to store once it’s released. I’m waiting to see. If they won’t, I’ll probably pay a couple more dollars to get it from Amazon and have their free shipping.

The prices of these things really makes me cringe, especially when they’re only half-season sets. Half a season should not cost so much. (The official price is fifty dollars for fifteen episodes?! Nooo way. Wal-Mart’s price of around $33 is good, but still, that’s what I expect to pay for a whole season.) And the prices hold steady for years. I’ve discovered that while trying to get hold of various pieces of 4, 5, and 6. But since my local station is skipping the great majority of season 7, I’ll just have to grit my teeth and pay the costs. It’ll be worth it, to finally own season 7. I love almost every episode in the first half. And the second half has some gems too.

And now, the main topic.

Lurene Tuttle and Sheila Bromley are two amazing women who guest-starred repeatedly on Perry through the years. I’m grouping them together because, I’ll confess, I’ve been guilty of mixing them up. They’re both perfect at playing sad motherly figures, with very sad, worried eyes to match. They also usually have similar shades of hair.

Both were with the series almost from the beginning, with Lurene’s first appearance being The Substitute Face in season 1 and Sheila’s being The Borrowed Brunette of season 2. They continued appearing on the series with regularity. They don’t both feature into every season, but between them they were in eleven episodes, and each season features one of them at least once. Lurene remained the longest, with her final guest-spot being in The Avenging Angel in season 9.

Their characters are generally cut from the same cloth. Sometimes they’ve played defendants, sometimes the mothers or other relatives, and in Sheila’s case, both in the same episode (The Nervous Neighbor)! Their characters are generally very kind and very burdened people.

I have favorite episodes featuring them both. Lurene’s favorite of mine is season 6’s The Shoplifter’s Shoe. It has the curious distinction of being one of the few book-inspired episodes that ranks among my very favorites ever. Most of them do not, as in them the characters usually tend to act out in ways that were either more common to the books or used but largely abandoned in the series to make way for character development.

Lurene’s Aunt Sarah is probably also her quirkiest Perry character. Devoted to her missing brother George, and afraid that he has stolen a client’s diamonds to pay his gambling debts, she pretends to start shoplifting so she might be blamed for the diamonds instead of George. She also tries to protect her niece Virginia when they think Virginia killed George’s crooked business partner, by allowing herself to be tried for the crime. The latter is a common Perry twist, but Aunt Sarah somehow makes everything seem new. She is a very sharp, intelligent woman, but she puts on an act of being absent-minded and even amnesiac to further her protective plans.

The Shoplifter’s Shoe is quite a parade of famous or soon-to-be famous people. Lurene is joined by Margaret O’Brien as Virginia and Leonard Nimoy as Pete Chennery, the murderer. And Lurene herself was a very prolific actress from radio, the stage, and movies.

This episode also intrigues me because it feels a lot like an episode from the season 2 era. The focus is again on the Core Five, which was becoming a rarity by season 6. Tragg and Brice are the featured police; Andy is nowhere to be found.

I wonder when it was filmed relative to the rest of the season. It aired as episode 13. I wonder why they didn’t consider it strong enough to be part of the coveted first eight, which they claimed were what they felt were their strongest episodes for the season.

Perhaps it hadn’t been filmed yet. I don’t quite understand how they determined their strongest episodes if some weren’t filmed yet, but I know filming seemed to be going on right while the season was underway. That’s made quite clear by them being in the middle of The Crying Cherub when William Talman was abruptly suspended in March. The episode aired a couple of weeks later, I think. Maybe the scripts were all written and some just weren’t filmed?

My favorite of Sheila’s episodes is season 7’s The Nervous Neighbor. I spotlighted it already, so I’ll just mention that Sheila’s character is the real amnesiac Alice Bradley (real as opposed to Aunt Sarah’s faking). Alice is quite a unique character too, at least as far as backstory goes. She sustained a horrific head injury during a fight with her husband over her son Charles. Then, in a state the doctor described as “medically unconscious”, she struck and killed the man and ran out of the house, taking the car with her. With the doctor’s diagnosis, Hamilton declines to prosecute her further. Later, she has to helplessly watch as Charles is accused of murdering the wretch who tried to make it look like Charles was embezzling from the family company.

As for least favorites, well, Lurene’s The Avenging Angel wins that dubious prize. It’s generally hailed as one of the worst of the series, and I admit, I have to agree. I liked it alright at first, but when the plot of the boy idol kept dragging on and on I started to get very impatient and bewildered. I don’t think the murder even happens until around thirty-five minutes into it, and then there’s hardly any time spent in court. It’s a very tedious episode, although the insight into the music industry is interesting.

I’m not quite sure which of Sheila’s episodes would be my least favorite, by contrast. I like all of hers to varying degrees, but I suppose I must vote for The Mystified Miner. While a good episode, basically, it is one of those book-inspired ones from season 5, and the one in which I feel Perry performs his most jaw-dropping of his antics, crossing from “legal tightrope walking” to outright illegal behavior. Odd, that Hamilton never seemed to know about Perry’s taking the defendant’s car and deliberately getting that gaggle of teenage kids to change the tire so multiple fingerprints would be everywhere. Although maybe it’s just as well he didn’t know.

But even in the episodes I like least, the cast comes through, working with what they’ve got. Lurene and Sheila are both wonderful in their parts. I enjoy seeing them turn up, in those episodes as well as all their others.

Special Request: The Case of the Nervous Neighbor

While I find the latter half of season 7 mostly average (the first half is chock-full of wonderful episodes, by comparison), it has a couple of episodes that stand out a great deal. One is #18 in the season, The Nervous Neighbor.

This episode should be familiar to anyone who appreciates Hamilton. If it isn’t, I hope they can see it right away. It’s very fascinating and unique in many aspects, with the general plot as well as with Hamilton’s actions.

We begin with a case of Paul’s, which is the first lesser-seen approach. And it’s not just any case of Paul’s, but a case that has made him very angry. He was hired to find Charles Fuller’s mother, by the worried son himself. In the process of discovering her, Paul has also discovered that she is wanted for killing her husband. He is furious at being used and refuses to become an accessory to harboring a fugitive. He agrees to take Charles to see her only if he promises to call the police after thirty minutes. Charles is not pleased, but consents.

As it turns out, his mother Alice has a complete loss of memory after being found in Nevada with a serious head injury. She can’t remember her own son, let alone that she was supposed to have killed her husband after she was pushed and hit her head during an argument. And an anonymous party has already called the police. Shortly after Paul and Charles arrive and Charles is left stunned by Alice’s state, Andy arrives to arrest her.

Charles works for the company his dead step-father and Alice had both been part of. The company’s other partner wants him to see that Alice is pled Guilty, certain that, being an amnesiac older lady, she would only get a suspended sentence. He’s concerned of all the dirty laundry that may come out if a hearing and trial get underway. Some of that dirty laundry involves Charles himself and some false accusations that he embezzled from the company. But Charles insists on having Perry plead Alice Not Guilty anyway.

During the hearing Perry wishes to put a well-known and widely respected neurosurgeon on the stand before Hamilton has finished presenting the prosecution’s case. Hamilton, knowing that medical testimony is vital to the case due to Alice’s injuries right before the murder, agrees. The doctor describes how Alice’s skull and brain were both badly damaged from her fall against the stone hearth and says that she could not have been conscious of her actions when she struck out and hit her husband with the fire poker. And her injuries were such that her loss of memory will be permanent; there is no re-growth of brain cells. The other doctors questioned in the case have said that they would defer to the neurosurgeon’s opinion. Hamilton moves for a dismissal of the charges, feeling that to continue would not advance justice any.

The accusations about Charles’ supposed embezzling does come out in the hearing. Following the dismissal, he and Alice are both bothered by a junior partner seeking to take over the entire company. This unscrupulous fellow manages to manipulate Alice into signing over everything that should be hers, so he won’t make Charles’ embezzling public. Enraged, Charles goes over to have it out with him. Alice fears what might happen and calls Paul in a panic. When he goes over, Charles is not there and the junior partner is lying dead.

Of course Charles is accused and arrested. And it’s while he’s talking with both Perry and Hamilton at the jail that the most intriguing and different scene of the episode happens.

Charles is a very impulsive, quick-tempered man. He insists over and over that he wants to testify on the witness stand. Perry doesn’t think it’s a good idea at all, particularly with Charles’ nature. He asks if Charles has ever been on the receiving end of a cross-examination before. This gives Hamilton an idea. Even though it would really be to the prosecution’s advantage to have such a short-tempered defendant on the witness stand, he doesn’t want to see Charles do something stupid. He puts Charles under a rigorous example of what his cross-examining would be like and within moments gets him to snap. “Yes, I hated him and I wanted him dead!” Charles screams. “But I didn’t kill him!” Hamilton looks him straight in the eye and asks if he stills wants to testify. “I suggest, Mr. Fuller, that instead of doing what you want to do, you should think about doing what your lawyer thinks you should do.”

The rest of the episode concerns unraveling corporate scandals and proving Charles innocent. While investigating at the elderly community where Alice is staying, Paul makes friends with one of the older ladies and promises to dance with her some time in the future. Hamilton is present again as Perry eventually picks apart the intrigue going on at the company. And the guilty party is revealed in a set-up of Perry’s, during perhaps one of the most intense and chilling confession scenes outside of court. Alice ends up nearly being killed for her bluff about knowing the truth, whereupon Perry appears and wrenches the murderer’s arm back to keep her from stabbing Alice. The murderer, I think, definitely ranks among the most frightening on the show. The complete turn-around of her personality, especially when she acts saccharine with a fake smile and a noticeable bite to her words, is chilling.

The epilogue is sweet and shows Perry, Della, and Paul attending the fund-raising event the elderly community has set up. A woman’s choice dance starts and Della opts to dance with Perry. Paul’s friend returns to have the promised dance with him.

I remember seeing the episode years ago on my local station. Last year I was reminded of it after starting a discussion in the Perry Mason Yahoo Group. Upon discovering it again I found it to be every bit as amazing as I had in the past.

Hamilton is just wonderful in it, from his compassion towards Alice and his desire to dismiss the charges due to the complex circumstances to his interrogation of Charles. He manages to show Charles, in the most effective way, just how foolish it would be for him to take the stand. I love that, as always, he’s more concerned about seeing justice done than allowing something to happen that could cause the trial to become biased and unfair (even if it would almost surely net a win for the prosecution). And it shows us a side of Hamilton we don’t often see—a sort of “tough love” part of his personality, harsh but ultimately serving the ends of kindness. I wish this had come up again in the series.

Paul also gets some good moments in this episode. An angry Paul is a rare thing, and he demonstrates here that being used is one of the things that will definitely set him off. His friendship and dance with the elderly woman is sweet, too. Paul is certainly a gentleman.

Once I’d seen this episode again for the first time in years, as well as every succeeding time since, I discovered more reasons to love Hamilton. The Nervous Neighbor is one of the most important episodes, both overall and in the later seasons.