by Pa Rock
Reader
"Incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial!" Those of us of a certain age can remember Prosecuting Attorney Hamilton Burger jumping to his feet and yelling that objection as Perry Mason, the brilliant attorney for that week's accused murderer, surprised the courtroom with some new bit of information or a deft and unexpected legal maneuver. The show, one of television's first courtroom dramas, was entitled "Perry Mason," and it was viewed by millions every Saturday evening. And although the program was broadcast in black and white, there was no doubt that Mr. Burger's face was beet red as he yelled his objection to yet another humiliation by the esteemed - and very tricky - Perry Mason.
Perry Mason, which ran from 1957 to 1966, featured 271 episodes, many of which came directly from the series of novels written by attorney and crime-fiction author Erle Stanley Gardner, who at the time of his death in 1970 was the best-selling author in America. Gardener was also actively involved in the production of the television show.
Erle Stanley Gardner began writing his Perry Mason novels in 1933 and published more that eighty of them in total, with the last two only seeing print after his death. His Mason became the epitome of smart American lawyers, ones who were brilliant, incorruptible, and made the system work for ordinary people.
Recently I came across an old, tattered (literally) copy of "The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece'" a Perry Mason novel that Erle Stanley Gardner penned in 1936 when the series was relatively new. In it Mason is a bit more rakish than the stiffer 1950's lawyer that the actor, Raymond Burr, portrayed two decades later on television. Perry Mason from the 1930's took more chances with his law license, and was not above grabbing his secretary, a hottie (in the 1930's) named Della Street, and planting a big kiss on her lips while holding her in a tight embrace. Barbara Hale, the Della Street of later television fame, would have never put up with that type of office behavior from her boss!
In this story, Perry Mason is a guest in the home where a murder takes place, in fact he his sleeping in one of the bedrooms when a man is stabbed to death with a carving knife while sleeping in another bedroom. The home's owner, and Mason's host, is a wealthy industrialist who has a history of sleepwalking and carrying a carving knife as he walks around the house in his sleep. There are, as in most good murder mysteries, suspects and motives aplenty, and at one point Mason is even involved in what appears to be a rank manipulation of evidence.
The story is tight and entertaining, although it comes perilously close to being hoaky when it is revealed that there were two sleepwalkers in the house on the evening of the murder. And while the murder plot is clever and well orchestrated, the courtroom scenes are what make this drama shine. Perry Mason dances around two prosecutors and manages to resolve marriage and business issues for his client as he carefully brings all of the various story threads together and solves the murder.
"The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece" is vintage Perry Mason, and it's a riveting read!
Reader
"Incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial!" Those of us of a certain age can remember Prosecuting Attorney Hamilton Burger jumping to his feet and yelling that objection as Perry Mason, the brilliant attorney for that week's accused murderer, surprised the courtroom with some new bit of information or a deft and unexpected legal maneuver. The show, one of television's first courtroom dramas, was entitled "Perry Mason," and it was viewed by millions every Saturday evening. And although the program was broadcast in black and white, there was no doubt that Mr. Burger's face was beet red as he yelled his objection to yet another humiliation by the esteemed - and very tricky - Perry Mason.
Perry Mason, which ran from 1957 to 1966, featured 271 episodes, many of which came directly from the series of novels written by attorney and crime-fiction author Erle Stanley Gardner, who at the time of his death in 1970 was the best-selling author in America. Gardener was also actively involved in the production of the television show.
Erle Stanley Gardner began writing his Perry Mason novels in 1933 and published more that eighty of them in total, with the last two only seeing print after his death. His Mason became the epitome of smart American lawyers, ones who were brilliant, incorruptible, and made the system work for ordinary people.
Recently I came across an old, tattered (literally) copy of "The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece'" a Perry Mason novel that Erle Stanley Gardner penned in 1936 when the series was relatively new. In it Mason is a bit more rakish than the stiffer 1950's lawyer that the actor, Raymond Burr, portrayed two decades later on television. Perry Mason from the 1930's took more chances with his law license, and was not above grabbing his secretary, a hottie (in the 1930's) named Della Street, and planting a big kiss on her lips while holding her in a tight embrace. Barbara Hale, the Della Street of later television fame, would have never put up with that type of office behavior from her boss!
In this story, Perry Mason is a guest in the home where a murder takes place, in fact he his sleeping in one of the bedrooms when a man is stabbed to death with a carving knife while sleeping in another bedroom. The home's owner, and Mason's host, is a wealthy industrialist who has a history of sleepwalking and carrying a carving knife as he walks around the house in his sleep. There are, as in most good murder mysteries, suspects and motives aplenty, and at one point Mason is even involved in what appears to be a rank manipulation of evidence.
The story is tight and entertaining, although it comes perilously close to being hoaky when it is revealed that there were two sleepwalkers in the house on the evening of the murder. And while the murder plot is clever and well orchestrated, the courtroom scenes are what make this drama shine. Perry Mason dances around two prosecutors and manages to resolve marriage and business issues for his client as he carefully brings all of the various story threads together and solves the murder.
"The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece" is vintage Perry Mason, and it's a riveting read!
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