I’m a great fan of TV detectives, and also of film noir, so I settled in to the latest incarnation of “Perry Mason”, and it didn’t disappoint. Matthew Rhys carried off the role superbly, as you’d expect if you had followed “The Americans” (and “A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood”). Sufficient money had been thrown at the production values to ensure a terrific supporting cast, great sets and locations plus, or course, the vintage cars. I had also been a fan of the old Perry Mason, as played by Raymond Burr long ago enough to be part of family memory, of sitting round the TV when it was black and white, there was no recording or time-shifting, and just the two channels.
But the two versions are very different. Burr’s Perry Mason is an established lawyer, with what seems a lucrative practice. Rhys’s version is shabby and down at heel, short of money to the point of being thrown out of his rented home at one stage. Burr’s Mason has an endless supply of well-cut suits and crisp white shirts, but Rhys is crumpled and sweaty. Personal traumas never affect the 1950s version of Mason, whereas the private life of the 2020s incarnation is just a mess. These changes were matched in the lawyer’s team. The 1950s Paul Drake was a rugged quarter back sized guy, with nothing to stop him meeting Parry’s investigatory needs: he was played by William Hopper (yes, the son of Hedda Hopper). The modern version is black, played by Chris Chalk, as brave, reliable and honest as his predecessor but bitterly plagued by the era’s endemic racism: his principles mean he has to scratch for his living, to his wife’s despair. Della Street, Mason’s PA, was archetypal 1950s TV woman, straight and white and obedient: the new version is equally competent, maybe more so. She gets more involved in the plot than the older Della. Oh, and she also has a sex life, and it’s gay.
So, which is the more accurate ? Erle Stanley Gardner, the author of the books, was himself a lawyer. He had an admirable career representing the poor and oppressed, seeking justice for the wrongly accused. He set up a pressure group – the Court Of Last Resort – to help right miscarriages of justice. He turned out 85 Perry Mason books, and other books too. At the height of his popularity, he was selling 26,000 copies a day, though his popularity waned and most of his books are now out of print. So when I wanted to find out which was the more accurate representation of Garner’s character, I had to resort to the internet and its wonderful ability to conjure up books printed on request. Off I went on holiday with “The Case Of The Stuttering Bishop”, expecting to find in it evidence of how the modern Perry Mason was just a woke rewriting of the original.
And I was wrong. The Perry Mason in the book may be less down-at-heel than today’s version, but he is willing to do things that I think would be unlawful today, and might have been so in 1936, when the book was written. He’s willing to smash an offender in the face with his fist. Evidence is found and concealed. There are things in the book that would – what’s the expression – “offend modern sensibilities”. Sadly, there is a woodpile involved as one of them. On a less offensive note, the cleric of the title is assumed to be a fraud because no-one would appoint a bishop who has a stutter. Cigarettes and whisky are never far from the action.
What else ? Hamilton Burger is not the resolute opponent of Mason he is in the early TV series: he’s willing to work together with our man, listen to explanations and change his view. Paul Drake and Della Street are as involved in the action as in the modern version, much more so than in the 1950s (though Drake is not above telling Della that women should stay out of crime detection). They are happy to argue with Perry when they think he has got some ideas wrong.
I’m not sure, when looking at literary adaptions, whether there is a lot of point arguing about what is true to the original. Shakespeare’s plots are often lifted from contemporary sources, and given a tweak or two. But in a world where we are often told that “you wouldn’t be allowed to get away with that today”, it’s good to check, and maybe find plenty of today’s stuff that is a pretty accurate version of what authors got away with in the 1930s.
Footnote: I know there have been many other versions of Perry Mason, both before and after the Raymond Burr version. Some became feature films – including “Stuttering Bishop”. There have been TV series, too. I’m sure they are workmanlike, and they have interesting features (Paul Drake is played by the real life son of the actress who played Della Street in the Burr version), but they never grabbed me like the two classic versions above.
Further footnote: I’ve been enjoying “The Lincoln Lawyer” on Netflix recently, a creation of the wonderful Michael Connelly. It struck me that there are parallels with Perry Mason. Haller has a Paul Drake figure called Cisco. He also has a Della Street character, Lorna (who is Cisco’s partner and Mickey’s ex-wife). And, of course, there are adversarial DAs who end up being drubbed in court by our hero.
Grumpy Wisdom 