Perry Mason

RAYMOND BURR as Perry Mason.

Perry Mason proves guilty pleasure
Video Viper for July 24, 2009

What I consider the major part of the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court designate Sonia Sotomayor is when new Sen. Al Franken, formerly of "Saturday Night Live" fame, discussed the lawyer series "Perry Mason" with her.
Sotomayor said she became interested in the law by watching "Perry Mason," the dean of lawyer shows. It aired from 1957 to 1966 on CBS, returning with a new cast from 1973-74 and then in TV movies on NBC in the 1980s and 90s.
Actor Raymond Burr, the murderer himself in Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window," became synonymous with the role of Mason.
It has been described as the first television drama with the same cast each week.
But in a question which could make or break her getting on the Supreme Court, Franken asked Sotomayor which episode had Mason losing a case.
For all of those years, the plot line was much the same. We were introduced to the week's guest characters. Often one of them was particularly nasty. That person would end up murdered and Perry's client would be arrested. When the 52-minute episode was over, Perry would peg the real killer, often in a courtroom showdown, and free his client.
The fact such an incident may have happened once in the annals of real courtrooms, this happened for 271 episodes of the original series alone. Sad to say, Sotomayor failed to guess the case that Perry lost.
But Franken can't talk. He didn't know either. Fret no more. Mason lost in “The Case of the Deadly Verdict,” which first aired Oct. 17, 1963.
It is included on a DVD set, “Perry Mason 50th Anniversary Edition.”
Besides 13 episodes, it includes the TV movie “Perry Mason Returns,” which saw Burr return to the character in 1985 after 19 years.
The set includes the only color episode of the original series, episodes with a young Robert Redford, James Coburn, Adam West, Burt Reynolds, Leonard Nimoy and Margaret O'Brien.
When Burr required surgery and was laid up, Bette Davis filled in as fellow attorney Constant Doyle. That episode is also included.
If you plow through this set — and the series is addictive — you can begin checking out the entire original series, which is being released on DVD sets a half season at a time. While these include pristine, complete episodes you won't find in this quality on television, they contain no extras. So far the releases have hit season 4, disc 1. There were nine seasons, so that means half the episodes are out.
Mason originated with Earle Stanley Gardner, an attorney who found he liked writing pulp detective novels, using a dictating machine.
His books were turned into a series of B movies in the 1930s, a radio show in the 40s before hitting television in 1957. It's return to the air in 1973 with Monte Markham in the title role failed to gell with viewers and was canceled after half a season.
Some of the plot lines may appear quaint by today's standards. People are accused of murder to preserve the family's good name. Blackmail is common because someone has information that would ruin the victim.
"Perry Mason" is family friendly and retains a bit of the film noir popular in movie theaters in the 1940s. It takes on some topics you didn't normally see on TV back then, like drug addiction and out-of-wedlock pregnancies, but there is nothing that would embarrass you from watching this with younger kids.
You don't need to aspire to be on the Supreme Court to enjoy this classic series.
Heck, you don't even need to have appeared on “Saturday Night Live.”

American Madness

‘American Madness’ truly an American film

WEEKENDER VIDEO VIPER for July 17, 2009:
WALTER HUSTON tries to calm the crowd in "American Madness."

It was the Fourth of July.
After a day of picnicking, I was in the mood for something all-American.
Maybe my pristine, Blu-ray version of "Independence Day?" No, too obvious.
Ah, what can be more American than Frank Capra, the holder of the American dream when it comes to films of the 30s and 40s?
“The Premiere Frank Capra Collection” includes “American Madness,” “It Happened One Night,” “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,” “You Can't Take It With You,” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”
I decided on “American Madness,” the depression-era story of a bank and its good guys and bad guys.
Like other Capra films, I wasn't disappointed. Capra had a talent of telling a story, showing the inherent goodness of people and wrapping it up without getting too schmaltzy in the process.
"American Madness" is the story of an American bank whose manager, played by a young Walter Huston, knows how to lend money to better his community. He can sense who will use the money he lends most effectively.
The crusty board of directors disagrees. It thinks the Huston character is too liberal in his decisions, even though he has never had a bad debt.
Yet the directors want him to merge with the New York Trust and resign.
Huston's character, Thomas Dickson, won't go along and the board doesn't have the votes to force him.
But a bank employee has gambling debts and tampers with an alarm, allowing the mob he owes money to get in and rob the place of $100,000.
Pat O'Brien is Matt Brown, an ex-convict that the Dickson character believes in and makes head teller. When the robbery goes down, a security guard is killed. The Brown character is suspected.
What's worse, rumors quickly spread as the result of the robbery, that the bank is no longer solid. We see as word spreads of the $200,000 robbery, then $500,000, then $1 million and finally several million.
Employers allow their employees off work so they can go to the bank and withdraw their money.
Yes, it is a run, just like what we see more than a decade later in a Capra favorite, “It's A Wonderful Life.”
Capra works his magic, using a dolly shot of a sea of people — make that a sea of hats — as nervous patrons get frustrated and pushy, trying to get their money out.
Dickson works to get more money to the bank, knowing if it runs out of money, the bank is finished. This is 1932, before government insurance.
Something happens to shake Dickson's confidence in mankind, or to be exact, womankind, and he decides to give up and allow the board its sale.
But can it end this way? Not in a Capra film. You will see more similarities to “It's A Wonderful Life.”
From the depths of despair comes a miracle. Hey, this is America.
The entire Capra collection is worth viewing. It is suitable for the entire family and preaches what another director, Spike Lee, emphasized in another film decades later: “Do the Right Thing.”


AMERICAN MADNESS
• Directed by Frank Capra
• Story by Robert Riskin
• Runtime: 75 minutes
• Suitable for entire family
• 4 stars out of 4

American Teen

‘American Teen’ interesting documentary
JAKE TUSING is the geeky bando in "American Teen."

ROBERT LEBZELTER / Video Viper for July 10, 2009

f you are a fan of those fictional movies about life in an American high school, you should be fascinated by the real thing.

That's because Nanette Burstein's documentary following five teens in a Warsaw, Ind., high school almost looks like a fictional teen drama, rather than a documentary. It's called “American Teen.”

She follows the kids during good times and bad, from the most popular girl and the king of the basketball court to the acne-faced band geek.

Each has his or her cross to bear. Each has pressures, placed externally or internally.

Some of their problems don't seem that crucial to adults, but to these kids at this time, they are.

Hannah Bailey loses her first boyfriend when she agrees to have sex. She becomes so distraught she can't bring herself to return to school, jeopardizing her graduation.

Colin Clemens is the basketball star pushed harder and harder by his father, who by night is an Elvis impersonator. (Could anyone make this stuff up?) Dad tells Colin he must perform on the court to get that scholarship or there will be no college. It will be hello Army.

Mitch Reinholt is handsome and popular and becomes drawn to the messed-up Hannah.

Megan Krizmanich is the super popular girl who is pressured to make the grade in order to attend Notre Dame University. The only member of her family who didn't make Notre Dame was her older sister, who went down in the basement and killed herself.

Jake Tusing is the bando who is terribly shy, has a perpetually broken-out face, but vows to find himself a girlfriend.

He finds one with a new girl to the area who doesn't know his reputation for geekiness. But that relationship quickly falters.

Burstein gets to know her subjects. We learn nobody has it as good or as bad as it is perceived.

You also wonder how she got such full access to the school. We are there when the school counselor tells Hannah she needs to be back in school or she won't make it.

There is a riveting scene where her dad gets her in the car and they head for the school. Hannah tries to convince him one more day and she will be ready to go back. But he perseveres. He gets her to the front of the school, gets out and opens the door. But she simply can't face the school.

We see the kids talking and having fun. We see them drinking.

We learn what happens when one girl sends a topless photo of herself to two different guys and how the picture is sent and resent and resent and resent to many, many, many others.

Burstein also incorporates little bits of animation into the film which really aren't necessary. Her documentary skills and the kids' stories carry this movie nicely.

Find out about what high school is like, not in trendy California or New York, but in the heartland of the nation. Heck, it's almost Ohio. It's Indiana!

AMERICAN TEEN

• Written and directed by Nanette Burstein

• Rated PG-13 for language, drinking, smoking and sexual material

• Runtime: 95 minutes

• 4 stars out of 4

Salt of the Earth

'Salt of Earth' banned, but you can see it

JUAN CHAON was an amateur actor in "Salt of the Earth."

Video Viper for July 2, 2009

The 1954 film "Salt of the Earth" was given the trailer: Banned! The film the U.S. government didn't want you to see!
Now this wasn't because of heavy sex or violence. It's because most of the people involved in it were labeled Communists for their pro-labor stance.
The film has almost a documentary style that may put you off at first. It is a sort of grainy black and white.
What's more, many of the actors are amateurs. The only person you may recognize is Will Greer of "Waltons" fame. He plays the sheriff of a New Mexican mining town where the Hispanic workers strike to gain parity with Caucasians.
The film may be more than a half-century old, but its themes of racial equality and equality of the sexes remains contemporary.
The movie is about the actual Empire Zinc Mine strike. Hispanic workers were concerned about cuts (sound familiar) in workers that could result in even unsafe conditions. Hispanic workers were paid less and weren't given proper safety considerations. Miners worked alone and there weren't proper lookouts to warn people about possible cave-ins.
To the men, there was a less-important consideration as well, the lack of proper sanitation, that is, hot water.
The women, subservient to the men, spent much of their days chopping wood to make a fire to heat water for washing, bathing and cooking.
But the men didn't want to add it to the negotiations because it wasn't as important as safety.
But when an accident happens, the men go on a long, struggling strike and things change.
First off, the site of all of those miners on the picket line kept scabs away. But still, the company didn't negotiate.
It had the sheriff's department and the judicial system in its pocket.
Rosaura Revueltas plays Esperanza Quintero, the wife of a miner. She stays in the background but when the company gets an injunction banning picketing by the miners, the women realize they can go on the picket line instead. She suddenly finds herself a leader in the cause.
Revueltas, by the way, was branded a Communist and deported. She was a popular actress in Mexico. This proved to be her only American film.
Her husband was played by Juan Chacon, an amateur actor who was part of the strike
The women proved tenacious in their quest. When the company plowed into their ranks with Jeeps, they remained stoic. They sang and chanted in jail until released.
Meanwhile, the macho men had to care for the children and do the washing and yes, learn that hot water is important.
The company tried evicting them from their homes, dumping their belongings outside. But thanks to the women, they were again thwarted.
The film was added to the National Film Registry in 1992. It went into the public domain in 1982 and can be watched on the Internet Movie Dataplace web site, www.imdb.com. Just do a search for the film.
The amateurs and professionals do a stellar job in this compelling story. You really feel like you are watching this take place.
If you are in a union and need to rally the troops, this would be a fine choice to handle the task.
In today's economic times, "Salt of the Earth" is a great choice to see what life could be like a half-century ago.

SALT OF THE EARTH
Directed by Herbe J. Biberman
Written by Michael Biberman and Michael Wilson
Runtime: 94 minutes
In English and Spanish
Not rated but has intense moments, rock throwing, no profanity
3.5 stars out of 4