Perry Mason
- Thread starter Chuck24
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I object!
incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial!!
incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial!!
Jeff423
US Veteran
I recently watched a few episodes and liked the plots and acting. I wondered where they got all the actors but I'd forgotten about B movies.
What bothered me were the problems with continuity. Several times I saw someone drive off in one car and arrive in another. It makes me wonder if they had a lot of stock footage and just edited some of it in. They also must have filmed all the episodes in the daytime because the "night" scenes have weird lighting and you can see distinct shadows.
What bothered me were the problems with continuity. Several times I saw someone drive off in one car and arrive in another. It makes me wonder if they had a lot of stock footage and just edited some of it in. They also must have filmed all the episodes in the daytime because the "night" scenes have weird lighting and you can see distinct shadows.
Wasn't putting a ‘sun glass’ type lens on the camera for night scenes common for almost movies and tv back in that time frame?
DWalt
Member
Yes, they just put a dark filter over the lens. And you could see shadows in the dark scenes, clouds in the sky, etc.
rockquarry
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The moon was very bright in the '50s, much brighter than today. Almost like daylight.
Jeff423
US Veteran
Thanks for that. I thought maybe they just underexposed it.
Ματθιας;142197812 said:
This.
Love the Detroit Iron they featured on the show.
LoboGunLeather
US Veteran
LoboGunLeather
US Veteran
Many studios employed actors on contracts to use in any production they were needed. Those contract actors were sometimes rented out to other producers, generating a little revenue in return for their salaries.
DWalt
Member
Back in the pre-digital film days, there were several ways to get the daylight to dark effect, and the use of different density and color filters over the lens to get the desired effect was just one of them. At present, it is probably done digitally in post-production. Just dial in the computer to provide the degree of darkness and contrast the director wants. Software like Photoshop can do that easily.
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JET4
Member
Watched "The Case of The Lavender Lipstick" last night.
I watch a lot of Perry Mason, always liked it. Almost as sterile as watching Dragnet.
In Hartford CT, there is an intersection where Raymond St crosses Burr St. So when you look at the street sign, it is Raymond one way and Burr the other. Kind of neat
In Hartford CT, there is an intersection where Raymond St crosses Burr St. So when you look at the street sign, it is Raymond one way and Burr the other. Kind of neat
The original Law & Order also kept a lot of NY's character actors busy as well.
I remember one guy who had a few lines as a shopkeeper being interviewed and I said to myself, "I recognize that guy!" It was Spiro Malas, who was also a singer. He had sung Leporello in a production of Mozart's Don Giovanni when I was singing in the Vancouver Opera chorus in the early 1980's. As I recall, he really was "a character", telling jokes and being a genial goofus backstage while waiting to go on.
Just looked him up on Wikipedia:
Spiro Samuel Malas (January 28, 1933 – June 23, 2019) was a Greek-American bass-baritone opera singer and actor.
The son of Greek immigrants Sam and Lillian Malas... The family owned Duffy's, a restaurant in Baltimore's Southwest neighborhood...
A leading bass-baritone with the New York City Opera for many years, he also sustained a career in television, having appeared in Spenser: For Hire, The Equalizer, Ryan's Hope, One Life to Live, Law & Order and Sex and the City...
The son of Greek immigrants Sam and Lillian Malas... The family owned Duffy's, a restaurant in Baltimore's Southwest neighborhood...
A leading bass-baritone with the New York City Opera for many years, he also sustained a career in television, having appeared in Spenser: For Hire, The Equalizer, Ryan's Hope, One Life to Live, Law & Order and Sex and the City...
JET4
Member
Watching "The Case of the Bartered Bikini " right now.
... Almost as sterile as watching Dragnet.
Don’t really care for “Dragnet” either. Preferred “SouthLAnd” (I know, different era...)
rockquarry
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Dragnet was good in the '50s when we didn't know what good TV was. We had very limited choices and TV was fairly new. The show didn't age well. Not good today.
Try to find a recognizable "character actor" from that general time period who never once was on Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, or Bonanza. Probably there are more who appeared in all three rather than those who were in none
Or Wagon Train
They run Perry Mason every night on MeTV. My wife and I sat through one running before it got old. I don't remember his name but the guy that played Kevin McDonald in El Dorado was a character two or three times. I remember seeing Carol Burnett once and a whole bunch of other people.
I went to the local bookstore and bought a couple of Perry Mason books but they weren't as good as the TV series because it was more like Earl Stanley Gardner was trying to prove what a great lawyer he was by writing those books.
One thing that I liked about Perry Mason and Earl Stanley Gardner was that in every episode and every book that I read the very first thing Perry Mason says to his client is "Say absolutely nothing to the police.:
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