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Perry Mason

Q&A with Lily Gardner, Author of Betting Blind

By Crime HQ

April 14, 2016

Lily Gardner, author of Betting Blind—the 2nd Lennox Cooper Mystery—was kind enough to answer some of Criminal Element's questions about her beginnings as a writer, her inspirations, and living in Portland, OR.

Let’s Not Forget Film Noir’s John Dall

By David Cranmer

December 23, 2014

John Dall (1918-1971) starred in top Hollywood productions Spartacus, Rope, and The Corn is Green, as well as the cult classic Gun Crazy. All in all, he made eight films, though unfortunately, ending his brief movie career on the campy Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1961). A handsome, charismatic actor with broad acting chops (his impressive…

Noir’s Goon Squad: Percy Helton

By Jake Hinkson

November 14, 2014

For a guy who was only about five foot two, Percy Helton was the biggest creep in film noir. He has one of those indispensible faces that is as essential to the genre as cigarette smoke and low key lighting. He’s in a million noirs, almost always playing the same guy: the creep. Sometimes he’s…

Noir’s Goon Squad: William Talman

By Jake Hinkson

October 8, 2014

We've recently featured a post on the noir career of Raymond Burr. Although he’s best remembered today as the stalwart defense attorney Perry Mason, Burr spent much of the 40s and 50s playing demented psychos and cold-eyed masterminds in film noir. It’s interesting to note, then, that William Talman—who played Perry Mason’s loyal opposition, district…

Noir’s Goon Squad: Raymond Burr

By Jake Hinkson

July 7, 2014

I loved Perry Mason as a kid, and something that I always felt without ever quite being able to put my finger on it at the time was that Raymond Burr was kind of creepy. He was the hero of the show, sure, but was there ever a TV star who was less warm and…

Lawyers on TV: The Case of the Vanishing Hero

By Robert Rotstein

May 20, 2013

At age nine, I became hooked on the legal/mystery series Perry Mason, then in its fourth year on CBS. The first episode of season 4 aired on September 17, 1960. Despite what the calendar said, it was culturally still the 1950s. Dwight Eisenhower was president (John F. Kennedy would be elected six weeks later). Most…

Secretaries’ (aka Administrative Professionals’) Day: Mystery Edition

By michael shonk

April 24, 2013

Philip Marlowe might not have had a secretary, but Sam Spade knew better. Who else do you trust to bring you the dingus but your loyal secretary? Who else can you depend on to fend off inconvenient lovers or nasty cops, and deal with dead ship captains? Dashiell Hammett’s Effine Perrine is just one of…

Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark, both plunged into the world of mystery—and one of them was a favorite for the moms!

Mother Knows Best: Mom’s Favorite Crime Fiction

By Deborah Lacy

May 13, 2012

“Listen to your mother.”  Excellent words of advice, so today on the occasion of Mother’s Day, we are going to give some of our mothers the opportunity to make crime fiction book and TV recommendations.  Of course, it just wouldn’t be right unless I started with my own lovely and talented mother whose favorite authors…

Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes from Guy Ritchie’s 2009 film

Robert Downey Jr. as Perry Mason?

By Clare Toohey

October 9, 2011

According to Variety, Robert Downey Jr. is teaming with Warner Brothers to star in a Perry Mason project to be set back in 1930’s L.A., a temptation for any director or cinematographer, I’d think.  Secretary Della Street will be there, too, and that’s also a tempting role needing plenty of pluck and red lipstick.  Will…

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