Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The Case of The Blushing Pearls, Tuesday Flashback Feature, Perry Mason

This is part of my Tuesday Flashback Feature. We reminisce about classic TV shows usually from the 1950s-1970s where gemstones or pieces of jewelry featured prominently in the storylines.

Perry Mason
The Case of the Blushing Pearls
Oct. 24, 1959

Wealthy businessman, Hudson Nichols' son, Grover has been seeing a lot of Mitsuo Kamuri. Hudson doesn't like this at all. Mitsuo is "caught" with a string of valuable pearls belonging to Grover's mother!

The truth is that Hudson has framed her! He says he'll absolve her if she'll break off her relationship with his son. Grover tells his father that he's going to marry Mitsuo. She consults Perry Mason, who tries to intervene.

Ito Kamuri, Mitsuo's uncle, who had originally strung the pearls and has made
Raymond Burr shows Dennis Hopper
where it happened
two sets of false pearls is found dead, having apparently committed hara kiri, a suicide ritual which originally was reserved for the Samurai.

The police don't believe it's hara kiri. Perry and Lt. Tragg believe that the uncle was murdered. Mitsuo is charged with the crime and Perry must solve the mystery of who has the real pearls. 

Mason cleverly fools everybody at the court room when he figures out there are two fake necklaces and a real necklace involved in the murder. Mason impresses and baffles the opposing attorney and Lt. Tragg with his courtroom skills in this episode.

Each Tuesday, we'll feature a different show, often a US sitcom. Information, including spoiler plot outlines come from various sources.

Particularly when the episode hasn't been recently viewed personally, information will be as accurate as possible. When available, a show photo will be included.

I'm always interested to hear your memories. In the interest of supporting fellow artists, I'll be featuring a few shops where the pieces tie into the general theme of the featured story.

Perry Mason was a courtroom drama that began on radio and then ran on television from 1957 to 1966. Another series ran in 1973-74. Several made-for-tv movies were made in the 1980s and 90s. The program stemmed from a Perry Mason Mysteries series of books by the author, Erle Stanley Gardner.

As we saw last Friday with Monk's The Big Reward, police, lawyer and mystery-based shows have their fair share of plots concerning gemstones and jewelry.

As so many comic situations could be thought of around jewelry mishaps, many situations revolving around murder, mayhem, money, madness and malfeasance have been the stuff of mysteries for years.

The radio episodes of the show are fun and can be listened to any time. Perry Mason Radio Show - Mp3 on DVD and also Perry Mason Old Time Radio will whet your appetite.

Catch up with the show on video. Perry Mason (50th Anniversary Edition) or maybe Perry Mason: Seasons 1-4. Do they make them like this any more? Take a look on Amazon.

Read all about it. Try I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason or maybe Case Of The Screaming Woman (Perry Mason Mysteries).

Another book is about Raymond Burr: A Film, Radio and Television Biography, who played Perry Mason on television.

Enjoy the Perry Mason radio shows on MP3. "The Perry Mason of radio would rather swap gunshots with evildoers than sit in a boring courtroom, waiting for the deliberation! Geared more towards action than courtroom drama, Perry Mason ran 12 seasons and later led to the development of the now-popular Raymond Burr television show, which started in the late 1950s."

A young George Takei (Sulu on Star Trek) is featured in a solid supporting role where he is near the murder victim and at the same time has a major relationship with Mason's defendant. This appearance was at least six years before Star Trek.


Old Shanghai Women's Kimono Robe - Peacock & Blossoms (Long or short)
 
This is one of the best times of year to shop at Etsy for those special items that you won't find anywhere else.

A young George Takei (Sulu on Star Trek) made an appearance in this episode of Perry Mason.  

Think about this Kant quote... Judge the heart of man by his treatment of animals. 

Barbara Hale, who played Della Street, was surrounded by television good guys. Perry Mason was her tv boss. Then her real-life son, actor William Katt, played Paul Drake, Jr. in some of the later Perry Mason TV Specials. Katt is also remembered as TV's Greatest American Hero.

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