I Just Watched...

[Hibi]

LMREO!!!!!!! I must've missed that one!

I always get a kick out of it, no matter how many times I've seen it.
It's at the very end just before the credits. I likely forgot a few
words of Tragg's whole beatnik speech. IIRC, Bobby Troup played
the beatnik pianist and Frankie Laine was the comic. Beatniks rarely
came off very well in PM.

I think I vaguely remember that episode now, at least that Bobby Troup was in it. (unless he was in another one) I'll watch out for it!

[Hibi]

I will put in a good word for Arty Tragg. I never got the impression that he loathed
Perry and Paul. Naturally they were on opposite sides, but for the most part Tragg
kept his cool. In some episodes he would come to Perry's office at the end and pass
along something that had made Burger mad and all of them would have a good laugh
at that. He was basically going behind Burger's back and telling tales out of school.
One of Tragg's funniest scenes was when he came to Perry's office at the end of a trial
that involved beatniks and he was leaving he said something like Don't crowd me granny
(referring to Della). I'm one of the hip ones. Dig? See you later, daddy-o. And Tragg was
much more interesting than the vanilla on white bread duo of Anderson and Drumm.

LMREO!!!!!!! I must've missed that one!

The beatnik episode that Andree is referencing is "The Case of the Jaded Joker", in which Big Sleep gal Martha Vickers plays Sheila Hayes. This was from season 2 in 1959. I must have seen it 20 times and it is a hoot. There are a few pot references in this one and as well as two coffee house scenes (the place 50 beatnik stoners would go that didn't serve booze). It is always funny to see how up-tight 50s and 60s TV shows would show this type of counter-culture.

Hopefully you can see it someday. And yes, that Tragg daddy-o line leaves Perry and Delta doing a double take.

I think I may have seen it, but I don't remember it well. I'll definitely give it second look now if it's on when I'm watching tv. At least I know the episode title now. Thanks.

[Hibi]

Who else enjoyed the cheapjack Monogram WWII propaganda "thriller" I ESCAPED FROM THE GESTAPO? Dean Jagger (when he still had hair, but it was probably a rug) plays a forger unwittingly involved with a drab bunch of B-movie Nazi saboteurs in hard g "Los Angle-eez" headed by John Carradine. We know the group is foreign because they don't, er, I mean do not, speak with contractions. The motley crew is holed up in a room attached to an amusement arcade where average Americans are strolling around eating cotton candy, oblivious to what is going on behind their patriotic backs.

While all the humdrum "intrigue" is going on, there are some half-hearted but not unwelcome stylistic noir flourishes. These unfortunately cannot elevate the entire production into anything other than a tepid exploitative bargain basement programmer.

Interesting dialogue: "Mendelssohn! I haven't heard him since the Reichstag fire"

I saw it on the schedule and recorded it! (haven't watched it yet) Didn't know it was Monogram. LOL! So I know it'll be bad going in....

[Hibi]

Ironically, the next episode we watched last night of Perry Mason was Paul Drake's Dilemma. A good episode, but not sure why it would have been rated #3. Paul is my favorite character of all on the series. As for the Final Fade Out, that was the closing episode for the series. Not as good as some others, but maybe it is #1 because it was the finale? When the witnesses are interviewed re: the murder, they are actual behind the scenes employees of the series.

I saw that one recently (Final Fade Out) and remember watching it as a kid. I've never seen the color episode though. Dunno why they never run it. (at least on MeTV)

[Allhallowsday]

PLANET TERROR (2007) Hilarious.

[Allhallowsday]

ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET (2023) Great job with an important little book. Boys had the same questions and anxieties. However, we did not have JUDY BLUME.

[CinemaInternational]

ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET (2023) Great job with an important little book. Boys had the same questions and anxieties. However, we did not have JUDY BLUME.

That was a wonderful film, one of the three best films I have seen from the decade so far. I'd argue that it was the best film about young adolescence since A Little Romance in 1979.

[Allhallowsday]

...That was a wonderful film, one of the three best films I have seen from the decade so far. I'd argue that it was the best film about young adolescence since A Little Romance in 1979.

I love A LITTLE ROMANCE too, but MARGARET is superior.

[Andree]

I think I vaguely remember that episode now, at least that Bobby Troup was in it. (unless he was in another one) I'll watch out for it!

Yeah, Bobby played the beatnik piano player with the hard to fathom monologues. I think
he was in a couple other episodes, maybe the one where James Drury played the jazz
band leader. Perry informs the bride's surprised father that Drury is not a bum but makes
a good living playing music. With FETV showing so many PM episodes daily they are in a
pretty quick rotation.

[Hibi]

I think I vaguely remember that episode now, at least that Bobby Troup was in it. (unless he was in another one) I'll watch out for it!

Yeah, Bobby played the beatnik piano player with the hard to fathom monologues. I think
he was in a couple other episodes, maybe the one where James Drury played the jazz
band leader. Perry informs the bride's surprised father that Drury is not a bum but makes
a good living playing music. With FETV showing so many PM episodes daily they are in a
pretty quick rotation.

I think there were a handful of jazz nightclub type episodes. Unsure which one I'm remembering. Yeah, suddenly Perry is on 3 or 4 cable channels now with marathons on wknds on one of them. And starting earlier on weeknights too.

[Bronxgirl48]

Who else enjoyed the cheapjack Monogram WWII propaganda "thriller" I ESCAPED FROM THE GESTAPO? Dean Jagger (when he still had hair, but it was probably a rug) plays a forger unwittingly involved with a drab bunch of B-movie Nazi saboteurs in hard g "Los Angle-eez" headed by John Carradine. We know the group is foreign because they don't, er, I mean do not, speak with contractions. The motley crew is holed up in a room attached to an amusement arcade where average Americans are strolling around eating cotton candy, oblivious to what is going on behind their patriotic backs.

While all the humdrum "intrigue" is going on, there are some half-hearted but not unwelcome stylistic noir flourishes. These unfortunately cannot elevate the entire production into anything other than a tepid exploitative bargain basement programmer.

Interesting dialogue: "Mendelssohn! I haven't heard him since the Reichstag fire"

I saw it on the schedule and recorded it! (haven't watched it yet) Didn't know it was Monogram. LOL! So I know it'll be bad going in....

Yes, Monogram can certainly be counted on to deliver the tacky goods, be it The East Side Kids with Bela Lugosi, skulking gorillas, bare-bones haunted houses, shuffling zombies, or snooze-inducing Nazi agents. But of course these are the most fun to watch as far as I'm concerned.

[Swithin]

Who else enjoyed the cheapjack Monogram WWII propaganda "thriller" I ESCAPED FROM THE GESTAPO? Dean Jagger (when he still had hair, but it was probably a rug) plays a forger unwittingly involved with a drab bunch of B-movie Nazi saboteurs in hard g "Los Angle-eez" headed by John Carradine. We know the group is foreign because they don't, er, I mean do not, speak with contractions. The motley crew is holed up in a room attached to an amusement arcade where average Americans are strolling around eating cotton candy, oblivious to what is going on behind their patriotic backs.

While all the humdrum "intrigue" is going on, there are some half-hearted but not unwelcome stylistic noir flourishes. These unfortunately cannot elevate the entire production into anything other than a tepid exploitative bargain basement programmer.

Interesting dialogue: "Mendelssohn! I haven't heard him since the Reichstag fire"

I saw it on the schedule and recorded it! (haven't watched it yet) Didn't know it was Monogram. LOL! So I know it'll be bad going in....

Yes, Monogram can certainly be counted on to deliver the tacky goods, be it The East Side Kids with Bela Lugosi, skulking gorillas, bare-bones haunted houses, shuffling zombies, or snooze-inducing Nazi agents. But of course these are the most fun to watch as far as I'm concerned.

Monogram of sainted memory produced one of the great films of all time, the first film I ever bought on video, even before I had a VCR! I'm talking about the Academy Award-nominated King of the Zombies (1941), a film which I can watch again and again. The film includes Madame Sul-Te-Wan, the first Black actor ever to sign a contract with a major studio; and Leigh Whipper, the first Black actor to join Actors Equity, and one of the founders of the Negro Actors Guild of America.

Madame Sul-Te-Wan's role of Tahama, the Cook and High Priestess, is one of the great roles in the history of the movies!


Madame Sul-Te-Wan (left); Mantan Moreland (tasting Tahama's brew); and Marguerite Whitten

[Bronxgirl48]

KING OF THE ZOMBIES! Swithin, you speak to my heart! Haven't seen that one in ages! Maybe it's on YouTube.

[Andree]

I think there were a handful of jazz nightclub type episodes. Unsure which one I'm remembering. Yeah, suddenly Perry is on 3 or 4 cable channels now with marathons on wknds on one of them. And starting earlier on weeknights too.

Yeah, I just noticed tonight that PM is also on another channel in addition to FETV.
One I always get a kick out of is from the later seasons. A skinny English kid who can
barely carry a tune and has all the charisma of a pin cushion is being groomed to be a
pop star. So hilariously untalented you feel sorry for him.

FETV does show the one color episode. It's basically an updated version of Oliver
Twist.

[txfilmfan]

I think there were a handful of jazz nightclub type episodes. Unsure which one I'm remembering. Yeah, suddenly Perry is on 3 or 4 cable channels now with marathons on wknds on one of them. And starting earlier on weeknights too.

Yeah, I just noticed tonight that PM is also on another channel in addition to FETV.
One I always get a kick out of is from the later seasons. A skinny English kid who can
barely carry a tune and has all the charisma of a pin cushion is being groomed to be a
pop star. So hilariously untalented you feel sorry for him.

FETV does show the one color episode. It's basically an updated version of Oliver
Twist.

I've seen the color episode on MeTV too, as it's the only channel on which I've ever watched PM. The distributor withheld the color episode from the syndication package for many years, for some reason.