The Court of Last Resort

I had read about this show in TV history books but also saw this program for the first time as part of Mill Creek Entertainment's "Best of TV Detectives" DVD box set. This collection features a lot of obscure and a few well-known TV detective shows, and is highly recommended for lovers of classic TV.

Court of Last Resort was very entertaining and compacted a lot of action and plot development into a half hour. Perhaps the idea of freeing the wrongly accused is where Barry Scheck & Co. got their idea for their Innocence Project? (Even though DNA testing didn't come into its own until the last 10 years.) Too bad Court of Last Resort didn't last very long, despite the cachet of creator Erle Stanley Gardner, whose more successful Perry Mason was on the air the same time. A good way to spend a half-hour.