The Case of the Fanciful Frail

Then you are either a genius or crazy!

It's like they took twenty plot lines, threw them out onto a table and said, "Pick ten, splice 'em together and We got us a show...".

Actually in the 50s Ford was a sponsor, he usually drove dark Ford convertibles, but once in a while he would be in black Cadillac Convertibles. I found out that the sponsor was not always Ford, and when GM was a sponsor he was in a Cadillac. In fall of 60 he started driving the new Lincoln Continental Convertible that had just came out. But by 65-66 he was in Cadillacs again. Also all through most of the 60s when he was in Continentals, and Ford was a sponsor, someone important to the story was usually driving a Buick Electra or Wildcat . Sometimes in the last year of the show, the police were driving AMC cars.

I watched this episode today and it was so different from what I expect from Perry Mason that I had to look it up. I'm not a huge follower of the show but enjoy watching it with my elderly mother so maybe there are other episodes I just haven't seen before.

I've never seen them use handheld cameras like they do here. Am I mistaken about that?

Anyway, while watching I kept getting impressions of moments in David Lynch's movies and twin peaks. The whole random meeting and switching identities and tone of the entire episode of it being so ridiculous that even the characters can't believe it. It really makes me wonder is Lynch was a Perry Mason fan as a kid.

For the second episode in a row, the writers set up a crazy situation which would be enough. But then a melange of characters enter. It starts with 50,000 dollars connected to two entities, or is it three, or is it four. Mason is confused. Drake is confused. The defendant is confused. And the solution seemed to come out of the blue.

For the most of Perry Mason's nine-season run, the series is punctuated by a vast collection of famous TV stars from the start in 1957. Their faces pop out at boomer viewers and cause us to remember and say : "Hey...he was on so-and-so as __________ ", or " She played a great witchy character in _________ ". But towards the end of the series run, it becomes very obvious to me that the stars get somewhat upstaged by "automobile counterparts", if you will. For me, as well as perhaps millions of auto buffs, the " CARS ARE THE STARS " in numerous episodes of this last season of Perry Mason. This episode, "The Case of the Fanciful Frail", from 1966, epitomizes this concept perfectly. Younger viewers may also notice this as self-serving commercialism at a glance and come to appreciate it as a kink in television history as well.

Raymond Burr always appears in a top-of-the-line , brand new convertible (or retractable hardtop). He seemed to get a new car every year. Their use conveyed his character and successful career in the series. Yet, on the other hand, the cars used in this production, almost seem to steal the camera (and perhaps some of the limelight from supporting cast.) The camera seems to dwell at times on the action of the sheet metal, instead of the actors, as it makes it's sometimes graceful way and sometimes dramatic way across the little screen in numerous scenes here and there again. Thus, it's not rocket science to figure out that one or another of the Detroit " Big 3 " sponsored Perry Mason at one time or another. Their sponsorship influence upon the screen play is obvious and cannot be overstated : to promote a popular consumerism with their product viewed fashionably and favorably. One can pick up on this easily, in "The Case of the Fanciful Frail".

I'm not spoiling it for you !

You tell me who was the commercial sponsor of Perry Mason at this particular point in time, or any of numerous other points in time, of this fabulous, behind-the-scenes, television history.

It only takes a glance.