The Case of the Restless Redhead

I am a fan of the Perry Mason TV series, Season 1-9. However, I find Season 1 to be superior for the reasons many have stated here. I also love the film noir quality of these episodes (and to some extent in Seasons 2-3). As the series progressed this aspect was lost as the production quality became more polished; something seen on television as a whole.

In Season 1, all but a handful of episodes were directly or adapted from Gardner's books. For the obvious reason he wrote a finite number, with each season we saw fewer from his works in favor of what came from the mind of the screenwriter. Many of those are fine episodes, but there was something special (at least to me) about the scripts based on the original source material.

The Case of the Restless Redhead was a great introduction to the series and the cast. It was not the first episode filmed; which was the outstanding episode, Case of the Moth Eaten Mink.

Loved it. I remember watching these as a kid . Always a family thing. The first episode, I told my wife. They had no idea of firearms safety. Smell the barrel, look down the barrel. Point them at people , wave them around..😅😅 unreal. Classic tv at its best.

This Erle Stanley Gardner based story gets this series off to a good start. Restless Redhead has just the right amount of sleight of hand and a more active Mason that it goes just for the right vein of court room drama. This first show features a Mason who takes more risks and smokes which makes sense because to build a reputation you have to start with one.

The first time we see Paul Drake in this show, Mason calls him at a poker game with some friends in a smoke filled room with Paul puffing away as well. I do not recall ever seeing Paul Drake playing poker again in the series. Still, this is symbolic of the Ace up it's sleeve CBS had here as a series. It was Mason that led the way for other great lawyer court room set series to come like EG Marshall's The Defenders.

This episode hits a full throttle. The entire series never misses a beat, even when they run short of Gardener material later on because at least one of the writing teams works with the author on later plots.

This is my all time favorite television series. I vividly remember watching it with my mom when it first aired and how much she, not a big TV watcher, enjoyed it. Since that time I have re-watched all the episodes at least once and am going through them yet once again. This first entry is a solid one and yet I do find Mason's mucking about with evidence a bit of a turn off and am glad these shenanigans were later discontinued. I agree with the reviewer who said this behavior would have worn thin very quickly. Whitney Blake ( who I most remember from the show Hazel) does a good job as the first of a long line of damsels in distress. The identity of the culprit is suitably satisfying and the court room confession actually believable. The supporting cast, especially Ray Collins as Lt. Tragg is so very good. As throughout the series, the guest actors, even those in small parts, are also excellent. There is a reason this show seems to be playing on some channel somewhere all the time.

This first case concerns a waitress who is chased down the highway in the middle of the night by a man with a pillow case over his head. She had found a gun in her apartment that does not belong to her, and with it she shoots two shots in the direction of pillow guy, his car swerves and goes off the road, and she continues on to Perry Mason's office. She is ultimately charged with murder. And of course there is a complex involved tale behind all of this.

The first episode establishes Mason's dedication to his clients. His office connects him to the waitress in the middle of the night when she calls wanting help. Perry is shown, suavely dressed even for bedtime, reading in his library. Of course he'll come to the office at 1 AM. I could find Vladimir Putin napping in my spare bedroom and my attorney wouldn't return my calls at 1AM.

Likewise, Perry's secretary Della Street is shown to be completely OK at coming into the office at 1AM, cheerful with handy coffee thermos in hand. Private eye Paul Drake is tossed a job to do with only an hour to do it in and of course he comes through. Lieutenant Tragg is grumpy right out of the gate, and notice he does not read anybody their rights at this point. The Miranda case is almost a decade in the future.

Perry Mason is a much more conservative lawyer as the series progresses. But here he takes some chances and walks right up to the edge of what the law allows. He plays games with the alleged murder weapon, and actually takes it out to the scene of the crime and fires it randomly into a tree just to mix things up and confuse the police.

A humorous moment occurs when Perry shows up at the scene of the accident/murder and the cop at the scene keeps saying - "Somebody get me a winch!" Hey, buddy. Nobody is interested in your dating needs right now!