Most of the fictional detective characters have always portrayed a tough figure, but there are only a few like Perry Mason that have been featured in crime novels. Perry Mason is a fictional character as defence attorney created by Earl Stanley Gardner.
Earl has written over 80 novels and innumerable short stories in which he featured Perry Mason and became one of the bestselling authors in the world. The character of the defence lawyer was not only appreciated in the novels, but was also positively received as a successful lawyer in the radio and television series.
Perry Mason – The Character
Perry Mason has been portrayed as a lawyer who fights desperately to win and most importantly he is always anxious about the cases that are hard to crack or are merely hopeless. The cases that he accepts are generally based upon his curiosity regarding the problem that client is facing and the financing part is also watched out by Perry himself.
In several novels, the clients or even law enforcement officers have regarded Perry as a better detective, as he entails every minute detail of the crime so as to get to the bottom and solve the mystery. Apart from this, in the initial stories and novels, the background of Perry Mason has not been made clear.
Earl himself was practicing law in California and all his experience was reflected upon in his novels where he featured Perry. From forensic medicine to deep characterization, Earl has wonderfully explained the ways and techniques used by Perry to solve the anonymity in a case which is really appreciated by the readers and viewers. Most of the novels written by Earl have a second half in which he has focused in the courtroom scenes that are quite long and clearly reveal the way of Perry Mason to deal with legal cases.
Radio and Television Series
A 15 minutes radio series was released featuring Perry Mason in the lead role making it a greatly appreciated version on the radio. Not just this, Perry also became a part of the television series “The New Adventures of Perry Mason” starring Raymond Burr which was aired from the year 1957 to 1966. The television series could not gain much popularity and so were cancelled after the first season. Then again in the year 1973, a new series was created starring Monte Markham in the lead role, but it again was not able to become successful.
After a few years, in 1985, Perry Mason was brought back to the people through the movie “Perry Mason Returns” starring Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale as Mason and Della Street, his confidential secretary, respectively. The movie was cherished a lot by the viewers making Perry famous as a defence attorney character. Many other movies were also released starring Raymond Burr like “The Case of the Notorious Nun”, “The Case of the Shooting Star”, “The Case of the Musical Murder”, “The Case of the Poisoned Pen”, “The Case of the Ruthless Reporter”, “The Case of the Fatal Fashion”, “The Case of the Skin Deep Scandal” and “The Case of the Killer Kiss” to name a few.
