Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2081 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-06-19
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 769 minutes

Amazon.com
There's something about Perry! Perry Mason, as a canny 14-year-old remarks in the episode "The Case of the Pint-Sized Client," is "the best lawyer in town." Here's the evidence. In 15 chronological second-season episodes from the classic series by which all lawyer shows are judged, Los Angeles attorney Perry Mason successfully defends a host of clients so seemingly guilty that Nancy Grace would have had them incarcerated by the first commercial break. Created by Erle Stanley Gardner, Mason was already a popular character in books, films, and radio before coming to television in 1957, and Raymond Burr, usually typecast as a heavy in feature films, did Mason justice (Mason was ranked 28th on the Bravo network's list of television's 100 best characters). Punctuating his sentences with that dramatic intake of breath, Burr's Mason exudes gravitas and expertise. He gets capable support from Barbara Hale as his secretary, Della Street, and William Hopper as private detective Paul Drake.

In what may be television's most thankless role, William Talman costars as district attorney Hamilton Burger, who nearly every week loses what looked to be an open-and-shut case, usually as the result of some dramatic surprise witness (in one episode, a parrot!), an unorthodox legal maneuver, or a cross-examination courtroom confession ("I didn't mean to kill him, your honor"). There is no delving into Mason's private life, although one episode hints at Mason being something of a ladies man. When Della suggestively tells him a new client is in his waiting room, he replies, "Blonde or brunette?" Cleverly plotted, and infused with a palpable noir sensibility , Perry Mason holds up as more than TV Land nostalgia, although it is fun to see such familiar faces as Jesse "the Maytag Repairman" White, Edgar Buchanan (Petticoat Junction), and Joseph Kearns and Herbert Anderson from Dennis the Menace. No extras, but these entertaining episodes will definitely please the court. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

Aging well
My evidence professor at the University of Georgia Law School was an expert on scientific evidence who had taught many years at the University of Southern California. Professor Ball knew Erle Stanley Gardner well, and would sometimes have him speak to his classes there.

Ball was somewhat dismissive of Gardner however saying that Gardner would insist on talking about how individual blood droplets at a crime scene could point to the killer. Time has proven that Gardner was right and that blood splatter evidence even in pre-Dexter, pre-DNA days could be effectively used to convict murderers. The best real life example of this is contained in Joe McGinniss' classic account of the investigation of Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald.,[ASIN:0451165667 Fatal Vision]],

My point is that Perry Mason has aged well. This enormous collection of episodes, many based on original work by Gardner, shows Mason continuing his incredible victory streak over Hamilton Burger, who in today's legal climate would be run out of town on a rail in the manner of Marcia Clark and Chris Darden.

Trial lawyers understand that no DA ever gets it as wrong as Burger and no lawyer can hope to represent only the falsely accused. Mason's show gives us something to savor and learn from. Mason's success is the product of incredible preparation and mastery of details. Even if the experts (like Professor Ball) think something can't be done, Mason is unafraid to try. This is what separates real lawyers from cartoon lawyers like Denny Crain.

Forty years from now, people will still be watching Perry Mason. You can't say that for Boston Legal - Season 2.

love it
I absolutely love Perry Mason and all the characters. I have watched it since the series was first on tv. Quess that makes me real old. I don't care because there is nothing on like it today.

Perry Mason -Season 2, Vol. 1
I have enjoyed Perry Mason, Season 2, Vol.1. I forgot how "good" these episodes were. I was wondering if they would hold my interest as they use to. They did, and were even better than I remember. They hold their own with today's similar programs.