Forgotten TV: The New Perry Mason

Monte Markham in the title role of The New Perry Mason

Perry Mason, the lawyer created by Erle Stanley Gardner, has been adapted many times. The most popular version was the 1957-66 television series that aired on CBS and starred Raymond Burr as Mason.

After that show ended, CBS yearned for something that had a similar appeal. Finally, in the fall of 1973, CBS commissioned The New Perry Mason.

Actor Monte Markham inherited the role that made Raymond Burr famous. Other key characters were recast including district attorney Hamilton Burger (Harry Guardino), Della Street (Sharon Acker), private investigator Paul Drake (Albert Stratton) and Lt. Arthur Tragg (Dane Clark).

However, behind the camera, there were veterans of the Burr series. The producers were Ernie Frankel and Art Seid while Orville H. Hampton was story editor. Gail Patrick (formerly Gail Patrick Jackson), executive producer of the Burr show, had an executive consultant credit.

One major change: The 1957-66 show was an in-house production of CBS. The new show was made at 20th Century-Fox. The new series would not use Fred Steiner’s classic theme music. Instead, Earle Hagen provided the music, including a new theme.

Things didn’t work out. According to IMDB.COM, The New Perry Mason only ran 15 episodes.

In 1985, Perry Mason was revived yet again with the made-for-TV movie Perry Mason Returns. Raymond Burr was back after Della Street (Barbara Hale) was framed for murder. Perry, who had become a judge, resigns to defend Della. The TV movie aired on NBC and led to a series of other Perry Mason TV movies that lasted into 1993. This time, the classic Fred Steiner theme was included.

Trivia: Actor Richard Anderson was in the 1957-66 show during the final season as Lt. Steve Drumm. He appeared in The New Perry Mason as one of Perry’s clients. And he was in Perry Mason Returns.

A number of episodes of The New Perry Mason have turned up on YouTube. Here’s one:

The Guardian critiques Mission: Impossible 7

Poster for Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One

The Guardian is out with an examination of how Mission: Impossible 8 has been pushed back a year to 2025. The story looks at how things went badly (in terms of box office)

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One came out in July. There were high expectations. Producer/star Tom Cruise’s previous film, Top Gun: Maverick captured almost $1.5 billion at the global box office. Could that spill over to Cruise’s seventh M:I movie?

The answer: No. The blog observed earlier that this year’s Mission: Impossible installment failed to break out beyond the core M:I movie audience. It didn’t help that M:I 7 had a limited run at higher-priced IMAX theaters before Barbie and Oppenheimer came out.

Here are the numbers for the last two M:I entries, via Box Office Mojo:

Mission: Impossible Fallout (2018): $791.7 million (global), $220.2 million (U.S.)

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One (2023): $567.5 million (global), $172.1 million (U.S.)

What’s more, the budgets exploded between the two M:I films. There were delays because of COVID-19 and other issues. According to Variety, Mission: Impossible 8 still has scenes to finish, a process affected by the SAG-AFTRA strike.

An excerpt from The Guardian:

And if the Mission: Impossible films are going to make money again, this can only mean one thing: they need to become a lot cheaper, and fast. There are ways to scrape away at the edges of the budget, of course. They could make the next one in fewer locations, and pare down the cast to its bare bones. But the big money-suck on the Mission: Impossible films are the stunts. I hate to say it, but these might need to be trimmed back. 

Mission: Impossible is hardly alone in dealing with expanding production budgets. No Time to Die’s budget got to the $300 million range (if not above), not including marketing costs. Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel has seen budgets for both films and TV shows expand. Warner Bros.’s DC Films also has seen increases in costs.

What happens now? Who knows? Every so often, studios are like alcoholics coming back from a bender. They vow to spend money more carefully in the future. Yet, that often doesn’t happen.

Major Matt Mason? Really?

Mattel has scored a big financial success with the new Barbie movie, a Warner Bros. film based on Mattel’s doll that debuted in 1959.

The Above the Line website had a story this week about how Mattel is moving forward with a slate of as many as 14 movies. The slate includes the likes of Polly Pocket, Hot Wheels, and Magic 8 Ball.

But one caught my eye, mostly because it was part of my childhood and partly because it’s not well known today.

That would be Major Matt Mason, an astronaut toy from the 1960s, introduced in the midst of the U.S.-Soviet Union space race.

Barbie (and related dolls) were about 12 inches tall. Major Matt Major was half (or less) tall. He was made of rubber with a skeleton of wire that enabled moving arms and legs into different positions. Except the interior wire often broke leaving Major Matt Mason limp. The major also had other astronauts, including sidekick Sgt. Storm.

Along with the astronaut figures, there were other vehicles and a space station.

The problem, for Mattel, was interest in Major Matt Mason waned after the 1969 U.S. moon landing.

As it turns out, a Major Matt Mason project has been kicking around for years, according to a 2019 story by The Playlist. According to that article, Tom Hanks was attached to star, from a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman.

Now that Barbie is a hit, I suppose anything is possible.

Michael Reed, OHMSS director of photography, dies

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, photographed by Michael Reed

Michael Reed, who photographed On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, has died at 93, according to various James Bond websites.

Reed was director of photography on a Bond film with various “one and done” participants.Star George Lazenby and director Peter Hunt were the others. Hunt had previously edited and/or was second unit director on the five previous 007 movies made by Eon Productions. But Hunt would never direct another Bond film.

First-time director Hunt turned to Reed, a veteran of British television, to photograph Majesty’s. Reed had photographed episodes of The Saint with Roger Moore, including a two-part story that was re-edited into The Fiction Makers. Hunt also hired another British TV veteran, John Glen, who had edited episodes of Danger Man, to be editor and second unit director.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service had a different look than previous Eon Bond films. A recurring motif was the use of the color purple in a casino sequence and later at Blofeld’s Switzerland laboratory.

After OHMSS, Reed’s many credits included episodes of The New Avengers, a 1970s revival of the 1960s TV show. Another Bond alumnus, art director Syd Cain, also worked on The New Avengers.

Lazenby, on his official Twitter feed, wrote a tribute to Reed:

Sad to hear that Michael Reed, who photographed my Bond movie, has passed away. He literally made me – and everyone else in OHMSS – look good. I remember his calm presence on set. His work will endure. Condolences to his family. Love George xxx https://t.co/G8rlhMvxSX

— George Lazenby (@lazenbyofficial) December 20, 2022

Licence to Kill treatment: A knock on the door

Licence to Kill’s poster

Continuing the blog’s examination of a March 1988 treatment by Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson. Thanks to Gary J. Firuta.

Felix Leiter is seriously wounded and his bride, Della, is dead. James Bond observes the authorities investigating the crime scene.

Bond picks up a clue more easily than he would in the final film. Bond spots “a single diskette on the floor” and “pockets it” before the police see it.

Bond then goes to the Harbor Master’s office and “hands a message written on a telex form to a pretty girl operator.”

The message begins, “Urgent to Universal Exports, London.” The operator then remarks, “The rest is gobbledygook. What are you? Some kind of secret agent?”

“Just terminating a contract,” Bond replies. “Don’t want the competition to get wind of it.”

Jericho, Leiter’s friend, is waiting for Bond outside the office. Jericho tells Bond how difficult it is to find large sharks. “Ask the boys over at Krest’s. His business is selling rare fish to zoos and aquariums all over the world.”

Bond asks Jericho if Krest keeps sharks. “Great big ones,” Jericho replies. “In a pen under his warehouse.”

In the finished film, things wouldn’t be that easy. Bond and Sharkey visit a number of places looking for possibilities where Leiter may have been attacked. Bond talks to Milton Krest and spots a carnation on the floor, which tells the agent this is where the attack occurred.

In the 1988 treatment, Bond and Jericho pay a visit to Krest’s place, with Jericho piloting his fishing boat and towing “a tarp-covered dory on a long rope.” Bond is under the tarp and, with some trouble, enters the warehouse.

What follows is similar to the final film, including tossing a guard into a bed of maggots. “The guard’s body heaves among the maggots,” the treatment says.

Killifer, the DEA agent who accepted Sanchez’s bribe, gets the drop on Bond. But things go awry for Killifer and Bond gets the advantage. Killifer falls into the shark pen.

As Bond leaves, he pulls a fire alarm near the rear exit. Jericho is waiting outside in his fishing boat. As Bond boards, Jericho spots money in the water “amidst a cloud of blood.”

“Forget it,” Bond tells Jericho. “It’s blood money.”

The next morning, Bond is at a rented house. He’s on the telephone. Jericho, via other fishermen, has discovered Krest is on his yacht near the end of the Florida Keys. Bond will meet Jericho at his boat. Bond hangs up.

Then, there’s a knock on the door. It’s M.

“What’s this about resigning, Double-O-Seven?”

TO BE CONTINUED

Bond concert scheduled for Oct. 4 in London

Logo for James Bond concert

A charity concert featuring songs from the James Bond film series has been scheduled for Oct. 4 at Royal Albert Hall in London, according to the venue’s website.

Here are the details.

Celebrate 60 years of the James Bond film franchise with a charity concert that will showcase the iconic music of Bond, headlined by the legendary Dame Shirley Bassey.

Curated by five-time Bond composer David Arnold and produced by EON Productions, the concert will feature Bond soundtrack artists including Garbage, as well as special guests including Celeste, putting their own interpretation on classic theme songs, backed by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Dodd.

The date marks the anniversary of the world premiere of the first 007 film, Dr. No held on 5 October 1962.

More special guests to be announced

Bassey’s Twitter account helped announce the news.

To celebrate 60 years of Bond, I will be joining some other wonderful artistes to perform, for one night only, at the Royal Albert Hall!

The Sound of 007 In Concert is taking place on Tuesday, October 4th.https://t.co/yjbHBDWpaO

— Dame Shirley Bassey (@shirleybassey) July 28, 2022

Shirley Bassey performed the title songs for Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker. All had music by John Barry with Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley, Don Black and and Hal David doing the lyrics.

David Arnold composed the scores for Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

NTTD’s reactions from its co-stars

No Time to Die poster

h/t to MI6.HQ.COM which compiled this.

Daniel Craig’s James Bond met his end in No Time to Die. If Craig’s co-stars are to be believed, they had no idea this was happening.

Lea Seydoux, Den of Geek: “I still can’t really believe that that’s what they decided, that he’s gone…It made me sad, actually, it made me really sad…But I hope they will find a new way to—you know they will find something else.”

Naomie Harris, Radio Times: “Because there’s so much secrecy around all of the Bond movies, I thought, ‘Is this a joke? Am I being sent, like, the wrong ending, and then they’re gonna send me a new one?’. I really thought that, because I just thought… this doesn’t happen. Bond doesn’t die. It’s sacred that Bond should never die.”

A reminder: No Time to Die’s script began development in 2017. That’s when Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine met his end in a film. Earlier, Craig and Jackman had appeared together in a play in New York.

Prior to No Time to Die, Craig’s Bond had unhappy endings. At the end of SPECTRE, he finally (or so it seemed) had a happy ending with Seydoux’s Madeline Swann. Instead, No Time to Die threw that out the window.

No Time to Die’s Oscar push is underway

No Time to Die poster

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists Releasing (the MGM-Annapurna joint venture that distributed No Time to Die in the U.S.) are inviting people to screenings of No Time to Die in Los Angeles and New York as part of a push to get the 25th James Bond movie Oscar nominations.

The Los Angeles screenings are today (Nov. 5), Nov. 12, Nov. 13 and Nov. 15. The New York showings are Nov. 14, Nov. 18 and Nov. 24.

The invitations include “FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION IN ALL CATEGORIES” including:

BEST PICTURE: Michael G. Wilson, p.g.a, Barbara Broccoli, p.g.a. (That’s Producers Guild of America)

BEST ACTOR: Daniel Craig

BEST DIRECTOR: Cary Joji Fukunaga

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Purvis, Wade, Fukunaga, Waller-Bridge

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Malek, Waltz, Wright, Fiennes, Whishaw, Magnuson

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Seydoux, Lynch, Harris, de Armas.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

BEST EDITING

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

BEST SOUND

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE (listing only Hans Zimmer, not Steve Mazzaro, his co-composer)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

This is the summary of the movie included in the invitations:

Daniel Craig concludes his five-film portrayal of James Bond in NO TIME TO DIE, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. Joining forces with his MI6 team (Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, and Naomie Harris) and a new generation of agents (Lashana Lynch and Ana de Armas), Bond faces the highest stakes of his espionage career confronting a global threat devised by Safin (Rami Malek) that has estranged his beloved Dr. Madeline Swann (Lea Seydoux) and emotionally explores the sacrifices of heroism. The adapted screenplay is by Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and Cary Joji Fukunaga and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. The original song “No Time to Die” is written and sung by Billie Ellish.

About some of those Oscar ‘In Memoriam’ folks

Robert Osborne, who made an Oscars “In Memoriam,” in the pilot of The Beverly Hillbillies.

Over the weekend, the BAFTAs came out with its “In Memoriam” segment. Diana Rigg didn’t make it, apparently because the BAFTAs considered her a mere “television actor.” Meanwhile, the general public sometimes gets upset when familiar actors don’t make the cut for the “In Memoriam” segments of the BAFTAs and Ocars while insiders do.

To keep this post manageable, here are a list of Oscar “In Memoriam” entries largely unknown to the general pubic from recent Oscars telecasts.

2020 Oscars: Gerry Lewis, “marketing executive”: Lewis was “the British marketing and publicity expert who promoted such films as Alfie, Love Story and The Godfather before spearheading international campaigns for Steven Spielberg efforts from Duel to Ready Player One,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

2019 Oscars: Pierre Rissent, “an important behind-the-scenes figure at the Cannes Film Festival and, as a result, an influential shaper of cinematic trends and directors’ careers for half a century,” according to The New York Times. Also, Paul Bloch, a publicist “adept at putting out fires in Hollywood,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

2018 Oscars: Robert Osborne, TCM host and earlier writer for Hollywood trade publications. He acted a bit including a small part in the pilot for The Beverly Hillbillies (a TV show, not a movie). Also, Joe Hyams, a long-time Warner Bros. publicity executive, according to Deadline: Hollywood.

William P. Cartlidge, crew member on 3 Bonds, dies

William P. Cartlidge (1942-2021)

William P. Cartlidge, a key crew member on three James Bond films directed by Lewis Gilbert, has died at 78, His death was noted by the “Sir Roger Moore (Legacy)” Twitter account maintained by the assistant of the late actor.

Cartlidge was assistant director on You Only Live Twice (1967) and associate producer on The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).

Cartlidge was an entertaining presence on the home video documentaries about the making of those Bond films. For example, he described how many cars were needed to make the submarine car sequence in The Spy Who Loved Me work. In some cases, one car was needed to capture just one shot.

Also, in another video, Cartlidge described how he attempted to talk down the price of the stunt crew. It didn’t work. In all of those videos, he tells his anecdotes in an entertaining way.

Titles on films and TV shows often don’t describe a crew member’s full contributions. In the case of three Bond films he worked, Cartlidge assisted sprawling productions get completed.

According to Cartlidge’s IMDB.COM ENTRY, his other credits included such diverse projects as the Gilbert-directed Educating Rita (as co-producer) and Not Quite Paradise (sharing the producer credit with Gilbert).