Mon 6 Feb 2012
A TV Movie Review by Michael Shonk: THEY CALL IT MURDER (1971).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[21] Comments
THEY CALL IT MURDER. TV movie, 17 Dec 1971. NBC / 20th Century Fox TV /Paisano Production. Based loosely on the book The D. A. Draws a Circle and characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner. Cast: Jim Hutton as D.A. Doug Selby, Lloyd Bochner as A.B. Carr, Jessica Walter as Jane, Leslie Nielsen as Frank, Jo Ann Pflug as Sylvia, Robert J. Wilke as Sheriff Rex Brandon, Edward Asner as Chief Otto Larkin. Written and developed by Sam Rolfe. Directed by Walter Grauman. Executive Producer: Cornwell Jackson. Associate Producer: William Kayden. Executive Story Consultant: Erle Stanley Gardner. Available on DVD and for downloading (Amazon).
This TV Movie pilot for NBC is the only time the Selby character has been adapted for TV or film. Doug Selby first appeared in Country Gentleman magazine in 1936. The first of a series of nine books, The D. A. Calls It Murder was published in 1937. This story was loosely based on the third book The D.A. Draws a Circle (1939).
There is evidence the TV movie was filmed in 1969 but did not air until December 17, 1971, and that Erle Stanley Gardner (Perry Mason) was involved. Garner died February 11, 1970, yet is credited as executive story consultant. Executive producer Cornwell Jackson was Gardner’s literary agent.
More than one reference book gives 1969 as the date made. In an article about Ed Asner (New York, March 15, 1982), Pete Hamill wrote than when Grant Tinker was casting Mary Tyler Moore in 1970 he remembered this pilot from his NBC executive days and asked Asner to read for the part of Lou Grant.
They Call It Murder was a better than average TV whodunit. Set in a small town called Madison City, Doug Shelby and Sheriff Brandon had recently won election pledging to keep the evil big city Los Angeles from taking over the town. The local Police Chief, Otto Larkin was on the other political side and supplies comedic relief. (He has his police car stolen while he is in it.)
A dead body is found in the swimming pool of Jane Antrim’s home. She shares her home with her disabled father-in-law Frank Antrim. Frank lost the use of his legs in a car accident that killed his son and Jane’s husband Brian. They are waiting for the insurance company to pay their $500,000 policy, but an insurance investigator refuses to approve the payout.
The victim did not die in the pool, but was shot elsewhere, twice, with two different guns using the same entrance hole. The first bullet killed him, but which gun fired the first bullet?
Selby spends his time interviewing suspects and potential witnesses, despite having his own “Paul Drake” aka Sheriff Brandon. The defense attorney’s “Hamilton Burger,” A.B. Carr arrives and actually beats Selby in the single very brief courtroom scene as Selby loses his fight to keep his murder suspect in Madison City jail. Instead the suspect is transferred to big city Los Angeles.
Selby realizes it all ties into the accident involving Frank and Brian a year ago. He asks his questions, nearly gets run off a mountain road by a bad guy, finds the clues and reveals all in the end.
Even Sam Rolfe (Man from U.NC.L.E., Delphi Bureau) was unable to install a personality into Hutton’s Selby. The script relied too much on the stiff boring Hutton and the equally boring Selby.
The supporting cast from the books was underused and their relationship to each other implied rather than explained. It was the relationship between Mason, Drake, Della, and Burger that made Perry Mason so much fun to watch. That was sacrificed here to focus on Selby.
I am not a fan of the puzzle mystery. I am a fan of Perry Mason but ignore the story until Mason gets involved. I rarely care who the murderer is. But this proved to be an interesting puzzle with who did it not as surprising as the twists in who did it.
There was little visually interesting about They Call It Murder, a whodunit more interested in clues than action. However the filming of the denouncement scene by director Walter Grauman was creative. As Selby explains, in voice over, what happened and who did what, the picture broke up into picture within a picture (slightly similar to the Mannix opening theme).
Fans of TV whodunits might enjoy They Call It Murder and wish it had been made a series. But the D.A. as the hero cop working for the establishment (compared to Perry Mason doing the opposite) did not have much appeal at that time. Plus, Hutton’s Selby had virtually no appeal as someone you would want to watch every week. They Call It Murder may have had a good whodunit, but it was no Perry Mason.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES:
Justice Denoted, by Terry White (Greenwood, 2003)
February 6th, 2012 at 9:43 pm
There is only one Perry Mason, and for all the reasons stated or implied. The story’s don’t matter much. Burr, Hale, Hopper and Talman clearly loved one another. Spending time with them is like being with old and gracious friends.
February 7th, 2012 at 9:47 am
The one thing I remember about this was thinking that Lloyd Bochner was well cast as the sleazy lawyer A. B. Carr.
February 7th, 2012 at 10:25 am
Barry, you say:
“Burr, Hale, Hopper and Talman clearly loved one another. Spending time with them is like being with old and gracious friends.”
I think this is also a big reason why the Perry Mason books were also so successful. Spending time with Perry, Della, Paul Drake, Hamilton Burger (and Lt. Tragg), even before the advent of the TV series, was an awfully good way to spend an evening or a day at the beach.
The Doug Selby books, of which there were nine, didn’t do nearly as well for Gardner as Perry Mason did. I’ve only read one, and my review of it (if I remembered it) would probably read very much the same as Michael’s review of the TV movie: a good whodunit but Doug Selby was the primary focus, and unfortunately he was not a particularly memorable character.
Without having a single fact to base this next statement on, I’ve also always felt that Gardner wasn’t very interested in Selby either. I think he may have found it more fun himself to write stories from the defendant’s side of the courtroom, rather than the D.A.’s office.
February 7th, 2012 at 10:29 am
Jeff
The covers of some of more recently released DVDs seem to play up Ed Asner’s appearance in the movie. It is a little hard to read, but the one I included at the bottom of Michael’s review doesn’t even mention Jim Hutton.
But you’re right about Lloyd Bochner. He seemed to specialize in sleazy roles that fit him to a T, as if they written especially for him.
February 7th, 2012 at 12:31 pm
JUSTICE DENOTED book can be found at Google bookstore. White wrote, “In mid-December 1935, the editor of “Country Gentleman” magazine offered Gardner $10,000 to produce an “acceptable” protagonist for a book-length series. Gardner turned in the final installment of “The Thread of Murder” one month later…”
“The Thread of Murder” would be retitled THE DA CALLS IT MURDER.
In SELECTED LETTERS OF RAYMOND CHANDLER(also available at google bookstore), Gardner was having one of those moments every writer has where he thinks all of his work is terrible. Chandler wrote him what I am sure Chandler thought of as encouraging words. Such as how he liked the Selby books, was trying hard to figure out where Madison City was, but thought “there is something missing.”
February 7th, 2012 at 12:44 pm
#4. Asner had a very minor role. I can’t remember a scene Hutton was not in. Next with most scenes would be Leslie Nielsen and Jessica Walter. The top picture is the best.
Oh, the book received no credit on screen. The credit read “Based on characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner.” Add Sam Rolfe’s “Written By” credit and I wonder how much of the book was used beyond the plot.
Paisano Production was involved in only two TV shows besides this one: PERRY MASON and NEW PERRY MASON.
February 7th, 2012 at 12:49 pm
When Perry Mason hit big on TV, Erle Stanley decided to turn as many of his other literary propertes into tV gold as he could. He promptly set Cornwell Jackson and his wife Gail Patrick to work on bringing his other characters, such as Cool and Lam, to TV under the Paisano Productions banner.
As far back as the early ’60s, Gardner planned on a Doug Selby, the DA series. He’d even picked out a lead: Selby was going to be played by Wesley Lau, who had just become Ray Collins’s designated pinch-hitter on Mason. I read this in a TV Guide profile of Lau; I don’t know if they got as far as making a pilot or even a presentation film. I do know that it wasn’t long after that that Collins became too ill to continue on Mason, and so Lau stayed put.
Ther are those who’ve speculated that the Selby stories didn’t have the impact of the Masons simply because Gardner, as a former defense attorney, didn’t really have any sympathy for prosecutors. The best characterization in the Selbys is that of A. B. Carr, who isn’t so much a Hamilton Burger as he is the darker side of Perry Mason – a defense lawyer who, unlike Mason, will stop at nothing to get his client off.
I don’t doubt that if this Selby pilot had sold, Lloyd Bochner as Carr would have stolen the whole series away from Hutton, or indeed any other lead actor you could name.
Looking at the pilot itself, it’s always problematical to start a series as if the characters are already established, as was the case here. Audiences seem to prefer an “origin story” as they have in comic books, bringing the characters together with the audience watching it happen. That’s more true today than ever before.
In the case of Perry Mason the characters were so well established from the books that such an acclimation wasn’t necessary (the perfect casting helped). Doug Selby wasn’t nearly as well known or popular, thereby requiring more of a set-up; by 1970 that wasn’t as favored – taking your time had given way to speed.
Perhaps a leading man who was more aggressive than Hutton might have sold this show; we’ll never know.
Anyway, it’s a good piece of TV-‘tec history.
February 7th, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Some may wonder how Hutton’s Selby compared to Hutton’s Ellery Queen. I like Jim Hutton but…
Hutton’s height was always a problem. The poor guy had to slouch at times to stay in the frame with the other actors. It limited his movement and distracted us from accepting him as an hero.
It was sad to watch Hutton’s Selby disappear from “our” attention as Nielsen, Walter, and even Robert J. Wilke stole every scene they were in.
I preferred Hutton’s Queen as the absent minded Professor to his Selby as a boring humorless stick figure.
William Link in past interviews I read over at the website “The Rap Sheet” [http://therapsheet.blogspot.com] has expressed a dislike for Hutton’s Queen.
But Hutton put more personality into Queen than Selby. I’ll let Queen book fans decide if it was the correct personality, but I liked it.
With Hutton’s Selby, having not read the books I don’t know if the problem was the character or the actor.
But I am a fan of Sam Rolfe’s writing for his ability to write with wit. Selby is the first character in any of Rolfe’s work I have seen that is not fun and interesting.
February 7th, 2012 at 1:54 pm
Talk about obscure TV films. Everything I read, Michael, concurs with your statement that this aired two years after it was filmed as a backdoor pliot, and then was repeated in 1973. Since we are giving Sam Rolfe his due (Have Gun — Will Travel, as well as U.N.C.L.E., plus The Delphi Bureau, of course), maybe we should mention the director, Walter Grauman, who helmed the pilot episode of The Fugitive and did outstanding work on such shows as Naked City, The Untouchables, Peter Gunn, and countless other crime shows. Grauman is supposedly the man responsible for jump-starting Michael Douglas’s career by getting him the gig on The Streets of San Francisco.
February 7th, 2012 at 4:26 pm
Does anyone have any idea where the technique of the picture within a picture (think the opening theme of MANNIX) was first used?
As I mentioned in the review I was impressed with Grauman’s use of the technique for the denouncement scene. Thanks David for mentioning his credits.
The talent was here for the TV Movie pilot, it just missed.
February 7th, 2012 at 6:14 pm
Well, if you’re up against Perry Mason, in book or on TV, even if you’re Gardner, you got a hard time.
I did’nt see this film, but, although it sounds interesting , with a flat paper-character as the hero, it would hardly do for a series.
The Doc
February 7th, 2012 at 6:31 pm
Undoubtedly it’s also why it sat on the shelf for a couple of years. We may be lucky it aired at all. I assume that the “name appeal” of the people in it finally made them decide to do so.
February 7th, 2012 at 6:42 pm
Split screen is an ancient film technique.It is already well-used in Suspense (Lois Weber, Philips Smalley, 1913). This is a terrific silent short widely available on several DVDs.
I really like some of the DA books. This film’s source, The DA Draws a Circle, is my favorite.
A.B. Carr, the crooked, wily, genius, devious but not malicious or small-souled villain lawyer, is a great character. The plot always thickens when he shows up.
The DA books are full of high comedy. Carr is mainly a comic figure.
February 7th, 2012 at 7:42 pm
#13. Mike. A.B. Carr played a minor role in the TV Movie. His role, as well as Sheriff Brandon and Sylvia, was horribly underdeveloped.
You could tell ABC would have been a major part of the series, but here he was an afterthought. ABC would enter have a short scene with Selby using fun malicious quips vs Selby’s humorless straight lace replies and win every time except at the end. His connection to the case was he was hired by the Antrim’s to get their insurance money.
May 13th, 2016 at 5:09 pm
l’d love to know exactly how this film got into the public domain and onto my mystery movie compilation DVD.
May 14th, 2016 at 6:31 pm
Copyright is near impossible to figure out. Copyright will lapse for various reasons. And often titles thought to be copyright free are not.
I am a fan of old comedy team Wheeler and Woolsey movies. Nearly all can be found on cheap DVDs put out by companies that specialize in copyright free titles. Except those titles were still under copyright, it was Warners didn’t care until they decided to redo its library for DVD and streaming services. So now there is the official WB DVDs to go with all those bargain bin copies once thought legal but now not.
THEY CALL IT MURDER has little value today, from a forgotten character with little appeal to modern audiences to – I suspect – a copyholder not interested enough to fight for it. My guess is the copyright holder is or was Paisano Production, a company that last production was THE NEW PERRY MASON in 1973.
November 26th, 2016 at 10:14 pm
That would be my guess, too. l will go to the copyright catalogue and look under the 1970 copyright date for the film. What is strange is that this film was made AFTER a change in the law that allowed for an extention to the statute of limitations, after renewal, from 28 to 90 years. I will then get back to you on what l find.
November 26th, 2016 at 11:40 pm
I was finally able to boot up my laptop computer Moriarty and perform a search of the copyright records from 1969 to 1971. In none of the relevant volumes from this period, including the 1970 volume, can this movie be found. I will now be checking the 1972 volume
as well.
July 27th, 2019 at 4:34 pm
I believe Paisano Productions also produced The Court of Last Resort as well. That was in conjunction with ABC Films.
July 27th, 2019 at 6:27 pm
Since Gardner created and ran COURT OF LAST RESORT it was indeed a Paisano Production. The pilot for COOL AND LAM also was from Paisano.
The DVD is available at Amazon for as low as $7.99 and is available to watch on Amazon Prime streaming service.
September 21st, 2023 at 9:52 pm
I disagree strongly with the negative take on Jim Hutton for both this film and “Ellery Queen.” Hutton works in this because there’s a lot of foreshadowing of how brilliantly he played Queen in the part. The plot was convoluted but the explanation he gives at the end works better than some of the convoluted explanations we’d always be hearing from George Peppard at the end of every episode of “Banacek” (and Peppard always had an aura of sleaze to him that Hutton never possessed)