Thu 24 Mar 2022
PLEASE MURDER ME! Distributors Corporation of America, 1956. Angela Lansbury, Raymond Burr, Dick Foran, John Dehner, Lamont Johnson, Denver Pyle, Russell Thorson. Director: Peter Godfrey. Available for viewing on YouTube.
As almost all of the user reviews on IMDb point out, this inexpensively made feature attraction could easily have been a dry run for Raymond Burr in being chosen for the leading role in the Perry Mason TV series the following year. A small but significant portion takes place in a courtroom, one which looks a lot like the one on Perry Mason – but then again, don’t all courtrooms in the movies or on TV look alike?
As well-known lawyer Craig Carlson, Burr plays a defense attorney in this one. Accused of murder is the woman he loves, Angela Lansbury as Myra Leeds. Dead is Carlson’s best friend, Myra’s husband, from whom she was seeking a divorce. She claims she shot him in self-defense, and with a ploy that shocks all of the onlookers in the courtroom, including a gaggle of eager reporters, Carlson makes it stick.
Then comes the truth, which I won’t reveal (but which I’ll allow you to guess), which is when the movie takes off at double speed, ending in the kind of moment that is only allowed in the movies, but which I found quite engrossing. The fancifulness of it all can easily be overlooked in light of the intensity of Raymond Burr’s character, which is almost but not quite over the top. Angela Lansbury, as a femme fatale, not so very much. In my opinion, of course.
March 24th, 2022 at 11:12 pm
You nailed both Lansbury and Burr, but as a fan of Raymond’s going back to the forties prior to his being cast in a sympathetic part, the kids in my neighborhood always looked for him. As for Lansbury, neve- although occasionally she was attractively presented. State of the Union being top of the line example.
March 25th, 2022 at 11:55 am
[…] short review of Please Murder Me! (1956) by Steve Lewis over at Mystery*File. Directed by Peter Godfrey (The Two Mrs. Carrolls) and starring Angela Lansbury (Gaslight) and […]
March 26th, 2022 at 12:47 pm
No screenplay credit on Please Murder Me?
It was written by Donald Hyde, a greatly disliked person, but the son of Johnny Hyde a well-loved agent and head of the William Morris Motion Picture Department.
Donald had a career in production and screenwriting of some note during the 1950s mainly working with Louis Hayward and Gross Krasne, which means The Lone Wolf, Mayor of The Town, O’Henry Playhouse, and Hayward’s British series, The Pursuers. Louis had purchased the screenplay, Moment of Truth by Charles Lang and pitched it to Warners, who offered him a production deal; he could play the lead, produce and direct, they would finance 100%. Hayward turned it down. Louis wanted to shoot on Mexican locations, the studio insisted the work be done on the lot. Years later Donald wrote a brilliant variation called Judgment is Mine, and I was tangentially involved in that. Wherever I went, the mention of his name brought hostility. I never met him, but Hayward liked him well enough.
March 26th, 2022 at 12:59 pm
Part Two:
Bill Alexander, who had produced The Klansmen at Paramount optioned a property from Louis in the mid-seventies, setting it up in Rome with Burton, Charlotte Rampling, and Robert Mitchum in the leads. Terence Young directing. Mitchum arrived, took one look around and took the next flight back home. He was replaced by James Coburn. There is a half-assed entry on Wikipedia under the title Jackpot. No money, no completed film. Rampling is the only person alive, and I guess she would not care to discuss this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackpot_(unfinished_film)
Raymond Burr and Perry Mason.
I got to know him in the early eighties when he working in a play called Underground. He hated Perry Mason, not because of the part or the company, but because he had trouble learning the convoluted legal jargon and he had no private time, while everyone else, Barbara and two Bills got to go home.
I said or suggested, but look at the success you had, and Raymond observed, that it was happening anyway.
March 26th, 2022 at 2:57 pm
Re comment #3. For better or worse, I don’t make it an obligatory habit to include screenwriting credit. Probably “worse.” If I recognize the name(s), I do, otherwise most likely not. I leave it to the comments to fill in my lapses in good sense.
Or in other words, thanks, Barry!
March 26th, 2022 at 7:55 pm
Interesting to see Burr as the lead in this at a time he mostly played villains and character parts in film. Of course even here Lansbury gets top billing, but structurally it is Burr’s character out front most of the time.
I’ve always wondered what Burr’s career trajectory might have been if Laird Cregar had lived. So many roles he played in major films seemed like part Cregar would have been offered.
He had to have been one of the busiest actors in Hollywood pre MASON.
March 26th, 2022 at 11:44 pm
That’s something else I wondered about while watching the opening credits. In how many of the movies that Raymond Burr made before PERRY MASON was he given star credit? He was the second lead in this one, after Angela Lansbury, but still a starring role.
March 26th, 2022 at 11:58 pm
I woudl not call Burr the second lead, he co-starred. Dick Foran was the second male lead. I believe Raymond evaluated the part, or any part in two days; the amount of money on the table and the scenario’s point of view. Certainly, Louis Hayward looked at things that way. An aside:
At CineSavant about three weeks ago, the Flicker Alley release of Repeat Performance went out, handsomely packaged and w ith many extras, but sold to the public as the rebirth of Joan Leslie as a great star. I went ballistic and along with others, wrote a scathing indictment of this approach using IMDB as a jumping-off point. I slammed the hell out of them. Worth a look.
Of course, all I wrote was factual.
March 27th, 2022 at 9:04 am
And here’s the link:
https://trailersfromhell.com/repeat-performance/