New mural on Erle Stanley Gardner, Malden, MA.

Malden, MA, has honored its native son, author-attorney Erle Stanley Gardner, unveiling a mural by Fred Seager on May 19 that pays tribute to the Perry Mason mysteries. It is located on the Bike to the Sea bike path in Malden. Gardner was born in Malden in 1889, moving to California with his family when he was 10 years old.

Mural by Fred Seager in Malden, MA, honoring the Perry Mason mysteries
by Erle Stanley Gardner. Photo: Malden's Ward 3 Councillor Amanda Linehan

Rumpole and client self-determination.

Leo McKern as the titular character in
the TV series Rumpole of the Bailey

In St. Mary's Journal on Legal Practice & Ethics, Thomas Bulleit—a former partner in the law firm Ropes & Gray—looks at the role of client self-determination and the ways that this may conflict with the barrister's aims in John Mortimer's Rumpole of the Bailey short stories. (hat tip to Law & Humanities blog)

Perry Mason and Della Street: Colleagues or more?

Donald Woods as Perry Mason
and Ann Dvorak as Della Street
in The Case of the Stuttering
Bishop (1937)

Over on Owlcation, Ronald E. Franklin discusses the burning question: were Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason and Della Street romantically involved?

A glimpse of Anna Katharine Green.

Anna Katharine Green, n.d. NYPL.

On her website, writer Patricia Meredith provides a 21 July 1889 Daily Inter Ocean article by Mary Hatch, "An American Gaboriau," that provides an interesting personal look at pioneering American mystery author Anna Katharine Green (The Leavenworth Case, etc.). Hatch, a cousin of Green's sister-in-law, had a warm friendship with Green, and as Green was not fond of being interviewed, Hatch's insights are valuable. Hatch calls Green "a tall, graceful girl" who "learned the art of expressing herself with grace, accuracy, and poetic finish."

In praise of R. Austin Freeman.

In Hektoen International: A Journal of Medical Humanities, pulmonologist Anthony Papagiannis offers a short appreciation of R. Austin Freeman (inverted mystery master, physician, and creator of Dr. John Thorndyke, 1862–1943): "[H]e does equally well in reciting the chattering of the neighborhood gossip, a flowery legal oration, or a layperson’s rather dumb testimony and cross-examination at court. His details, both medical and legal, are meticulous and stand up to the knowledge of his era."

Remembering Brian Dennehy: Perfect Witness (1989).

Amid the large body of work of veteran actor Brian Dennehy, who died on April 15, is the TV movie Perfect Witness (1989),  in which he appears as a district attorney wishing to prosecute a mob killing, but the witness (Aidan Quinn) faces threats to his family.

Clues 37.2: Interwar mysteries.

The volume 37, no. 2 (2019) issue of Clues has been published, which is a theme issue on interwar mysteries guest edited by Victoria Stewart (University of Leicester, UK). See below for the abstracts. To order the issue, contact McFarland.

Ebook versions available: GooglePlay, Kindle, and Nook.

Introduction / VICTORIA STEWART. The guest editor of Clues 37.2 on interwar mysteries discusses its contents, including articles on Agatha Christie, Mary Fitt. Ngaio Marsh, Clifford Orr, Raymond Postgate, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Josephine Tey.

Detecting Histories, Detecting Genealogies: The Origins of Golden Age Detective Fiction / STACY GILLIS (University of Newcastle, UK). This article traces interwar attempts to define detective fiction, with an emphasis on how critics such as Dorothy L. Sayers, H. Douglas Thomson, and T. S. Eliot traced its origins in classical, biblical, and more recent texts. It argues that this demonstrates an anxiety relating to conceptions of literary taste on the part of these commentators.

“The Ghost of Dr. Freud Haunts Everything Today”:
Criminal Minds in the Golden-Age Psychological Thriller / STEFANO SERAFINI (Royal Holloway, University of London). This essay provides new insights into the development of interwar crime fiction by investigating how, and to what extent, two such apparently irreconcilable subgenres as the classic detective story and the psychological thriller interact and intertwine in the work of often-neglected Golden Age writers.

Killing Innocence: Obstructions of Justice in Late-Interwar British Crime Fiction / J. C. BERNTHAL (University of Cambridge). This article analyzes Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and Raymond Postgate’s Verdict of Twelve, both written toward the end of the interwar period and published at the outset of World War II. Christie and Postgate interrogate ethics in the British criminal justice system, using the figure of the child-victim to complicate interwar constructions of innocence.

Capital Punishment and Women in the British Police Procedural: Josephine Tey’s A Shilling for Candles and To Love and Be Wise / EVIE JEFFREY (University of Newcastle, UK). This article considers Josephine Tey’s engagement with contemporary capital punishment debates through considering the phenomenon of the “wrongful” arrest. It argues that women are central to the exploration of these debates, particularly when reading the novels as part of the subgenre of police procedurals within the Golden Age of detective fiction.

Moment of Indiscretion (1958).

In Moment of Indiscretion, a woman faces a murder charge when she will not reveal where she was at the time of the crime.

The Franchise Affair (1951).

In Josephine Tey's The Franchise Affair, lawyer Michael Denison investigates when his client (Dulcie Gray, Denison's wife in real life) is accused of the kidnapping of a teenager. Kenneth More costars.

The Judge (1949).

In The Judge, an attorney feels remorse for the criminals freed by his defense work and seeks revenge on a police psychiatrist, who had an affair with his wife.

ABA Journal's 25 greatest legal movies.

As the Law & Humanities blog highlights, the ABA Journal has selected the 25 Greatest Legal Movies. Its choices include Criminal Court (1946), The Lincoln Lawyer (based on the book by Michael Connelly, 2011), Loving (2016), Michael Clayton (2007), The Post (2017), Spotlight (2015), and 12 Angry Men (1957).

Inquest (1939).

When a woman is accused of killing her husband, a courtroom battle ensues between her barrister and the coroner. Directed by Ray Boulting, the film is based on the play of the same name by Michael Barringer.

Raymond Burr talks about Perry Mason (1959).

Raymond Burr as Perry Mason
with Barbara Hale as Della Street

In this 1959 interview with CBC Radio, Raymond Burr talks about the busy schedule of the Perry Mason TV series and his feelings about his character. "I think [Perry Mason] is a many-faceted individual," says Burr.

An Act of Murder (1948).

Frederic Marsh and Florence Eldridge in An Act of Murder

When the wife (Florence Eldridge) of a judge (Eldridge's real-life husband Frederic Marsh) is diagnosed with an incurable illness, the judge makes a difficult decision. Costars include Edmond O'Brien and Geraldine Brooks. The film is based on Ernst Lothar's The Mills of God (1935).

Alafair Burke on the legal system in fiction.

In Why Fiction? in the New England Law Review, Alafair Burke—a law professor at Hofstra University as well as fiction writer—explains why she writes about the law through fiction. As Burke notes:

the work of a novelist depicting our criminal justice system in fiction is not wholly separate from the work of studying the criminal justice system in actuality. Whether an author realizes it or not, it is impossible to create an interesting, albeit fictional, depiction of the criminal justice system, without having something interesting to say about its real-world counterpart. (2)

(thanks to the Law & Humanities blog)

Brown's "Leaves of an Hour" exhibition.

Richard Kiley in "The Holy
Ground—The Killing, Pt 1," Judd
for the Defense (dir. Leo Penn,
writ. William Kelley, 1969)

Brown University Library's "Leaves of an Hour" online exhibition includes the following items of mystery-related interest: 

• The Terrible Hay-Stack Murder: Life and Trial of the Rev. Ephraim K. Avery (1878)

• Title page from Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon (1930)

• Mention of author, screenwriter, and Brown alum William P. Kelley (Judd for the Defense; Oscar winner for Witness. Clip from Kelley's acceptance speech at the 1986 Oscars; he's the white-haired fellow.)

• Mention of the library's collection of spy fiction by Watergate burglar E. Howard Hunt
  

• Discussion of the library's H. P. Lovecraft collections

• Gay and lesbian literature collections that include Joseph Hansen's The Man Everybody Was Afraid of (1978)

Illegal (w/Edward G. Robinson and DeForest Kelley, 1955).

Edward G. Robinson and Nina Foch
in Illegal (1955)

In Illegal, district attorney Edward G. Robinson convicts an innocent man (DeForest Kelley) and becomes entangled with racketeers. Costars include Nina Foch, Hugh Marlowe, Edward Platt (of Get Smart fame), and Jayne Mansfield. The director is Lewis Allen (The Uninvited, The Unseen, Appointment with Danger, etc.). One of the film's screenwriters is W. R. Burnett (Little Caesar, High Sierra, etc.), adapting Frank J. Collins's play The Mouthpiece (allegedly based on William J. Fallon, a former Westchester [NY] prosecutor and lawyer for Arnold Rothstein and Nicky Arnstein, who was dubbed "The Great Mouthpiece" by the press).

The Unguarded Hour (1936).

Franchot Tone, left, and Roland Young
in The Unguarded Hour

In The Unguarded Hour, Lady Helen Dearden faces a tough situation: if she testifies in a murder trial, the career of her barrister husband will be ruined. But if she doesn't, an innocent man will be convicted. Further complications include the implication of her husband in another murder and the threats of a blackmailer. Based on a play by Ladislas Fodor and directed by Sam Wood, the film stars Loretta Young, Franchot Tone, Roland Young, and Henry Daniell.

There also are some radio versions: a 1944 Lux Radio Theater production with Robert Montgomery, Loraine Day, and a reprise by Roland Young, plus a 1952 Theatre Guild on the Air version with Nina Foch and Michael Redgrave.

NMU commemorates Anatomy of a Murder.

Via various items posted online, the Northern Michigan University archives are commemorating Anatomy of a Murder by attorney, writer, fisherman, and Michigan Supreme Court justice John D. Voelker (1903–91). Voelker successfully defended Army lieutenant Coleman Peterson, who was accused of killing tavern owner Mike Chenoweth in 1952. Voelker then turned the case into fiction; the book was published by St. Martin's Press in January 1958 under Voelker's pseudonym, Robert Traver. It became a well-regarded film in 1959 with Jimmy Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, and George C. Scott. In 2013 ABA Journal selected Anatomy of a Murder as one of 25 greatest law novels.

NMU online materials:
• Read transcripts from the Peterson trial
• See photos of principals such as Voelker and Peterson
• Listen to interview with juror Max Muelle

The Three Stooges: Detectives?

Disorder in the Court (1936) features Larry, Moe, and Curly as witnesses in a court case who uncover the perpetrator of a murder.

The Three Stooges in Disorder in the Court (1936)