Why Can’t Perry Mason Be Adapted Faithfully?

Why Can’t Perry Mason Be Adapted Faithfully?

 

In my previous post, I discussed how the characters in the Perry Mason series changed over the course of the series and also how the very adaptations changed them.  But it’s not just the characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner that were altered.  The plots and narratives have been changed dramatically, too.  

 

When Perry Mason was made into a series of six 1930’s movies, some hewed closer to the classic stories than others, but additional subplots, like romances and “comedy” bits were added.  A radio series rarely brought the narrative into the courtroom, portraying Mason as more of a private eye and man of action, using original stories largely not based on the books.  The current HBO series mostly just uses names and a bunch of Easter eggs in its first season, with a wholly original mystery at its center, and traces of Gardner’s other series thrown into the mix.

 

But what about the Raymond Burr television series (which once again, I stress, is one of my favorites)?  A great many of the early seasons drew upon Gardner’s stories, but in order to fit into fifty to fifty-two minutes, a lot had to be cut, and often, some of the most interesting and colorful characters (such as the titular Dangerous Dowager) had their roles cut and their characterization made far more pallid and less interesting.  Some narratives, often regarding sexual situations or children born outside of marriage (PG-rated at worst by today’s standards), were bowdlerized, and one of the books series’ most shocking endings (the work is not named here so as not to be a spoiler) was changed to be more conventional.  Even some titles were changed, as Vagabond Virgin was considered inappropriate and changed to Vagabond Vixen… which really sounds a lot dirtier.  A lot of plot lines and complex legal issues were cut, and often the precarious legal issues in which Mason had to extricate himself were removed.  More often than not, the changes produced enjoyable episodes, but often a lot of deleted material would have made the episodes better.

 

After the first few series, the show ran out of books to adapt, aside from a few newly published ones here and there. Late in the series’ run, a few Gardner novels that had already been adapted were adapted a second time, though with a different title and some cosmetic changes to the plot.  Viewers could understandably feel a sense of déjà vu watching these second-time-around adaptations. Incidentally, decades later, the television show Psych would take its first season episode “Cloudy… With a Chance of Murder” and remake it in its final season as “Remake A.K.A. Cloudy… With a Chance of Improvement.”  It kept the basic plot of the original intact, but it changed the ending.  Not only that, but it added a few more jokes, contemporary references, and filled the cast with actors who had played prominent roles in earlier episodes.  Psych billed the episode as “[making] television history with a never-been-done remake,” but this wasn’t true.  Perry Mason beat Psych to this by half a century.  This had been done for quite some time on the radio as well, as many long-running mystery series routinely took old episodes, changed a bit here and a tad there, and called it a new episode, as it was a lot easier than writing a brand-new episode.

 

Will the Perry Mason books ever get adaptations closer to the original novels?  There are a lot of really entertaining legal thrillers by Gardner that have only been adapted into versions that only bear a cursory resemblance to the originals.  It’s unlikely that another TV series will adapt the books and hew closely to the books, at least in the English language.  Who knows what another country might do?  There are many examples of fine examples of American and British mysteries be adapted well in other languages.  However, the best chance for new, faithful adaptations might be in the form of a radio series.  Certainly many great mystery novels have received stellar adaptations in that format.  Perhaps Perry Mason could be next.

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, was released on November 3^rd.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7^th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.