Tag / Perry Mason

by admin

Most Watched Actors – The Late 1980s

Movie_Reel_22Many years ago, using the weekly TV guide that came with the Sunday Chicago Tribune, I started keeping track of all of the movies I had seen over the course of my lifetime. The guide would list the two main stars for each movie, and that is a tradition that I’ve carried on in my database ever since. So, given those guidelines, it is time to look at the most prolific actors that have starred in the movies that I have seen in the second half of the decade of the 1980s.

1986

Films Per Actor Per Year
Name Films
Raymond Burr 2
Lea Thompson 2

For the first time, our leaders have appeared in more than one movie that I saw throughout the year.  Raymond Burr makes his first of many appearances due to the Perry Mason television films.  Lea Thompson appears thanks to half of her starring roles, with the favorite SpaceCamp and the not-so-favorite Howard The Duck.

1987

Films Per Actor Per Year
Name Films
Raymond Burr 4

Another appearance for Raymond Burr thanks to the quarterly Perry Mason films.

1988

Films Per Actor Per Year
Name Films
Tom Hanks 3

Tom Hanks makes his first appearance with 3 films to top 1988, with starring roles in Big, Punchline, and Dragnet.

1989

Films Per Actor Per Year
Name Films
Raymond Burr 3

Yet another appearance for Raymond Burr.

1990

Films Per Actor Per Year
Name Films
Raymond Burr 4

We finish off the decade with yet another appearance by Raymond Burr.

by admin

Top 200 Albums – #38 – 45

itunes_imageMy latest desktop computer arrived in late 2007, at which point I transitioned all of my music off of my laptop. 2 iPods, 3 iPhones, and an iPad later, that computer is still my main repository of music, with iTunes updating its stats every time I listen to something.

Having already gone through cassette tapes and CDs, and digital music, it’s time to roll everything up with the Top 200 albums whose songs I’ve listened to as of September 2014, according to iTunes. Today, we look at the 8 albums that rank from 45th through 38th, with 68-75 listens.

#38: The Beatles – Please Please Me [2009 Stereo Remaster]
iTunes stats: 75 plays
The remastered version of the first Beatles album uses 7 songs to make the list.

#38: Poison: Swallow This Live
iTunes stats: 75 plays
The first CD I ever owned, which I received for Christmas in December of 1991, makes the list thanks to 8 tracks from the double album.

#40: Pearl Jam – Vs.
iTunes stats: 71 plays
Pearl Jam’s second album, which I purchased as a midnight release at the record store in Purdue West whose name escapes me, makes the list thanks to 7 tunes.

#40: Various Artists – Television’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
iTunes stats: 71 plays
23 theme songs, from shows like Perry Mason, Leave It To Beaver, and The Munsters, make up the total from this compilation.

#42: Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP
iTunes stats: 69 plays
7 tracks make up the total for this breakthrough album.

#42: The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour [2009 Stereo Remaster]
Continue reading →

by admin

Book 7 (of 52) – Top Of The Heap

Top Of The Heap - Erle Stanley Gardner as A.A. Fine

Top Of The Heap – Erle Stanley Gardner as A.A. Fair

Six years after introducing readers to defense attorney Perry Mason, Erle Stanley Gardner, under the alias of A.A. Fair, began the Cool and Lam series, about a private detective firm in Los Angeles.  The 13th installment in the series, Top of the Heap, was reprinted as part of the Hard Case Crime series of books.  Having enjoyed my previous experience with the line, and seeing a name I recognized, I decided to take a leap of faith and see what Mr. Gardner had to offer to a 21st century readership.

This installment of the series focuses on Donald Lam, the junior detective at the agency, and moves him out of LA for the most part, which, from what I can tell online, was a departure for the series.  The firm takes on a case to provide a banker’s son with an alibi, and Lam, after following the leads that seemingly have been left for him to find, decides to investigate further, leaving him on the outs with both his partner and the SFPD.  What he finds, however, is a murder mystery, stock fraud, and gangster business all tied together in strange ways.

I found the tale to be pretty enjoyable, especially taking into account that it was written in 1952.  The harboiled detective speak takes a little getting used to, but it wasn’t long until I was taken away to a far away time, one which resembles the Los Angeles that James Ellroy employs so frequently.  This is the only entry of the series that was reprinted, so odds are that I won’t be revisiting the Cool and Lam crew, but if I happen to come across another of Gardner’s novels, I would certianly give it a look.

by admin

You Ought To Be In (26) Pictures

Movie_Reel_22Many years ago, using the weekly TV guide that came with the Sunday Chicago Tribune, I started keeping track of all of the movies I had seen over the course of my lifetime.  The guide would list the two main stars for each movie, and that is a tradition that I’ve carried on in my database ever since.  So, given those guidelines, it is time to look at all of the actors that have starred in at least 10 films that I have seen, as of May 30th.

Today, we have our penultimate look at the 2 actors that have starred in 26 movies that I have seen.

Raymond Burr

Raymond Burr is a bit of an anomaly as every single one of his appearances have been TV movies where he has played the same character.  In 1985, NBC brought back Perry Mason, Raymond Burr’s starring vehicle from the 50s and 60s, for a TV movie.   The ratings were high enough to justify a recurring series of films, 26 in fact, over the next several years, ending in 1994 following Burr’s death the previous year.

Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage can also point to special circumstances behind his high film total: real estate issues and IRS trouble.  After being accused of owing the government over $6.5 million in unpaid taxes and losing millions in bad real estate deals, Cage filed a $20 million lawsuit against his business manager and started taking any and every role offered to him.  6 of his films that I have seen have come since, including 4 in 2010 alone.  My first exposure to a starring Cage role was likely 1987’s Raising Arizona.  There have been 8 years since where I have seen multiple Cage films.  I haven’t seen any Cage vehicles since 2012, when I saw the sparkling duo of Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance and Drive Angry.