Saturday, April 04, 2020
Somebody Once Knew How to Write Speeches: Officers of the Court
The Defender: The Pilot for Reginald Rose's Legendary TV Lawyer Series, The Defenders
The picture is lousy, because I don't think the producers even had to work with videotape in 1957, when this was shot. Thus, I didn't recognize
Ralph Bellamy's face, but I sure recognized his voice. There was only one Ralph Bellamy. The abbreviated script is remarkable in so many ways, and this scene has the ring of truth about it. Not today it wouldn't, when the top defense attorneys pull just the sort of stunts the father refuses to indulge in, and work much harder to get racist, black savages off than innocent white men.
The reason, according to the series star, E.G. Marshall, why Bellamy was not the star of the series, was that the pilot had tested poorly with focus groups, and its option had lapsed.
First Episode, 1961: "The Quality of Mercy"
Classic Film & TV Cafe
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Kudos to Shout! Factory for releasing season one of the classic, critically-acclaimed TV drama THE DEFENDERS (1961-65). This legal series starred E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed as father-son attorneys that tackled their share of complex and controversial cases. This clip is from the first episode and features Jack Klugman as a district attorney who explains the totality of the law to young Robert Reed. Great writing and great acting.
I watched The Defenders when it was on. I preferred it to Perry Mason as "more realistic."
ReplyDeleteThe speech Ralph Bellamy gives is what our friend Walt Lewis told us in his book The Criminal Justice Club--A client's guilt or innocence is irrelevant to a defense attorney.
You referred to defense attorneys defending guilty black suspects. The aggressive defense provided to every Knoxville Horror defendant is a prime example.
An unknown Steve McQueen (credited as Steven McQueen) method acted his way through it. Who would have thought 10-12 years later he would be the biggest star in the world.