It’s more disorder in the court now that Perry Mason Season 4 (Volume 1)is available on DVD. The interesting thing about this season is that William Talman, who plays the forever-losing DA Hamilton Burger, was involved in an unfortunate bust at a “nude drug party” and was fired from the show. So it’s off-putting to see different District Attorneys coming up against the crafty lawyer Perry Mason (Raymond Burr). Fortunately, Burr threatened to quit unless Talman was allowed to come back, and that ended the blacklist against the actor. It’s also a testament to how great and what a loyal friend Burr was.

These first 16 from the fourth season are brimming with future stars and B-movie luminaries. Robert Redford shows up as a ne’re-do-well stepson in The Case Of The Treacherous Toupee; Louise Fletcher (One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest) appears in The Case Of The Larcenous Lady; Coleen Gray (The Leech Woman) stars in The Case Of The Wandering Widow); James Coburn (Our Man Flint) is in The Case Of The Envious Editor; and Whit Bissell (I Was A Teenage Werewolf) takes a turn in The Case Of The Lavender Lipstick. And those titles are fabulous. Each episode is filled with larcenous ladies, oily blackmailers, and wily murders, but they are no match against Mason and his loyal secretary Della Street (Barbara Hale) and Private Investigator Paul Drake (William Hopper). Just the best!