Horror Movie Dalliances: The Defense Calls Perry Mason

Canadian actor, Raymond Burr, began his career in film noir, often as the villain.  Appearing in some fifty films from 1946 to 1957, Burr was already well-established and respected in Hollywood when cast in one of the two roles that would forever define him.  From 1957 to 1966, Burr starred in the television series Perry Mason as the show’s eponymous criminal defense lawyer.  When that series came to an end, Burr almost immediately returned to television in the other role he is closely associated with.  As wheelchair-bound former police chief Robert Ironside, Burr worked with the San Francisco Police Department solving cases from 1967 to 1975 on Ironside.   In the 1980s and 1990s, Burr would return to both roles in the detective fiction genre, starring in The Return of Ironside (1993) and twenty-six Perry Mason television films.  Raymond Burr had a long and distinguished career lasting right up until he passed away in 1993.  Not someone who struggled to find work and, thus, someone you might not expect to find in monster horror B-movies.  But, in that, you would be wrong.

Before we can delve into Raymond Burr’s B movie appearances, it is necessary to take a step back.  In 1954, Japanese entertainment company Toho Co., Ltd launched what would become the longest-running film franchise in history.  Yet, Gojira, better known in the Western world as Godzilla, was a very different film from all the sequels to follow.  Produced in a Japan still dealing with the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Gojira expresses the Japanese people’s fears of mass extermination and radioactive fallout, with the monster itself seen as a metaphor for nuclear weapons.  Unlike later Godzilla films, Gojira focuses on the human component at least as much as the city-stomping monster.  It is a horror film in the purest sense in that it depicts the death and suffering of people faced with an unstoppable and deadly force.  Gojira is an unusual mix of man-in-a-rubber-monster-suit kaiju with a poignant and bleak humanitarian message.  Even the film’s resolution casts doubt on humankind’s right to intervene and unchecked scientific development.  Many Godzilla films to follow, with their rubber monster fights, can be classified as cheesy.  Still monster-sized fun, but cheesy.  However, film buffs, myself included, usually balk at calling Gojira a B movie.  Unfortunately, Raymond Burr did not appear in Gojira.  He did, however, appear in the Americanized version, Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956).

Gojira was only released in Japan and would remain largely unavailable to the rest of the world until 2004.  However, a year after its Japanese release, American producer Edmund Goldman purchased the theatrical and television rights to the film for $25,000 US.  To appeal to American audiences, the film was redubbed in English and significantly edited into Godzilla: King of the Monsters!  It is here that Raymond Burr fits, awkwardly, in.  Burr narrates the film and portrays American foreign correspondent Steve Martin.  Adding narration to an existing film is rarely successful.  It is a sign that the movie’s plot is challenging to comprehend and simultaneously does a disservice to the visual medium of film.  Steve Martin is on a layover in Tokyo on his way to Cairo when the attacks by Godzilla begin.  The story is told mainly from his perspective despite him remaining merely an observer.  To be that observer, Martin travels back and forth between all the locations in the film.  Ostensibly, this is to report on the story as it unfolds, but he always manages to arrive before the action begins.  And yet, Martin is not in the action at all.  In order to insert him in already filmed scenes, Burr was regularly shot standing against a wall with a couple of extras of Japanese descent milling around him.  The shots are very static, with Burr given nothing more to do than look into the distance with a confused or concerned look on his face.  To avoid the need to redub the entire film, Martin befriends Security Officer Tomo Iwanaga (Frank Iwanaga).  The two travel around together, with Burr asking Iwanaga to translate what is being said for him as Martin’s Japanese “is a little rusty.”  As you can imagine, this does not make for very dynamic scenes.  The very few interactions Burr has with characters from the original film are clumsy and shot to hide the fact that different actors are in use.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters! took Gojira and turned it into a B movie.  For a minimal investment, they produced a poorly edited rubber monster movie.  The basic plot of Gojira remained largely unaltered, but most of the human element, the metaphor, and the pathos were excised from the film.  By Americanizing the film, they robbed it of its association with the Japanese people and the tragedy and terror they had suffered at the end of World War II.  The producers of Godzilla: King of the Monsters! have stated that there was no political agenda behind their edits.  The goal was only to make a movie that would sell to the American public.  But, perhaps, horrors inflicted on the Japanese citizenry by the Allies were too sensitive a topic to be accepted by the Western world.  And what of Raymond Burr?  He can’t be faulted for his performance when he has absolutely nothing to work with, but he only excels at visibly sticking out.  Burr was a big guy.  He always had a broad build and stood just over six feet tall.  Despite being sidelined, his physical presence and his being the only non-Japanese character make him stand out and drives home how little his character meshes with the rest of the film.

Perhaps you are thinking that Burr’s appearance in Godzilla: King of the Monsters! was a one-shot foray into horror movies and, given the unusual circumstances, doesn’t count as a B movie.  If so, allow me to introduce you to 1951’s Bride of the Gorilla.  Raymond Burr portrays Barney Chavez, a rubber plantation manager somewhere in the Latin American jungles.  Barney is not a particularly nice guy.  He is indifferent to the death of one of his workers, laments the loss of slave labour, callously discards a local girl he professed undying love to “because [she] wanted to hear it”, and covets his employer’s wife, Mrs. Dina Van Gelder (Barbara Payton).  But when he intentionally causes the death of Mr. Van Gelder (Paul Cavanagh) in sight of the witch Al-Long (Gisela Werbisek), he goes too far.  The old woman puts a curse on Barney, decreeing that Barney shall be “like an animal that hunts in the jungle.”  Later, when Barney marries the former Mrs. Van Gelder and takes over the plantation, Al-Long helps the curse along by poisoning Barney with sap squeezed from “the plant of evil.”  The effect of this poison is to make Barney feverish during the day and drawn to the jungle in the evening.  As his brute side takes over, he will forego his bridal chamber to spend the nights wandering among the trees.

Bride of the Gorilla, despite in many ways being the quintessential B movie, is not as gimmicky as my description may make it sound.  Yes, it includes the infamous line spoken by Burr, “I can climb as if I had wings,” but the story is solid.  Much like the far superior Val Lewton film Cat People (1942), the film toys with the audience, making it unclear how much of the jungle beast is real and how much is Barney’s delusion.  But, while Cat People’s Irena fears her animal side, Barney embraces his.  Bride of the Gorilla also benefits from a good cast.  Gisela Werbisek’s portrayal of Al-Long may be a bit over-the-top, but I imagine that was the direction given.  Burr is believable and oddly sympathetic despite portraying a selfish cad.  Barbara Payton as Dina and Tom Conway as Dr. Viet provide the story a much-needed grounding in reality.  And then there is Lon Chaney Jr., oddly cast as a native Latin-American who left his small town for a university education only to return as the police commissioner.  Lon Chaney Jr. appeared in many B movies, and his career was not glamourous.  It is easy to forget that he was a gifted actor who regularly brought more to his performances than the parts deserved.  The role of Police Commissioner Taro is not significant.  But watch the nuanced performance Chaney gives.  With small gestures and pauses, he develops a minor part into a substantial character.  Rumour has it that director Curt Siodmak considered Chaney for the lead role of Barney Chavez but ultimately went with the more leading-man looks of Raymond Burr.  That is sadly ironic when you consider that, only ten years previously in The Wolf Man (1941), Chaney bears more than a passing resemblance to Burr.

It is a minor mystery that a man known for his strait-laced and stoic roles wound up in some outlandish B monster films.  But then, Raymond Burr was himself an enigma.  Not much is known of his personal life, primarily because he regularly made up his history.  Claims that he was a member of the U.S. Navy and multiple stories about attending university at various schools are almost definitely false.  He was briefly married once but often referred to several marriages, being a widower, and having a son who died at a young age.  Later evidence points to Burr being gay at a time when coming out would almost definitely ruin a Hollywood career.  Fabricating backstories appears to have been Burr’s means of protecting his privacy and his livelihood.  The stories were not cohesive.  I wonder if this was Burr mocking the facade he was forced to erect, almost daring someone to question it.  I like to believe that he enjoyed his excursions into the world of B movies.  Certainly, he didn’t balk at reprising the character of Steve Martin in Godzilla 1985, which again was an American re-edit of the Japanese film The Return of Godzilla (1984).  Burr even used his Hollywood clout to keep Godzilla 1985 close to the source film and wrote himself a closing monologue.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956) Directed by Ishirô Honda & Terry O. Morse; Written by Takeo Murata, Ishirô Honda, & Terry O. Morse; Based on the novel by Shigeru Kayama; Starring Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura, Momoko Kôchi, Akihiko Hirata, & Frank Iwanaga; Available on Blu-Ray from The Criterion Collection as part of the Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films set or bundled with the original Gojira/Godzilla.

Bride of the Gorilla (1951) Directed by Curt Siodmak; Written by Curt Siodmak; Starring Raymond Burr, Barbara Payton, Tom Conway, Gisela Werbisek, & Lon Chaney Jr.; Available on DVD from American Pop Classics.

This is my contribution to the second annual Favorite Stars in B Movies Blogathon.  My simian Maniacs and Monsters partner has his own suitably hairy contribution to the blogathon here.  Please check out other blogathon contributors by clicking on the image below.  My thanks to Brian at Films From Beyond the Time Barrier for allowing me to crash and smash his blogathon with my incoherent bellowing.