The Court of Last Resort

The Court of Last Resort
Erle Stanley Gardner's true-crime column and Edgar Award-winning 1952 book inspired the NBC TV series
Genre	Dramatized court show
Created by	Erle Stanley Gardner Harry Steeger
Directed by	Tom Gries Reginald Le Borg
Starring	Robert H. Harris Carleton Young S. John Launer Lyle Bettger
Theme music composer	Fred Steiner
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	26
Production
Executive producer	Jules C. Goldstone
Producer	Elliott Lewis
Production locations	Paisano Productions California, United States
Editor	Sherman Todd
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	22–24 minutes
Production companies	Walden Productions, in association with Paisano Productions
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	October 4, 1957 (1957-10-04) – April 11, 1958 (1958-04-11)

The Court of Last Resort is an American television dramatized court show which aired October 4, 1957 – April 11, 1958, on NBC. It was co-produced by Erle Stanley Gardner's Paisano Productions, which also brought forth the long-running hit CBS-TV law series, Perry Mason.

Summary

The concept for The Court of Last Resort was developed from a popular true crime column of the same name. Written by lawyer-turned-author Erle Stanley Gardner, the column appeared in the monthly magazine Argosy for ten years beginning in September 1948.[1] Gardner enlisted assistance from police, private detectives, and other professional experts to examine the cases of dozens of convicts who maintained their innocence long after their appeals were exhausted.[1]

The TV show centers on seven attorneys who take on the cases of wrongly accused or unjustly convicted defendants. Episodes dramatized various cases investigated by the Court from its inception through "the present". The members of the Court were portrayed by actors during the episode, but the actual members often appeared at the conclusion of the program, with one of them reflecting on the case that had just been dramatized.

The series aired October 4, 1957 – April 11, 1958, on NBC[2]: 336  at 8 p.m. EST on Fridays. It was rebroadcast on ABC on Wednesdays from August 1959 to February 17, 1960.[3]

The program was sponsored by the P. Lorillard Company, a cigarette manufacturer.[4]

Principal cast

Lyle Bettger in The Court of Last Resort (1957)

• Robert H. Harris as Raymond Schindler[5]
• Carleton Young as Harry Steeger[5]
• S. John Launer as Marshall Houts[5]
• John Maxwell as Alex Gregory[5]
• Robert J. Anderson as Park Street Jr.[5]
• Lyle Bettger as Sam Larsen[5]
• Paul Birch as Erle Stanley Gardner[5]
• Charles Meredith as Dr. LeMoyne Snyder[5]

Episode list

Joe De Santis in "The Mary Morales Case" (March 21, 1958)

Episode #	Episode title	Original airdate
1-1	"The Gordon Wallace Case" (pilot)	October 4, 1957
1-2	"The Tomas Mendoza Case"	October 11, 1957
1-3	"The Forbes-Carroll Case"	October 18, 1957
1-4	"The Wesley Ferguson Case"	October 25, 1957
1-5	"The George Zaccho Case"	November 1, 1957
1-6	"The Karl Hooft Case"	November 8, 1957
1-7	"The Conrad Murray Case"	November 15, 1957
1-8	"The Darlene Fitzgerald Case"	November 22, 1957
1-9	"The James Dawson Case"	November 29, 1957
1-10	"The Clarence Redding Case"	December 6, 1957
1-11	"The Jim Thomson Case"	December 13, 1957
1-12	"The John Smith Case"	December 20, 1957
1-13	"The Westover Case"	January 3, 1958
1-14	"The Arnold McHugh Case"	January 10, 1958
1-15	"The Steve Hrdlika Case"	January 24, 1958
1-16	"The Phillip Huston Case"	January 31, 1958
1-17	"The Peter Stevens Case"	February 7, 1958
1-18	"The Lester Arnold Case"	February 14, 1958
1-19	"The Frank Clark Case"	February 21, 1958
1-20	"The Jacob Loveless Case"	February 28, 1958
1-21	"The Joe Credo Case"	March 7, 1958
1-22	"The Stephen Lowell Case"	March 14, 1958
1-23	"The Mary Morales Case"	March 21, 1958
1-24	"The Joel Sheldon Case"	March 28, 1958
1-25	"The Todd-Loomis Case"	April 4, 1958
1-26	"The Allen Cutler Case"	April 11, 1958

Production

Elliott Lewis was the producer, John M. Lucas was the director, and Leonard Heideman was the writer.[6]

Critical response

A review of the premiere episode in the trade publication Variety called The Court of Last Resort "a potential winner".[6] The review said, "Story and action were handled with care, discipline, and with an aura of public service devoid of the violence and pyrotechnics usually associated with such police dramas."[6] It also singled out Bettger's "especially effective" portrayal of Larsen.[6]

References

1. Schulz, Kathryn (January 25, 2016). "Dead Certainty". The New Yorker. Condé Nast. p. 60. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
2. Hughes, Dorothy B. (1978). Erle Stanley Gardner: The Case of the Real Perry Mason. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc. ISBN 0-688-03282-6.
3. Hyatt, Wesley (6 October 2015). Short-Lived Television Series, 1948-1978: Thirty Years of More Than 1,000 Flops. McFarland. p. 84. ISBN 978-1-4766-0515-9. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
4. Adams, Val (January 9, 1958). "Sentence passed on TV crime show". The New York Times. p. 67. ProQuest 114400794. Retrieved December 1, 2020 – via ProQuest.
5. Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (1999). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present (7th ed.). New York: The Ballentine Publishing Group. p. 213. ISBN 0-345-42923-0.
6. "Court of Last Resort". Variety. October 9, 1957. p. 28. Retrieved February 16, 2024.

External links

• The Court of Last Resort at IMDb
• The Court of Last Resort at Justice Denied