I've been watching reruns of the original "Perry Mason"
whodunnit/courtroom TV drama. ME-TV, one of the "nostalgia" networks in
the U.S. broadcasts them in episode order. It recently "rewound" from
the very last episode (of 1966) to the very first one (1957). I remember
when things looked like that! I get a kick out of seeing the "postwar"
America of the 1950s slowly morphing towards "The Sixties," which
exploded just after the series concluded.
*** Warning, spoilers ahead. Since the show is nearly 60 years old, I
hope you won't mind ***
Last night the episode on tap was called "The Case of the Buried Clock,"
from 1958. A key element of the plot centered around photography. One
of the characters claims that he inadvertently set off the trip-wire of
a wildlife photographers' camera while walking on a trail, taking a
picture of himself. This gives him the alibi that he was on that trail
at a specific time. The photographer saw the flash from his residence,
and a picture of the man is in the camera, which seems to corroborate
the story.
In a courtroom scene, the photographer demonstrated how he set a
trip-wire across the trail, which, when disturbed, would trip the
shutter and flash bulb of a tripod-mounted 4x5 camera. Perry Mason asks
the photographer if he shoots at a wide aperture. The photographer
responds that yes, the lens is f/3.5 and he usually shoots at f/4. Does
he adjust the focus or aperture between shots? No, those are pre-set.
Mason then proves that the guilty party actually took a picture of
himself earlier, then swapped film holders on the 4x5 camera and stopped
the lens down to f/22. He triggered the shutter at a predetermined time
by means of a wind-up alarm clock he had set and buried nearby. Since
the lens was stopped way down, the second exposure was too dim to alter
the latent image already on film. Great fun, and done with careful
attention to technical accuracy, down to the photographer reversing the
film holder and pulling the slide to set up the camera for the next
exposure (though he forgets to mention first putting in the dark slide
to protect the original exposure).
See the top photograph:
http://www.perrymasontvseries.com/wiki/index.php/EpisodePages/Show45
I've seen all sorts of old cameras in the "Perry Mason" shows. Speed
Graphics, Rolleiflexes, screw-mount Leicas. Plus enough wonderful old
cars to keep Jim Shulman happy.
--Peter
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