After con man Greg Moxley married Rhoda Lorton, he took her money and flew, only to have his plane crash. Years later, Rhoda weds millionaire scion Carl Montaine. But now Moxley has turned up alive and well, with plans to pocket the Montaine fortune...or else make Rhoda's bigamy public.

This companion volume to Mystery Movie Series of 1940s Hollywood (McFarland, 2010) focuses on 22 series and 167 individual films, primarily released during the 1930s. It was a decade that featured some of the most famous cinema detectives of all time, among them Charlie Chan, Nick and Nora Charles, Philo Vance, Nancy Drew, and such lesser known but equally entertaining figures as Hildegarde Withers, Torchy Blane, Mr. Moto, Mr. Wong, and Brass Bancroft. Each mystery movie series is placed within its historical context, with emphasis on its source material and the changes or developments within the series over time. Also included are reviews of all the series' films, analyzing the quality and cohesiveness of the mystery plotlines. For titles based on literary sources, a comparison between the film and the written work is provided.

Perry Mason takes on the case of a woman whose millionaire husband is blackmailed by her former husband, who has turned up alive years after his plane crash. Someone murders the schemer, putting Mason on a collision course with a cold-blooded killer.

Perry Mason takes on the case of a woman whose millionaire husband is blackmailed by her former husband, who has turned up alive years after his plane crash. Someone murders the schemer, putting Mason on a collision course with a cold-blooded killer.

An exploration of the enduring popularity of the television series Perry Mason and its universal reputation as the most formulaic program in the history of broadcast television. Perry Mason was one of the most successful television programs from the 1950s and remains one of the most influential crime melodramas from any period. The show's influence goes far beyond its nine-year tenure (1957-66), the millions of dollars it generated for its creators and for CBS, and the definitive identification it provided its star, Raymond Burr. Perry Mason has become a true piece of Americana, evolving through a formulaic approach that law professors continue to use today as a teaching tool. In his examination of Perry Mason, author Thomas Leitch looks at why this series has appealed to so many for so long and what the continued appeal tells us about Americans' attitudes toward lawyers and the law, then and now. Beginning with its roots in earlier detective fiction, stories of fictional attorneys, and the work of Erle Stanley Gardner (the show's creator), Leitch lays out the circumstances under which Perry Mason was conceived and marketed as a distinct franchise. The evolution of Perry Mason is charted here in an inclusive manner, discussing the show's broadcast history (ending with the series of two-hour telemovies that aired nearly twenty years after the original series ended) alongside its generic nature and place within popular culture, the show's ideological dynamic, and issues of authorship in the context of television. This concise study is an excellent tool for television and media scholars as well as fans of the Perry Mason series.

A guide to series fiction lists popular series, identifies novels by character, and offers guidance on the order in which to read unnumbered series.

With his stunning looks and swashbuckling onscreen panache Errol Flynn was by all appearances the quintessential movie star who had it all. But Flynn's manicured Hollywood persona did little to hide his insatiable appetites off-screen - the binge drinking, brawling and womanising that would forever cement his place as a film legend. In this hard-hitting study, bestselling show business biographer David Bret traces the life and loves of the actor and man. It was Flynn's natural charisma and athletic prowess that made him as the heartthrob star of Captain Blood and The Adventures Of Robin Hood. But Hollywood's prodigal son was never far from controversy and scandal. In a series of extraordinary revelations Bret explores the star's love of underage girls, young men, binge drinking and drug experimentation, as well as his controversial background as a slave-trader in New Guinea, involvement with the Spanish civil war and his support for Castro. This is compelling and engrossing portrait of the original action-adventure star, who packed more into his fifty years than his high-living contemporaries ever could. The gifted, complex and rakish rebel remains without equal as the film icon of the 20th century. 2009 marks the tragic death of Flynn and this book is an excellent tribute to an extraordinary actor. David Bret was born in Paris and is a leading celebrity biographer. His many acclaimed books include biographies of Marlene Dietrich, Gracie Fields, Freddie Mercury, Tallulah Bankhead, Maria Callas, Rudolph Valentino, Edith Piaf and Joan Crawford. He lives in Yorkshire.