User Reviews

There will be **SPOILERS** One thing I like is the sometimes banter between Tragg and Mason. In this case, Tragg says to Perry " can I give you some advice"? to which Perry replies "Do I have a choice"? I thought it funny. The story is good, with good characters (who have the usual propensity for foolishness and trying to mislead Perry), a couple of red herrings, and a telephone call that actually shows how life can sometimes be frustrating. There were two one-thousand dollar bills handed to Perry and a ten-thousand dollar bill that was torn in half as a promise for a retainer. These were rare bills, and the ten-thousand was really rare. Typically issued to very large businesses or corporations for serious exchanges of money. Perry remarks that he's never seen one, and tearing one in half is actually defacing U.S. currency and is a felony. I had a little problem with Perry noticing blood, which normally dries to a brick-brown color, on a brick-brown brick, but the scene in which the corpse falls face first out of the closet is absolutely hilarious;I tell you, the "deadpan" look on his face was priceless. I mean, hewas a pompous, thieving ass in life, but he made a great dead guy. Another problem is that when Perry and Della were snooping around Tydings' office, they left fingerprints all over the place, and there was NO BLOOD on the desk or carpet. Curious. Perry's car is a beautiful, 1957 Cadillac Eldorado convertible that he's had in a couple of episodes. It befits his stature in the community. And in the end of the episode, Dells is babying Perry through a bad cold. Again, the conversational banter is played with a familiarity reserved for very good friends, and played perfectly by Ray and Barb. I know what you're thinking, and you're right. I consider these characters and the actors friends. I watched this series when I was a kid with my parents, Now I'm buying the collection from Amazon. Even though I watch it on METV, I still use this as a perfect reference, and sometimes, just because I love the series. I recommend it to all who enjoy great acting, and dialogue ...d

SPOILER ALERT Here's a Perry where the killer is as lovable as she is winning! She's also the star of this show! (One of six guest star roles.) Well played Geraldine Wall, very well played. And just as very well directed Christian Nyby!

***SPOILERS*** Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, gets a $2,000.00 retainer as well as half of a $10,000.00 bill the other half to be received when he takes on the case. Perry not only doesn't get any of the money but ends up getting a case of the flu instead by solving the murder case that his client Carol Stanley, Judith Braun,is accused of before it even goes to trail. It's Carol's friend Robert Dawson, William Sage, who want's him to handle Carol's case. She's soon to be indited for the killing Dawson's business partner Albert Tydings, George N. Neise, whom she found shot to death at his office. This all spelled bad tidings for Carol in that she and Robert Dawson tried to hide that fact from the police.

The reason why Carol would have murdered Tydings is that he's handling her estate and has siphoned off some $60,000.00 out of it for his own personal,playing the stock market, use. But as we and Perry later learn is that there's a lot more to what Tydings did than just embezzling Carol estate. He's got a number of explosive document about Carol and her past that is far far worse. And it's Carol's adopted mother the battle ax like Abigale Leeds, Geraldine Wall, who want's to make sure that they never see the light of day. We also have another party to all this and that's the special clerk at the Tydings/Dawson firm Richard Ellis, Al Hopson. He's in fact been embezzling Carol's estate together with Tydings without Tydings knowing about it.

***SPOILERS*** We also get this sob story from Abigale Leeds about how a three year old Carol was secretly shipped out of Poland in 1939. 18 years ago, just before the Nazis invaded it with her parents later dying in a Nazi concentration camp. It was Abigale who in fact somehow took Carol under her wing and found a good home for Carol in the USA. With Carol's adopted American parents killed in an auto accident it's now Abigale job to look after her interests. It was Tyding who's handling Carols estate who not only stole 60 G's out of it but was together with special clerk Ellis blackmailed her as well as Abigale to keep secret what her true identity and background really is. which in fact ended up with Tydings murdered and Ellis facing as much as 20 years behind bars.

P.S One of the most mind bugging and strangest scenes in all the "Perry Mason" TV episodes happened when Perry and private investigator Paul Drake, William Hooper, checked out Tydings house seeing if he's there or not. As they open a closet in his home a zombie like Tyding suddenly pops out, like a jack in the Box, and hits the floor stone cold dead! What was so unusual about that scene is that both Perry and Paul Drake acted as if nothing unusual happened and didn't as much as blink. They just stepped over Tydings dead body not even bothering to check if he's dead or not as the two casually walked right out of his house as if nothing happened at all!

Some interesting things happen in this Perry Mason episode. He does all his work including some of his own sleuthing with Paul Drake to find the real murderer. He also gets a retainer in a most unusual and melodramatic matter.

You would think that if somebody, just about anyone else called him at home and said I'm coming down with a retainer after waking Raymond Burr out of a sound sleep they'd have been told in no uncertain terms that I've got an office where I do business, make an appointment. But things like this intrigue Perry.

In melodramatic fashion Perry opens the door and greets a mysterious man who hands him two one thousand dollar bills for a retainer accompanied by a veiled woman in black who is the client to be. He also gives Burr a torn half of a ten thousand dollar bill and the other half comes when the woman actually is arrested. With just that half a big bill to start with Burr, Barbara Hale, and William Hopper figure out a lot of the case. And yes a man who was the executor of her trust fund was bilking the veiled woman of a lot of money.

And the Perry Mason paradigm is really stretched when the real murderer is discovered, Burr offers to defend the person in court. That episode we never did see, but it would have been nice to see him go before a jury for once.

I think the episodes from the first four seasons are the best, including this one.

Albert Tydings is a slimy character (I guess most murder victims in this series are) and there are plenty of people who had motives for killing him: the blackmailer, whom Tydings himself was blackmailing; the client, whom he has fleeced/embezzled $60K; the client's fiancée', who can't expose Tydings for fear that the client's circumstances surrounding her birth would be made public, and the jealous secretary, whom Tydings boldly tells he has a date with a "nice girl" later on.

My title refers to A.E. Leeds, who is acerbic through most of the episode and even manages to leave the usually gruff, Lt. Tragg at a loss for words. When Mrs. Leeds and Lt. Tragg "stroll" arm-in-arm out of Mason's office, the viewers are left with a feeling that everything will turn out okay for everyone.