User Reviews

Some of the reviewers have decided that this episode does not meet the usual standards of the Perry Mason show. However, the identity of the real killer could be easily discovered by the various clues which were available.

First, Perry decided early on that whoever was in the clown suit was not the killer, but that the fatal shot came from someone else.

Then it was made clear that the gun held by the clown contained only blanks, since there was no hole in the tent from the clown's first shot.

Then, when the gun was discovered, the only remaining possibility was that the killer was someone who had not been taken down to police headquarters for questioning -- he had to be back at the circus, tampering with the gun and replacing the blank cartridges with real ones. By process of elimination, the number of suspects was narrowed to one.

Too often the explanation only makes sense afterward, when Mason tells Della and Paul how he did it. But in this case the logic was clear for all to see.

Mason & Della & Tragg go to the circus. At the show they witness an apparent murder by a famous clown happen in front of them. Then Mason gets to Defend the famous clown.

The clown has an alibi except he can't prove that he was already leaving town when the murder occurred. He left a note behind that he needed a sub but the note has vanished. Mason sorts through a lot of clues as he is sure that the clown did not do the murder even though he saw it with his own eyes.

While Mason is searching for clues, the gun turns up on a highway on the rail road route the real clown took to San Francisco causing the clowns arrest for murder.. The gun while not necessarily the murder weapon, has 4 live rounds in it. The questions are, was it loaded with live rounds or blanks during the performance? Who was really in the clown suit? Who has the real motive to have been the killer?

Lt. Tragg expresses how good circus popcorn is in this episode. I think the same of movie theater popcorn as long as I can add the butter to it.

This is the weakest PM episode I have seen so far. Not only is the plot convoluted, with a crippled circus owner and a fake marriage out of pity. I accept that, I like PM episodes with some complexity. The actual murder is the worst part, simply because it is practically impossible.

First, the clown act is unreasonable. A clown running around shooting blanks with a real gun is not funny, not to mention that it must be illegal. The act could work with an obvious toy gun, with much smaller charges making less noise. The sillier the better. A real gun is out of the question.

Furthermore, there is absolutely no way a gun can be fired as described and hit anything other than by pure accident. It would take multiple shots to get even a half-decent aim. Not to mention synchronizing with the clown! The idea is impossible, a one in a million thing. Even with a rifle and a steady aim, it would be unlikely to succeed.

I also find it disturbing to combine violence and circuses. A murder on stage is a horrible event, where it is hard for the audience to tell jokes from reality. This is not a major fault of the story, rather the effect it is trying to play on, but something that made it awkward to watch, detracting from my enjoyment.

The rest is routine. Perry, Della, Paul and Tragg are just the way we like, what we love them for. No Hamilton Burger though. The courtroom confessions are quite formulaic after four seasons, but I suppose they had to stick to the formula when it worked. Well, I like it so I don't really mind. I just want a bit better plots than this one.

**SPOILERS** I'd just love to know where anybody gets the idea that it's okay to aim and fire pistols or rifles at human beings when there are kids around; like in the circus. Especially even if there is preparation, or build up as part of an act. Another thing that makes it a bad idea is the proximity to wild animals. You don't want them to get upset by the report of gunshots, when the "animal trainer" might have to use one to startle their animals into obedience. I used to work for a circus, and one of my jobs was to sit with four big cats. The important thing was to keep them calm, keep people away from them, and NO loud noises. Another point is that NOBODY will ever hold a pistol close to their head and discharge a round; it's likely to deafen you, make you dizzy, and/or give you a serious headache. One more small thing: what the clown was doing was not funny, just stupid; gun or no gun.

This plot just needed to much dedication to detail for me, and the whole thing with the finding of the gun (and a .357 magnum, to boot) and all the silly running around took away from the story, which was pretty simple, after all. I generally dislike "Happy Endings" in these stories; murder almost never has a good result for anyone.

Chana Eden was sexy, Ken Curtis tried hard with a stupid role, Barbara was beautiful, and I give it an 8.

I grew up with Perry Mason, and I still watch it almost every night. But I always hated this episode.

This episode represents what I think of as the "not the real world" characteristic of many episodes. In Masonland (and, to be fair, other shows of the era), unsuccessful playwrights live in lofty mansions, attractive young women all have vast fortunes waiting on the demise of some relative or other, and CLOWNS make enough money to buy the entire circus. Which is the most jarring note of this particular show.

When I was young, there were a number of circuses around, unlike today. Ringling Brothers was far from the only game in town. So I saw a few of these traveling shows. But never, and I mean never, have I seen such a pathetic circus as this. Seriously, can anyone say this was how circuses operated? The business plan for this circus seems more like the business plan for a greeting card shop to be located in an out-of-the-way strip mall in a dying town.

It is impossible to believe the "great clown" was considered "great," even by his mother. It is impossible to believe that this circus is worth killing for. It is impossible to believe the circus people ever worked in show business (which should be an easy get, right?). The plot is silly and the story unbelievable.

Read a good book tonight instead. Then tune back in tomorrow night.

One reviewer has expressed displeasure and disapproval about this episode. His complaints appear to reveal both his poor understanding of the formula for this series and his inadequate understanding of several of the key facts in this story. His analysis is quite shallow and almost juvenile. The intertwining threads here are typical of Perry Mason and Erle Stanley Gardner, yet the reviewer said that this is not simple or simplistic enough for him. His criticism is not persuasive -- just as his demonstrated difficulty with grammar, punctuation, composition, and articulation are also not persuasive. Despite his assertions, mature viewers do not feel puzzled about the plot or slighted by the resolution in the courtroom. Incidentally, the review in question should bear a warning against a spoiler.

****SPOILERS*** Far too much of a Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, episode to swallow down with one gulp or review unless your a 30 foot python or anaconda who hasn't had a good square meal in over six months. That all has to do with the murder of circus owner Judd Curtis, Walter Sande, right in front of hundreds of startled spectators including Perry Mason Stella Street, Barbara Hale, and Let. Tragg, Ray Collins. Dubbed as the funniest man in the world circus clown Felix Heidemann, Douglas Henderson, while doing his act guns down Curtis as he's standing and smoking a cigarette outside the big top enjoying the show. It soon turns out that someone was impersonating Heidemann who took off, in his clown outfit, from the scene since no one can be certain if in fact it was him that shot down Curtis.

Later while on the run in San Francisco Heidemann gets in touch with Perry, who decides to defend him, saying that he in fact was not at the circus doing his clown act when Curtis was shot. It was someone who had replaced him since he was at that time on a train going to SF on a business trip. What the trip had to do with was getting a $15,000 bank loan to buy out his partner in the circus Judd Cutis the man that he supposedly shot and killed! There's far more to this strange and over-plotted Perry Mason episode then meets the eye and that has to do with what happened earlier in it.

***SPOILERS**** It was the vicious mauling of then circus co-owner Jerry Franklin, Robert Clark, that left him a crippled what set into motion all the event that lead to Judd Curtis' death four years later. But by the time we finally got to know what exactly happened all the confusing sub-plots and red herring thrown into the story just about made you lose any interest into who did, and why and for what reason, murdered Judd Curtis in the first place anyway! Even after the killer was exposed by what looked like a bored to death, and suffering from sleep deprivation, Perry Mason that had him in a sigh of relief, in him knowing that the Perry Mason episode was just about over, break down and confess to his crime! Which in fact no one in the courtroom, including Perry Mason, seemed all that interesting in hearing.

P.S In seemed that Perry Mason's court room opponent the bulldog like state prosecutor the winless, with a perfect 0 and 271 record, Hamilton "Ham" Burger, William Talman, skipped this one and was replaced by his deputy D.A Jack Alvin played by actor Kenneth Tobey who stared in some of the best sci-fi films in the 1950's. Which also included the original 1951 sci-fi classic "The Thing".

This isn't Perry Mason at its best, in fact it's near its worst. It involves the death of one the the two partners in the Curtis Franklin Circus. First of all, though billed as "The Funniest Man In The World", clown Felix Heidemann is about as funny as a rubber crutch and the actor who played him was a real sad sack. Love interest Lisa Franklin speaks with an annoying accent and agrees to a plot so ludicrous as to beggar description. Anyhoo, Curtis gets bumped off while Heidemann is doing his act. The script constantly tries to paint one character as the guilty party but he's just a red herring. Naturally Perry sees through all the nonsense and pins the murder on the circus owner Jerry Franklin who is ostensibly married to the aforementioned Lisa, who's really married to Heidemann but agree to a sham marriage because she thinks she set the lion loose on Franklin. Anyway, bad acting by the non-regulars, a really dumb plot and a very poor script make this a PM episode to avoid.