User Reviews

*SPOILERS* I wasn't gonna say anything, was I? I was gonna just forget it. Naturally, I couldn't. First, I almost have issues with the other reviewers. Almost; see, I agree that the character of Amy Jo was irritating, but not because of her Southern accent, or drawl; a little later for that. No, I think it is just that she edifies the type of individual that Perry defends. Except SHE has an excuse.

She's from Hooterville, or Bug-Tussle; somewhere that is just not as cynical as L.A. What excuse do the myriad of other clients have, then? If we're gonna start holding out I.Q., or common sense as a prerequisite for being his client, this show would have folded up years before it did. NOW, her accent. There are many southern dialects, and picking one out to say "this is the ONE", is impossible.

Furthermore, just a couple of episodes ago, Mary Ann Mobley was on, and her character was supposedly from the Smokey Mountain area. At that time, it was revealed that Della was an old friend of hers from the same hometown, so to speak. Yet the lovely, and beloved Della has NO southern drawl, at all. Indeed, Hollywood has had many difficulties trying to work the southern out of someone's speech. And, how much work is a speech coach supposed to dedicate to a one hour drama?

I think one of the problems is that we can get tired of the same "dummy that has to be saved" plot. That point I'd agree with. Perry himself once remarked to Paul that one day he'd find a client who wouldn't lie to him. The same thing as far as doing what he tells them to, You'll use up your fingers and toes adding up his defendants and how many times they go against his wishes only to find themselves in worse trouble for having done so.

Those are the two main gripes I've read about in the reviews, and I can't really disagree too much. I wrote a review myself concerning these same issues, in which I ripped these characters apart myself; I'm pretty sure I used the word "stupid" more than once. Problem is, without them, we wouldn't have a show, would we?

This one has an adequate number of creeps, rats, and dirtbags. Perry still has to use the court to dig the truth out of the guilty party, and there are a some good looking girls - Barbara Hale being the serious beauty of them. we keep watching, though, don't we? I seem to recall one reviewer mentioning that he'd seen this one three times. There's gotta be a good reason for not turning it off, doesn't there? Maybe it's because we really like the show itself. I'm giving it an 8.

"The Case of the Frustrated Folksinger" is a episode in which the series seemed to be showing its age. It's not one of the better episodes, but that can happen after eight seasons.

What strikes me is the topic of folk music. It had been the rage in the late 1950s and early 1960s, but was already in decline by the time this episode aired at the beginning of 1965. TV shows at the time seem to be a little behind the times when it came to musical tastes, as the British Invasion was in full swing by the time this aired.

The casting is what makes this interesting. I've personally met both Leonard Stone and Lee Meriwether (both fine people), and and both Ms. Meriwether and Mark Goddard were both on the verge of starring in memorable science fiction TV series (Time Tunnel and Lost In Space, respectively). Gary Crosby's presence is also interesting, since he had starred in the final Twilight Zone episode filmed; he played a rockabilly star.

But in the end, it's not a particularly good episode, when we have a defendant who seems dumb as a board. Not one of the better episodes, and it seems as if the series is running on gasoline fumes.

I have seen this episode three times now and it gets more and more annoying with each viewing.

There are a lot of little things that annoy me about "The Case of the Frustrated Folksinger" but the two biggest gripes I have are the performances of Bonnie Jones as Amy Jo Jennings and Joyce Meadows as Audrey Stemple.

Bonnie Jones plays the defendant here and her whiny voice is only exacerbated by the ridiculously grating southern accent she employs. The writers didn't do her any favors by making her character very unsympathetic as she makes one foolish decision after another.

Joyce Meadows plays an alcoholic starlet who is a prime candidate to be the culprit. What she is guilty of, however, is a terribly over the top performance. It's difficult to pick her worst scene--- is it when she crashes the party early in the episode or is it later when she takes the stand? In the end every scene with either actress is a loser but for me Bonnie Jones takes the cake. She joins the long list of Mason defendants who in the end were innocent but who I really just wanted to see suck the poison in the gas chamber because they were so annoying and stupid.

Also of note: look for former Miss America and future Barnaby Jones star Lee Meriwether playing against type as an icy secretary and for Robert H. Harris doing his usual great job of playing a Perry Mason ne'er-do-well. Here he plays the murder victim in the sixth of his seven PM appearances.

***SPOILERS*** The Perry Mason, Raymomd Burr, side show as its now known limps into the years 1965 with another mindless boring and confusing episode that has to do with the music business and those involved in it like big shot talent agent Harry Bronson Robery H.Harris. The fatherly like Bronson had seen dollar signs in pretty but untalented hillbilly singer Amy Jo Jennings, Bonnie Jones,but not for the reasons you would expect. It wasn't Amy Jo's singing talent that he was impressed by but her money that she inherited from her dead parents from down in Tennessee. Tricking Amy Jo to give him a check for $50,000.00 so she can star in a musical he's planning to finance with big time actor and singer Lionel Albright, Richard Garland, the star struck girl falls for it lock stock and barrel. It's only later that she finds out that Bronson stiffed her and has signed major musical actress, who's down on her luck and high on booze, Audery Stemple, Joyce Meadows, for the part!

It's not too long that Bronson is found dead in his mansion with his head battered in with an ashtray and it's, you guessed it, Amy Jo who arrested for his murder. It was Amy Jo who after finding out that Bronson stiffed her out of the 50 G's made a scene at a party that Brosnson attended as well as was at the scene of his murder that had everyone suspect that she did the guy in. Perry Mason who was handling Amy Jo'e parents finances then took on her murder case not exactly knowing what he was getting into.

***SPOILERS**** Mindless and confusing Perry Mason episode that has Perry really do nothing but lay back and let the killer or killers do the talking or confessing who's more then willing to take a trip to the gas chamber then get away with his or her crime. In fact there were two killers who confessed to Bronson's murder but it as the second one who, after Bronson was knocked out cold by the fist, in fact finished him off. In his boring and meaningless confession to why he did in Bronson his murderer without any plodding by Perry brought out the fact that he'd been blackmailing him, for what he never reveals, for years and now he got his big chance to get even! What the moron didn't realize is that Bronson would in the end get the last laugh when he ends up strapped into the California gas chamber in San Quentin!