User Reviews

**SPOILERS** No doubt. The previous reviewers have given most of the important information, so there's really nothing left for me to shoot my mouth off about....except, maybe... The very lovely Sue Randall - Miss Landers from "Leave It To Beaver" and other credits. She plays the defendant in this episode, an unwitting dupe used by the always nefarious William Campbell; known far and wide for playing generally lousy creeps so well, that he MUST have enjoyed it.

The guy who hired Perry to first investigate his Nephew (Campbell), and then Betty (Sue), Gorman; is a real patsy, too. Fooled by his nephew, cheated on by him and his own wife, he didn't have a clue even though Perry was hinting broadly that things were amiss in his own life.

Why couldn't Perry have said anything directly to Gorman? His client was Betty, remember? Perry's duty and ultimate allegiance was to her. By the way, Perry scolds her for not telling him everything. She tries to explain, but.... It is when Perry calls on a cocktail waitress, Frances Banks, that Gorman's wife ( a weak reed, at best) finally can't stand the guilt anymore and blurts out her confession; She was always on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Whoever the actress was playing Frances Banks, she goes unnamed and uncredited, and let me tell you; THIS is a travesty. Tall, tanned, blonde and beautiful, she had one thing to do: stand up --- wow! It's a rare occurrence in IMDb when they fail to list an actress, no matter how small the part, and this part was notable. Who was she? A model? Playboy playmate? Bunny? Hmmmm...

Campbell could easily have walked away from the whole thing by hiring a crooked Mexican doctor to remove the bullet, and then disappearing. Instead, Paul busts him. I was personally delighted to see Paul grab him and then get credit for it. Does ANYONE think that Tragg will remember it? ? Once they had him, and Alice Gorman's confession, they were both cooked. The D.A. will probably give her a deal in exchange for testimony, but Jim's headed for the gas chamber. Alice is absolutely getting some serious prison time for her stupidity. It WAS, after all big money $80Gs, and a guy was cold-bloodedly murdered; I'm thinking' murder2. Gorman's so dumb, though, he'll probably forgive her. Only one notable car in this episode, a 1960 Buick convertible; sweet ride. R.I.P. Sue Randall, James Anderson, and William Campbell three fine actors who are missed, and thanks to S.A.G. for consistent depth of talent. IMDb gets kudos for references and information.

Mason's client in this one is a secretary which would give Della Street a scare only it is not her. This other secretary would be framed because she arrives at the murder scene before & after the murder. Meanwhile there is another woman who commits the murder & there is no mystery who that is as she leaves the scene. Then the cabin where the murder takes place burns down destroying a lot of physical evidence.

What is a mystery is that 2 shots are fired at the murder, but only one bullet can be found. Since only one is is the dead mans body, the prosecution isn't too concerned, but as far as trying to sift things out, Mason is. There is a surprise twist in this one, and some missing money. Hamilton Burger is missing, but sends one of his best subs into the hearing.

Paul Drake does the sifting, & the travel to try & find out where that bullet went. Meanwhile, Mason sifts through the suspects in the courtroom. This one gets a courtroom confession which gets Masons innocent client off. Drake finally finds the other bullet too.

In one of the pictures for the episode of The Case Of The Ill-Fated Faker, there is a beautiful woman who is standing in court. According to the credits on IMDb when you click on the picture it says the woman is Donna Hayes. Ms. Donna Hayes has only 3 credits, and one of them is for Perry Mason, but the credit was for The Case Of The Envious Editor, guest-starring the late, great James Coburn. She is only listed as 'Girl' for that episode, but in the two pictures for The Case Of The Envious Editor that she was in, it looks like the same (uncredited) woman in the picture for The Case Of The Ill-Fated Faker. The man playing the sleazy nephew/supposed murder victim in Ill-Fated Faker is William Campbell, whose first wife was Judith Campbell Exner, ex-lover of John F. Kennedy and mobster Sam Giancana. She was introduced to JFK & Giancana by another of her lovers, Frank Sinatra.

Warning Spoiler's.....Jim feriss shot Stan piper and was planning on killing his lover Alice Gorman because he didn't want to split the $80.000 so he faked his own death Alice Gorman would probably go to prison for being an accomplice to murder also jack Alivin replaces Hamilton burger as district attorney after William tailman was fired from the show.

It's Howard Petrie who comes to Perry Mason for advice about how to get a worthless nephew off his back who is played by William Campbell who played a lovely variety of young punks on the big screen and small during that era. But who needs a criminal lawyer badly is Petrie's secretary Sue Randall who gets innocently caught up in Campbell's extortion.

Another who gets caught up in it is June Dayton, Petrie's wife with whom Campbell has been carrying on with. All to get a hefty some of money from his uncle.

It's quite a scheme Campbell has when it blows up in his face and we see Dayton shoot him. That in itself is a new wrinkle on the usual Perry Mason formula. Still it's Randall who dropped off the payment who gets in the jackpot.

The final touches on this intriguing Mason episode call for a trip to Cuernavaca in Mexico as William Hopper locates as Paul Harvey used to say, the rest of the story.

***SPOILERS*** The "Perry Mason", Raymond Burr, series 4th season on CBS starts out with a bang of an episode where we actually know who the killer is before Perry ever gets a chance to cross-examine her or him in the courtroom. That's until the final few minutes where were the audience are hit with the surprise of all surprise endings that makes this one of the best of the "Perry Mason" series.

It's Carl Gorman's, Howard Petrie, good for nothing and leach of a nephew Jim Ferris, played by Tony Curtis look-alike William Campball, who besides having a secret affair with his wife Alice, June Dayton, tries to blackmail his uncle out of $80,000.00. That's by pretending that his wife is being held hostage by a couple of mob collectors who's boss he's deeply in debt to. With a frightened Alice playing along in being held against her will Ferris is then double-crossed by his accomplice Stan Piper, James Anderson, who breaks into the house where Alice is being held "hostage" and end s up setting the whole place, together with most of the $80,000.00, on fire! In all the confusion Ferris is accidentally shot by the Alice who panicked and by knocking down a kerosene lamp started the fire that burned down the entire cottage with everything, including Ferris, in it. During all this confusion the person delivering the money Goreman's secretary Betty Wilkins, Sue Randell, who had left the scene returned just in time to be spotted by a member of the local fire department with the murder weapon that Alice in her driving away from the scene dropped!

***SPOILERS*** We all think that this will be an open & shut case for Perry who's defending Betty for Farris's murder but there's more to come in what happened to his partner in crime Piper who completely, possibly fleeing across the border into Mexico, disappeared from the scene! Using the help of his friend private eye Paul Drake, William Hooper, to sniff tings out Perry is baffled in the fact that two spent shells, from the same gun, was found at the scene of the crime: One lodged in Ferris' body and the other not accounted for! It's Drake who uses the US Mail in Mexico to smoke out Ferrs' killer by picking up his mail at the hotel he's staying at. At the big surprise is that Ferris's killer isn't Piper whom we were all lead to believe he was but the person whom, can you take a guess, the missing bullet was lodged in!