User Reviews

Della Street's friend, Janet Holmes, is being blackmailed by an employee of her husband's oriental art gallery. She asked Della for $25,000 to pay the employee, Edward Franklin, the money for some photos. Since Della does not have that kind of money, she asked Perry. Perry without any knowledge of the situation agrees to give Della the money. When Janet gives Edward the money he refuses to give her the pictures. He claims that he now wants 50% of the gallery business.

During a dinner party, Edward comes up to Janet's husband and asked if he can talk with him after the party. This upsets Janet that when Edward and her are privately together, she pulls a gun on him and demands the pictures. Edward tries to take the gun but is hit over the with a item that knocks him out.

Later Edward is found dead and Janet is the suspect. The police pulled Janet's car over a few minutes later but the only person in the car is Della. Hamilton Burger advises that if Janet is charged with murder then Della would be charged as an accomplice.

There is also another situation going on in this show where the oriental gallery sold a 'weary watchdog' figurine to a lady named Zaneta Holmes. Ms Homes was charged $10,000 for the figurine but has found out that the statue is worth less that $50.

When the figurine is stolen- a friend of Perry's, CC Chang, advises that he stole the item. He tells Perry that he wants to send the statue back to his native land in China. But Perry believes that his story is not on the up-and-up.

In this episode we get a great mystery. Not only does Perry have to defend Janet and protect Della- he also has to effect the hearing of CC Chang. And it will be strange when Edward Franklin is found to be a cad in both court hearings. But both will tie the entire episode together.

A very entertaining episode that was fun to watch.

I think "The Case of the Weary Watchdog" mentions the title in the show more times than any other Perry Mason episode. That aside, this is very well written by Samuel Newman. When an old friend in desperate trouble turns to Della for help, Della turns to Perry, who writes her a check for $25,000, no questions asked. Unfortunately, Della's friend Janet Brent (Mala Powers) is arrested for murder (of a victim who really did need murdering--he's very obnoxious) and Berger is thinking of charging Della as an accessory! At the same time, Newman crafts what seems to be an unrelated story involving Perry's friend, restaurateur CC Chang (the always enjoyable Keye Luke, doing a bit of a Charlie Chan impression) who pleads guilty to running two red lights and reckless driving while Perry and Paul suspect he is covering for his adopted son (James Hong). The way Newman brings it all together is outstanding writing, as Perry finds himself working in TWO courtrooms to solve the crime! In addition to the fine script, the guest cast includes 4 performers who would later appear on "Kung Fu": Keye Luke, Phillip Ahn, James Hong, Beulah Quo (mrs. Tong) and the Assistant DA (Kenneth Tobey). In addition, Tobey and Powers both later appeared with Ratmond Burr on "Ironside". And Senor Sock would be remiss if he did not point out another celebrity--Judy Dan, the object of Mr. Hong's romantic interest, was Miss Hong Kong of 1952!

**SPOILERS** How far would you go for a friend? Della got herself in a heck of a mess for her silly, fearful, extorted friend Janet, who then was accused of Murder. Right here, Perry misquotes California's penal code as being P.C. 189, when it is actually P.C. 187. 189 covers explosives. Dean Chang has a crush on Trixie Tong (who can blame him?), and jumps to the wrong conclusion about her and Edward Franklin. Well, if she relies on her own wisdom, that ends any chance he'll ever have with her; yup, he's an idiot. Traffic tickets galore, step dad takes the blame, Perry figures out just how crooked "Cee Cee", is, and Burger stands there with thick egg on his confused face; priceless.

I noted in an earlier review how good Della makes a Blonde Mink Stole look, and it seems like the director agrees, because here she is wearing it. I bet the furriers in the U.S. sold a thousand of them just because she was modeling it. Barbara was a professional model, as well as a product representative (Amana Corporation), I'll bet somebody got paid for this unwarranted plug for Mink.

Janet Trent, Della's foolish friend, was married to an even bigger fool. He pretended to know antiquities, and was part of the entire extortion racket. Looks like everything Janet was worried about was crashing down around her, even though Perry got her off the murder rap, her husband was neck deep in doing business with an illegal, enemy government, and all the other charges they can tack on to him. I doubt if Perry will defend him. He'll be too busy separating Janet from him A.S.A.P., and getting something out of it for Janet before she gets caught up in any more of his crapstorm.

Janet was driving a sweet 1960 Buick convertible when she left Della to see if Perry would lend her the money. She was driving it later when she was stopped by the cops. Perry had yet another problem. Even though Janet had been absolved of blame, Della could have still been in deep trouble with the D.A., and the courts because of her helping Janet; Obstruction of Justice is what they call it. Burger let her off, thank the almighty. The way it looks to me, Perry MUST have promised Burger, and the State Department, as well as the F.B.I. every bit of help he could provide in bringing Alton Brent to Justice. With Franklin delightfully deceased (good riddance, dirtbag), the only two left are Cee Cee, and Alton, and somebody's gotta pay.

Even though Cee Cee actually killed Franklin, Alton was part of the whole scheme, and that will make him an accessory. Anybody dumb enough to think that Cee Cee will give up anyone else? Not me. One other little spot of bother: Alton knew a lot about what must have happened, and if he believed his wife, and he knew that he didn't do it, then he had to be able to figure out who actually did it. Yet, he was willing to let Janet get convicted. One thing that I would have loved to see was Burger and Perry's summations. How did it go to the jury without them?

Now, just one more point. Just this morning. I watched "The Laughing Lady"; another Perry Mason mystery that featured faked Oriental Art. In my criticism of it, I complained that they didn't give John Dall enough time to be the slick, slimy, snake that he is so great at. Well, 14 1/2 hours later (METV), here he is. world class rat, and a great performance it was with the right ending. Thanx to METV, and IMDb.

It's difficult to praise this episode enough. It (mostly) steps out of the formula, involving Perry in two trials at the same time, while Della might very well go to prison as accessory to murder. More than in most episodes, we see Perry and Della as human beings, and learn just how much Perry respects & trusts her. How many bosses would loan their secretary $25,000, no questions asked? (That's a lot of money now, and it was huge 55 years ago.)

Another rarity is that the murder case actually goes to trial. In almost every other episode, the case doesn't get past the hearing. (This was done to avoid the cost of hiring jurors.) The reason appears to be that the writer wanted to build up suspense by leaving the jury's verdict -- and Della's potential conviction -- hanging.

Yet another item of interest -- which likely goes over just about every viewer's head -- is that Brent, owner of the art gallery, is gay. This is revealed when Franklin snidely/leeringly tells Brent's wife "Other than his stamps -- is he interested in //anything//?". Brent also has a habit of saying "Fabulous!", which one of the characters harshly tells him to stop.

"Weary Watchdog" is conventional in one respect. As in many episodes, the murderer is played by a familiar character actor. (There's only one -- #1, in fact.)

This episode was a first to really showcase Barbara Hale's acting abilities. While I disliked the premise of smart Della making such of a ridiculous request from Perry. Certainly she had an inkling that even though her friend was involved she not only was getting herself into something but she was indirectly pulling in Perry. Della was savvy in the office when it came to legal issues to some extent she was almost a paralegal. Della seemed out of character but it made for an excellent premise and while I think there should have been more Perry-Della scenes. This episode enough about how he thought of Della.

An excellent episode which put the spotlight on abuses by the Chinese government torturing citizens and allowing extortion to keep them alive. However, one glaring inconsistency pertaining to one of our heroes, Mr. Mason's secretary. As a suspect under threat of prosecution by the D.A. as an accessory to murder, Perry Mason would never allow Della to testify at the murder trial and incriminate herself to Hamilton Burger.

***SPOILERS*** Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, does the impossible here in juggling two cases at the very same time but incredibly manages to accomplish that feat and winning both of them! First these's the case of Janet Brent, Mala Powers, who's on trail for the murder of Oriental antique dealer Edward Franklin,John Dall, who was found dead at his home with his skull bashed in by one of his antiques, a weary watchdog figure, that Janet is accused of doing. And second there's Perry's secretary Della Street, Barbara Hale, who's now accused of being an accomplice in trying to have Janet escape from justice by covering up for her.

Della had no idea in what she was involved in since Franklin's murder was kept from her at the time she helped Janet escape from Justice. But the big story is that in fact it wasn't Janet who did Franklin in she just knocked him out! It was someone else who when the coast was clear and no one around who finished Franklin off with two fatal blows, from the Oriental watch dog figurine, to his skull.

Perry with his work cut out for him get's Chinese restaurateur C.C Chang, Keye Luke, who's also known to his friends as "Triple C" to help him crack the case with his deep knowledge of Oriental or Chinese culture. In that Perry feels that this, Franklin's murder and what he was really involved in, all somehow goes back to Communist Red China. C.C strikes Perry as a bit odd not only in his always talking in Chinese parables,like Confucius,but taking the blame for a crime,running red lights, that he didn't commit! It fact it was C.C's #1 Son Dean Chang, James Hong, who ran the red lights whom he's covering up for!

****SPOILER ALERT**** Perry soon uncovers that this Oriental antique business that Franklin was involved in was just a cover in blackmailing Chinese Americans with family trapped behind the Bamboo Curtain:Communist Red China. That in him having them kept from being murdered by the Red Chinese Government by paying it off with desperately needed US Government currency! What Franklin was involved with Janet in was something entirety different. He once took her out to dinner and slipped a date rape drug into her drink! And then he had the unconscious Janet photographed in all kinds of compromising positions while she was out cold! When Janet paid the creep off, with $25,000.00, to destroy the evidence he smelling blood in he water suddenly upped the price! That by her having him get 50% control of her husbands the totally clueless in the business he's involved in Alton Brent, Wesley Addy, Oriental antique business! All Franklin ended up getting was a busted skull and a one way ticket to the city morgue!

As for who murdered Franklin Perry soon found out that it was whom he was secretly working with in his blackmailing of Chinese Americans through his Oriental antique business. It seemed that Franklin got a bit too greedy and wanted more of the cut,in blackmail money, that ended up with him getting his skull cut or smashed opened in return!