User Reviews

This season one mystery based on an original Erle Stanley Gardner novel was remade again later in the series, so if you have an odd sense of deja vue watching it, you know why.

Dr. Morris (Sheppard Strudwick) has been having an affair with his nurse but his wife Janet (Bethel Leslie) won't grant a divorce. When Janet shows up at the private airport presenting her husband with a thermos full of coffee for his solo flight to Utah and later that same day the plane crashes, she is charged with murder.

Perry does some good detective work in this one as he discovers the body in the crash is really he doctor's good friend Dave Kirby (Dabbs Greer). His final solution involves some detective work that pays off.

The latter version may have it over this one because by that time the Mason creative team really knew what they were doing, but there's something honest and raw about this one that I liked. Perry has a good scene cross examining Tragg on the witness stand; Jeanette Nolan makes her first guest spot on the show as Kirby's wife and shows why the producers brought her back for 5 more appearances.

** SPOILERS** I always say that, because I know I can get carried away and spill the beans. I liked this one. The acting is really good, there is excellent courtroom action (part of it involving a guy's super memory), and a couple of actors that need to be mentioned. Like I said, the plot's pretty good, with the great Dabs Greer playing another in a myriad of parts that he was so perfect at. His wife, Jeanette Nolan, is at wit's end, realizing he's a hopeless drunk.

The plane crash (and a pretty crummy crash it was, too. They ALWAYS bung 'em up) The husband and beautiful nurse, played by Maxine Cooper "Velda" in "Kiss Me Deadly"; one of the sexiest actresses in Hollywood. Paul and Perry must figure out why and how the murder happened. Della has a key duty in this conclusion, and beautiful Barbara, as usual, plays it perfectly.

Another player in this drama is Al Lettieri. He usually plays gangster types (see "The Getaway" with Steve McQueen); in this one, he's a son who happily lets himself be bribed for information on his sister (Cooper) it's a great scene that you'll love.

One other point is that aviation crashes were handled at that time by the Civil Aeronautics Agency (shortly after, the F.A.A.). In this show, there was NO investigation being done on this wreck. I'll try to find out if there would have been.

Another beautiful episode, with veteran character actor Dabbs Greer at the forefront. It was funny seeing Mason jocked out of his jockey shorts by "the little old lady with the .35 cent hamburgers-fries included"!

***SPOILERS*** Fed up with his wife Janet's, Bethel Leslie, constant nagging Dr. Morris, Sheppard Strudwick, decides to dump her for his pretty nurse Gladys Strome, Maxine Cooper,as soon as the divorce papers are finalized. What's bugging the good doctor is that his old lady would end up with half his money due to the community property laws in the state of California.

Using his old army air force buddy Dave Kirby, Dedds Greer, in hiding his money, all of $92,000.00 worth of it, has Janet suspect that he's trying to stiff her out of her alimony settlement. Things later turn nasty when Dr.Morris on a business trip to Salt Lake City ends up in a fatal plane crash with him piloting the aircraft. What becomes even more suspicious is in checking out the remains of the badly burned body of Dr. Morris it's discovered, in his stomach lining, that his coffee was spiked with poison and, now get this!, the body wasn't that of Dr. Morris at all! It's the body of his good friend and WWII army buddy Dave Kirby!

Of course it's Dr. Morris' wife Janet who was seen putting the deadly thermos of coffee in her husbands cockpit who's charged with the murder but of not her husband but Dave Kirby by mistake. But mistake or not murder is murder and even though Janet supposedly ended up murdering the wrong person she still has to stand trial for her crime. That's unless her attorney Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, has something to say about it!

****SPOILERS**** Checking out Dr. Morris' whereabouts Perry discovers that he and his nurse and lover Gladys Strome checked out of the country to Mexico City together with the 92 grand that he took out of his and his wife Janet's bank account. As for the late Dave Kirby he was used as in a diversionary plan by Dr. Morris having everyone think that he went east to Salt Lake City where he and Galdys really went south across the border into Mexico.

Having Dr. Morris brought back to the states to answer how and why Kerby replaced him as the pilot opens up a new can of worms for the prosecution D.A Hamilton "Ham" Burger, William Talman. He now has to change his strategy in proving that Janet had her husband killed since the person killed wasn't her husband! And the most important fact in the case is that the person responsible for Dave Kirby's death knew exactly what he or she was doing! He even went so far as to plant evidence, a fireproof platinum pendant, to make sure that his badly burned beyond recognition body was identified as Dave Kirby for what turned out to be very obvious reasons!