User Reviews

Based upon one of Erle Stanley Gardner's novels, this story as is usual with episodes based upon the books has more than it's share of twists. It has a sequence in which Mason with Della there to witness it behaves in a very gray area of the law. In fact, he almost gets caught this time as Burger becomes aware of this late in the show.

The victim is a huckster running a phony lucky legs contest which is supposed to give the winner a chance at a Hollywood role. The latest winner comes to Hollywood and finds out that some of the others are still there but none of them are stars. This creates a lot of possible people with motives to kill the huckster.

The murder is a stabbing and Mason is the first person (with Della) to find the body. He is involved by a paying a client who seems to be offering him money to defend the latest lucky leg lady, and her boyfriend as well. Mason, as usual, does better by not only proving her innocent but finding the real murderer.

I won't spoil it except to say the the murder is not exactly as it first appears once they get to court.

The episode kicks off with a "lucky legs" beauty competition which promises Hollywood attention to the winner. It would seem there are some unfulfilled promises here and this leads to some stupid behavior, primarily by the young women. This show could be so sexist at times, although Della could hold her own. Sort of a bland ending to the whole thing.

Others can describe the plot of this episode better than I (although I must admit I didn't think Marjorie Cluny looked much like a young ingenue or wide-eyed naif).

The primary thing I want to mention is a fun fact or piece of trivia. At the beginning of the episode, when Perry and Della arrive at the apartment building to meet Frank Patton, watch as they get on the elevator. (Hint: specifically, look at the floor.) This scene really brings home the fact that late-1950s television was as yet unskilled in the details of set design. Even for a scene as brief as this one, it really could have been done better. (But it's funny.)

Before Erle Stanley Gardner's famous defense attorney became the subject of a television series this is one of the few stories that had gotten a big screen treatment in the 30s with Warren William starring as a much different Perry Mason than Raymond Burr.

Burr gets retained by John Archer to represent Lizabeth Hush in case she needs a good attorney because this woman is hopping mad over being stranded in Hollywood after winning the Lucky Legs contest in her small Utah town. It was all a scam, but when the organizer of the contest winds up stabbed to death and Hush is seen leaving the apartment in a highly agitated state by a few people including Perry Mason himself she's going to need Raymond Burr's services.

William Talman gets a bit agitated himself when he thinks that Burr might be guilty of evidence tampering. But before he can do anything the real murderer confesses on the stand.

I disagree with another reviewer because A the real killer had a very good motive in his point of view and B it was rather obvious he was the culprit. And that's the whole point of a Mason story, you're supposed to be surprised.

This episode was so promising during seven-eights of the show but then we get a courtroom confession, that was so far out in left field, that you could actually say it was behind the concession stand.

It all starts out with a man named Frank Patton. He goes from small town to small town putting on a "Lucky Legs" contest with the winner supposedly getting a Hollywood contract. However, it was more of a way for Mr Patton to fatten his wallet than for the ladies to get into show business.

Marjorie Cluny wins the legs contest in Utah and comes to California. When there she finds out that her contract was dropped and she is short on cash. She moves into an apartment with a former "Lucky Legs" winner, Thelma Bell. Seems that Mr Patton has done wrong to Ms Bell also.

Ms Cluny goes to see Mr Patton at his apartment at the Holliday Arms- and finds him stabbed to death with a wood carving knife. She goes running out of the apartment but is seen by a neighbor, Laura Fields and also Perry Mason himself.

Perry will defend Ms Cluny in court all due to the generosity of JR Bradbury. Mr Bradbury is in love with Ms Cluny but she does not have the same feelings.

The episode is action packed until we get to the last few minutes of the show. Then we get a very lame confession by a person that had very little to do with the story. It was a surprise ending alright- but the surprise was like playing peek-a-boo with a five month old child.

The story was good, the acting was good and for most of the episode the plot was good. The ending ruined the entire experience.

This is standard Mason fare and based on one of the original novels which had been done as a film in the 1930's. I've no gripes with any of that BUT for a situation revolving around a beauty pageant concerned with beauteous legs, NONE---NOT ONE of the actresses has particularly nice legs (something not dictated differently by the style or the view of beauty during the time period 1950's). Where was Mitzi Gaynor when she was needed?