User Reviews

Considerable circumstantial evidence is assembled to suggest that the safe cracker, who is called "Pops" during the robbery, is Mr. Renzi. But the boy at the end says "Pops" isn't in trouble any more. If he was the safe cracker, he is certainly in trouble for having taken part in the robbery. I thought Mason was going to "crack" the case by revealing who the safe cracker really was. But it never happened. Without doing that his client will go to prison anyway for his part in the robbery.

Other comments: The jazzy score in this episode is very strong. Some Masons used the same tracts it and other shows used but several of them have scores that appear to have been written for the episode and this is one of them. Also, actor Than Wyenn, who plays the stoolie, Eddie Merlin, appeared in a great many TV series episodes over the years and appeared, (to me, anyway), to have a glass eye. He clearly doesn't here. Eddie was my guess as to who was "Pops" but we never found out.

**SPOILERS** Loose ends, such as: why did the loan company manager have only himself to blame if the safe was cracked? For a real good way to cover that glaring fault in facts, a break-in a week or two in advance would have been a good plan; no money taken, but....

Also, the air conditioning fan noise would have been intolerable in any business, and therefore should never been introduced. This is a problem that normal maintenance would have covered. Further, I think that the self-righteous old bat was in on the job, too; otherwise, why be so quick to I.D. a guy whom she had only seen once, and that two weeks before?

When Perry had Elisha Cook on the stand, there was a guy sitting next to Nita Talbot that looked A LOT like the defendant; I mean RIGHT NEXT to her.

Before anyone condemns the kid for being a little crooked, let me point out that it's a lot easier to be honest when you have enough to eat and are warm in the winter. The finder's keepers (or reward status), would probably have been canceled because of the kid hiding the extra $12.000 in the flour canister, though.

Enough cannot be said about the value of highest quality supporting actors in this profession. One of the greatest is Elisha Cook Jr. a bit player extraordinaire who had one of the iconic western roles in "Shane" in which he played "Stonewall". Movie is available from Amazon, and there is really no reason to not have it in your collection. His work in so many classics made him one of the most respected actors in Hollywood; both film and television. His other roles like "the gunsel" in Maltese Falcon, or "Harry Jones" in The Big Sleep show what a terrific actor this man was.

Just a little more; I know that I can be a broken record about these "minor players", but I defy anyone to prove that they can't act right alongside any of those whom we call "great".

This series abounds with such wonderful talent. Even when the plots are weak, or there are problems, this fact saves almost all of them. Great acting from great actors. A good episode with a lot of fun. I loved it.

Great episode, right up until the end when most episodes of Perry Mason have a casual conversation between Perry, Della and/or Paul that fills in any remaining plot holes.

However, they didn't do that this time.

We know that Anderson and Crowley were 2 of the 3 robbers. And we know who gave the 3rd robber the combination to the safe so that he could miraculously "crack it" open in less than a minute.

But the identity of that 3rd robber, the one called "Pops", nobody ever bothered to identify who that was.

It's pretty obvious that it wasn't Grandpa Renzi, but do you really think that Burger and Tragg would have released Renzi before having the real 3rd robber was in custody???

Seriously doubt it!!! 😊

This is actually not a bad episode if you can get past the "poor grandfather who loves his grandson framed for murder" aspect of the script. Eduando Ciannelli does a good job playing the lovable old Gramp Renzi who's only grandson Nicky (Bobby Clark) finds thousands of dollars in stolen money in an abandoned house. The Renzis are poor but honest, but before Gramps can get the boy to take the money in to the police, the police show up and accuse Gramps of being part of the robbery and killing the man found in the abandoned house. Yeah, I know, it's not a compelling idea for a story.

What I did like is the way Perry solves the crime and the performances of several characters in it, including Elisha Cook Jr. as a three time loser and Nita Talbot who is outstanding as Iris Anderson, the not very broken up widow of the dead man. Her character is dripping with film noir. I only wish they'd have worked that angle and thrown out much of the Renzi story.

One other curious note: according to the IMDb, the young man playing Nickey, Bobby Clark would grow up to play the Gorn captain in the "Star Trek" episode "Arena".

The pint sized client is 14 year old Nicky Renzi.

He has found the stolen loot from a robbery. He believes in finders keepers and goes to see Perry Mason about it.

Later Nicky's grandfather is arrested over the robbery. The police walk in just as Nicky's grandfather confronts him about all the money in a bag.

Perry Mason is to the rescue but it is not straightforward. One eyewitness does not easily breakdown during Perry's cross examination.

However a weasel in the witness stand does not come across so well.

The story is let down by the grandfather character. It was hard to believe that the police thought he was a hardened criminal and safebreaker. He had no prior record.