User Reviews

The young woman who ends up being the defendant was rather unlikeable. She was impulsive and self centered, and, deep down, stupid. She meets her long lost father and he con her into expensive actions. Pat O'Mally is quite good as an old resident prospector who is more than colorful. A theme is, "All that glitters is not gold."

Karl Held and Sarah Marshall had appeared on Broadway in "The World of Suzy Wong" with William Shatner, France Nuyen, and Ron Randell. Karl understudied Shatner. That was back in 1958-1959, a couple of years before this 1961 episode. Karl and Sarah got married in 1964.

Karl was a Korean War veteran and graduated from Penn State phi beta kappa. He studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse with Sanford Meisner.

Karl said he was "lousy" in the role of David Gideon and the role was "unnecessary", but he must have improved as an actor. He later spent a year with the Royal Shakespeare Company of London.

Sarah was a popular guest star appearing on "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour", "Twilight Zone", and "Star Trek", among many other shows. The "Little Girl Lost" episode of "Twilight Zone" is a classic with Sarah and Robert Sampson's young daughter lost in another dimension. Charles Aidman is a scientist who tries to help them get their daughter back.

Sarah's parents were Herbert Marshall (Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent") and Edna Best (Hitchcock's first version of "The Man Who Knew Too Much").

Before marrying Karl, Susan was married to Mel Bourne, an Oscar nominated art director ("Annie Hall", "The Natural"). That marriage lasted for five years during the 1950's.

Sarah and her father appeared in an episode of "Hong Kong" with Rod Taylor. Sarah appeared on the stage with her mother.

Karl and Sarah appeared together several times including on episodes of "Medical Center" and "The Strange Report" with Anthony Quayle.

Karl starred in two pilots. One was called "Ready for the People" (1964) directed by Buzz Kulick ("Brian's Song", "The Defenders"). Karl played a dynamic young assistant DA. In 1965 William Shatner starred as a dynamic young assistant DA in a series called "For the People", produced by Herbert Brodkin ("The Defenders").

Karl's other pilot was "The 13th Gate" (1965), a science fiction series. Karl played a government investigator looking into strange occurrences. Karl's partner was played by Alex Cord. They drove around in a cool sports car. David Opatoshu was their boss.

One of Karl's best guest performances was in the classic 1963 "Outer Limits" episode "The Man Who Was Never Born" with Martin Landau, Shirley Knight, and John Considine. Karl also appeared in a "Star Trek" working with Shatner again. But Karl never appeared in an "Ironside" or a Perry Mason movie.

Years later Karl was a regular on "Falcon Crest".

Karl and Sarah's last appearance together was in a 2012 horror film with Piper Laurie called "Bad Blood...the Hunger".

Sarah died in 2014 after 50 years of marriage to Karl.

A really good cast of top flight character players distinguishes this Perry Mason episode by their presence. Raymond Burr is in the desert country on a land boundary dispute when his Paris Hilton of a client decides to take matters into her own hands. So now Sarah Marshall is his client in a criminal as well as a civil case.

Not too many bombs kill Perry Mason victims, but that's what happens here to Robert Lowery who says that he'll swing his testimony in favor of his stepdaughter Marshall. So the dumb girl gets $10,000.00 from a friend of her mother June Vincent played by Bruce Bennett. Only instead of a payoff in the package, there's a time bomb instead.

Besides these folks such familiar faces as Harry Carey, Jr., Paul Fix, J. Pat O'Malley, Philip Ober, and Kelly Thordsen are in this cast. And when Mason exposes the murderer in court, a twenty year old cold case is confessed to in the process.

I guess Perry was having a two for one day.

Now here is a different way for a murder to happen in the series, open a package that is suppose to contain loads of money and the next thing you know-- there are pieces of you all over the place. For the viewer it was different from the usual bump on the head or the familiar gunshot, we have a bomb in this show. It was just too bad the script did not hold up as well.

In short, the story centers around a young woman, Judy Bryant, that has some riverfront property. But due to the decrease of the water flow the riverbanks difference is over 300 feet from where it was some twenty years ago. Now a developer claims the riverfront property is his and Judy's land begins back to where the boundary was years ago.

Judy calls Perry to sue the developer but one thing she needs is the person that surveyed the land years ago. It just happens to be her down-on-his-luck step father did the survey but he wants $10,000 to go to court with her. Without Perry's knowledge she places the money in a paper box and when it is opened her step-father is no more. Now Perry is defending Judy for murder.

Most all the evidence is produced in courtroom testimony. The last twenty minutes of the show is just Perry producing person after person in order to find guilt. There is much testimonial evidence that makes the entire episode somewhat non-exciting. Plus the actress, Sarah Marshall (Judy) did not come across well when delivering lines. She is a beautiful woman but talked in only one tone the entire time. She had no infliction other than a low monotone voice. With all that said,it was still watchable, it just seem a long time to get to the ending.