User Reviews

I enjoy Perry Mason quite a bit. I loved it when it was prime time in my youth and I still watch it on FETV whenever I can. This episode is well done with quite a few big name actors like Anthony Caruso and Nico Minardos. There is a major mistake in IMDb's acting credits. The character of Father Reggiani who has an ongoing role in this entire episode is incorrectly credited to Paul Comi. The actual actor playing that role is Mike Henry who is a much better known actor and has appeared in many big time movies such as Tarzan, The Green Berets and Rio Lobo. For some reason IMDb has left this Perry Mason episode out of Mike Henry's resume credits also. Mike is still alive and undoubtedly could be contacted to confirm this information. But anyone who knows his work will instantly recognize the former professional football player in this episode. He's a very good actor.

Raymond Burr's arm was injured in a helicopter crash, and this is one of the episodes where he has his arm in a sling hidden inside an oversized suit.

This is a great series that uses old actors it upsets me that reviewers do notgoogle actors . This has a great performance by Margo... the famous actress blacklisted and the wife of Eddie Albert and mother of Eddie Albert Jr... reviewers need to realize that Perry Mason the series is a tribute to all the old actors in Hollywood... from Betty Davis to all the minor actors you did not become so famous

Because Paul Comi was Mr. Stiles in the great Star Trek episode "balance of terror"- and the actor playing the Priest in this episode is definitely Paul Comi, and nobody else.

The reason why I love this episode is because I am Sicilian, and I can't even count the times when we had family arguments exactly like the family arguments here, except that our father wasn't greedy for cash. Also, he worked for the IRS. So he knew the actual value of money and he taught this to us, it is because of my father that I am able to maintain my finances month after month, year after year, even during these bad economic years.

Whoever wrote the script, whoever came up with the dialogue, I would say they hit it spot-on, watching this episode is like reliving my childhood- our family got close to killing each other, but we never did, because family is family and even when I despised other members of my family, they are still my family and I love them.

This episode addresses the appearance of "the stranger" which we should always be suspicious of, and basically our young Sicilian Moocher in this episode was freeloading on the name of relatives that he does not actually have- he was representing himself as being from one Sicilian city and family when in fact he was from a different city all together.

I also know members of my family that did exactly what this kid was doing, except that he didn't get my other relatives angry at him. He never Bonk'd my father over the head with a 2 x 4 or stabbed him either. Just freeloaded across the country, eventually got a job, became a citizen. something which is practically impossible in the current climate. Everybody should be afforded the opportunity to become citizens easily if they so desire.

The patriarch of this hot mess is Anthony Caruso who was also imported from the Star Trek episode "a piece of the action" as he was Bella Oxmyx, the boss of the biggest territory of Iotia... and the character he plays in this Perry Mason episode is pretty much like Bella. Caruso is the boss of this business and family, and what he says goes, even though his ideas are actually extremely poor.

The "over the top" award goes to the woman who plays the beaten and much subjugated wife, Seraphina.

I loves me some Perry Mason. I think I have seen every episode more than once.

But this episode is a giant stinker. I wonder if they knew how bad it was, and how far below the show's typical standards, while they were making it.

The acting is uneven. Some of the dialog is ridiculous. And the plot is a total disaster - especially the ending.

I am not going to waste your time or mine actually trying to describe this train-wreck of a plot. Suffice it to say that there are so many dead end paths at the end that have nothing to do with the real solution that I am convinced they were actually just padding or killing time to fill the hour time slot. No one in his right mind could have thought that all those feints made any sense.

Do yourself a favor. Skip this episode and move on to the next one.

I thought this episode had the same charm of watching a cock-fight in a burned out building.. You had a long time feud, a bunch of noisy Italian-Americans and a family business that was control by the a hard-nose father figure. Good times right? No- I thought I was watching a poor pilot for an upcoming comedy/drama TV show but instead was watching an episode of Perry Mason that needed to include a free copy of Rosette Stone Language Learning Software to make the show more interesting.

It involved Paul Porro that would go from town to town telling other Italians that he was an old friend of the family. He then use this ruse to get free room and board and tons of good food.

Here he picked the wrong family. Little did he know that there was an old Italian feud between his the Porro's and the Bacio's. (Bacio was the family he picked out of the phone book to scam) When Mr Bacio ends up dead, Paul is fingered as the killer and Perry will defend him in court.

During the trial we learn that just about everyone hated Mr Bacio. Even his family had disdain for him. So this leaves Perry to pick people's stories apart and find the true killer.

The writes did try to complicate the story by letting us know that Mr Bacio was going to leave town and go back to his homeland. All this did was confuse us even more when this had nothing to do with the ending. But I guess it killed 15 minutes of air-time so it did accomplish something to the hour but did nothing for the viewer.

This episode was disappointing. After watching I felt sad that I wasted my time with this show. It may have had some good moments- but the bad moments far out-weight any fraction of a good watch. But I guess after eight season you find one show that is not up to the regular standard.

Samandrobin's 2017 review states that IMDB incorrectly credits Paul Comi as the priest, that it was actually Mike Henry. If that was true, it was the producers of Perry Mason that goofed as Mr. Comi is listed in the episode's on-screen credits. There is some resemblance but at 6'3" and with a pro football players build, the priest would have been a much more imposing character if played by Mr. Henry.

This is what the world was like before Political Correctness. If this episode is to be believed, all - and I mean all - Sicilians carry 100 year old grudges, talk with their mouths full of oily pasta in a voice loud enough to peel the marinara off a lasagna, are misogynistic boobs, use only red and white checked napkins and tablecloths, always drink wine, and add-a an a-ah to-a the end-a of-a every-a word-a.

What drivel.

Stereotypes aside, the only mystery here is why the surviving actors and the Gardner estate aren't suing to keep this episode out of syndication. When it came time to reveal the killer, I was really hoping the answer would be "everybody".

Erle Stanley Gardner died five years after this episode aired. I think what the writers of this turkey did to his characters has to be in some way responsible.

This is such an inane episode. A young Sicilian is visiting the U. S. He goes to visit a guy from his home area and is met with threats fro a feud going back decades. Eventually, the patriarch, who is the worst jerk on the planet, is stabbed. He has benefited from his children's hard work and a wife who is treated like a servant. Our visitor gets the blame and is defended by Perry. Lots of stereotypical Italian blustering.

The title role of the Sad Sicilian in this Perry Mason episode is played by Anthony Caruso and the plot seems to be taken somewhat from the Edward G. Robinson classic House Of Strangers in terms of the relationship between patriarch Caruso and the rest of his family. Caruso is the tyrannical head of a family which made its fortune in ceramics.

Like Robinson, Caruso is one overbearing patriarch who now wants to retire back to Sicily after he sells the business out for cash money so he can live it up. That's news not greeted with big cheers by any of his kids nor his common-law wife Margo.

A young Italian tourist who's a bit of conman played by Fabrizio Mioni gets innocently dragged into the Caruso's murder and he's charged. Fortunately in his time in Los Angeles he made the acquaintance of Perry Mason, best friend a guy could make in his jackpot.

Caruso took a leaf right out of Edward G. Robinson's play-book. Too bad he was the victim, I'd liked to have seen more of him.

This was not a good episode. As am aside it appeared Raymond was wearing some sort of body cast under his suit coat. It almost looked like he had a bullet-proof vest on which added a few more inches to his middle. He didn't appear injured, just larger.

This series was great for having a running list of old, formerly- and never were- famous actors well past their prime. Love American Style, Love Boat, Murder She Wrote and others picked up the baton after PM for being havens for the faded.