User Reviews

This starts out as a case of shoplifting when the elderly Sarah Breel (Lurene Tuttle)is accused of kleptomania, but it turns into a charge of murder when she is hit by a car running away from the scene of a murder and has incriminating evidence in her purse.

This one is not only notable for the guest appearance of Leonard Nimmoy as Pete Chennery, but for what happens at the end of the show's final scene. Instead of the usual breakdown and confession of the real murderer when faced with Perry's indisputable logic and evidence, the killer continues to deny everything! Perhaps the murderer had watched earlier episodes and realized "If they'd just shut up they still might fool the jury", because this killer denies everything all the way to the ending credits, and may still be denying it to this day for all we know.

Believe it or not, this Gardener story has caught Perry Mason out shopping in a department store. Before long, he sees an older woman shoplifting stuff in the store. Then when the story closes in, he rebukes the store people and this allows her to leave. Then the plot gets thicker.

It seems that Jewels are being marketed using people in a fencing scheme and the older womans daughter is involved. Then enters Mr. Spock, well logically it's not Spock, but his character seems to be around the murder scene, There's also a casino owner whose involved with the victims as this one has 2 murders. Meanwhile the confused old woman is charged by Tragg & Burger for murder, even though she is hit by a car at the scene of one death.

The complex plot gets better and this a prime Mason to catch for reasons besides seeing Nimoy before eh got his Spock ears. His character is central to what happens, in more ways than one.

**SPOILER** I disagree with another reviewer that this one was not up to par, in fact, I think it is one of the best. Why, you ask? Because of what I think drives this show and series, and that is impeccable ACTING. Margaret O'Brien is not only beautiful in this episode, but also shows the skills she learned so well in Hollywood as a child star.The regular staff of talent is also so good that it doesn't even look like they're acting at all. By this time, the audience is so used to it that it's taken for granted. Leonard Nimoy shows his expertise in playing one of the rottenest apples ever to fall from the tree, and the director coached Melora Conway into bemused interest when he was exposed, and then couldn't cover himself. I really liked Tragg (the great Ray Collins), and the delight he had in busting the killer. I had always hoped, even when I was a kid, that they'd have a story where we got to know a little bit more of Tragg, and Ray had such fun playing him. So, again, I'll say it's a terrific episode, and I recommend it absolutely.

The story starts comedically, with one of those fluttery little old ladies (Lurene Tuttle) so often found in Perry Mason stories. In hat and gloves, she is lifting jewellery, silk scarves and nylons from a department store. Her niece is mortified as both of them are hauled off to the manager's office. But the plot thickens. Lurene is accused of a murder, diamonds fall out of her handbag, and her niece spouts an endless stream of pseudo-Freudian nonsense. Blather about obsessions and compulsions is swiftly squashed by Perry, and Margaret O'Brien as the niece begins to use her common sense. A woman who has been helping to legitimise the sale of stolen gems - though she claims it was just a sales pitch - turns out to be married rat-like Leonard Nimoy. Altogether a high-carat episode.

And you can't be too rude about Freud for me.

Perry Mason runs into his client in this episode while rescuing Lurene Tuttle from a charge of shoplifting. Truth be told she was, but she is clearly is a woman in some trouble and Tuttle is big trouble for her niece Margaret O'Brien who has to act like a mother to her. Later on when she's hit by a car, a gun and the incriminating jewels are found in her purse. That gun proves to be murder weapon in two homicides, that of Tuttle's spendthrift and gambling brother and a man proved to be a real jewel thief. O'Brien and Tuttle are fortunate indeed to have run into Raymond Burr.

I wasn't crazy about this episode since it was so obvious from the second Leonard Nimoy's character came on the scene that he was the real murderer. His character was about as opposite as you can get from the always logical Spock.

Put this one in the category of lesser Mason episodes.