User Reviews

Alright youse mugs, we is gonna muscle in on da flower bizness, see? Harry Harlow (Dan Seymour) has a plan to use sharpie Sam Lynk (Michael Emmett) to cheat Bob Kimber (Mark Roberts) at cards. When Kimber can't pay, he'll have to cough up the stock he owns in his wife's flower business. Then Mildred Kimber (Anne Barton) is gonna have to play ball with Harlow, like it or not. But there's a wild card in the deck when Lola (Peggy Maley) Lynk's blond skirt wises Mildred up and gives her the lowdown. But before Lola can squeal to Mason, somebody tries to whack her. When Lynk shows up dead, the cops decide to put the arm on Mildred.

Pardon the style but that's just the way this episode is, with a lot of guys I'd call "mugs". Seymour is good as a heavy, but its kind of strange he should want to muscle in on the FLOWER business. Judging by Kimber's operation, its not exactly a gold mine. Anne Barton is very good and her offbeat looks are something not generally seen in TV today. As Lola, a fading doll, Maley has just the right look for the part and gives off a nice edge. She doesn't care about any trial, she just wants to get out of town before whoever tried to whack her tries again.

This isn't the most perplexing of Mason mysteries, but it is pretty entertaining.

***SPOILERS*** The first Perry Mason episode without a courtroom scene for Perry, Raymond Burr, to do his thing by man or woman handling on the witness stand the killer and having him break down and admit his or her crime. It's also a good thing for the persecuting D.A in most Perry Mason episodes Hamiltion "Ham" Burger, William Talman, who was just itching to take on the case which he like in almost all the Perry Mason episodes ends up with egg on his face and losing it!

It's ex-convict, and now after doing his five year stint as a gardener in the San Quentin prison, California Flower Czar Harry Marlows, Dan Seymour, attempts to get his hands on the very sickly, she's recovering from a near fatal heart attack, Mildred Kimber, Anne Barton, famed and well respected flower business "Orchards Unlimited". That lead to Marlow getting her weak and gambling addicted husband Bob, Mark Roberts, to lose it in a crooked game of cards with Marlow's accomplice in the matter card sharp and ladies man Sam Lynk, Michael Emmet.

With Mildred finding out what her husband did to her business, by pi**ing it away in a crooked card game, she goes to the El Dorado Club where her husband lost it and meets blond bombshell hostess and Lana Tuner look-alike Lola Florey played by former 1942 Miss Atlantic City Peggy Maley. It's Lola who' been having the hots for the handsome Sam Lynk for some time but getting nowhere with him who tells Mildred that Lynk was playing with a marked deck of cards! And furthermore she can prove it by, as the both hostess and hat & coat check girl, from getting the crooked deck of cards out of his overcoat.

With Mildred going to see Lynk at his place or pad she finds him shot to death with her husband Bob's gun, the murder weapon, laying nearby. What's even worse as she leaves in panic from Lynk's place Mildred drops a prescription of heart medication pill bottle with her name on it. It was Perry Mason whom Mildred contracted before Lynk's murder in proving that he stole, in a crooked card game, her controlling interest or deed to the Orchids Unlimited business who now has to defend her for the murder of Sam Lynk! But it's Lola who complicates things by almost getting herself killed from eating a number of spiked or poisoned chocolates from a box that an unknown admirer sent to her.

**SPOILERS** As it turned out Perry didn't even have to go to court to prove his client Mildred Kimber's innocence. It was Lynk's killer that him or herself who did it for him. In him sloppily trying to cover up his crime it just drew attention to himself instead. It didn't take much for Perry and the police to get an confession from Lynk's murderer in that by the time of his confession he screwed things up so much for himself that he or she had nothing in proving his innocence to defend himself with!

I've spoken about the acting before in reviews, and this episode clearly shows exactly why Perry Mason is one of the greats. The acting is terrific. It almost always is. A previous reviewer made reference to Peggy Maley, and I agree; she's great. The casting people use some of the best bit and character actors/actresses in the business of any television age. SPOILER Here's thought, though, a police car that it a beautiful Buick with a siren, fancy hubcaps, whitewall tires, and a continental kit? This is outrageous, to say nothing of ridiculous (oh, I just said it)! If there is a pitfall in the series, it is the props department. Oh, yes, I've got a much more serious complain, but it shall fall at a more opportune time.