"Perry Mason" The Case of the Tsarina's Tiara (TV Episode 1966) Poster

(TV Series)

(1966)

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7/10
What did they think?
bkoganbing3 June 2014
In a most interesting Perry Mason story, Kendall Clark co-owner of a jewelry firm that Raymond Burr is counsel to becomes the latest Mason client when the body of a notorious jewel thief is found in the trunk of his car. Clark had been on a business trip to Chile and it is in Chile where eventually the murder is solved.

But what was truly fascinating here was that a nice group of conspirators actually tried to use Perry Mason as an unwitting dupe in fraud they were perpetrating. Had Clark not returned prematurely from Chile they actually might have got away with it.

The Hitchcockian McGuffin is as the title says a lost tiara of Czarina Alesandra before the Bolshevik Revolution. Virginia Field used Zsa Zsa Gabor as a model for her exiled countess role and Leonid Kinskey a real Russian is in the cast as a circus performer. They play their parts quite broadly and with a bit of humor not often a part of Mason programs.

But bring Perry in on a dastardly scheme? What did they think?
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6/10
A crowded cast takes away from this otherwise nice mystery
kfo94945 February 2013
One of the things I dislike about some of the episodes is when they have a crowded cast. In this show, there are so many people that at times it was difficult to remember exactly who they were talking about without seeing a face. It can get complicated trying to keep up with who-is-who with those long Russian names during extended dialog.

Because of all the characters and their long names, I will sum this up quickly to make the story more clear. A long lost Russian Tiara is accidentally found when a old Russian magician pays a woman for lodging and food. The woman takes the tiara to Perry thinking she had been swindled. But by taking the tiara to the Devry/Van Ness Jewelry Company, Mr Devry says the tiara is real.

Meanwhile, Mr Van Ness is returning from a trip and upon driving home is stopped by the police and they find a dead man (who happens to be a jewelry thief) in the truck of the car. Van Ness is charged with the murder. Perry will defend him in court.

The best thing about the episode is the courtroom scenes. There we can to see the characters and can keep the large Russian names separated from confusion. Perry picks through the witnesses, plus the tiara, and comes up with the reason for the murder. Someone is left on the witness-stand thinking their plan was never going to be discovered.

If you can get pass the first half of the show then you will be rewarded with a very nice mystery. But with all the confusing names and a crowded cast, it will take patience to keep the interest going.
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7/10
Enough Red Herrings for a Fish Fry
Hitchcoc5 March 2022
I enjoyed the whole jewel heist thing. The beginning was like something out of a 70's robbery bit. And the plot is entertaining. The problem for me was too many characters and too much distraction. One thing that amazes me is the quick trips Mason or Drake to foreign countries to check out something. They make it look so easy. Oh, well, it was still fun.
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10/10
Yeah, Well...
darbski18 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Cool jewel thief/cat burglar gets stones, gets greedy, gets dead. The Quetzal Shrine looks like spray painted mud, by the way. Frame is set up, whether they know it or not, all the participants (except for the woman who paid the 3/4 mil for the tiara) are guilty of P.C.187 1st degree murder. They willingly participated in a plot to defraud that resulted in a homicide with malice; good riddance.

Perry's client is a rare one. He's not stupid, doesn't yell, make threats, is polite and highly intelligent. He has a complicated story, but that is okay in this case, because he didn't compromise anything. The frame was locked up on him perfectly. Perry figured it out, probably when he started to see just how many people were phony Russian ex-pats.

Just a couple of things: It might have actually occurred to a smart cop that a real murderer would NOT be driving around, and then back home with a dead cat burglar in the trunk; at least, I think so. Also, if he picked up and moved the body, wouldn't he have bloodstains on his clothes, and other stuff like dirt? It was never clear to me what the involvement of Lisabeth and Ricardo was; just two people on a lover's rendezvous? I cant figure it except as a red herring. Naturally any friendship is over between them and Van Ness. What about the fact that, if it had worked out as originally planned, at some time Van Ness would have HAD to examine the tiara?

The guy who played Joachim DeVry was Wesley Addy, veteran actor who was real good at playing high class creeps. He was the incredibly dirty cop in "Kiss Me Deadly"; a top notch film noir thriller; he makes a great snake in a suit. The other actor of notice would have to be Leonid Kinsky. It is not a bad Russian accent, he really was Russian with a memorable face that he kept as scrunched up almost all the was through this episode.

I think Perry was teasing Della when Van Ness gave her an expensive diamond ring for her help in solving the case and saving his life; of course he was now sole owner of the jewelry business, thanks to his partner's dishonesty. I'm pretty sure she'd pay gift tax, and not income tax, and I'm very sure Perry could keep that to a minimum; he also must have been very well paid. Good show.. Della is the stand out beauty, good acting all around; with the exception of some very bad Spanish and Russian accents. It get a 10.
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8/10
...phony Russians and Spanish-speaking Brazilians...
gclarkbloom6 July 2022
...bearing in mind that the era of this Perry Mason episode (1966) had Hollywood studios using Italians and Latinos to portray Native Americans...the general viewing public's kniwkedge if real Russian accents was primitive, or non-existant (ue. The voice of Mel Blanc in the cartoon " Boris and Natasha" on the "Rocky and Bullwinkle Show"...

...Virginia Field, born in London to a Vienna and Paris educated father and King's Counsel ( our Federal Prosecutor) St. John Field and her mother, a cousin of Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee (hence the name, "Virginia") ...was often given roles portraying Eastern European- types...her accent is as phony as counterfeit diamonds in her Czarina's long-lost tiara...

...on the contrary Leonid Kinskey WAS raised in St. Petersburg, and his accent is correct and true as Vyacheslav Gerzov, the Russian commoner/circus performer who claims his mother carried the tiara out of Russia during the Bolshevic Revolution..

...but the most glaring goof involves Hollywood-born Carlos Romero...who had dozens of roles portraying Latino characters...in this episode, he potrays Ricardo Arena, a Brasilia businessman ..who repeatedly speaks Spanish...NOT Portuguese, the official language of Brazil...

...while certainly not a noticable flaw at the time...such inconsistencies would render the entire episode absurd by current standards...

...this was amongst the final episodes of the Perry Mason series; and CBS obviously just wanted to "get it in the can"...
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1/10
What pmike-11312 Said
jaxian3 June 2022
Yes indeed, I agree with every word that pmike wrote about The Case of the Tsarina's Tiara. It was bad through and through, with terrible over-acting, and spending a little money on a dialog coach wouldn't have hurt a bit. I would add that if I could subtract half a star from my rating, I would.
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1/10
The acting (stretching a term...)
pmike-113123 June 2022
Can anyone in Hollywood do a reasonable Russian accent? Nina Talbot on Hogan's Heroes (awful), Sue Ann Langdon on McHale's Navy (even worse), and now this Virginia Field Fiasco. And the extreme-but-hilarious over-acting that goes with it! Add a bunch more over-acted "Russians" and you end up with more than the usual PM laughs on this one.
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