User Reviews

For the true 1960's TV Land fan, this one features two famous faces which are easy to pick out. Deforest Kelly is in the show early on. Alan Hale Jr. comes on board quietly. Both are involved in the plot as the drunken son of a rich business man is the murder victim.

It seems the business man invites the son & his daughter in law to his house at the beginning of the episode. His sole purpose is too try & persuade the daughter-in-law to leave his son. He offers her $50,000 dollars he has in his safe if she will do so.

She is upset with the idea, & then the son turns on her & says he wants her to do as her father wishes. Then, he returns to his dads house in the room with the safe. She goes there to find him, only she finds him dead & the father & Mason walk in to find her standing there with the knife that killed him in her hand. Mason finds defending her to be a bit of a chore.

The interesting thing is that the $50,000 dollars is still in the safe even though the safe is open, left that way by the killer. Now what self-respecting killer would pass on this cold hard cash, & not take anything out of an open safe? That is the question Mason must find the answer too in order to solve this one.

A most entertaining episode with notable guest cast members interwoven into the well written plot. Significant actors include DeForest Kelley and Alan Hale Jr. with sufficient lines for their roles to make the episode favorably rated. Kelley plays Peter Thorpe, the hen-pecked husband of Amanda Thorpe, daughter of Walter Frazer, successful businessman. Diana Millay from Dark Shadows TV Series plays Sue Ellen Frazer, wife of Greg Frazer, Walter's son; Sue Ellen is the accused and the defendant. The judge is Willis Bouchey, a familiar face around early television through the Fifties and Sixties as well as movies from the same period; twenty-three episodes as the Judge with Perry Mason.

Perry is curious why the ne'er-do-well son Greg would be made a full partner in his father's business and he lets Della know his thoughts while in his office. Walter Frazer is a friend of Perry's and has requested the formal partnership agreement be drawn up to make loser Greg Frazer welcomed to the firm. The partnership agreement is made on the open request Greg divest himself of bride Sue Ellen, announcing his offer of money to her to leave the country after a divorce. The cops think Sue Ellen is good for the crime having witnessed her holding the large letter opener from Walter's desk used to stab Greg to death. Walter doesn't believe Sue Ellen killed his son and asks Perry to defend her with Perry stating he already made that commitment.

The story moves through suspect and witness at an interesting pace while Mason has a time-line display of events in court, namely to show how the appearance of several individuals were at the house where the crime occurred. Revealed in court were the crimes Greg Frazer was up to with collaboration of club-owner Joe Medeci, Sue Ellen's former employer and confidant. Greg was into Joe for several thousand from gambling debts and a loan thus formulating a solid reason for Joe to incentivize burglaries to get paid in full. Joe is slimy but not a killer testifying in court to Perry's cross-examination.

Stepping back a moment from the story, there is nobody obvious that would want Greg dead despite being useless and certainly not deserving of a partnership. The clue fingering the unknown killer was the question what was stolen from the home safe of Walter Frazer, if anything was taken at all because the fifty-thousand dollars remained after the crime had been perpetrated.

The motive is revealed during the closing moments in court and at the epilogue in Mason's office. It is a worthwhile watch to learn the killer's identity uncovering exactly the occurrence late that evening. The intention of the burglar was to perform a certain function which he was paid ten-thousand dollars and it all focused on the safe contents with no premeditated homicide. View the episode for the appearances of Dr. McCoy and the Skipper in order to enjoy an above-average script of the popular series.

**SPOILERS** Yeah, we got it - Star Trek or Gilligan? Well, Doc always was a wimp, wasn't he. How about a guy that is overlooked? How about Emile Meyer? He played Rufus Riker in the acclaimed movie "Shane"; here he is, a lowly patrolman...shame, for shame. Okay, now we're over that point. I was hoping it was gonna be Amanda, Peter Thorpe's shrewish, nag of a wife. Anyone who's ever had a nagging rag on their case knows just what I mean; alas, NOT to be.

Nope -- SPOILERS, AGAIN -- It was ... guess who? Yup, little buddy, it's good old skipper himself. On the stand for the second time, Perry (with the strong detective work by Paul Drake) exposes the why and how of dirtbag sonny's demise. Yeah, another one we'll never miss. He claims self-defense. Yeah, right. YOU broke into his dad's house, he finds you, struggles with you, You kill him, and it's Self-Defense? Good luck trying that one on Burger.

Homicide in commission of a felony, and it WAS planned, so it's a class "A" felony, qualifies under California's criminal statutes as Murder One. Something else is WHY didn't he forget about the geologists reports, and take the cash? He had to know it was there/ didn't he? Other wise why bug Medici's place? He was only paid $10G's? versus $50g's in the safe? There's question here? Yeah, that's it ... all he had to do was tell his "other" employer about the murder, and hang it on Medici. Between both of their testimonies, they'd cleared Sue-Ellen through the timeline, so, Medici takes the fall, Skipper gets well paid, and everyone's a littler happier, right? Medici had already admitted in open court that he had been there and Sue-Ellen couldn't have been, get it? Of course, he'd of had to clean up his drilling mess, but even IF somebody could prove Skipper HAD bugged Medici's apt. How were they gonna prove WHEN? And He, of course would never admit to it in the first place, would he? If he's only been that smart. Fast lane to the Gas Chamber, Skipper.

Medici? He's just lost his nice club, and all the nice girls that go with it, because... He's tangled up in it, too. He may also face a murder charge of some kind because of his planning and involvement in the burglaries; even though they had called off the sake break-in. Probably for his testimony, if Burger decides he needs it (and a little more ammunition never hurts), it'll be dropped to Burglary and Manslaughter 2. Won't really matter, by the time he's out of the joint, he'll a lot older, broker, and a lot less cool; wages of being a Scurve.

Amanda was driving a beautiful 1961 Buick Invicta convertible; they sure got their use out of that sweet beauty. Paul a '61 T-bird, and Sue-Ellen had a sweet 1957 Fairlane convertible. Very good episode, Della's beautiful, Paul really earned his pay on this one.