The Case of Paul Drake's Dilemma

Frank Thatcher (Bruce Gordon) married his wife for her father's large fortune and the business opportunities being his son-in-law would bring. He threw over his fiancee at the time, but he's still been seeing her as long as he's been married. She's a sentimental soul and keeps hoping he'll divorce his wife - Not going to happen.

On Frank's way home one night, after having a fight with his girlfriend over her unhappiness with the situation, he hits and kills a pedestrian, out in the country. He tells his wealthy father-in-law, and his in-laws arrange to have everything covered up, but say that Frank must pay the family - if there is one - 25 thousand dollars anonymously as a kind of restitution. Frank has this done through Paul Drake, telling him it is payback for some loan the deceased made to a person who is now a prosperous miner. But Drake figures out what happened when he goes to the widow's home, and is told that her husband was very recently killed by a hit and run driver. Drake confronts Thatcher, they fight, and Thatcher knocks Paul unconscious. He awakens to the police pounding on the door and Frank Thatcher dead in the next room, shot by Paul's gun. Paul is arrested for Thatcher's murder. Of course Perry is on the case.

The situation has the D. A. thinking this was murder over money Paul was trying to extort from Thatcher over the hit and run accident, after he found out that was what the money was for. The dead man's rich father-in-law, Henry Dameron, is helping this theory along by bribing everybody in sight because he thinks one of his children may have committed the murder. He's not troubled about an innocent man going to jail if it spares him embarrassment. Watch and find out how Perry figures this one out.

It's no surprise that Perry, Della, and Paul are very close, having a friendship that transcends their working relationship. But it appears that fondness for Paul Drake extends to the D. A.'s office and the police as well as both Tragg and Berger both tell Perry that they are so very sorry they have to prosecute Paul, but that the evidence indicates an open and shut case. I don't see these two normally shed any tears over people they arrest and prosecute, so they must have at least thought of Paul as an honest PI.

Wealthy patriarch Henry Dameron is a piece of work as he makes Scrooge look like Gandhi. Maybe that's a bad comparison as Dameron is not so much tight fisted as he is afflicted with a messiah complex. He thinks his money can rid him of any problem - and it almost could. He has his daughter marry a man who doesn't love her - this episode's corpse of the week - just so he can have somebody reliable to run his businesses. He's turned one son into a drunk and the other into a bagman. And Perry, the problem that he could not buy, has some harsh closing words for him.

For some reason, this episode is unavailable on FreeVee and Paramount! So frustrating when it is one of my very favorite episodes.

I haven't seen it in over 10 years.

The story has flaws, but the acting and most of the plot are great.

I love when Paul tells his sleazy client that he (Paul) is glad the guy slugged him and then proceeds to punch him in the mouth!

Go, Mr. Drake!!!!

One thing that is annoying is the singing voice of Donna Kress. I don't miss hearing her singing "I need a man..." oh my GAWD!!!!!

I do hope this becomes available soon. It just makes no sense for it to be shuffled off into oblivion.

Yes, I rated this 10 of 10. I rarely do that. This episode is as worthy of the honor as are only a handful of other episodes from the entire nine-season run. Paul Drake is a victim of soicumstance, as Jerome Howard would have said (nyuk, nyuk!) and even the authorities seem apologetic for having to do their duty. It's up to Mason to unravel this Gordian knot of intrigue, and after having done so - Mason does what he rarely does, which is to tell a third party just exactly what he thinks of him.

One can see, in this show about three years into the series run, Mason's gradual evolution from an attorney who works on the edge of the law to that of greater respectability and acceptance by his fellow court officers. No more film noir, merely film grise. By Season Seven, he'd be wearing the white hat in full force. While I liked the first two seasons the most, Season Three still was full of shows worthy of the time to watch.

This episode has some interesting legal points. The case cited on results of the paraffin test being inadmissible (Brooke v State of Colorado) is real, and was decided June 1, 1959, just months before this Mason episode first aired. Perry won the legal point. The now outdated concept of res gestae also appears. Perry has to contend with a family patriarch who spends lots of money to hide some pertinent details, which details would help Paul. The last few minutes of the episode are worth waiting for.

There is a rich family in Los Angeles. The father is a whip cracker and 2 sons are troublemakers. Then, there's the son in law, who cheats on the old man's daughter. One fateful day, the son in law accidentally kills a man walking on the side of the road. But, rather than face the police, he drives off and hides the car. Then, he hires Paul Drake to deliver a lump sum of money to the widow, telling Drake a false story. Later, Drake realizes he's been used and goes to confront the bad son. But, someone knocks Paul out and while unconscious, the Son in law is murdered. Now, Paul is charged with murder and Perry rushes to defend him. What can be better than having Mason as your lawyer? This episode is one of the better ones of am outstanding show. Having Paul as the defendant in a murder case is a deft touch while the supporting cast is wonderful. Look for it.