The Case of the Angry Mourner

Perry Mason is on vacation in the country but it is interrupted as Belle Adrian has been accused of murder.

The episode begins with Mark Cushing. He has an injury to his leg and is in a wheelchair showing his water skiing movies to Carla Adrian (Barbara Eden). He makes a play for her but Carla has none of it.

When the neighbours hear a scream and spot Carla's mum Belle in the house the police are called. They find Cushing dead.

I regarded the evidence against Carla as flimsy but Perry Mason seems to be rather rough with her. She did appear to be rather a blank slate.

It turns out that Cushing was a cad, a womaniser and there were no shortage of female admirers.

Perry thinks one of these female admirers may know more about the killing. Only to find that a witness has bought her own lawyer to court.

It was nice to see some other sheriff and DA get into the act in this case.

Perry Mason again uses cunning to divert the focus from his own client. He also handily figures out who the murderer is.

In the first episode outside of LA County and District Attorney Hamilton Burger, Perry Mason heads off to the sea shore when Sylvia Field comes knocking on his door. She's worried about her daughter Barbara Eden who has just escaped the clutches of a lecherous neighbor. But that neighbor winds up shot to death and Raymond Burr doesn't get Eden, he gets Field as a client.

The key lies with a pair of nosy neighbors played by Malcom Atterbury and Dorothy Adams. Fingerprints and footprints dug up by the Sheriff's department headed by James Westerfield and by none other than Paul Drake of the Drake Detective Agency. William Hopper may find the evidence, but it's a matter of interpretation.

There's an interesting secondary plot as witness Joan Weldon brings in her own attorney Addison Richards to court. Richards starts by threatening Raymond Burr with abuse of due process. Does he ever get his ears pinned back.

Nice episode and the interesting part is the sheriff had a right guess as to the perpetrator, but got sidetracked.

Silly plot, rotten dialogue, bad directing....we've been here before with P. M. But, it was interesting to see an (almost) concurrent "dramatic" role by Mrs. Martha Wilson..er, Sylvia Field. Don't recall seeing her (or maybe noticing her) in any other role.

This episode starts out as we see Mark Cushing (Eric Sinclair), an avid water-skier, showing some home-made movies to the lovely Carla Adrian (Barbara Eden). Mark must of broken his leg recently cause he has a cast on nearly up to his hip. Seems Mark is a play-boy and as the hour gets late he wants some loving. But Carla wants nothing of it. Mark gets somewhat physical and the wheelchair bound guy rips her shirt and Carla fights back with a witch-slap to the side of the head.

The next scenes is of a girl screaming, a shot and Belle Adrian (Sylvia Field), Carla's mother, being seen inside of Mark Cushing's house. When the police arrive Mark is dead in the wheelchair and no one is present to receive Sheriff Elmore's knock on the door.

Perry happens to be in Bear Valley, where all this action is afoot, and Belle goes over for some advise. Problem is through a series of strange events Belle is arrest for murder and goes before a local court to answer the charges with perry right behind her.

This episode has a complicated story-line. However, through the good acting of the guest cast you feel like you are right at Bear Valley watching this trial. Sylvia Field, as the mother, does another great job making you feel for her situation. Paul Fix, as DA Hale, is great taking the place of Hamilton Burger outside the county of LA. Jamie Forster, as the presiding Judge, does a better job than any 'Perry Mason' judge when he is more interested in the truth than ruling of objections. Barbara Eden was great to look at- but had little to do with the show after the first five minutes. What a waste of a beautiful girl.

Anyway the story was interesting and mystery played well by the cast. And with Perry getting very upset at his client- it makes for a good watch.

Note- during the first scene with Mark in the wheelchair- look how big that fireplace is. You could put a small tree in that thing and not have to chain saw any limbs.

Most of the 57- 61 Perry Mason's are really the best, good writing etc. In this the defendant is so worried about her daughter's reputation she implicated herself As the murderer. The actress was also Mrs Wilson in Dennis the menace, but she does this part so neurotically , it upsets the viewers. It's not one of the best but it's a decent story and the Court process is interesting Perry and Della drive a beautiful black 57 Cadillac Convertible in this. I read in Perry Mason trivia that when he drove a Cadillac, GM was one of the sponsors that night