The Case of the Fan Dancer's Horse

Oh for the days when fan dancers were the pinnacle of titulation! It really makes for some rather charming exchanges! It also allows one woman to wield short shorts like a weapon!

Yes, the plot is confusing, but this one has lots of atmospheric touches that make it fun. The highlight is the gorgeous Judy Tyler as a "fan dancer." She was loaded with confidence, energy and sex appeal - and was an excellent actress. What a shame that she was killed in a car accident not long after this was filmed.

There is another actress named Susan Cummings who, like Judy Tyler, wears streetwalker outfits beautifully and is the last word in 1950's glamour.

Also some good jazzy music, the delicious Minerva Urecal doing one of her classic "suspicious old broad/landlady" bits, and even a car crash scene involving Perry and Della in a Ford convertible, a Mexican peasant woman in an old 1940's car, and a speeding tailgater driving a gorgeous 1956 Lincoln Premier.

Like virtually all PM episodes, this one is full of poor writing (dialogue especially), very poor directing, and ridiculously twisted and unfathomable plot-lines. This one also has the aforementioned (by others here) Judy Tyler, whose spectacular overacting is anything but sexy or alluring (Susan Cummings wasn't any better). If she hadn't died shortly after this, I wonder if anyone would be extolling her acting abilities.

This is a lesser Mason episode where Paul and Perry are driving around when a car tips over when passed by a hot rodding car. This leads to a fan dancer and a valuable horse and a murder. Also a case of mistaken identity. It's a little bit disjointed.

In the first few minutes of this early 'Perry Mason' episode we have some very interesting things happen. We witness a burglary, a shooting, a car wreck, finding a fan-dancer's props and get a man complaining about a horse. We fasten our seat belts cause we know we are in for a wild ride.

But then we slow way down when the story hinges on two beautiful women that look almost alike and have the same occupation. Unless you are keen to the subtle differences in each women it can get confusing. Both women are going by the name Lois Felton- so when someone is talking about Lois- is it the real Lois or the other Lois? At times i was confused to which Lois went to a room at 2am and when the other Lois went at 220am.

The time is critical since Lois's (one of them)ex-husband is found murdered and it seems everyone in the cast went to see the dead guy from about 2am till 245am. And this was again confusing when you have people's testimony in the courtroom scenes.

Even with the lag in the middle of the episode it comes together in the end to make it an enjoyable watch. Along the way we get good banner from Lt Tragg and regular frustration from Hamilton Burger. There is also this one scene when a police detective fails to notify the DA that two line-ups were used. The detective was so embarrassed that he tried to flee the courtroom. That was odd.

Could have been better but it passes the mark.

Note- Last TV show for Judy Tyler. She had died in a car wreck on July 3rd 1957- five months before the episode aired on December 28th.