The Case of the Fickle Fortune

A very twisted plot which is finally explained in the Epilogue. My comments have to do with the return of D.A. Hamilton Burger (William Talman). No reason was ever given on screen for his absence. Nevertheless, he's back in the courtroom here, still contesting Perry's questioning as "Incompetent, Irrelevant, and Immaterial!" In the Epilogue however, Hamilton, Perry, Della and Paul are in Perry's office clearing up some plot twists. Hamilton comments that "As a County Employee" he's happy how things worked out. Perry answers oddly "We're all glad Hamilton." They are all smiles. I'm sure this was welcoming William Talman back into the fold.

In this episode, they show a $50 large size bill from the 1870's. I collect old paper money myself, and I have a reference book that shows this note. It appears they used a real one for the show. Well, get this: in today's market, that actual bill they showed is worth at least $10,000, and depending on condition, as much as $87,000! I wonder if the studio prop department at the time (1961) had some old paper money that they kept on hand for just such occasional uses. Or, if they borrowed this note from a collector or a high-end coin shop for a small fee. In the episode, the premise was that $153,000 in such old money was found. We're talking in the tens of millions of dollars in value today for an amount of old notes like that. Whew! Oh--old US national currency issued by the United States was always redeemable at face value. It was the Continental Congress money that wasn't. Of course, you'd be crazy to redeem a $50 bill for $50, when it could sell for as much as $87,000!

This episode starts with an incredibly stupid act. Vaughn Taylor who is county tax assessor in doing an inventory of the estate of a recently deceased man and finds a fortune over $150,000.00 in old style Greenback notes that could be redeemable under certain circumstances with the government. So what does this nitwit do? He takes them home to show the wife and in the meantime stops at a convenience store where someone lifts them. Panicking Taylor seeks out the advice of Perry Mason.

As is always the case he needs him because a little investigation leads to a rather elegant fence played by Liam Sullivan who when Taylor goes to confront him turns up very dead. Now Taylor needs Raymond Burr.

One twist in this case is usually clients aren't completely truthful with Perry Mason for one reason or another and there's always a scene where he has to shake truth out of them to gain an acquittal and find the real culprit. In this case poor Taylor is completely guileless and tells him the whole truth and thereby aids in getting out of the jackpot he put himself in.

This episode had a little too many improbable coincidences for me. But it also had a beautiful ferret faced, sneaky looking red herring in this that you swore had to be the killer. As for the real killer, it's not one you would immediately suspect. That made up for the improbabilities.

I haven't watched this whole episode yet. I paused it when I was pleasantly surprised to see D. A. Hamilton (Ham) Burger back at the prosecution table. I had read about him being fired on a moral clause violation. It sounded like someone at the network had it out for him and used the party raid as an excuse. I didn't know he was reinstated.

During my research on William Talman, I read about his anti-smoking PSA in 1968. I found a recording of it online. It ends with him saying "If you don't smoke, don't start. If you do smoke, quit!". I was 12 years old at the time, and I remember making a silly joke about that line. My father told me he died a few weeks after making that commercial. I never forgot that moment.

For me, this was an 8 or 9 star episode.

But, well, with Hamilton Burger back in the saddle, well.......

Oh how I suffered those stand-in prosecutors!

While there were some good episodes without Hamilton, no one does the prosecution like the Burger.