The Case of the Fiery Fingers

This is an interesting case. You have a rat for a husband, an intractable wife/victim, an old lady nurse, and some really self centered doctors. The plot plays out nicely and Perry comes across as a kindly guy. He is such a high profile lawyer, how does he find time to handle the case of this woman, who brings no money to his firm.

Although Raymond Burr first suggests that Lenore Shanewise go to legal aid first apparently he couldn't resist the guilelessness of this little old lady who pays him a $5.00 retainer. He takes her on as a client.

She came to Burr with the suspicion that Edward Norris who is married to the woman who hired her as a nurse is about to poison his wife. He's got a girlfriend on the side in Fay Spain, not only on the side but who faked her way into the household as a maid, the better to keep an eye on him. In any event when the wife dies of arsenic poisoning, the sweet little old lady really does need the services of Perry Mason.

I have to say even with evidence pointing in her direction how could Hamilton Burger possibly believe this woman capable of anything? It turns out to be a case of a frame getting fitted on the wrong victim. You might be interested in seeing who's doing the framing.

Mostly thanks to Lenore Shanewise, this is an above average Perry Mason episode. Imdb and their 150 character requirements is a royal pain and discourages reviewers.

Of course Nora Mae is not guilty because she is Perry's client. However, she should have been acquitted based on the evidence rather than the coerced confession of the real killer.

It was known that the pills Nora Mae put in the milk were a sedative rather than arsenic - this is admitted by the husband who provided the pills to Nora Mae and verified by the one pill collected by Perry and tested at a lab. Trag confirmed under oath that no trace of sedative was found in the carafe, which is consistent with Nora Mae's statement that she dumped the carafe after putting the pills in it, and filled it with fresh milk. Therefore the "evidence" that she put pills in the carafe is not relevant to the case, and there is no evidence at all that she doctored the milk that the victim drank. I wonder why the world's best defense attorney never brought up the fact that the prosecutor had no evidence against his client.

Otherwise, an excellent Mason as always.

Wealthy Louise Gordon finds out that her husband, George, is cheating on her. In the ensuing argument and tussle, Louise falls down the stairs and becomes an invalid as a result. She tells her cousin and caretaker, Vicky Braxton, that she realizes her husband married her only for her money and that she plans to write him out of her will.

Meanwhile, Louise's nurse, the elderly Nora Mae, has a case of sticky fingers as she enjoys borrowing Louise's expensive jewelry, even wearing it out of the house at times! George confronts Nora Mae about the jewelry and threatens her with the police if she does not give Louise some pills that he gives her. The next day Louise is dead from poisoning and Nora Mae is arrested for the murder. Looks rather cut and dried doesn't it? Not with Perry Mason on the case.

This was based on one of Erle Stanley Gardner's original Perry Mason novels, and as a result it has a rather short but interesting group of suspects. This differs from the later original screenplays that are more complex but would probably be indecipherable in a purely written medium. To me the actual murderer was just too doe eyed and made a mistake that was obvious. But I say that as a veteran watcher of a bunch of these episodes over several seasons.

In explanation of calling Perry a profiteer - Nora Mae thinks that she is being very generous giving Perry five dollars for their initial consultation and ten dollars for the entire murder trial. This is probably a significant chunk of all she has in the world. Perry has a twinkle in his eye as he does not want to deprive her of this illusion and so accepts this payment with a smile on his face.