The Case of the Golden Girls

Here we have another re-write of a season one entry -- The Case of the Vagabond Vixen -- but the writers here in an obviously dire attempt to improve the ratings of a now tired show (and in its last season, to boot) went a bit overboard on the "sexploitation" route.

Since it's almost a complete parallel to the 1957 show it is based on, for fans of the series well-acquainted with the earlier seasons the plot will come at no surprise whatsoever.

The only attraction here are the "Golden Bears" (obviously rip-off's of the famous Playboy Bunnies).

The denouement at Clay's grille at the end of the episode actually had me laughing out loud. On a serious note, I wonder if the 'bear' drawing on the magazine's centerfold was one of Barbara Hale's many sketches...

Philip Bourneuf is the Perry Mason client for this episode. He's the owner of a men's magazine with a California base circulation. Cash flow problems have forced him to take on a partner George Neise who is now publishing pictures of scantily women to boost circulation. But Bourneuf finds the new format in poor taste.

When Neise is murdered Raymond Burr takes the case as Bourneuf is an old friend. Neise was not a nice man and lots of people of the female gender wanted him dead.

I will say even Raymond Burr said the eventual murderer was the least likely suspect at first glance. One hopes Perry Mason takes up the defense.

While watching this episode I thought that perhaps I had seen this show earlier in the Perry Mason series. While investigating I found that except for their obvious rip-off of Hugh Hefner's Playboy Club this was the same plot, storyline and action from a 1957 episode called 'The Case of the Vagabond Vixen'. So basically this is a similar remake of another earlier Perry Mason TV show.

The story surrounds the control of the Golden Bear Club, which is the rip of the Playboy Club. Instead of the girls walking around in bunny suits, they have the women in bear suits with the brown skin and the bear ears.

Just like in the 1957 episode, one of the owners, Victor Montalio, is driving along the highway when he picks up this young women in distress. Little does Mr Montalio know that she is not the innocent women that she seems to be but is working with a third party that blackmails rich men.

To shorten this plot- Mr Montalio is trying to take over the day-to-day operations of the club and magazine from another owner Stacey Garnett. But before the board of directors meet, Mr Garnett is shot to death and the young women has evidence that Mr Montalio's gun was used and can place him at near the scene of the crime. And Perry comes in to defend him from the charge of murder.

Other than the eye candy of the young beautiful girls in bear outfits this episode has nothing new. It is like someone had the 1957 script and just said-'But some girls in sexy outfits and no one will know that it is the same show'. Please have better faith in people than to re-hash the very same show.

I realize that the writers, after eight and one-half seasons are grasping for anything that is a different mystery for the show but at least you can change up some of the action in a episode. Maybe use one of two features from a earlier show- but please not the very same plot and action.

Perhaps it was good that season 9 was the last for the series. More robbing old episodes is not the way to bring new viewers, or return old viewers, to a series. Very disappointing.

Other IMDb reviewers have usefully recounted the links of this episode being a remake of "The Case of the Vagabond Virgin" (title of which appears in the opening credits alongside the new title) and the coincidental career ups & downs of beautiful guest star Victoria Vetri. But for me it is the opening sequence that merits comment.

Vetri is picked up on the roadside by the faux-Hugh Hefner character and the black and white visuals and content exactly capture the look, style and risqué situation of countless 1960s Adult movies, only without the nudity and violence that made those pre-rating system releases forbidden fruit shown to Adults-Only audiences at burlesque houses and Adult theatres of the day. Of course, "Perry Mason" would qualify for a G rating once the MPAA ratings were created 3 years later, but the tone is the same. And as with sexploitation films, it would be easy to edit in more explicit insert shots were this episode to have been expanded into a feature film, perhaps for European audiences ("Man from U. N. C. L. E." episodes were famously augmented for theatrical release though hardly "Adult" in content).

I have always contended that mainstream and Adult cinema and TV represent a continuum, as evidenced by the similarity of early 1970s drive-in exploitation movies and subsequent hit TV series (best example: Ted Mikels' "The Doll Squad" begat "Charley's Angels"). The only surprised I had watching "The Case of the Golden Girls" beyond the use of Golden Bear as the club and magazine name in the show without apologies to Jack Nicklaus, was the end credits, attributing the episode to Jesse Hibbs, veteran TV and B-movie helmer. I would have bet anything based on the opening scene that Arthur Marks had been the director, he of hundreds of "Perry Mason" episodes who evolved into a famous drive-in exploitation film director in the '70s ("Bonnie's Kids", "The Roommates", etc.), but I was wrong.

The story revolves around a Hugh Hefner type magazine and club. Instead of bunnies we have bears (with incredibly ugly costumes). It is a con game designed to extort money from the co-owners of the place by a young woman. Of course, the men on the show let us know what exploitation is like.