The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife

This is really a good story, kept you interested. A lot of these early Perry Masons were taken directly from the novels, towards the end 65-66 they were writing the stories sometimes using several books, obviously the writers changed and some have written that a later director was not the best. This was during the shows prime. Good story , great writers and everyone does a great acting job. I think this is the only Perry Mason that his client does the first part of the episode without a shirt on. I can recommend, if you are a Perry Mason fan, you need to make sure you see this story

I'm use to the television shows changing the whole concept of the Perry Mason books in order to fit the time slot. In this case they made the defendant in the book the murderer in the television show. The defender here has an almost non-existent role in the book. The book is a well written complicated plot with a lot of legal jargon. I did not care much for this show.

Well written, performed. Mason's performance in court is among the best. Claude Akins cop role and Hansen's DA are very good, too.

Stewart Bradley is the Perry Mason client in this episode. He's a former army buddy of Raymond Burr's who calls up Burr long distance from some rural part of California. He works on an estate as a handyman for Tom Palmer and his wife Phyllis Avery. He thinks maybe he has a thing for Avery though he has never approached her.

Palmer disappears and the police in the person of Claude Akins believes it murder. Turns out to be murder when Palmer's body is found in a lake. Which gives Bradley a real need for a defense attorney and makes Perry Mason have to revise his own theory of the crime.

A hint of background is given for Perry Mason. We learn that Bradley was in the Army Air Corps during World War II and he was at Normandy as a pilot. I assume they served together as Bradley was a pilot and Perry could have been a paratrooper.

As is usually the case the deceased was not a nice person and had a lot of folks out there who would like to have seen him dead. The culprit was a bit of a surprise though.

Nice to get a bit of personal insight to Perry Mason.

As a 'Perry Mason' fan there are times when you want to stand up and say "good show". This was one of those times. This will contain no spoiler since this is a show that a viewer must see.

The main character in the show is Frank Lawton (Stewart Bradley) that plays a handyman at a well-to-do estate of Scott Shelby. He is a old war-time buddy of Perry. The main problem is that Mr Scott (Tom Palmer) believes that his wife, Marion ( Phyllis Avery) and the handyman are an item. And this leads the viewer into the situation.

Only problem is that Mr. Shelby is running some kind of 'ponzi scheme' and is about to be revealed as a criminal. So Mr Shelby plans a situation where he disappears leaving the handyman as a suspect. However something goes terrible wrong. Mr Shelby is involved in a very serious crime that is described as one of the bloodiest in any PM episode.

The crime happens away from comfort LA county so we introduced to another detective and district Attorney. Det. Nix( Chad Adkins) does a good job of playing the investigator. Peter Hansen ( Dr Lee Baldwin from General Hospital) is the cast as the district attorney. Both do a good job in their roles.

The crime hinges on some photos. Which will prove that some of the tales being told are not correct. But this one photo- the brightest and most clear picture ever taken during the night hours- reveals the terrible crime. ( Have no fear the photo has been cleared by the TV standards)

I am not giving away too much- This is a good episode that needs to be watched. I think one of the best in the entire 'Perry Mason' series. Good story, good acting and an ending worth the price of admission.