The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife

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.

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.

This as actually quite a good episode and was enjoyable to watch the twist and turns as you try to figure out Who Done It. As is normally the case in the early Perry Mason Episodes you are kept guessing till the very end. Something I have always enjoyed about this show. Some interesting added actors who never made it back to Perry Mason Land. The one I was shocked at was Claude Adkins in an early roll biggest surprise was here he was actually one of the Good Guys something he rarely played on TV or in the Movies. In the later years he would of been a good regular instead of John Anderson who we ended up getting but that is in my own Opinion.

Over all I give this episode 10 out of 10.

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.

This case was based on a story by Erle Stanley Gardner. This might explain why the set up takes it time and it also has a crime noir element.

Frank Lawton is an old army buddy of Perry Mason. He works as a handyman for wealthy Scott Shelby and Lawton has aspirations to be a writer.

Shelby though seems to think that Lawton is getting a little too friendly with his wife.

The viewer sees Shelby setting something up and plans to leave Lawton as a patsy.

When Shelby disappears, Lawton is a suspect and Perry Mason is called in. Perry thinks that Shelby has faked his own disappearance because his company was in financial difficulties. Later Shelby's corpse is found.

Unusually here Detective Sgt Phillip Dix is prepared to consider that Shelby might had faked his disappearance. There are several references in the courtroom scenes that Perry might have been hoisted by his own petard.

It is difficult to buy though that someone who claimed to have taken photos on a particular day could be said to have a cast iron alibi. After all those photos could had been taken on some other day.

Shelby's manner of death was nasty so the reveal of the murderer might be shocking.