The Case of the Bullied Bowler

Mike Connors subs for Raymond Burr in this one. He gets roped into it while Perry is in Europe. The case involves a matriarch who runs a town and who has it in for a couple guys who run a bowling alley. She has her fingers in every pot. Not a bad plot but once again the suspect acts like an idiot.

This episode revolves around one of the popular pastimes of its time -- bowling. The story itself does have some teeth -- instead of the usual embezzlement or blackmail plot, this one revolves around an aging dowager with too much local pull and two brothers trying to make it with their bowling alley venture. There are ancillary characters and motives that revolve around this small universe, all of which carry some form of guilt in some way or another. The plot doesn't follow the usual path, with Mike Connors filling in for Perry, albeit with Paul and Della providing the needed assistance. Not the best of courtroom solutions, but it does pull together in the end. The killer in this one deserves all the gas they can inhale...

This episode has Perry Mason on a trip to Europe, but when William Hopper's old friends Robert Harland and Paul Lukather, a pair of brothers who own a bowling alley are being subjected to illegal and extralegal pressures from their local government he steps in and an attorney friend Michael Connors helps out.

Harland's mother-in-law Anne Seymour is the queen bee or as she's referred to as the 'Duchess' hates him and hold him responsible for her daughter's death. She wants to ruin him any way she can and she has the clout to do it.

But when a doctor who had been saying there was illness being spread at the bowling alley winds up dead, Harland is arrested.

One thing I did like about this episode was that the one you wanted to see as the murderer turns out to be said killer.

I think viewers will find this satisfying.

Looks like we have a classic case of overbearing "biotch" here. Once you look last the proposition of how one woman can run an entire town as judge and jury of all affairs, the story plays out fairly well. Mike Connors does a good job filling in as the defense attorney for a vacationing Mason, who is galavanting his way across Europe. All in all, a good episode even though "The Duchess" obviously is wearing panties that are too tight, because she's definitely got some issues. It just reinforced the old axiom cliche that "things don't go right when your shorts are too tight".

I gave this one more than my usual one-star rating solely for the temporary addition of Mike Connors. Somehow, he is able to take this poorly conceived, written and usually-acted tripe and make it interesting...something Burr, et.al, were unable to do with any regularity. Unfortunately, it only lasts one episode. Shame, really.

I gave this one more than my usual one-star rating solely for the temporary addition of Mike Connors. Somehow, he is able to take this poorly conceived, written and usually-acted tripe and make it interesting...something Burr, et.al, were unable to do with any regularity. Unfortunately, it only lasts one episode. Shame, really.