The Case of the Demure Defendant

Perry comes into the case at the request of Dr. Bob (Atwater), a psychotherapist treating Nadine, who has admitted to killing (via cyanide) her nasty Uncle Martin in a taped conversation while under the influence of some kind of truth serum. Dr. Bob needs Perry's advice about what to do. The possible crime is misprision of a felony. Under FEDERAL law then in effect via Farrar-Neal, a failure to report by itself is not misprision. Don't know what Cal. law was in Jan. 1958. Tragg ends up with the tape, Nadine is arrested and Perry defends her. Prior to her arrest, Nadine had tried to get married to boyfriend John Locke in Nevada, because the cyanide had come from Locke's lab, and husband/wife privilege might have helped. This was at Della's implicit suggestion and Perry quipped Della might be charged with practicing law without a license. Nadine ended up in Logan City jail. Going with info on the tape, Perry visits a pond where evidence about the cyanide might be found. He pays a liitle boy and girl to go diving for the relevant bottle. Perry, paving the way for Ben Matlock, eats a hot dog with everything on it. Later, the hot dog vendor rats Perry out as to possible evidence tampering. Was this Perry's last hot dog on the series? Perry destroys the testimony of Uncle Martin's doctor as to cause of death and moves for dismissal. Berger springs the tape and of course Perry objects. The judge hears arguments, and states that without the tape, dismissal will result. Perry's possible evidence tampering arises. Now, here is a problem with the episode. Perry will likely succeed in keeping the tape out. Client wins but Perry has a problem. Perry says the tape can come in. Judge astounded. Asks client if she still wants Perry as lawyer. Right question was do you waive Dr./client privilege? Perry needs the tape in as evidence to show Nadine weighted the bottle with #5 shotgun pellets. This gets Perry off the hook for tampering and ensnares a perjurer and seemingly the murderer. **As to other reviews, enjoyed comment about "Bad Seed." Tragg looked for second bottle because he believed truth of tape as to cyanide in bottle. Sadly, for Tragg, he was not familiar with shotgun pellets.

This is more Trivia than Review. Two off-handed items. One, the papers that the creepy Uncle taunted poor Nadine with held a secret about her deceased father. Two, Perry makes a comment to Nadine in her cell. He asks he about being "A Bad Seed". Movie buffs will likely know that William Hopper played Rhoda's father in the feature film "The Bad Seed" released two years earlier. Fun trivia fact.

Nadine, a young woman, is the perpetual unpaid servant of her rich and unkind uncle. She tells him she is soon to be married and he will need somebody else to tend to his needs. He responds by showing her a copy of something and saying that if she walks out on him he will send that to her fiance. Nadine seems very distraught by this turn of events.

Later, when she visits her fiance's chemistry lab - he's a chemist himself - she steals some cyanide. Her uncle drops dead of cyanide poisoning shortly after she serves him some soup. She has a mental breakdown upon his sudden death, is hospitalized, and confesses to her uncle's murder, although she is in a distressed state. Perry is on the case.

Nadine is made up to be a rather plain young woman. She has a very short haircut that does not complement her and she wears clothes that don't complement her. She seems to have a problem with confidence and with helplessness. But in spite of these issues, her fiance does love her and apparently so does one of the other suspects, to the point that his wife is jealous of her.

This episode was a rather average one for Perry Mason, but even average Perry Mason is good viewing because of the cast. There is one humorous thread I see going on here. In this episode, as in "The Case of the Drowning Duck", Perry has to take a trip to the desert community of Logan City. In both episodes, each time the cast of Perry Mason is visiting there, they frequently wipe their brow with a handkerchief, I guess to underscore that it is hot there, just in case you forget that this is the desert. A rather pedestrian touch made cute by the fact that Perry Mason is usually such a subtle show.

There are too many goofy events in this one. People throwing pill bottles with buckshot into a pond. Little kids finding them and handing them off to investigators. The defendant is a bonafide knucklehead. With her brunet hairstyle, she was the wife of William Shatner in that Twilight Zone episode with the Gremlin on the wing. There is truth serum used. Cyanide lying around. And more. It was just ridiculous plotting. But they needed to come up with an hour every week for most of a year.

I really don't think this one was all that bad. Of course, Nadine was SUPPOSED to be demure. The episode has its moments, but I enjoyed Perry's foray into shotgun ballistics in court. For once, the killer came as a bit of a surprise. Good performances, especially by Walter Coy and Clem Bevans. It entertained me for an hour. That's all I can ask.