The Case of the Roving River

A really good cast of top flight character players distinguishes this Perry Mason episode by their presence. Raymond Burr is in the desert country on a land boundary dispute when his Paris Hilton of a client decides to take matters into her own hands. So now Sarah Marshall is his client in a criminal as well as a civil case.

Not too many bombs kill Perry Mason victims, but that's what happens here to Robert Lowery who says that he'll swing his testimony in favor of his stepdaughter Marshall. So the dumb girl gets $10,000.00 from a friend of her mother June Vincent played by Bruce Bennett. Only instead of a payoff in the package, there's a time bomb instead.

Besides these folks such familiar faces as Harry Carey, Jr., Paul Fix, J. Pat O'Malley, Philip Ober, and Kelly Thordsen are in this cast. And when Mason exposes the murderer in court, a twenty year old cold case is confessed to in the process.

I guess Perry was having a two for one day.

Very true. Samuel Newman's script likely raised an eyebrow from even Erle Stanley Gardner, who generally had his killers silence their victims with guns and knives. This time its a bomb, and quite a surprise for viewers and mystery buffs alike.

British actress Sarah Marshall, daughter of actor Herbert Marshall, plays a young woman who owns a piece of riverfront property (worth a small fortune) that's suddenly been carved up, leaving her with next to nothing. It turns out her stepfather (Robert Lowery) surveyed the land years ago, and could prove it legally belongs to her.

The Catch; He'll gladly come to her defense for a fee, in the neighborhood of $10,000, especially since he'd had some financial setbacks. Translation; Broke and broken.

Outcome; Judy puts the cash in a box and delivers it to Lowery. Somehow along the way a fiend puts a bomb inside. Lowery is blown to bits and Judy (conveniently) is now facing murder charges, and a good chance she'll lose the property. Talk about a dastardly killer, but WHO is it?

Both an excellent script and a choice selection veteran actors. Supporting Marshall and Lowery, look for B film actress June Vincent as her mother, Bruce Bennett (as Matt), Philip Ober, old timer J. Pat O'Malley as Seth (the desert rat) and western actor Paul Fix. For all us radio buffs, Ed Prentiss plays the judge, famous as CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT.

Scanning all the suspicious faces and the body language is a plus for armchair detectives, still difficult to guess the killer, which makes it a ton o' fun. Plus moody music (yes) in the tradition of Hitchcock.

Note, some beautiful desert scenery, again a smart move, changing scenes from the hustle and bustle of LA.

SEASON 5 EPISODE 15 remastered CBS dvd box set. Volumes 1 and 2. Many thanks to METV for running these whodunits twice daily.

Now here is a different way for a murder to happen in the series, open a package that is suppose to contain loads of money and the next thing you know-- there are pieces of you all over the place. For the viewer it was different from the usual bump on the head or the familiar gunshot, we have a bomb in this show. It was just too bad the script did not hold up as well.

In short, the story centers around a young woman, Judy Bryant, that has some riverfront property. But due to the decrease of the water flow the riverbanks difference is over 300 feet from where it was some twenty years ago. Now a developer claims the riverfront property is his and Judy's land begins back to where the boundary was years ago.

Judy calls Perry to sue the developer but one thing she needs is the person that surveyed the land years ago. It just happens to be her down-on-his-luck step father did the survey but he wants $10,000 to go to court with her. Without Perry's knowledge she places the money in a paper box and when it is opened her step-father is no more. Now Perry is defending Judy for murder.

Most all the evidence is produced in courtroom testimony. The last twenty minutes of the show is just Perry producing person after person in order to find guilt. There is much testimonial evidence that makes the entire episode somewhat non-exciting. Plus the actress, Sarah Marshall (Judy) did not come across well when delivering lines. She is a beautiful woman but talked in only one tone the entire time. She had no infliction other than a low monotone voice. With all that said,it was still watchable, it just seem a long time to get to the ending.

To me, there was far too much in this script that was contrived to make all the pieces fit and get all the gears to mesh. It had a few good scenes in the courtroom, but too often circumstances seemed "created" just to make plot points -- the fact that (of course) Amos owed "people" money that might make trouble for him and "those men from Reno" mentioned by Matt Lambert that were supposedly intended as red herrings but the whole thing just fell flat. Good cast, weak script.

Karl Held and Sarah Marshall had appeared on Broadway in "The World of Suzy Wong" with William Shatner, France Nuyen, and Ron Randell. Karl understudied Shatner. That was back in 1958-1959, a couple of years before this 1961 episode. Karl and Sarah got married in 1964.

Karl was a Korean War veteran and graduated from Penn State phi beta kappa. He studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse with Sanford Meisner.

Karl said he was "lousy" in the role of David Gideon and the role was "unnecessary", but he must have improved as an actor. He later spent a year with the Royal Shakespeare Company of London.

Sarah was a popular guest star appearing on "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour", "Twilight Zone", and "Star Trek", among many other shows. The "Little Girl Lost" episode of "Twilight Zone" is a classic with Sarah and Robert Sampson's young daughter lost in another dimension. Charles Aidman is a scientist who tries to help them get their daughter back.

Sarah's parents were Herbert Marshall (Hitchcock's "Foreign Correspondent") and Edna Best (Hitchcock's first version of "The Man Who Knew Too Much").

Before marrying Karl, Susan was married to Mel Bourne, an Oscar nominated art director ("Annie Hall", "The Natural"). That marriage lasted for five years during the 1950's.

Sarah and her father appeared in an episode of "Hong Kong" with Rod Taylor. Sarah appeared on the stage with her mother.

Karl and Sarah appeared together several times including on episodes of "Medical Center" and "The Strange Report" with Anthony Quayle.

Karl starred in two pilots. One was called "Ready for the People" (1964) directed by Buzz Kulick ("Brian's Song", "The Defenders"). Karl played a dynamic young assistant DA. In 1965 William Shatner starred as a dynamic young assistant DA in a series called "For the People", produced by Herbert Brodkin ("The Defenders").

Karl's other pilot was "The 13th Gate" (1965), a science fiction series. Karl played a government investigator looking into strange occurrences. Karl's partner was played by Alex Cord. They drove around in a cool sports car. David Opatoshu was their boss.

One of Karl's best guest performances was in the classic 1963 "Outer Limits" episode "The Man Who Was Never Born" with Martin Landau, Shirley Knight, and John Considine. Karl also appeared in a "Star Trek" working with Shatner again. But Karl never appeared in an "Ironside" or a Perry Mason movie.

Years later Karl was a regular on "Falcon Crest".

Karl and Sarah's last appearance together was in a 2012 horror film with Piper Laurie called "Bad Blood...the Hunger".

Sarah died in 2014 after 50 years of marriage to Karl.