The Case of the Sad Sicilian

This is what the world was like before Political Correctness. If this episode is to be believed, all - and I mean all - Sicilians carry 100 year old grudges, talk with their mouths full of oily pasta in a voice loud enough to peel the marinara off a lasagna, are misogynistic boobs, use only red and white checked napkins and tablecloths, always drink wine, and add-a an a-ah to-a the end-a of-a every-a word-a.

What drivel.

Stereotypes aside, the only mystery here is why the surviving actors and the Gardner estate aren't suing to keep this episode out of syndication. When it came time to reveal the killer, I was really hoping the answer would be "everybody".

Erle Stanley Gardner died five years after this episode aired. I think what the writers of this turkey did to his characters has to be in some way responsible.

This is a great series that uses old actors it upsets me that reviewers do notgoogle actors . This has a great performance by Margo... the famous actress blacklisted and the wife of Eddie Albert and mother of Eddie Albert Jr... reviewers need to realize that Perry Mason the series is a tribute to all the old actors in Hollywood... from Betty Davis to all the minor actors you did not become so famous

I thought this episode had the same charm of watching a cock-fight in a burned out building.. You had a long time feud, a bunch of noisy Italian-Americans and a family business that was control by the a hard-nose father figure. Good times right? No- I thought I was watching a poor pilot for an upcoming comedy/drama TV show but instead was watching an episode of Perry Mason that needed to include a free copy of Rosette Stone Language Learning Software to make the show more interesting.

It involved Paul Porro that would go from town to town telling other Italians that he was an old friend of the family. He then use this ruse to get free room and board and tons of good food.

Here he picked the wrong family. Little did he know that there was an old Italian feud between his the Porro's and the Bacio's. (Bacio was the family he picked out of the phone book to scam) When Mr Bacio ends up dead, Paul is fingered as the killer and Perry will defend him in court.

During the trial we learn that just about everyone hated Mr Bacio. Even his family had disdain for him. So this leaves Perry to pick people's stories apart and find the true killer.

The writes did try to complicate the story by letting us know that Mr Bacio was going to leave town and go back to his homeland. All this did was confuse us even more when this had nothing to do with the ending. But I guess it killed 15 minutes of air-time so it did accomplish something to the hour but did nothing for the viewer.

This episode was disappointing. After watching I felt sad that I wasted my time with this show. It may have had some good moments- but the bad moments far out-weight any fraction of a good watch. But I guess after eight season you find one show that is not up to the regular standard.

I enjoy Perry Mason quite a bit. I loved it when it was prime time in my youth and I still watch it on FETV whenever I can. This episode is well done with quite a few big name actors like Anthony Caruso and Nico Minardos. There is a major mistake in IMDb's acting credits. The character of Father Reggiani who has an ongoing role in this entire episode is incorrectly credited to Paul Comi. The actual actor playing that role is Mike Henry who is a much better known actor and has appeared in many big time movies such as Tarzan, The Green Berets and Rio Lobo. For some reason IMDb has left this Perry Mason episode out of Mike Henry's resume credits also. Mike is still alive and undoubtedly could be contacted to confirm this information. But anyone who knows his work will instantly recognize the former professional football player in this episode. He's a very good actor.

I hesitated for a long time to review this one -- having both Italian AND Sicilian ancestry on my mother's side, I had a feeling the stereotypes would be atypical for Hollywood -- and I was both right AND wrong. The honest truth is too many Italian/Sicilian families are much like this, but without the overt "Hollywood-isms" of overdone accents and amplified mistrust. The constant arguing is more common than you'd think (in my family it is, at least). The story line was too "pat", and too many mistakes were made that only Italians/Sicilians (or studiers of Italic culture) would notice -- maybe that's why I only gave it a three. The Godfather, it's not...