The Case of the Silent Partner

The Case of the Silent Partner is more of a noir mystery than a courtroom thriller. It even has blonde bimbo type who might have a heart of gold.

Harry Harlow (Dan Seymour) is a sleazy ex con who wants his grubby paws on sickly Mildred Kimber's orchid business.

His way in is to exploit Mildred's the weaknesses of her gambling obsessed husband Bob. He has stock options on the business which he loses in a crooked card game run by Sam Lynk.

Lola the hostess (Peggy Maley) who has the hots for Lynk tells Mildred that the deck were marked and agrees to tell all to Perry Mason. Only for Lola to be poisoned by a box of chocolates and Lynk to end up dead.

Mildred ends up the suspect but Perry is on to this before it even ends up in court. He even gets Tragg to assist him.

An episode brightened by Peggy Maley. Her Lola seems to charm everyone she meets even though she is poisoned and later her house is burned. Seymour is suitably seedy and he excelled in these kind of roles.

One of the better episodes, probably due to the lack of courtroom scenes with someone standing up and confessing.

Mildred Kimber owns a flourishing (excuse the pun) orchid business. Unfortunately, a racketeer type who owns a chain of flower shops wants her business. Even more unfortunately, her deadbeat drunk of a husband loses a significant percent of the orchid business stock in a crooked poker game set up by the flower shop owning thug. When the card sharp who "won" the stock is found dead, Midred is the prime suspect. The case gets even stranger when the card sharp's girlfriend, Lola Florey, phones Mason in a panic telling him she has been poisoned - poison that was in chocolate candy she had a special fondness for. There was no just dialing 911 in those days and Perry calls Lt. Tragg. Fortunately, they reach Lola in time but there are more twists to the story. This episode is a rare one in that there are no courtroom scenes. It's also one of the very few episodes (offhand I can only think of one other) where Della and Perry both comment on how much they liked the murderer. A particularly good cast in this episode, especially Anne Barton (Mildred Kimber), Peggy Maley (Lola Florey) and Dan Seymour (Harry Marlow, the thug). Seymour is the only one of the three I recall ever seeing before.

Others have written about the plot. This episode should be watched because lovely blonde Peggy Maley as Lola is so prominent in it. She is perfect as the shopworn moll who is mad at her straying boyfriend. Peggy Maley brings the right combination of beauty and tawdriness to the part.

An earlier reviewer asked: Whatever happened to her? She reached an age where there were fewer parts for actresses so she left Hollywood -- and the entertainment industry -- to manage her Dad's restaurants and bars. After several years of this, she married a man and became a (I believe childless) housewife for several years. Then they divorced and she got other jobs.

According to a relative I talked to, she was never bitter about her Hollywood years but always spoke of them fondly. She also remained attractive into her old age and died in her 80s.

Anne Barton and Mark Roberts own a nursery business. But Barton has some serious health issues having just recovered from a heart attack and Roberts is a drinker. An easy mark for Michael Emmett who has a gambling house and who is in business with Dan Seymour who owns a chain of florist shops and wants in on the Barton-Roberts business. They arrange a nice poker game with marked cards.

When Emmett is found shot to death it's sickly Barton who gets charged who implicates herself thinking Roberts did it.

This one never gets to court as Perry Mason figures this one out on his own and gift wraps it for the LAPD and Ray Collins.

Kudos for brassy Peggy Maley who is a hostess at the gambling emporium. She's always good.

For lovers of film noir be sure to tune into this episode of Perry Mason. Almost all the noir tropes are here, and it'll remind you quite a bit of 'The Big Sleep.' And that should come as no surprise since the director of this episode edited that classic film.