The Case of the Illicit Illusion

This episode begins with Rosanne Ambrose (Mona Freeman) having blackouts where she cannot remember what if anything happened. She goes to see Dr Jesse Young (Keith Andres) for possible medication explanation for the lost of memory. Dr Young is an old boyfriend of Rosanne. And Dr Young prescribes some pills to help her get some rest from the horror of ordeal.

This is good to know since Roasanne is seeking a divorce from her husband, Hubert Ambrose (Ron Randall), and this is a big part of the plot.

Hubbert is accused of a murder in New York. The police say that Hubbert is using a false name for flights and hotel reservation and at the time of the murder, was in New York. But it appears that Hubert will not be going to new York when a friend of his, Kirk Cameron (Berry Kroeger) commits suicide and leaves a note claiming that he was the one that killed the women in New York. All seems right.

However the police state that this was not suicide and have evidence that Rosanne was at Cameron's apartment moments before his death. And we are left with Perry defending the women for the murder.

This episode has a difficult plot to follow with too many characters. When a name was called I was confused since I could not remember the names due to large number of people that had some part in the show. But it does deliver some good courtroom scenes.

From Hamilton Burger basically being call as a witness to a husband being called as a witness in the wife's case- it has some good moments. But by the end of the show I am exhausted from trying to keep up with all the testimony that string from two crimes in two states.

There is also some writing that was just plain poor. I mean- When Rosanne feels one of her blackouts coming on, instead of taking the elevator or sitting down- she take a dark and lonely stairway only to pass out a few steps down the stairs. Plus the fact that the stairs must not be a high traffic area since she did not awake till many hours after the blackout in the same position. This was just really unbelievable.

For me this was a middle of the pack show. Nothing great here but then again not a complete car wreck.

Although a lot of people I hang out with would love the idea of Kirk Cameron meeting a bad end in fact Berry Kroeger plays a character named Kirk Cameron who gets very dead. Kroeger is usually playing some of the slimiest villains on record and he's involved in some con games here. But the real Kirk Cameron was not even born yet, not even an idea in his parents mind when this Perry Mason episode aired on CBS.

The client for Raymond Burr is Mona Freeman who is going through a divorce and her husband is in some shady business bilking clients of investment money. Kroeger is a forensic accountant who is presumably checking up on the husband when he's murdered.

This is not one of the better constructed Mason episodes, the plot really meanders all over the place in search of red herrings. I will say though that Evelyn Varden, noted British player really stands out in this episode. This woman is some piece of work, she's got a great racket going which I will not divulge, you have to see the episode to see the scam she's working.

For Varden's sake I wish I could rate this Perry Mason a bit higher. Her character deserved a better story.