The Case of the Lame Canary

This is a very tricksy story with some sleight of hand.

Ruth Prescott is unhappily married to Walter Prescott. A loveless marriage and he was only after her money.

When she was single she had an affair with another man and they had exchanged love letters. Walter has them and demands a large some of money to give her a divorce.

When Ruth leaves the house, truck almost runs her over and ends up injuring another man. He seems to have been ordered to so by Walter.

Later Walter is found dead and Ruth is caught burning the love letters by his secretary.

When arrested for her husband's murder she engages Perry Mason. He looks into Walter's business dealings.

There are several plausible suspects. Walter was a nasty piece of work. I enjoyed the twists with Perry eventually putting together just who was meant to be the victim.

This was one of the better constructed and cleverly written Perry Mason episodes with two murders apparently unconnected occurring on this show. In fact there's a rather clever scheme afoot in the case of one of the murders to make it look like an automobile accident.

Stacy Graham, the estranged wife of Walter Kendis is nearly rundown in an automobile accident. Later on Kendis is found dead in their home and a pet canary injured. That canary has part of the key to the mystery. She becomes the Perry Mason client.

The second part involves the burning of old love letters by Susan Cummings from her old boyfriend. That sends Raymond Burr off on a whole new line of thinking and William Hopper as Paul Drake digs up the evidence that not only finds the murderer, but uncovers quite a racket.

Barbara Hale gets into the act as well. Burr has Hale order a matching set of luggage to what Cummings has. That's when it all starts to unravel.

This was a good one.

IN my humble opinion, this episode has too many moving parts and terrible acting. I realize this is probably how directors interpreted the written storyline content during that time in television, so the actors had to do as directed. With that in mind, I am so glad acting has improved!

I also pondered why so many different, seemingly meaningless characters had to be involved. But now I'm beginning to understand that is the technique used for the series. It can make you dizzy if you allow it to do so.

In true "Perry Mason" style, this is another "I didn't see that coming" story. LOL. If you are, or have become a Perry Mason fan, here is an episode representative of the Perry Mason storyline template. (Something worth smiling about.)

Since I am now a fan, I had to increase my rating.

Neat twists and turns mark this episode as one of the better series offerings. The one glaring flight of Hollywood make-believe was immediately apparent to this mechanic, though. (As its departure from fact has no bearing on the storyline, I don't consider it a spoiler - just an amusing goof!) When Mason and Drake are interviewing the truck driver whose vehicle crashed into a parked car early in the episode, the driver claims his air brakes failed because of a hose that appeared to have been cut with a knife blade. He also stated he was able to drive the vehicle despite the broken hose, by using the hand brake.

As any auto mechanic can tell you, - unlike hydraulic brakes which are off unless the brake pedal is applied - air brakes work on the dead-man principle for safety of the general public. An air compressor powered by the engine has to build up enough air pressure to RELEASE the brakes before a vehicle equipped as such can move. (This explains that loud HISSSSS one hears when a tractor-trailer rig is ready to move out.) Pressing the brake pedal opens a dump valve, lowering air pressure and letting the brakes engage.

A cut brake hose in such a system would never allow the pressure to reach the brake-release point, rendering the vehicle virtually impossible to drive without extensive brake damage and strain on the engine and transmission, too. I kept waiting for Drake to catch the driver in this tall tale, but not to be.

Once the story begins to come together, it moves quickly. Don't go to the fridge for that cold drink, until the show's over!

The crime here calls for some pretty good timing to work. That's what makes it work and also what leaves a trail of clues. By the way, the bird gets way too much credit here (basically to set up one line). Still, there is some great cross examination leading to discovery. I also enjoyed the bit with the suitcases that Perry sets up.