The Case of the Larcenous Lady

Louise Fletcher is the person who may take the fall as a secretary manipulated by her boss. There are two guys vying for the same government position and this is at the center. A sort of Lady Macbeth works her magic and gets herself killed. A pretty pedestrian episode.

This is a good assembly line type of Mason. It is a little predictable as far as who the murderer really was, but its depiction of a murder victim who you can have little sympathy for is kind of a cold thing. Yes, this is a mayors wife who appears to be stopping at nothing to get her husband named to a post by the state Governor.

Meanwhile, there a another guy who is extorting people too. It appears that Mason is going to have some trouble at the hearing for his defendant because he was at the murder scene with a witness. Along with that one of the witnesses (played by Ed Platt later the chief of control on Get Smart) is lying on the stand so Mason has to drag another witness into court to help him get to the truth.

This good mystery with an outstanding cast has a scene in court where Mr Burr's voice sounds edited in in poorly -listen closely. This episode was filmed with a production bread due to his illness-a possible explanation! This episode's bump is worth sticking around if you are a Della-Perry fan.

Years before she won her Oscar for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest young Louise Fletcher needed the services of Perry Mason to defend her on a charge of murder. She was accused of murdering the wife of her boss with Patricia Huston and Arthur Franz in both those roles respectively.

Fletcher is carrying a statue of liberty size torch for Franz which gives the authorities reason enough to think her capable of killing Huston. As the show unfolds a nice load of suspects show that they all have motive to kill Huston who is one scheming piece of work.

This one for me was one of the inferior episodes in that the murderer who is also a piece of work is rather obvious. But also the prosecutor Christopher Dark is trying to keep a key witness off the stand that could blow up his case. Hardly the actions of a man who purportedly is seeking the truth. When Ellen Drew does appear she goes on at the judge's order and Raymond Burr then blows up the prosecutor's inferior presentation of the facts.

In real life I think Dark would have been before the bar association for what he did.

In Upton, CA the Mayor, Jim Henderson has been ask to serve on the Governor's crime committee in which a lawyer friend, Arnold Webberly, is also a candidate. But when the Mayor's wife, Mona, seems to be blackmailing Julia Webberly, wife of Arnold Webberly, over a photograph taken years ago, things get sticky in Upton.

When Mona ends up dead the young secretary of Mayor Henderson is charged with the murder. She will be defended in court of the charge by Perry outside the confines of LA.

This was a very predictable mystery that just did not grab the viewers interest. There is some nice courtroom testimony but everyone in the place knew who was the real murderer even before the final confession occurs. And as other have said the public defender played by Christopher Dark did not help this program. This episode could have used of large dose of Hamilton Burger.

Note- In the episode that was to have occurred in Upton California, when they briefly show the outside of the courthouse it is actually the Washoe County Courthouse in Reno, Nevada.