The Case of the Lucky Loser

It's a wonderful episode, for many reasons, including Douglas Kennedy, who is just terrific at portraying sinister, menacing characters. He was in four installments of the show; this is his second appearance. (His first was the first filmed: The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink (1957).) He has a gravelly low-baritone voice similar to J.D. Cannon's, Neville Brand's, and Lee Marvin's. But he also has a sneaky, shifty-eyed quality which the more famous tough-guys do not have. In fact, his face and demeanor bring back my childhood memories of President Richard Nixon trying to muscle his way out of his terminal scandal. (And I see that he (Douglas Kennedy) died, coincidentally, in 1973, when the impeachment proceedings began.)

He's definitely on my watch-everything list now.

This episode has everything - suspense, obvious lying and not so obvious lying, head scratching moments when you wonder exactly what law school Hamilton Burger attended, and red, green, and blue herrings.

Lawrence Balfour (Bruce Bennett) is getting on a train headed for Mexico and kissing his wife. Harriet, goodbye. But it is just a ruse. Lawrence gets off of the train and follows his wife in a car he has stashed nearby. He follows her to a remote cabin, she greets her lover, and Lawrence waits for her to leave. Lawrence, armed with a revolver, goes into the cabin to confront the other man, that other man shines a bright light in his eyes, there is a struggle, the gun goes off, and the other man falls to the floor dead. Lawrence frantically calls - not the police - but the Balfour family fixer as to what to do. The fixer, Steven Boles, tells Lawrence to catch the same train that he got off of at the next stop, try to get on unobserved, and act as though he never got off of that train. Boles says that he will take care of the body. Did I mention that the Balfour family is very wealthy, thus they can afford an able and loyal fixer.

Things don't go as planned. The body is discovered too soon, somebody sees the license plate of Steven's car as it speeds away from the dead body - the license plate belongs to Lawrence's nephew Ted. Ted was out drinking that night at the goodbye party for Lawrence, and can't account for his time during the accident. Ted is charged with vehicular manslaughter.

There is a hung jury before Perry gets involved in this case of the wrong man charged with the wrong crime. How does Perry figure out what actually happened? He doesn't have to figure out what I just told you. The fixer actually TELLS Perry everything just to let him know who has all of the power in this situation. It is the only time I can remember that somebody told Perry Mason to sit down and then he does so.

If you know what to look for in an episode of Perry Mason, some "tells" will hit you, as in - This is a common situation on Perry Mason, why did they do this scene in this particular way? Also note that, in the age of DNA and hard rules about forensics, the kinds of mistakes being made here by the prosecution would simply not be made today, or even in 1958.

Some reviewers noted they were let down by seeing the apparent crime unfold in the first few minutes. But of course that was an illusion. That is one aspect that makes this episode different. Another is the court ruling against Perry on double jeopardy. Perry cites a real case, State v. McDaniels, 137 Cal. 192 (1902), that is right on point and controlling precedent. The judge did not have discretion. In almost all Mason episodes, the judges are dead on right in their rulings, and neither Mason nor Burger wins via a bad call. But this ruling adverse to Perry, but wrong, sets up the pivotal scene between Perry and "Evil Steve," the Balfour family fixer, who is the embodiment of an anti-Mason. Steve wants Perry to present no defense for Ted Balfour and win on appeal, which will minimize exposure to the Balfour family and to "Evil Steve." Steve has made it clear to Perry that Ted is innocent and recounted to Perry what the viewer saw in the first few minutes. Perry tells Steve that Perry does not suborn perjury but relies on truth. He hands Steve a subpoena. Steve gets Addison Balfour to fire Perry but Perry continues to represent Ted. Perry wonders why Lawrence Balfour, the killer in Steve's version, has not shown up. Paul helps Perry to learn why. To viewers of shows like CSI and NCIS, the mistakes made by the State in this episode are unbelievable. Curiously, for the plan of the culprits to succeed, the culprits had to rely on the State making these mistakes.

This is a different kind of episode than we are accustom since we know the facts early in the show instead of a who-done-it kind of mystery. But we know that the wrong person has been accused of the crime and Perry has been brought in to defend the lad.

To give you some background without giving away the crime, the story involves a powerful family with the named of Balfour's. Ted Balfour was first convicted of hit-and-run manslaughter charge into the killing of George Egan. Hamilton Burger has questions about the death and revisits the body to find a gunshot wound to the head. Now Hamilton Burger issues a murder warrant on Ted Balfour.

Now we, as viewers, know the circumstance of the murder, this is when Perry will enter the picture. When the murder trial begins, Perry will move for dropping the charges on the grounds of double jeopardy. Ted has already been convicted of the death and cannot be retried. The Judge makes a ruling to go ahead with the trail and a higher court would rule on the double jeopardy request. So the court hearing will continue.

During the trail we hear some strange testimony from the witnesses. Since we know the details of the incident we know most are committing perjury. But Perry, with much help form Paul Drake Detective Agency, will have to fight off all the lies in order to get his client cleared of not only the murder charge but also cleared of the manslaughter case. But before the end of the episode there is a bizarre twist that will have each viewer flabbergasted by the evidence and event of the murder.

At first I thought knowing the details of the murder early in the show would diminish the value of the show. However I was proved wrong as this episode was strangely interesting. And one person that could have had perjury charges against them will be facing much worse. And we, the viewer, will be entertained to the fullest.

Perry goes against a guy whom we would call a fixer. He earns a huge salary to get rich people out of trouble by manipulation, no questions asked. When he butts head with the great Perry Mason, he face a worthy opponent. As viewers, we get to see Mason accept the challenge, horns out. I like to see the disreputable mighty fall.