The Case of the Wary Wildcatter

The car that went over the cliff was a different car than The car that he pushed her over the cliff in two different cars. Nice work if you can get it. I really like Perry Mason. The courtroom scenes are the best. The set ups are pretty generic, but the show is addicting. Perry. Mason loves to "Leonard hand, who was a appellate court judge that the Supreme Court quoted often one of his quotes was eventual supremacy of reason we can use that today for sure. Shows of this nature, we're dearly loved and seriously missed television today lacks the same entertainment quality of the shows from years past.

"The Case of the Wary Wildcatter" is one of the best Perry Mason TV series' episodes. Everyone in this story is out for money, a totally cynical story written by Robert Bloomfield. Bloomfield wrote 4 Perry Mason episodes and this one, his last, is the best of the lot. The story starts off with a guy sending a car over a cliff, the car containing the body of his murdered wife. Somehow, a nature photographer/blackmailer with a movie camera is nearby, camera recording the action.

William D. Russell directed this episode, so it is a class job. Somehow, Russell went from directing "Perry Mason" episodes (28 episodes in total through 1960) to directing the "Hazel" TV series (136 episodes, starting in 1961). Russell's presence could only have helped "Perry Mason" from Season Four on, when the series' quality and toughness declined under regular directors Arthur Marx and Jesse Hibbs before hitting rock bottom in Season Nine. Writer Bloomfield wrote a crime novel, "When Strangers Meets" (Pocket Book edition, 1957), that the producers of "Perry Mason" must have read. Bloomfield's career in American television ended around 1967. Bloomfield's credits also includes a 1965 play called "Portrait of Murder." This play is set entirely in the living room of a writer's home, which cuts down on staging costs. An Internet search shows this play gets produced pretty often by theater companies in Great Britain.

For those of us not traveling overseas to the UK in the near future, this Perry Mason episode is a super way to see writer Robert Bloomfield's best work.

Roger Byrd, an novice nature photographer, is filming wildlife along a roaming meadow. Mr Byrd hears some commotion coming from the road above and points his camera toward the area. He sees a man, Charles Houston, placing his unconscious wife behind the wheel of a car right before pushing the car over a canyon cliff.

Mr Byrd then blackmails Mr Houston or he will release the pictures to the district attorney's office. Mr Houston, who has half interest in an oil well, has to over-sell his portion to pay Mr Byrd. Everything will be alright if the oil well does not produce - but to his dismay the oil well is a gusher. Now people that brought into his scheme- Lucky Sterling a big time gambler, Madelyn Terry the gambler girlfriend and Paula Wallace his dead wife's sister- will soon discover that he is unable to make the claims that he sold.

But before all that can happen Mr Houston is found shot in Mr Byrd's apartment. The police catch Paula Wallace running from the building and with the help of a witness claim that she murdered Mr Houston.

Even though there seems to be much activity in the story, by the time we get to the murder, the show has become cloudy with all the characters and the strange occurrence of events. But it picks up quite nicely when we get to the courtroom scenes.

Perry is at the top of his game when he faces Hamilton Burger at the bar. The show picks up pace with the exchanges and testimony in the courtroom. This action, plus the acting of the actors, saves this episode from digressing into boredom. A good watch for everyone and will have you guessing right till the end.

This Perry Mason episode is about some sleazy people. Freelance photographer Harry Jackson happens to take some pictures of Byron Palmer rolling a car off a cliff with his dead wife's body in it. Jackson knows an opportunity when he sees it and blackmails Palmer for several months.

But that well is running dry and that's not just an expression. Palmer is an oil wildcatter also one of the sleazier of that breed. He's oversold shares in his oil well that his drilling operator King Calder says will be a titanic gusher. Trying to make his last bit of money to pay off Jackson, Palmer sells yet another share to gambler Douglas Kennedy.

In the meantime the only non-sleaze in the cast Lori March plays the sister of Palmer's late wife and she's contacted Raymond Burr. She'll need him when Palmer is murdered and she's at the crime scene.

But Perry Mason defends no guilty clients and in this sleazy crowd the murderer is rather obvious.

I agree with the last reviewer, nearly everyone in this story is not citizen of the month. Quite the contrary, and don't we love it 100 percent. What makes these courtroom extravaganzas.

It all starts out with oil prospector Charles Houston (as in Houston, Texas?) pushing his wife and her car off a cliff. Dead as a doornail, but not safe. Photographer Roger Byrd (Harry Jackson) happens to be in the area, takes some incriminating pictures -- and there's blackmail! The trick here is Houston has also been over-selling shares in his oil well, maxing it out. He manages to strike up a deal with a gambler called "Lucky Sterling" (played by Douglas Kennedy), who buys into the well in order to pay Byrd off. But is that a deal?

Guess what happens? The oil well turns out to be a surprise gusher. Appropriately enough, Houston is found dead. Any number of folks could have pulled the job, which makes it so fascinating and fun. A darn good script by Lesley Edgley who also wrote for ZORRO, of all tv shows. Could have been a proposed script for a western. Who knows?

Highlight in the casting department is pre-MISSION IMPOSSIBLE star Barbara Bain. Also Douglas Kennedy, a regular in scores of westerns. Excellent direction in every department by William D. Russell, as usual. He brings out the worst in this crew.

The notes are correct and campy. Since the show was sponsored by a cigarette company, Edgley came up with the name Lucky Sterling, a nod to Lucky Strike and Sterling cigarettes. All in a days work.

SEASON 3 EPISODE 16 remastered CBS dvd box set. Volumes 1 and 2.