Whatever Happened to Morris Perlmutter?

The opening scenes of Whatever Happened to Morris Pearlmutter begin with an elderly woman coming downstairs to a robbery in progress where the intruder shoots and kills her. Her sister who is upstairs rushes down upon hearing the gunshot and comes face to face with the killer leaving the home. When the victim is brought into the coroner lab, Quincy (Jack Klugman) recognizes her as Violet Watson (Louise Lewis), a former theater actress who often performed with the surviving sister, Eugenia (Rosemary DeCamp). The police work with Eugenia in trying to identify the killer through mugshots to no avail, but she later sees a photo of a prominent young man in the newspaper who she is certain is the murderer. This wild claim is met with skepticism by the police who believe she is either mistaken or in the early stages of Alzheimer's like her sister.

Another plot of this episode revolves around Morris Pearlmutter (Keenan Wynn), a friend and fellow actor who worked with the sisters many years ago and makes a grand entrance at the funeral. He has continued to work as an actor in bit parts but then receives a big break when he is cast as the lead in a live televised theater-style production. The only problem is that there is a great deal of dialogue for his character and his memory not being as sharp as it once was, he struggles to remember his lines during rehearsals which leads to doubt as to whether he will be able to pull off the performance.

While there is a murder investigation featured in this episode as the audience does not see the face of the murderer in the opening scenes, this is completely relegated to the background and the entire focus becomes Morris and his struggles as an aging man/struggling actor no longer feeling relevant or able to perform like he used to. Since this is Quincy and not Highway to Heaven where we saw countless stories about older people struggling with aging issues and battling others to remain independent, the murder investigation should have been front and center with Morris in the background and not the opposite. Keenan Wynn gives a solid performance as Morris in this episode, but none of these scenes or the storyline fit with this show and all of it would have been better suited by playing out with Michael Landon's angel character.

Another complaint I have is the stupidity of the opening scenes. Violet Watson walks down the stairs having an imaginary conversation with Cecil DeMille and is speaking loudly enough where anyone in the vicinity should be able to hear her, but somehow the burglar in the room at the bottom of the stairs with an open doorway does not. Even when she enters the room and he finally realizes she is there, she again says something nonsensical due to her condition and he shoots her. Wouldn't what she said have signaled that she was senile and why would you take the unnecessary risk of shooting her? But then when her sister comes downstairs and faces the killer realizing and reacting to what was happening, he just looks at her and leaves. Why would you kill one eyewitness, the clearly incompetent one, but then leave another, the clearly lucid one who could identify and put you way?? I just felt that this was so ridiculous and unbelievable.

Sadly, it seems the show has completely lost focus at this point and I would not recommend this episode unless you are a huge Keenan Wynn fan or have an appreciation of Highway to Heaven type stories.

what does Keenan Wynn's part have to do with crime or the murder?! What's the biggest problem with "What Happened to Morris Perlmutter?"? It's that the episode seems to have practically NOTHING to do with the "Quincy" show. In later years, "Quincy" often did shows where the doctor was in the show less and less and less and less of his forensic skills were needed. Here, I truly think they could have done the show without Dr. Quincy!! It's pretty obvious that the series was nearing the end with this one and even a nice performance by Keenan Wynn couldn't save this one.

The show begins with a robber killing an elderly woman in he home. Her sister, who lived with her, witnesses the crime and can identify the assailant. When Quincy gets involved with the case, he realizes the two women were stage actresses of moderate repute. But, instead of focusing on the crime or forensics, the show soon focuses on a man that attends the funeral--Morris Perlmutter (Wynn). Most of the rest of the show is a story about the elderly and senility, as Morris attempts a big comeback--one he isn't sure he's up to.

The bottom line is that this is NOT about Dr. Quincy and he's barely in the thing. I would have instead liked to have just seen the Wynn story on its own. A weak, weak episode indeed.

I'm growing old and my memory is impaired.

Age is just a number but there's no denying the obvious.

We do decline as we age. But we don't become less important. We don't miraculously become invisible.

And we don't loose our feelings and sensitively.

We also gain so much as we age.

What's the most important thing we gain as we age?

Experience.

Unfortunately, that's the one thing that scares and intimidates younger people the most.

Our most valuable asset isn't valued enough.

What's this got to do with Quincy?

Everything.

This episode does go off story but it makes so many important points about the aging process.

It's probably the finest episode of Quincy. It brought a tear to my eye.

I'll close with two of my favourite quotes.

"The only people that grow old were born old to begin with."

"Age is just a limit we impose on ourselves. Each time you celebrate a birthday you build another fence around your minds."