Tony Franken (Dwight Schultz) is the director of the hit Broadway show Polly, and while he might be a talented individual, he is a thoroughly unpleasant person who is forever hurling personal insults and belittling the efforts of the cast and crew who, needless to say, all despise him. Practically all of them has a motive for wanting him dead; including the leading lady Amanda Cody (Debbie Reynolds), a former film star who Franken wants to replace, referring to her as the "fading star" and a "relic". The writer James Walton (Raymond Singer) is forever at the brunt of Franken's acid tongue who wants to claim co-authorship on the play, which if it did happen would cast serious doubts on Walton's ability to write for Broadway. In addition, Franken also seems to have a powerful hold over the show's producer Blaine Counter (Jerry Orbach) since he allows him to get away with what ever it is he wants. Why? Inevitably, Franken is murdered and the stage manager, Johnny Whitcombe, is arrested for the crime because he had a fight with the murdered man in which he had threatened to kill him and he lost his job as a result of that. Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) is convinced that he is innocent but faces an uphill battle to prove it...
Another of the many absorbing cases of the world's best loved fictional defence attorney Perry Mason. You will find that everything is up to par here with George Eckstein's script piling on the clues and red herrings but still playing fair with the audience. This case is particularly personal to Mason because he knows for a fact that Johnny Whitcombe could not have committed the murder because he saw him at the time it happened outside of his hospital window. However, the DA, Barbara August (Valerie Mahaffey), who gets more to do here and is more confrontational, rips apart his evidence in the witness box because he had just taken a sedative at the time which proves it to be an unreliable account of events. In consequence, what should have been an easy case for Perry becomes increasingly difficult and for awhile it looks as though he might lose it to his opponent. But,in the end events take such a turn that the scales of justice are turned back in his favour. This makes up the suspense aspect in this one.
The interplay between William R Moses as Ken Malansky and his socialite girlfriend Amy Hastings (Alexandra Paul) works better here whereas in other episodes it threatened to undermine the films since her character could at times become very irritating coming across as spoilt and used to getting her way and throwing tantrums when she did not. Here, however, she provides some very effective light comedy relief as well as outshining Ken every time by finding clues and his suspect before he does. This angers Ken since he does not like being outperformed by an amateur sleuth.
Performances from the supporting cast are generally good all round here even though many of them are second division. The most notable has to be veteran Holywood star Debbie Reynolds who was still glamouress and still possessed a good singing voice. Her character, the former film star Amanda Cody, provides an emotional element to the story since the accused man is her son; only she kept it a secret because she thought it would end her career if the world knew she was old enough to have a grown up son and she attempts to lie on the witness stand by falsely confessing to Franken's murder.
Another of the many absorbing cases of the world's best loved fictional defence attorney Perry Mason. You will find that everything is up to par here with George Eckstein's script piling on the clues and red herrings but still playing fair with the audience. This case is particularly personal to Mason because he knows for a fact that Johnny Whitcombe could not have committed the murder because he saw him at the time it happened outside of his hospital window. However, the DA, Barbara August (Valerie Mahaffey), who gets more to do here and is more confrontational, rips apart his evidence in the witness box because he had just taken a sedative at the time which proves it to be an unreliable account of events. In consequence, what should have been an easy case for Perry becomes increasingly difficult and for awhile it looks as though he might lose it to his opponent. But,in the end events take such a turn that the scales of justice are turned back in his favour. This makes up the suspense aspect in this one.
The interplay between William R Moses as Ken Malansky and his socialite girlfriend Amy Hastings (Alexandra Paul) works better here whereas in other episodes it threatened to undermine the films since her character could at times become very irritating coming across as spoilt and used to getting her way and throwing tantrums when she did not. Here, however, she provides some very effective light comedy relief as well as outshining Ken every time by finding clues and his suspect before he does. This angers Ken since he does not like being outperformed by an amateur sleuth.
Performances from the supporting cast are generally good all round here even though many of them are second division. The most notable has to be veteran Holywood star Debbie Reynolds who was still glamouress and still possessed a good singing voice. Her character, the former film star Amanda Cody, provides an emotional element to the story since the accused man is her son; only she kept it a secret because she thought it would end her career if the world knew she was old enough to have a grown up son and she attempts to lie on the witness stand by falsely confessing to Franken's murder.