Show194

When Philip Stuart attacked Mallory openly in public, it seemed a bit unrealistic. Anyone with a brain who had just done a year in San Quentin for murder would have learned how to keep his temper in check really quick or else face the consequences from the other inmates. Even though Philip Stuart was innocent of the murder of Mallory, he might still be sent back to prison anyway for violating his parole. A convicted felon in possession of a firearm is illegal in California (not sure when the law went into effect). Legally, he should have turned it over the minute he discovered it was still in his desk. Pretty hard to believe that gun would still be in his desk knowing what we know of the LAPD. Even voluntary manslaughter would have warranted a search of his workplace to make sure there was no premeditation. Submitted by DellaMason

South Broadway & 7th Street (12:55). From far to near (L→R), the business signs in the shot are:

Don't fail to notice the two sets of STREETCAR tracks running down the middle of Broadway (the little sports car is straddling one of the southbound rails)! Broadway had been the main streetcar corridor through the downtown LA core but in this episode there are no streetcars in sight; new diesel transit buses were replacing them.
      Note the two LAPD Traffic Division officers in the intersection, each wearing white cap & gloves just like the officer who helped Miles (Billy Mumy) in Ep#183. Also, a bit of one of the two KRKD radio towers atop the Arcade Building (one block North of the Palace Theater) can be seen directly upwards from the "new diesel transit bus". Here's a marked air photo of the area; move cursor for labels.
      See Seventh & Broadway: Photos of Downtown's Crossroads through the Decades by Nathan Masters. The streetview today: the façades & signs have mostly been preserved but the streetcar tracks are long gone! Added by Gary Woloski, 6/9/14.

Los Angeles Building Heights. The shot of the building exterior (DVD 15:12 to 15:18) sets the location for the offices of "Webber & Reed", presumably somewhere in Downtown LA. However, the film footage used here is of a location outside of the Greater Los Angeles area. Any search for this building in Los Angeles will be fruitless. Conclusive proof is given by the 1930s-era skyscraper to the Left and beyond the "Webber & Reed" building in the exterior shot. I count 30 visible upper stories and estimate 10-12 stories below that making this older building at least 40 stories in height, not counting the somewhat distinctive radio tower on its roof. This is more than triple the maximum building-height permitted in Los Angeles prior to 1957.
      It seems incredible now, but LA's tallest building from the late-1920s until the early 1960s was Los Angeles City Hall (built 1926-28, 28 stories, 454 feet), as illustrated by this 1954 photo of downtown LA. Compare the 1945 & 2014 skylines in this Nathan Masters photo article (2014). The absence of skyscrapers was due to the 1904 City of Los Angeles imposition of a 13-story/150-foot building height limit. The Los Angeles County government soon extended the height limit to include LA's neighboring cities. City Hall was exempted from the limit by a public vote prior to construction. It wasn't until after the law was rescinded in 1957 that taller buildings sprouted in Los Angeles. Read more about it in Nathan Masters' article L.A.'s Changing Skyline (2012).
      A bit of observation and research indicates that this episode's shot of the "Webber & Reed" building was probably filmed in the USA, but outside of California. Note these details:

  • The flag towards Screen Left appears to be the Stars & Stripes.
  • The latest cars in the shot are 1955 or '56 models, eg: there is a white/woody 1955 Ford Country Squire at the lower-Left.
  • The taxi passing the '55 Ford wagon is an exact match to this 1954 Checker A6 appearing in New York City scenes of the 1956 Columbia Pictures movie The Harder They Fall, right down to the 2-tone paint scheme and door markings.

            (This episode's shot does not appear in The Harder They Fall , 104 minute version at tubeplus.me, from which end-credits are deleted.)

Use a few key words from above to do an internet search for images matching the "Webber & Reed" building of this episode. It seems impossible but you'll find it quickly.
      The 12-floor elevator in this episode is, of course, perfectly in line with the pre-1957 LA building code. So is Perry's Brent Building (Downtown Standard Hotel) seen in many other episodes. If you noticed two Gargantuan Cylindrical Objects to the East (Right) of City Hall in some of the linked air photos and don't know what they are, see the Comments section of Ep#180. Added by Gary Woloski, 6/23/14.

Was anybody else expecting a reaction shot of Della when Perry and Katherine talked about her relationship with David Reed?
Perry: There was never anything between you and Reed?
Katherine: Only what grows between a man and his secretary in ten years......
She had another line then Paul spoke. Submitted by H. Mason 3/9/15

Marie Windsor steals the show, especially her performance on the witness stand. jfh 28Dec2016
+ Marie Windsor always steals the show!
After telling Perry and Della the results of his investigation, which involve a mysterious woman, a mysterious package, and a sailor at San Pedro, Della says it sounds like “...the plot of a thirty year old movie”. Could she be thinking of “Maltese Falcon”, which involves a mysterious woman, a mysterious package, and a sailor at San Pedro? DOD 03/14/23

David Reed's death echoes that of Horace Giddens in Lillian Hellman's "The Little Foxes". And why didn’t the fact that his heart medicine was missing come out in Philip Reed’s trial? DOD 01/28/20

Spoiler Warning! Do Not Read Below If You Have Not Seen The Episode

Justice IS blind Although it probably doesn't rise - or is it fall ?? - to the level of "goof", it's hard to believe that not one of the three (or more) people waiting for the elevator in the lobby, including of course our usually eagle-eyed jurist, noticed the elevator had stopped at the ninth floor...particularly after they had already been held-up by a lengthy "emergency" stop before that. Submitted by Notcom, 121715.
+ When Perry and the 2 women walked to the lobby's elevator doors (28:37 on the 2012 Paramount DVD) the elevator had just passed the 9th floor on its way down to the lobby. So none of them had arrived in time to see that the elevator had stopped at the 9th floor or had previously been stopped above the 9th floor. Complicating matters, Lt. Anderson testified in court (32:16) that "Nobody saw it stop on the way down." When Perry announced, out of the blue, in court that the elevator had stopped at the 9th floor, he likely surmised that, because the murderer had had an appointment on the 9th floor, the murderer must have taken advantage of the elevator doors opening there. If only the murderer had kept quiet in court... lowercase masonite, 3/18/16.
++ Having just watched the scene again - carefully!! - I can confirm lcm 's account (above) is correct: Perry et al. do indeed arrive just after the car has made it's fatal stop, and as it's beginning its descent...we're even given a closeup of the indicator lights to emphasize the point. But this just points out the absurdity of Burger's claim that "nobody saw it stop" somehow constitutes proof; although in this case someone can prove something didn't happen, but only if they were staring at the lights for the entire duration of the trip..in which case they would have to notice a pause. Yet perhaps we shouldn't blame Hamilton, but rather the writers, for trying too hard to avoid a spoiler: as he would thunder out, "they deliberately tried to trick us!!" Amended by Notcom, 032416.

During the closing scene, why is the elevator button for the 10th floor illuminated? Didn't Perry press only the button for the 9th floor? And, after the door opens on the 9th floor, the 1st floor button is illuminated. I didn't see Perry press it. If Perry is reconstructing the crime scene, no one in the elevator (especially the dead man) or the murderer pressed the 1st floor button. Otto Gervaert, 2/10/21.
+ I seem to recall that on some elevators, if someone pushed the "call" button on a floor, the corresponding floor's button inside the elevator would light up so the people on board would know about stops the elevator would be making. OLEF641 6/25/21

Did I miss something? What was hidden in the music box?
--The insurance man had Phillip pick up the music box from the pawn shop in a trick to try to get the real thief to reveal himself. So nothing was in the music box--and Phillip knew that so why did he break it open? (Although now I wonder who ransacked his apartment looking for the diamond. Maybe I missed that part or it was cut from they syndicated version I saw.) --yelocab 02APR18
+ I think Phillip opened the music box to remove the small package that the real thief was supposed to think held the diamonds. All part of Mallory's complicated plot! And his apartment was ransacked by Ormesby, as stated by Joyce Hadley. Submitted by JazzBaby, 4/20/2019.

The glorious Marie Windsor has been victim, suspect, and killer in various episodes. Any list of other actors with this trifecta? DOD 01/28/20
+ Would you be surprised to find out there is?? Probably not, though maybe the size of the list is surprising (And techically speaking the trifecta is DMV - DefendantMurdererVictim - since "suspect" is a little amorphous..nothing amorphous about Marie Windsor's ability though !!) Notcom, 013120.

TCOT Hideous Humans As so often happens, we are faced with a truly ghastly group of people in this episode, from the first dead man, David Reed, to the current victim, Mallory. The murderer, Helen Reed, is psychopathically cold, framing one man for both her crimes, but the greedy, lying mistress, Joyce Hadley, and her sleazy, sexually abusive blackmailer, Ormesby, are scarcely better. In fact, I think Ormesby is about the most horrible chatacter ever seen on PM, and definitely the worst of the many creeps Douglas Dick played. His blackmailing Joyce into sex was so shocking, I am surprised the writers got away with it. I hope he went to prison! Submitted by JazzBaby, 4/20/2019.

Does Mallory’s plot to catch the real jewel thief make any sense whatsoever? It’s certainly convoluted enough, but the bottom line is that the real jewel thief would know that Stewart does not have the diamond. So, how exactly is that person supposed to be caught? Furthermore, it seems that Mallory just did some old-fashioned detective work to discover who the real diamond thief was. No need for any complicated scheme once you rule out Stewart having it or the diamond itself being sent to Hong Kong. Submitted by Kenmore 09/28/2023.