Show232
A cup and saucer from The Curious Coffee Set appear in Carina's apartment in the opening scene. jfh 20Feb2017.
What happened to Perry? His arm is in a sling beneath his suit jacket. Submitted by Francis, 10 June 2011.
+ In a scene at the Club Caribe, Mignon mentions Perry’s accident (but no details are revealed). Submitted by gracenote, 8/17/2011.
++ Paul also mentions it in Perry's office: "How's the arm?" cgraul 12.19.12
+++ this episode was probably filmed in early 1965. Raymond Burr had taken a fall outside his studio 'cottage' in January. Submitted by dwhite 1.18.13
++++ I'm surprised no one is claiming he injured it "while visiting the troops in Vietnam." 65tosspowertrap, 1-18-2014.
Richard Devon (Neil Howard) looks like a cross of the vampire from Sesame Street and Eugene Levy. DOD 04/05/21
The epilogue here is almost all Paul explaining away the solution to the mystery. He has to talk a mile a minute to fit it all in--and I'm still not sure it makes perfect sense! I do like the atmosphere of the Club Carib, though! Ed Zoerner, 7/7/12
+ No, not Paul, Hamilton does the explanation. Paul interjects one comment. cgraul 12.19.12
++ As much as I love to see Burger in on the final scene (there are precious few episodes where he is - most memorably TCOT Lame Canary), this is one of the weakest of the epilogues. No one else at the club seems bothered by the fact that they talk loudly while the floor-show is on! dwhite 1.18.13
+++ Della, stunning in her cocktail dress, does "shush" the men. jfh 02Jun2017.
Raymond Burr is already displaying his tendency to weight which came to total fruition in his wheelchair show, "Ironside." cgraul 12.19.12
+ I read somewhere that Raymond Burr lost 100 lbs in order to initially win the role of Perry Mason. I'm certain it was difficult to keep the weight off. jfh 02Jun2017.
++ With his arm always under his coat, it did not help reduce the appearance of added weight Submitted by Perry Baby 12/12/16.
+++ If you watch the first episode right after the last one (easy to do in syndication) you can see quite a difference in Burr's size. Of course, watching the episodes in order, his "expansion" is gradual and fairly unnoticeable. OLEF641 8/18/21
When Larry is shown in the hospital, there is a strong low-light effect, as if a flashlight was held below his face. As the wall sconces are 6 foot or so high, there is no logical source for this light, and is only a poor effect intended to introduce premonition suspense. cgraul 12.19.12
+ It appears to me that the uplight is coming from the street lights below shining up through the windows. jfh 02Jun2017.
Wonder who the casting director was that thought it was a good idea to cast a 58 year old woman (Fay Wray) as some sort of exotic dancer? Submitted by Paul Drake 33. 26 January 2015.
+ IMHO, not "exotic" dancer, rather, "cultural" dancer. jfh 02Jun2017
I know, I know, it is only a show, but in real life, Hamilton Burger and everyone else on the District Attorney's staff would be forced to recuse themselves in the prosecution of Larry Germaine, one of their colleagues. Submitted by PaulDrake 33, 26 January 2015.
+ Which explains why Hamilton seems happy when Perry tells him Larry is withdrawing his 'pro se' and immediately gets on the phone. HamBurger 11/06/2016.
In the courtroom scene, every time Jack Randall (James Griffith) is shown in the courtroom, there appears to be a fluer-de-lis embossed in the wall over his left shoulder; appropriate for an episode so heavily influenced by New Orleans culture. jfh 20Feb2017.
Apparently just about every "swank" apartment in Los Angeles has that screen with elongated stars on diagonal rods, although Carina's place is the first I recall with that groovy wall mounted Hi-Fi system.
The whole story borders on the edge of absurdity. Too many unbelievable situations, even for a melodramatic television episode. This story didn't come from from the bottom of the barrel, it came from under the barrel. Submitted by H. Mason 4/24/15
+ Agreed, H. Mason! One of the worst episodes ever. Am I alone in finding the producers' use of "exotic" elements a desperate attempt to attract audience interest? We just had the awful trip to Hawaii a couple of episodes ago, and here we are again, with not-so-suitable actors faking the dances and customs of other cultures. Any excuse for skimpily clad women to wiggle on camera, I guess. Poor Fay Wray's gestural performance--not exactly dancing--is so embarrassing, I want to cry for her. It is almost impossible to believe that her character and Perry are friends. In fact, the whole story is almost impossible to believe. The only positive thing about the episode is the solid cast of supporting actors, from Douglas Kennedy to James Griffith. Their plotline--competitive corporate executives, a stolen formula, blackmail--is solid, but it can't compensate for the goofy, obnoxious voodoo-mama/drunken slut/compromised young man surface plot. Submitted by JazzBaby, 6/15/2019.
++ The Devil Made Them Do it ?? (Piling on ?? Sure...but this deserves it !!) Beyond the complaints (above), and much as was true in TCOT Paper Bullets, we have character flaws so fundamental they render the requisite "happy ending" disturbing more than satisfying: young Germaine - for reasons the show never even attempts to explain - has taken up with a woman accurately described as an "alcoholic floozie" - and that was actually a compliment: let's add blackmailer and dimwit - and is supposedly a "good lawyer", yet allows himself to be caught up in not one but two compromising situations; are we supposed to be happy at the intimation that someone so lacking in judgement will be continuing on in the DA's office ?? Notcom 0724319.
+++ What he does now have is a lot of expensive experience. I once had a boss whose policy was to only fire people after their second instance of a big mistake; he felt the first one was a learning experience, the second an indication the lesson had not been learned. OLEF641 8/18/21
There certainly are a lot of "misunderstandings" in this episode! OLEF641 8/18/21
Awful Episode If they were really being honest about the voodoo culture, they would have cast an African American woman in Fay Wray's part. Having visited NOLA several times, the voodoo community is largely non-white (there are some exceptions). The calibre of performance of Fay Wray and her dancers kept making me wonder who would ever pay money to see it? It wasn't so much her age as her lack of anything resembling rhythm. Her hips didn't so much sway as hobble creakily totally out of time with the music. Living in New Orleans is not an adequate explanation for why she was even involved in voodoo. There was absolutely no connection or chemistry suggesting a familial bond between Ms Wray and Gary Collins. As mentioned above, his ridiculous panting after the "alcoholic floozie" seemed out of character for a man described as a "good lawyer" by Burger. Why was he willing to risk everything for this woman? From what we saw, there was very little to recommend this woman beyond her low rent Marilyn Monroe features. Of course there may have been other skills she had that could not be shown on television. But she was never sober enough to be anything more than a good time. I would also be interested to know how this "voodoo mama" became good enough friends with Burger that he agreed to risk giving her son a job in his office. The whole storyline was silly, but kept in time with the rising cultural exoticism of the time period. This was right around the same time that actors and musicians began visiting India and Africa and appropriating some of their cultural elements. Not one of PM's best. Submitted by DellaMason