Show252
By far my favorite confession. (2nd best: impatient partner). Submitted by GlovatskiInc, 6/25/2008.
Music: During the murder in the opening scene, does anyone know the piano music that was playing on the phonograph? It sounds kind of like a Beethoven sonata, and I gather that the producers of Perry Mason were fond of using Beethoven, but I cannot quite place that particular piece. Submitted by gracenote, 5/20/2011.
+ The stormy piano piece heard under the opening scene is the Etude in C minor, Opus 10 No. 12 by Chopin, the so-called Revolutionary Etude. It was written in 1831 during the unsuccessful revolt of Poland from Russia, and is also sometimes called Etude on the Bombardment of Warsaw. Chopin may have used Beethoven's last piano sonata (in C minor) as a model for certain aspects of the piece, especially the end. Submitted by FredK 30Jan12.
Who would arrange candle holders on the mantel side by side rather than on opposite ends of the mantel like in one apartment scene. The one with three looked even worse. Submitted by Perry Baby 1/11/17.
+ Maybe they were arranged by someone hopped up on goofballs!
++ I don't know, I kind of like the subtly asymmetrical arrangement over Mrs. Oliver's fireplace OLEF641 9/15/21
This happens to be me, in my opinion, one of the most exciting openings I have seen in this series. Submitted by gracenote, 5/20/2011.
Did anyone else notice that the sister and the landlord who-would-be-her-boyfriend were more than three decades apart in age? Chris Noel was born in 1941, and Dale Van Sickle in 1907! Submitted by gracenote, 5/20/2011.
Hampton Fancher, who played Hamp Fisher in this episode, came the closest to playing himself (without actually playing himself) of any actor in the series. Submitted by PaulDrake 33. 23 February 2015.
+ And the perfect Pitkin Principle name! See episode 18 trivia. Submitted by Kilo 1/29/2018.
++ I assumed that (Lionel) Hampton, (Thelonius) Monk, Coleman (Hawkins), and Joe (King) Oliver were all intended as jazz references, since those guys were cool cats with their goofballs and their hep lingo. Submitted by Vladimir Estragon, 8/12/20.
I loved the way Raymond Burr questioned one of the witnesses about who he saw out of the "rear window." In 1954, Raymond Burr played Lars Thorwald, a man who was seen out of the rear window by James Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock's classic film "Rear Window." Photography equipment played an important part in that movie, as here. There was a musician in the apartment in "Rear Window" as well as here. In the movie there was someone confined to a wheelchair, and, of course a screaming woman, and a man who shouted, "You don't know the meaning of the word 'neighbors'! Neighbors like each other, speak to each other, care if anybody lives or dies! But none of you do!" And, finally, someone falls to the floor below in both the movie and this episode. I sense that the screen writer was having some fun rearranging these parallels. Submitted by catyron, July 26th, 2018.
At approximately 4:00 on the DVD there is a somewhat awkward attempt to make the office look extremely busy with multiple cases, as if the scene had been specifically written and staged to counter the criticism that Perry in most episodes seems to be working on only one case at a time. Submitted by Dan K, 3 August 2018.
Old Dog Writers perhaps hoping to atone for having marginalized domestic violence over the previous eight seasons, the writers crafted a decent show (I'll skip the cliched "powerful" since the usual formulaic excesses really preclude that term). But when it comes time to wrap things up, apparently they can't help but fall back on bad habits: as Dave and Susan depart for Hawaii - we know it must be at least a couple months later since we'd been told Susan would be in the hospital that long - Della chides Paul for recklessness:
Paul: "Perry, what would I get for inflicting mayhem on a backseat driver?"
Perry (smiling): "Don't worry, no jury would convict you."
They all laugh; we don't.
Notcom 090120.
+ The time elapsed between crime and trial would have been at least the two-month period mentioned, if not longer. And I, for one, don't find the good-natured joshing in the final scene disturbing. Yes, actual violence never solves anything, but there is a clear difference when it's just good friends kidding around. OLEF641 9/15/21
Don't Stiff Your Bookie - the $2000 that Oliver owed "Professor" Jefferson would be well over $17,000 in 2021 money. OLEF641 9/15/21