Although this was not the best Perry Mason episode ever done, it certainly provided one of the meanest villains that Raymond Burr was ever employed by. Wendell Corey who if you take what Kirk Douglas says in his memoirs at face value was very much like his character he played here.
Corey is a wealthy oil millionaire who has no redeeming civic virtues like say the Rockefeller family. He endows no money anywhere I'd be willing to bet, I'd further bet his tax deductions were a fraud because as he says all he wants to acquire is all the money there is.
He's employed Perry Mason to negotiate a lease on Paul Brinegar and Gloria Talbott's land to drill for oil. Truth be told Brinegar and Talbott started spending money that wasn't their's yet because of the oil under the ground. They're facing ruin because Corey decides to cap the well and save the oil for later as he has a ten year option. Not helping to pay Brinegar's bills and Perry Mason feels used.
Corey is a guy who likes to make enemies for the sake and we have a cast full of suspects. The head of his drilling operation on the Brinegar land, James Best is the one arrested for his murder and Raymond Burr defends him as his obligation to Corey as a client ceased when Corey ceased breathing.
Kirk Douglas's memoirs The Ragman's Son describes the fact that at one time he and Corey had a good friendship, but politics and drinking drove them apart. Not just that Corey was a Republican, but he was going further and further to the right in his views. It cut him off a great deal from liberal Hollywood and Kirk says few came to his funeral. He came out of his respect for Corey's widow who he says suffered a great deal with Corey.
Still Wendell Corey dominates this episode playing a man that Will Rogers could hate with ease.
Corey is a wealthy oil millionaire who has no redeeming civic virtues like say the Rockefeller family. He endows no money anywhere I'd be willing to bet, I'd further bet his tax deductions were a fraud because as he says all he wants to acquire is all the money there is.
He's employed Perry Mason to negotiate a lease on Paul Brinegar and Gloria Talbott's land to drill for oil. Truth be told Brinegar and Talbott started spending money that wasn't their's yet because of the oil under the ground. They're facing ruin because Corey decides to cap the well and save the oil for later as he has a ten year option. Not helping to pay Brinegar's bills and Perry Mason feels used.
Corey is a guy who likes to make enemies for the sake and we have a cast full of suspects. The head of his drilling operation on the Brinegar land, James Best is the one arrested for his murder and Raymond Burr defends him as his obligation to Corey as a client ceased when Corey ceased breathing.
Kirk Douglas's memoirs The Ragman's Son describes the fact that at one time he and Corey had a good friendship, but politics and drinking drove them apart. Not just that Corey was a Republican, but he was going further and further to the right in his views. It cut him off a great deal from liberal Hollywood and Kirk says few came to his funeral. He came out of his respect for Corey's widow who he says suffered a great deal with Corey.
Still Wendell Corey dominates this episode playing a man that Will Rogers could hate with ease.