This episode of Perry Mason got good and personal as Raymond Burr is called on to defend his own private investigator Paul Drake on a murder charge. All because Drake has some ethics.
The Dameron family does not have any ethics, they take their cues from corrupt old family patriarch Basil Ruysdael. His son-in-law Bruce Gordon has been seeing his old girlfriend Vanessa Brown on the side. Not that he cares that much, he's like Joe Kennedy that way. But Gordon is good for the company.
But after a quarrel with Brown, Gordon leaves his love nest and runs down some poor innocent victim who was walking to a service station after his own car got a flat. What to do, but cover it up.
So Gordon hires William Hopper who does take outside jobs away from Perry Mason. He gives him a cock and bull story about staying anonymous but to deliver a $25,000.00 check for the widow. Hopper has a great scene with the widow Sheila Bromley and learns what Gordon has been feeding him.
Some private eyes have ethics and Paul Drake does not like being a messenger boy to deliver hush money. He and Gordon fight and Gordon sucker punches him and knocks him cold. It was in his love nest with Brown and when Hopper wakes up he's accused of Bruce Gordon's murder.
This was one of the best Perry Mason episodes ever done. Even defending his best friend Raymond Burr remains unflappable in his pursuit of the truth. And his final scene with Ruysdael is a great one.
The Dameron family does not have any ethics, they take their cues from corrupt old family patriarch Basil Ruysdael. His son-in-law Bruce Gordon has been seeing his old girlfriend Vanessa Brown on the side. Not that he cares that much, he's like Joe Kennedy that way. But Gordon is good for the company.
But after a quarrel with Brown, Gordon leaves his love nest and runs down some poor innocent victim who was walking to a service station after his own car got a flat. What to do, but cover it up.
So Gordon hires William Hopper who does take outside jobs away from Perry Mason. He gives him a cock and bull story about staying anonymous but to deliver a $25,000.00 check for the widow. Hopper has a great scene with the widow Sheila Bromley and learns what Gordon has been feeding him.
Some private eyes have ethics and Paul Drake does not like being a messenger boy to deliver hush money. He and Gordon fight and Gordon sucker punches him and knocks him cold. It was in his love nest with Brown and when Hopper wakes up he's accused of Bruce Gordon's murder.
This was one of the best Perry Mason episodes ever done. Even defending his best friend Raymond Burr remains unflappable in his pursuit of the truth. And his final scene with Ruysdael is a great one.