Martha Bradford along with another woman is waiting in a beauty salon. When the receptionist calls for Mrs. Bradford both she and the other woman rise and both claim to be Mrs. Joseph Bradford. Both had appointments but the receptionist assumed there was an error and canceled one of the appointments. An intriguing beginning that leads nowhere. The obnoxious Bradford is later found murdered aboard his boat. It all gets rather convoluted given the number of suspects who were on Bradford's boat the night of his death. This episode includes one of the dumbest scenes ever when Martha hears someone enter her house, investigates and finds muddy footprints in the hallway. She does have a gun but instead of calling the police or running out of the house, she calmly goes upstairs, changes her clothes, puts the gun in her purse and quietly leaves the house. No way would a woman react in that way if she thought an intruder were in her house. This is one of those episodes where the murderer breaks down on the witness stand and confesses. Fifteen years or so I was called for jury duty and they showed a brief film about serving on a jury and the example of what a trial is not like was this confession scene. For this reason, the episode is a memorable one for me even though it's not one of the better episodes. The best thing about the episode was Francis MacDonald as an old sea captain. He looked so familiar although I couldn't place his name. He should have looked familiar as his career spanned 55 years from the early teens until the late sixties.
Review of The Case of the Crooked Candle
