We enjoy the complex plots so let's enjoy taking this one apart.
We are introduced in the first scene to a young secretary being threatened by an ex-boyfriend who claims to have evidence he will make public if she does not go back to him. She cries, how can you make such accusations? We do not know what the accusations are because the next time he appears he is dead, and an old guy is standing over the corpse.
When the police arrive they are confronted by a remarkably defiant maid then head straight for the body. Shortly the old guy reappears and introduces himself as the decedent's ex-step father. When the police arrest this guy his ex-wife hires Mason, and exhibits little concern for her murdered son. Mason calls this "illogical" and she agrees. We are left hanging on this point.
At trial the prosecution has no case at all but never mind that. Mason claims a bunch of canceled checks show a French secretary at the young secretary's firm was paying to have her raised as an orphan by surrogate parents. Mason accuses the French lady of being her mother, to which she admits. When he accuses the old guy of being her father a random guy jumps up and admits to being both the father and the murderer. Seems he did not like his secret daughter's boyfriend so he killed him.
In chronological order: Twenty-five years before, a guy crashed his car and paralyzed his wife. Two years later he goes to Paris on business and knocks up a French girl whom he brings back to the US and employs at his firm, and pays for the raising of his illegitimate daughter. This guy is supporting three women- his invalid wife, his mistress, and his daughter. Then he up and kills his daughter's boyfriend because he does not like him. Uh huh.
A completely random guy goes on trial for the murder. Evidence? His coincidental arrival at the crime scene (which WAS coincidental), his fingerprints on his OWN pistol case which was just lying open and which the police admitted could be used by anyone, and a home movie showing the guy punching the boyfriend. Wow.
So now we know what the accusations were at the beginning. The boyfriend got it half right, figuring out who the mother was, but when he accused the old guy of being the father he got a punch in the face. Worse was his mother divorced the man she loved for having an illegitimate child, then blamed the son for breaking up the marriage so when he got snuffed she thought, good riddance and went to Mason to get her imprisoned husband back. I wonder if they made up in the end.
Red herrings distract from an already overwrought plot. The maid's behavior was pointless distraction, courtroom procedure unconvincing, events too random for credibility. The young secretary at court seems to have no idea but she knows from the beginning. What is tragic is she finds out who her real father is at the exact moment he is headed for the gas chamber. And what will happen to his invalid wife?
We are introduced in the first scene to a young secretary being threatened by an ex-boyfriend who claims to have evidence he will make public if she does not go back to him. She cries, how can you make such accusations? We do not know what the accusations are because the next time he appears he is dead, and an old guy is standing over the corpse.
When the police arrive they are confronted by a remarkably defiant maid then head straight for the body. Shortly the old guy reappears and introduces himself as the decedent's ex-step father. When the police arrest this guy his ex-wife hires Mason, and exhibits little concern for her murdered son. Mason calls this "illogical" and she agrees. We are left hanging on this point.
At trial the prosecution has no case at all but never mind that. Mason claims a bunch of canceled checks show a French secretary at the young secretary's firm was paying to have her raised as an orphan by surrogate parents. Mason accuses the French lady of being her mother, to which she admits. When he accuses the old guy of being her father a random guy jumps up and admits to being both the father and the murderer. Seems he did not like his secret daughter's boyfriend so he killed him.
In chronological order: Twenty-five years before, a guy crashed his car and paralyzed his wife. Two years later he goes to Paris on business and knocks up a French girl whom he brings back to the US and employs at his firm, and pays for the raising of his illegitimate daughter. This guy is supporting three women- his invalid wife, his mistress, and his daughter. Then he up and kills his daughter's boyfriend because he does not like him. Uh huh.
A completely random guy goes on trial for the murder. Evidence? His coincidental arrival at the crime scene (which WAS coincidental), his fingerprints on his OWN pistol case which was just lying open and which the police admitted could be used by anyone, and a home movie showing the guy punching the boyfriend. Wow.
So now we know what the accusations were at the beginning. The boyfriend got it half right, figuring out who the mother was, but when he accused the old guy of being the father he got a punch in the face. Worse was his mother divorced the man she loved for having an illegitimate child, then blamed the son for breaking up the marriage so when he got snuffed she thought, good riddance and went to Mason to get her imprisoned husband back. I wonder if they made up in the end.
Red herrings distract from an already overwrought plot. The maid's behavior was pointless distraction, courtroom procedure unconvincing, events too random for credibility. The young secretary at court seems to have no idea but she knows from the beginning. What is tragic is she finds out who her real father is at the exact moment he is headed for the gas chamber. And what will happen to his invalid wife?