The more Assistant District Attorney Lanley talks, the more suspicious I got that he could be involved in a crime, despite the fact he and Ballinger have known and liked each other a long time and he called Frank in on this case.
Maybe it's just that the case had a bad smell to it since it involved a former partner of Lanley. It also involved "a nasty divorce case" which now left a man who wasn't just divorced but murdered. Whether Lanley is somehow tied up in all this sordid mess is one question, but it's odd how he has an obvious hatred toward his old partner, "Grover," and is going out of his way to prove that the latter is the killer. This strikes Frank as odd, too.
This whole thing of ex-business partner squabbles, lovers, divorces, etc., gets a little complicated quickly and you might - if you are watching this on DVD - pause and replay some it it to figure out the story. That's what I had to do. Then it got further complicated. Wow, this episode isn't an easy one to watch.
However, it has a cool last five minutes with some clever twists. At the ending narration, Ballinger admits how easy it is to be deceived, that "not everything comes with a label on it that is easily identified."
Notes - Dan Tobin, who played Steve Langley, was a veteran actor who was in many TV shows, including over a dozen appearances on "Perry Mason".......Willard Parker plays "Malcolm Grover." Parker has an interesting biography a man who went from meter reader to tennis player to professional actor. His birth name was "Worster Van Eps." No wonder he changed his name!
Maybe it's just that the case had a bad smell to it since it involved a former partner of Lanley. It also involved "a nasty divorce case" which now left a man who wasn't just divorced but murdered. Whether Lanley is somehow tied up in all this sordid mess is one question, but it's odd how he has an obvious hatred toward his old partner, "Grover," and is going out of his way to prove that the latter is the killer. This strikes Frank as odd, too.
This whole thing of ex-business partner squabbles, lovers, divorces, etc., gets a little complicated quickly and you might - if you are watching this on DVD - pause and replay some it it to figure out the story. That's what I had to do. Then it got further complicated. Wow, this episode isn't an easy one to watch.
However, it has a cool last five minutes with some clever twists. At the ending narration, Ballinger admits how easy it is to be deceived, that "not everything comes with a label on it that is easily identified."
Notes - Dan Tobin, who played Steve Langley, was a veteran actor who was in many TV shows, including over a dozen appearances on "Perry Mason".......Willard Parker plays "Malcolm Grover." Parker has an interesting biography a man who went from meter reader to tennis player to professional actor. His birth name was "Worster Van Eps." No wonder he changed his name!
