User Reviews

This episode of Mason plays more like something a theater play. The case involves a troop of actors who are returning from a World Tour in desperate financial circumstances. There is a lot more below the surface than is seen.

The owner of the outfit has a long record of borrowing money without repaying it & is now taking a new Juliet on to star because she is providing desperately needed money to keep them going. He can't tell the rest of the cast that. He installs himself as Romeo for the performances.

This creates many suspects. Harry Von Zell, Gracie's Allen's foil from the Burns & Allen Show, actually steals some money from the incoming actress which causes a whole lot of financial problems. The big thing is that the costumes being shipped in & stuck in customs have stolen gems being smuggled into the US on them.

The murder occurs during the first performance & Mason's client looks to commit it. Then Mason starts sorting out the details, & Mason moves the court hearing to the stage to try & sort out the lies in pursuit of the truth.

We've all seen this before - actors who are too old for a part. An entire theater company? Okay, fine. My question is that with the S.A.G.'s deep talent pool, WHY? The only reason must be to mock (and heavily) pretentious theater groups who drag on, year after year, in droning repetition; signifying nothing. Boy, am I glad that's done. This is one that they had to throw in to fill up space, because what I said still goes. Why NOT use younger talent? Certainly all the actors are good, it's just that I think they should have given a nod to the up and comers. Enough.

I thought it was gonna be the REAL old fart (the guy who stole the ONE gem), who offed good old Franz. Is the ancient name for Franz actually preening boor? No? Too bad, it fits so well. The extortionist-pilot-bodyguard-dirtbag is seen briefly; good thing, too, he's confusing.

The confession was Shakespearean, and they could have closed in on the actor doing it to see what good playing can be, but, alas! It is to be no more! Beautiful Della correcting Paul about Hamlet is cool.

****SPOILERS**** Over-plotted and utterly confusing Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, episode that has to do with the murder on stage of the director of this half-a** Shakespearean road-show company Franz Lochman, Jeff Morrow, during the play Romeo & Juliet. Lochman was found dead, with him being run through with a sword, after the lights went out during his fencing match with the person playing Romeo Steve Brock played by Rex Reason. With Perry Mason who was in the audience watching the play defending Brock for murder he feels that the person who really murdered Lochman used the blackout to run him through and make it look like it was Brock who did it!

What at first looked like your garden verity murder mystery gets a bit more confusing in the fact that the costumes used by the actors and actresses in the play were filled with stolen jewelry from South Africa, the diamond capital of the world, that was being smuggled into the USA. Perry realized that Lochman, whom nobody liked and felt he got just what he deserved, somehow found out about the smuggling scheme and was about to go to the police and US Custom Agency with it. And it was a member or members of the cast and crew of the play who made sure that he didn't!

****SPOILERS**** Off the wall ending with Perry assembling everyone involved in the play to act it out on stage in front of the presiding judge,Willis Bouchey, in order by process of elimination to smoke out Lochman's murderer! Great breakdown scene with the killer, after being exposed by Perry, spilling his guts out on why he did in Lochman more for the reason that he was going to expose his smuggling operation more then all the abuse he took from him all these years in him working for the creep.

P.S the story was so confusing and hard to follow, with all the many sub-plots thrown into it, that even Perry Mason in the episodes epilogue couldn't quite figure it out or explain it to the befuddled audience!

Perry takes Della to a show where the famed Bruener Players are performing. The actor playing Paris (Rex Reason) is Steve Brock, the brother of an old Navy buddy of Perry's. The performance is ruined by the acting of Claire Adams (Patricia Huston) as Juliet, but the curtain comes down when Paris wins a sword fight he's supposed to lose. When the lights come back on, its discovered the troupe's leader, Carl Bruener (Robert Cornthwaite in the 4th of his 5 appearances on the series) is dead, victim of Brock's sword. Perry and Paul investigate, leading them to a trail of smuggled diamonds.

While the script and story are interesting, everybody's a little bit too theatrical in this one, which features one of the most over the top and outrageous confessions by the killer on stage when Perry confronts him with the evidence. So certain they wanted Claire to look bad, Huston comes off as totally unprofessional and almost Lucy Ricardo bad. She's wooden and too stiff. It would seem she should have had some talent. Rex Reason doesn't come off as very real and neither does Jeff Morrow as Franz.

Strangely enough, former "Burns and Allen" announcer Harry Von Zell is notable as the troupe's agent, Phil Scharf, and "Batman" fans will have to look fast, but if they do, they'll see Chief O'Hara (Stafford Repp) as a shipping agent.

Perhaps a commentary on reverse ageism in Hollywood with this episode. The name leading this company of Shakespearians is Franz Lachman played by Jeff Morrow who in the "production" is playing Romeo. A neat trick as Morrow was 55 and better suited to playing Romeo's grandfather. Same for the two main supporting players: Rex Reason (34) playing Steve Brock aka Mercutio; and Patricia Huston (33) as Claire Adams, the would-be-adolescent ingénue playing Juliet.

The plot deals with the problem of the troop being broke and in need of immediate cash to open. So a backer supporting Miss Adams offers $11,000 to have Miss Adams cast as Juliet. Then there is a murder, questionable murder, and a shipment of props and costumes held up by customs. After that, everything becomes so convoluted that the viewer needs a scorecard to figure out who is what and why things were done or maybe weren't.

For a finish, we assemble the cast (literally) on stage at the playhouse. Enjoy the fun but I can't guarantee you will completely get the answer, but it's just a TV show after all.