- Rhoda Reynolds is blackmailed by Artie Kane for a past indiscretion which she would like to keep from her weakling husband Carl and his overbearing father Philip. When Artie turns up dead, Rhoda is charged with his murder.
- Nurse Rhoda Reynolds has a secret from her past that she wants to keep from her husband Carl, and she's prepared to pay several thousand dollars to Artie Kane to do so. Carl is something of a milquetoast but very much in love with her; he married her against his domineering father Philip's wishes, and Philip never hides his distaste for his son's choice. Upon the recommendation of friend Dr. Michael Harris, Rhoda visits Perry Mason to ask questions about a "friend's" marital status, but Perry realizes she really talking about herself--and might not, in fact, be legally married to Carl. Rhoda keeps a 2AM rendezvous with Artie to tell him she can't pay his latest ransom demand, and he wrests her very expensive wedding ring from her. A neighbor hears the noise of their fight and calls the police, but when Artie's found dead with the ring in his hand, Rhoda is charged with his murder and Perry defends her with unusual methods.—garykmcd
- Artie Kane (Michael Emmet) enters Rhoda Reynolds' (Christine White) bedroom and demands $2000 by 2 AM, or it will be the end of her marriage. He suggests she can get away at that hour by giving her husband something to make him sleep - she's works in a hospital. After he leaves, she goes to work and confides in her friend, Dr. Michael Harris (James Seay), who offers to lend her the money. When she says that won't solve the problem, he gives her Perry's office address.
She goes there, posing as "Mrs. Crocker" and telling Perry of a "friend" who was married 8 years ago in Seattle. After a few months, the husband vanished with several hundred dollars of her money. Later, she received a telegram saying that her husband had died in auto accident in Kansas, and asking for burial instructions. She send money to have him buried there. Perry guesses what comes next, as he recognizes the old fake-telegram-requesting-burial-instructions trick. The husband is still alive. What this particular bride is curious about is whether her new marriage is valid, and Perry's answer is No. Perry, wanting to get her to come clean, says the "friend" will need to come in person for more detailed advice. However, Rhoda calls his bluff and quickly leaves. Perry regrets trying to force her hand, and Della mentions that she had left a $50 retainer. Perry wants to find her, and since he's now her lawyer, he examines the contents of the purse she left behind. Inside, he finds a telegram addressed to Rhoda from Artie, reminding her of their 2 AM appointment. Paul traces the sender.
Perry goes to the fourplex where Artie has a unit. As he enters, he encounters Edna Freeman (Peggy Maley) on the way out. Her parting words to Artie are a threat to blow the whistle on him and that he can reach her at the Onyx. Perry tells Artie that he's there on behalf of Rhoda, so Artie calls the wife he abandoned, and she tells Perry that she doesn't want a lawyer. Perry no longer has a client, but before leaving he mentions the subject of blackmail to Artie and tells him to think about it.
Late that night, Rhoda leaves her bedroom. Her de facto husband Carl (Max Showalter), immediately gets up and goes to the window. He sees Rhoda unlock and open the garage, and drive off in one of the cars. On the way, she has a flat tire and convinces service station attendant Frank Lane (Tommy Cook) to work a few minutes past his 2 AM closing time to change it for her. Artie is displeased that Rhoda is 10 minutes late to their meeting, and really angry that she couldn't get the money. He notices her ring with a big diamond, guessing it's worth at least $10,000. He demands it, but she says it's an heirloom from Carl's mother and she'd never be forgiven for losing it. The doorbell rings, but Artie ignores it. Rhoda picks up a poker as Artie lunges for it. She manages to dodge him. In the building next door, Ellen Crandall (Dorothy Neumann) and her basset hound hear a racket. She calls the police.
The next day's headline is "Police seek woman in bludgeon killing." Della mentions to Paul that there's a photo of a ring found at the crime scene in the paper, and she recognized it as the one "Mrs. Crocker" was wearing. Meanwhile, Tragg is questioning Carl, who is no model of manly forthrightness, but at least makes a feeble attempt to throw suspicion off his wife. However, his father Philip (John Hoyt) enters, and he's delighted to help the police nail Rhoda. He repeats what Carl had told him in confidence: Rhoda tried to put sleeping pills in his hot chocolate, but he caught on and only pretended to drink it. She left at 1:45 and returned about an hour later, but was gone when he awoke that morning. Philip knows Rhoda was as Artie's flat, because he too recognized the ring in the published crime scene photo.
In response to a call from Rhoda, Perry visits her at the hospital where she works. She recounts what happened, adding that Artie wrenched the ring from her finger, then she hit him, then the lights went out. She was able to get out in the darkness, but didn't see who rang the doorbell. The only other unusual thing she remembers was that when she got home, she had to leave the garage door open because the other car stuck out to far to allow it to close. As Perry is telling her to go home and act as if nothing has happened, Lt. Tragg comes in to arrest her. Perry visits Rhoda and Carl's house, where he sees for himself that the convertible indeed isn't parked in all the way, so the door won't close. He asks Carl why he still pretended to be asleep when Rhoda returned, instead of confronting her as most men would do. He says he was afraid she'd tell him that she'd been with Michael. Perry asks who that is, and Philip says that he's the man with whom Rhoda has long been having an affair. He'll give Perry $10,000 to get the marriage annulled, but Perry says he already has a client, one who gave him a $50 retainer and her trust.
Perry next goes to the hospital to see Michael, who says that he knew all about Artie and the 2 AM appointment, so he went there and was the one who rang the doorbell. He saw Rhoda run out, and is worried that his testimony could only hurt her. Perry advises him to consult a doctor. Michael replies that when patients complain to him about troubles they can't discuss, he tells them to take a long vacation. Perry repeats his advice. Meanwhile, Paul has found Edna at the Onyx, a honky-tonk place where she works as an entertainer. She says that Artie stole $3386 from her, but the police know about it, so she is in a position to pressure him. He had paid back half, and was expecting to get the rest from Rhoda. Paul wants her to talk to Perry, but she says she's already been signed up by the police.
Perry has been busy replacing the doorbells with buzzers in all four units of the building where Artie lived. He greets his ex-client Sidney Otis (Lewis Charles), whom he has invited. He tells Sidney that he and his family can live rent-free in Artie's former flat. The only condition is that he take a disliking to buzzers and replace the one in his new unit with a doorbell. Back at the office, Perry worries that Carl's testimony about the sleeping pills, which indicates premeditation, on top of the other evidence, makes things look very bad for Rhoda. Della thought that a husband couldn't testify against a wife, but Perry reminds her that the marriage is invalid, since she was still married to Artie. Despite this, Perry decides his next move is to institute divorce proceedings against Carl, and let Burger figure out why. He gets Rhoda to admit that she married Carl because she felt sorry for him due to his weak character. She goes along with the divorce.
As the trial gets underway,Tragg explains a crime scene photo, including an alarm clock that shows the same time as the official police time stamp on the photo. It was set to go off at 2 AM, or slightly before. Lane testifies that he changed Rhoda's tire between 1:56 and 2:05, knowing the time because it was right when he should be getting off work. Rhoda stayed there and watched him the entire time. Ellen testifies to hearing a doorbell, then raised voices, followed by crashing sounds and finally a groan, when she call the police. It was 2:15 AM. On cross-examination, she says that she could see figures moving inside the flat through a partially-raised blink, even though the gap was only about 8 inches. Perry questions whether she could really see anything through this small gap, so Burger moves that they take the jury to her apartment to judge for themselves. While they're there, the doorbell starts ringing. Perry complains that this is akin to the jury hearing unauthorized testimony. Burger says the police were only supposed to remove the doorbell as evidence, not ring it.
Back in court, Sidney identifies the doorbell taken from his flat, but says it wasn't there when he moved in - there was a buzzer instead. Burger, now completely confused, loses his temper and has to be reined in by the judge (S. John Launer). With Ellen back on the stand, Perry winds up and sets off the alarm clock and Ellen, now convinced that she couldn't have heard Artie's doorbell, identifies the sound as what she heard. This would mean that the noises Ellen heard began at 2 AM, the time for which the alarm was set, and while Rhoda was still having her tire changed. With the jury out of the room, Perry admits his trick with the doorbell that was a buzzer that was a doorbell. It was just a test to see what Ellen would say when she was no longer preconditioned by others to believe that she heard a doorbell. Burger says that instead of charging Perry with legal misconduct, he'll indict him for breaking in and stealing a doorbell. The judge proposes an adjournment until tomorrow, and Perry says he can use the time to take Carl's deposition in the divorce case. Burger calls this an attempt to intimidate his witness, so Perry invites him to sit in and insure that Carl isn't intimidated.
As Carl is deposing, Perry asks him why the convertible stuck out of the garage, although, as he testified, the door was closed earlier when Rhoda got her car out. Obviously, someone took the other car and when returning failed to bring it all the way into the garage. Perry suggests that it could have been Philip, who followed Rhoda to Artie's in the convertible, then killed Artie to framer Rhoda and finally be rid of her. Carl says he's the one who followed her. He looked in and saw the fight. He entered, intending to help her, but turned out the light so she wouldn't see her. After she ran, Artie attacked him, but Carl grabbed the poker from him and hit it with it, killing him. Burger says that he'll move for a directed verdict.
Rhoda, now free, comes to Perry's office. She says that she intends to stand by Carl, but Perry replies that this isn't what Carl really wants. He has come to realize there's no future in a marriage based on pity, so he'd like an annulment. Rhoda says that she's fine with that if she isn't needed. Della says that there's someone who does need her - Michael, who's back in town from his "long vacation". Things look bright for Rhoda, but Paul says they don't look so great for Perry. Burger insists on hauling Perry before a grand jury on charges of illegal entry and larceny of a doorbell. Perry responds that Paul should ask Burger if it's a crime for a landlord to enter his own property to make repairs. The day after the murder, he bought that fourplex. "I should have known", says Paul.
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