User Reviews

Madame Zilla is a fortune teller who tries to see the future. In this case, her crystal ball gets no place. The plot is quite the reason to see this one, one of the better scripts despite the future not being seen.

Surprisingly without Della this one gets carried pretty well. The acting and story carry the day quite well. There is a scene with the crystal ball appearing and disappearing without any obvious explanation. That's okay, because we have a lot of the go-between's which keep the puzzle open up until the end.

***SPOILERS*** Okay, everyone else has pretty much covered the main stuff. I agree absolutely with kfo9494 about Sue Randall (It's easy to see WHY Beaver had a crush on her; if you didn't you weren't normal). One of the first questions I had was: IF Madame Zillia was such a celebrity bigshot, then WHY is she living in an apartment? Perry explains this later. Amy/Arnell has a housekeeper in an apartment? And yet has a problem raising money to pay Madame Zillia? That don't wash, do it? So the cops did a bang-up useless job of investigating old man Stiller's alleged suicide. With all the other investigating going on, didn't Tommy even think about questioning it? This was his FATHER, for Pete's sake (no reference to the deceased bird, Petey, though). One thing that I know everyone else has noticed is that the client, or future client of Perry is somehow ALWAYS rushed along; never quite able to get centered on the reality of the moment. This is a perquisite of any con game; to keep the subject just a little off balance, so to speak. The monkey wrench, in this case is the housekeeper. One other point is Merry Anders' wardrobe. Was I wrong, or was that white sable she displayed in court? On a secretary's salary? Now, what about Mr. Brylcreem/Herb Tarlek ; check out his sportcoat and oil job? He set a lot of the proceedings in motion by framing Joyce (Anders) in the divorce actions of Stillers' wife, didn't he? I'm not quite sure, but it seems that it is Slander to falsely accuse someone verbally, and if one signs their name to a document accusing someone of something known to be untrue, it is Libel. Both apply here to good old Sportcoat (Howard Kern); there has got to be grounds for criminal as well as civil prosecution of this charge. Since he admitted it in open court, he also should be charged with committing a felonious act; as part of a felonious proceeding. Maybe he should be at least investigated for participation in the murder of old man Stiller. Without his first intention, to knowingly deceive for purposes of profit (Fraud), the old guy's reputation would have been intact. An accessory, if you will. What was the involvement of the Architectural firm that profited from the contract to build the expensive apartment buildings? A tangled web, at best. Finally, Tommy (the drunken brother) and beautiful Joyce show up in a sweet new Buick? convertible to whisk Arnell away to the airport. Of course, they are now married, and living the married dream. Uh Huh. Good acting all around, quick moving story, beautiful girls, no Della (unfortunately), Paul gets a good last line - Perry with wings? I give it a 10.

***MAJOR SPOILERS*** Even though he's never seen in the Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, episode or even noted it the cast credits, since he's dead before it even started, it's Edward Stiller who the main character in it. It's Stiller's daughter Arnel using the name of Amy Scott, Sue Randall, who's trying to get to the bottom of who was responsible for his death ruled as a suicide. Using private dick Paul Drake, William Hopper, to find out what kind of relationship Edward had with fortune teller Madame Zillia, Lorie March, backfires on her when the Madame's partner, who secretly feeds her information on her clients, the chubby and stuffing his mouth with food Victor Bundy, Jacques Aubuchon, was found dead at his pad not from choking on a Sheppard pie that he cooked himself up for dinner but up with with his skull bashed in with a fireplace poker! And as expected, in her being targeted by the script writers to be the killer, Amy being at the scene of the crime with her fingerprints on the poker is arrested for Bundy's murder!

On trial for her life with, who else, Perry Mason defending her it becomes apparent that fat boy Bundy's murder was connected with the so-called suicide of the late Edward Stiller Amy or Arnel's father! But what did Bundy's partner in crime, in fleecing her clients of their hard earned cash, Madame Zillia have do do with it. That turns out to be the real reason in all this confusion that in the end had Stiller's plans for building a multi million dollar luxury housing project ending up in the hands of his fired assistant the greasy looking Howard Kerns, Anthony Eisley.

***SPOILERS*** With Kerns and his sexy private secretary, or the other woman as she's known in the Perry Mason episode, Joyce Carlton, Merry Anders, now replacing Arnel/Amy Scott/Stiller as the #1 suspect in Bundy's murder the real reason as well as suspect/murder suddenly comes to the surface. It turns out that Bundy's murder was an act of revenge by the person who was the late Edward Stiller's lover. But not premeditated, thus preventing a trip to the San Quentin gas chamber, but in self defense when the fat guy was about to do that person in for exposing him! P.S check out Madame Zillia's housekeeper Dora, also a suspect in Bundy's murder, played by Lillian Buyeff who was Moses' mother in the movie "The Ten Commandants".