After seven seasons I can understand the writing getting stale. In this episode we have another blackmail situation that has been at the center of Perry episodes since day one. So the trick is to find different ways, with different characters, to write a interesting 'Perry Mason' show. They failed.
Here is a complex way of summing up this forgettable episode- A guy blackmails himself because he is being blackmailed and an innocent person is caught in the middle. That is the plot.
A sculptor, Hannibal Harvey (Sean McClory) is married to Mona Harvey (June Lockhart) who happens to be away visiting a sick friend. Hannibal is using a ditsy blond named Bonnie (Sue Ane Langdon) as a model in his most recent sculptor and he uses her to blackmail himself. Thus he gets money from his wife's business to actually pay the real blackmailers that has love letters from his previous girlfriend.
When Mona arrives home she finds the blackmail note and goes to see Bonnie. Well, Bonnie ends up dead and all fingers point to Mona. And Perry is left to defend her as the courtroom fight begins.
The acting in this episode is highly suspect. I thought Sean McClory , that played Hannibal, was on methamphetamines. He was all over the stage trying to play a part that was over his head. His acting might have been good at the local community stage play but for a cast in an series well out-played. And for the blond Bonnie with that high-pitched, chalk-board annoying voice made me glad that she was the murder victim.
The show settled down we we got to the courtroom with Perry and Hamilton Burger battling. But again went to pot when we got a real silly confession on the witness stand. Without the slightest evidence, a person confesses to the murder just because Perry said that he was guilty. By this time, there was little interest in finding anyone guilty or innocent only ending this poor performance.
The only good thing I have to say about the episode is June Lockhart. She does another find job in making her character interesting and believable.
Here is hoping for better shows down the road.