- A woman is divorcing her husband after she catches him sleepwalking near her bed with a knife. When his stepbrother is found dead, stabbed with the knife, he's charged with the murder and accused of using his sleepwalking as a cover-up.
- Unhappily-married Doris Cole finds her husband Peter sleepwalking near her bed with a knife in his hand; Doris accuses him of trying to kill her and decides to divorce him. A year later, one day before the divorce is to be finalized, Peter's business partner Frank Maddox visits Doris and offers her $100,000 to hold off on the divorce. Then Maddox and his attorney Ralph Duncan visit Peter and his stepbrother Phillip Kendall. Maddox wants $500,000 for his share of their company, which is about the worth of the whole company, or Doris will not grant the divorce. Peter's niece and secretary Edna Hammar calls Perry Mason to help her uncle, who is engaged to remarry. Perry intervenes, suggesting Maddox and Duncan stay at Phillip's home that night. Phillip is found stabbed to death the next morning after he and Maddox had traded rooms. Peter is arrested for the murder with the belief he stabbed Philip expecting Maddox to be in the bed. Edna's boyfriend Steve helps Perry by delivering papers and watching Doris.—Anonymous
- Frank Maddox has come up with what he thinks is a surefire way to extort money from his business partners and gets the soon-to-be-ex-wife of one of his partners to help him. Peter Cole and his stepbrother Phillip Kendall have been partners with Maddox for some years. Peter is known to sleepwalk, often when he's under stress. Over a year ago Doris woke up to find Peter standing by her bed with a large knife in his hand and she subsequently filed for divorce. The one-year waiting period is now nearly over and Maddox informs Peter and Phillip that unless the buy him out for half a million - the company's total value - Doris will request a stop to the final divorce decree. That night, Phillip Kendall is stabbed in the chest while in bed but he was clearly not the intended victim as he had switched bedrooms with Frank Maddox late that evening. When Peter is arrested for murder, Perry defends him.—garykmcd
- Peter Cole (John McNamara) is caught one night sleepwalking with a letter opener and standing over his wife's bed. His wife Doris (Hillary Brooke) is afraid and decides the next day to file for divorce. 364 days later, when the divorce is about to be finalized, Frank Maddox (John Archer), Pete's business partner, meets with Doris Cole at her home in Santa Barbara. Together they arrange to force Pete to pay Maddox $500K (more than double the fair price) to buy his share of the business, or Doris will stop the divorce, thus preventing Pete from marrying his true love, Lucille Mays (Helen Mowery). Pete's niece and secretary Edna Hammar (Nancy Hadley) calls in Perry, who arranges a meeting with Maddox and his lawyer Ralph Duncan (Thomas Browne Henry), in an attempt to stall while the divorce decree goes through. Also present are Pete's half-brother and partner Phillip Kendall (Harry Hickox), and Edna's fiancé Steve Harris (Darryl Hickman). The haggling stretches into the night, so Perry suggests that Maddox and Duncan spend the night at Pete's house. Perry returns to his office, and Steve volunteers to go to Santa Barbara to keep an eye on any comings and goings at Doris's house. Meanwhile, Pete and Lucille prepare to fly to Las Vegas so they can get married the instant the divorce decree is final.
Later that night, Edna encounters Maddox in a hallway. He explains that he is exchanging bedrooms with Phil Kendall, because the bed in the guest room was too small for him. At 11 PM, Maddox goes out to a pay phone to call Doris, bringing her up to date on the progress of the deal and promising to call again at 9:30 AM. The next morning, Perry returns to Pete's house, but it's Lt. Tragg who answers the door. Phil has been found stabbed to death in the guest bed, and Tragg is very interested in Pete's whereabouts. Perry learns that the divorce decree went through. Steve reports that around 3 AM, he overheard Doris's end of a phone call from lawyer Duncan, who apparently just rehashed what Maddox had discussed with Doris at 11. Perry tracks down Pete in Vegas, where Tragg appears and arrests him, with the aid of local police.
In court, Maddox testifies that he saw Pete wide awake and holding a knife at 3:05 AM. Perry pokes holes in the credibility of his account. Duncan testifies about the little he knows, and Perry pelts him with questions about the ethics of a lawyer dealing in what is essentially a blackmail scheme. Duncan words his responses carefully, claiming innocence while avoiding anything that could be perjury. He does state categorically that he never had any contact with Doris. Steve is called as a hostile witness and has to testify that he noticed a carving knife missing from the sideboard around 10 PM, when Pete was still up. On cross-examination, Steve testifies about the 3 AM phone call, pointing out on a photograph where he stood in order to overhear Doris. Perry accuses Steve of making the phone call himself, posing as Duncan, in order to give the impression he was in Santa Barbara all night. Instead, he came back to Pete's house just long enough to murder Phil in a way that framed Pete. Thus, his fiancée Edna would inherit the business, and he would eventually get control of the money. Steve denies all this, but then Perry reveals that the photo on which Steve identified his precise location wasn't even of Doris's house! Later, as Pete and Lucille leave on their honeymoon, Perry explains that Duncan's testimony, so firm about not contacting Doris although he was slippery about everything else, made Perry suspect that Steve was the liar.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content