The Case of the Bluffing Blast

Peter Breck plays a young newspaper owner who is investigating the local dairy for ammonia leaks that have become a toxic nuisance. A young woman (will the Perry Mason script put one young and one young together?) has just come to town, seeking the whereabouts of her father. Breck goes to the hotel where the young woman is registered as a way of getting more background for his investigations. Complicated storyline. Here are some quotes I enjoyed.

Clerk: Charlie was the town's sort of unofficial killer of the year, you might say. You weren't here then, didn't know what he was like. Boozin', bedevilin' everybody.

Floyd Grant visits the office of Charles Lambert, current dairy owner and recovering alcoholic. Floyd (played by Bill Williams, Barbara Hale's husband) is abrasive but the sands are slipping through in a hurry in that hourglass that is his life. Yes, he's the victim-to-be!

Grant: It’s a shame he isn’t drinking any more. That’s a bottle of real good stuff he has stashed in the bottom drawer of his desk.
Wife darts over and searches the drawer. Hubby grabs bottle and pours himself a generous swig.

As noted previously, there is an ammonia leak at the dairy. The maintenance chief has been cobbing the repair job for some time.  For the last time, actually. Kablooey!
PM: The last time I heard a sound like that I was on the deck of a destroyer in the Pacific. The engine room blew up.

Peter Breck character (talking about Mrs. Lambert): She’s the one who finally straightened him out, put him on the wagon.
PD: Well, he must have come unput and fallen off the wagon, because the man she was looking for in the bar was her husband, Charles Lambert.