This Perry Mason episode involves adoption and reunion. After two decades of no one much caring, suddenly two men appear at an orphanage at the same time wanting to look at old records. The superintendent doesn't enforce the restrictions on access and both men have time alone with the files of abandoned little girls named Maureen. There are two that fit the time frame of the placement of Baby Maureen and, as luck would have it, they look very much alike as young women.
The first man to go through the records is actually a blood relative of the "real" Maureen. He's her father's brother. The other man has been hired by Maureen's mother. She was an alcoholic and an unfit parent. Many years later, she is the sober widow of a well-to-do Italian. Her second husband established a trust fund for Maureen (even though he never so much as met her) and Mom is seeking to have it administered.
One Maureen goes to Perry Mason for advice after she gets a call from a man claiming to be her uncle. It won't be long before she needs him as her defense attorney. Maureen left the orphanage as a litttle girl and was raised by a very strange foster father who has become dependent on her. In this exchange Maureen reminds me of Della Street from The Case of the Velvet Claws.
Maureen: Don’t talk to me about money, Mr. Mason. I've been making my own living since I was 16 years old, with no help from my mother or anyone else!
Maureen's mother (whichever Maureen it is) wouldn't have been any help to her anyway.
Mrs. Fernaldi: I mean, one would think that a mother would know her own child by sheer instinct but, of course, I was a very bad mother. I'm afraid it's dreadfully, unhappily true. I abandoned you, my dear. Or was it you? How does one tell?
The uncle was on record as being a benefactor of the orphanage over the years. His employee talks about that beneficence on the stand.
Witness: Yes, the money was sent to the orphanage, but I sent it. Well, I took it out of the cash register. He could afford it. It was the only decent thing he ever did, even though he didn’t know he was doing it.
The first man to go through the records is actually a blood relative of the "real" Maureen. He's her father's brother. The other man has been hired by Maureen's mother. She was an alcoholic and an unfit parent. Many years later, she is the sober widow of a well-to-do Italian. Her second husband established a trust fund for Maureen (even though he never so much as met her) and Mom is seeking to have it administered.
One Maureen goes to Perry Mason for advice after she gets a call from a man claiming to be her uncle. It won't be long before she needs him as her defense attorney. Maureen left the orphanage as a litttle girl and was raised by a very strange foster father who has become dependent on her. In this exchange Maureen reminds me of Della Street from The Case of the Velvet Claws.
Maureen: Don’t talk to me about money, Mr. Mason. I've been making my own living since I was 16 years old, with no help from my mother or anyone else!
Maureen's mother (whichever Maureen it is) wouldn't have been any help to her anyway.
Mrs. Fernaldi: I mean, one would think that a mother would know her own child by sheer instinct but, of course, I was a very bad mother. I'm afraid it's dreadfully, unhappily true. I abandoned you, my dear. Or was it you? How does one tell?
The uncle was on record as being a benefactor of the orphanage over the years. His employee talks about that beneficence on the stand.
Witness: Yes, the money was sent to the orphanage, but I sent it. Well, I took it out of the cash register. He could afford it. It was the only decent thing he ever did, even though he didn’t know he was doing it.