This is the penultimate Raymond Burr-less episode. I probably shouldn't even be commenting on this little string of four episodes because I am not finding them interesting. The second one I didn't post anything on and it had one of my favorite actors of all time (Michael Rennie) as the guest star/replacement defense attorney. I stayed awake for it all (these shows come on at 10:30 p.m. and the lengthy blocks of commercials cause me to doze off) and the next day I couldn't even remember if someone confessed to the crime. Then I looked at the cast list and remembered whodunnit.
Anyway, on to Hugh O'Brian and this episode, which is mired in the Cold War and in World War II. I have never enjoyed spy thrillers or political intrigue to begin with, so there's a major turn-off for me to begin with. A bizarrely complicated transfer of papers with volatile information occurs in a rinky-dink amusement park's "tunnel of love." This foreign visitor who requires bodyguards and police protection is allowed to get in a boat and go off into the dark recesses with nobody else on the ride at all. It all seemed lame.
Lieutenants Tragg and Anderson are among those assigned to the security detail.
Tragg: Why an amusement park?
Andy: The new status symbol maybe. Didn’t Papa Bear want to see Disneyland?
This is a reference to Nikita Khrushchev.
There was a lot of two-facedness in play throughout the show. Hugh O'Brian's attorney character had discovered the existence of his doppelganger during WWII and the doppelganger was a key element of this Perry Mason. If there are doppelgangers, I say make them all be Beautiful People such as Hugh O'Brian.
Hugh's character discusses the case with the hospitalized Perry Mason, via the telephone.
Hugh to PM: Some trial lawyers are frustrated actors.
SPOILER
The killer in this episode is described thusly on imdb: Often cast as a ruthless, cold-eyed heavy in westerns or crime melodramas, or as sneaky spy or double-crosser.
Anyway, on to Hugh O'Brian and this episode, which is mired in the Cold War and in World War II. I have never enjoyed spy thrillers or political intrigue to begin with, so there's a major turn-off for me to begin with. A bizarrely complicated transfer of papers with volatile information occurs in a rinky-dink amusement park's "tunnel of love." This foreign visitor who requires bodyguards and police protection is allowed to get in a boat and go off into the dark recesses with nobody else on the ride at all. It all seemed lame.
Lieutenants Tragg and Anderson are among those assigned to the security detail.
Tragg: Why an amusement park?
Andy: The new status symbol maybe. Didn’t Papa Bear want to see Disneyland?
This is a reference to Nikita Khrushchev.
There was a lot of two-facedness in play throughout the show. Hugh O'Brian's attorney character had discovered the existence of his doppelganger during WWII and the doppelganger was a key element of this Perry Mason. If there are doppelgangers, I say make them all be Beautiful People such as Hugh O'Brian.
Hugh's character discusses the case with the hospitalized Perry Mason, via the telephone.
Hugh to PM: Some trial lawyers are frustrated actors.
SPOILER
The killer in this episode is described thusly on imdb: Often cast as a ruthless, cold-eyed heavy in westerns or crime melodramas, or as sneaky spy or double-crosser.