A private prep school has run into a series of snags as the founder tries to get the school on a sound financial and academic footing. Someone on the staff has been sabotaging all his efforts, trying to get him to abandon the school and the increasingly valuable property he owns. The staffer is murdered and the school’s founder is the defendant. And the real killer? I knew who it would be as soon as the actor appeared on the screen. The actor always plays weak characters.
Mrs. Perkins: Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Poetry you call it? I call it filth.
The instructor (soon to be defendant) tries to have a civil discussion with the woman, who is withdrawing her son from enrollment.
Mrs. Perkins: This isn’t a courtroom, it’s a private school – where I pay for the privilege of being arbitrary.
The first time the victim is murdered (staged his death), the preliminary hearing is held in another county than L.A. His client confessed to causing the victim's death by striking him. The victim fell off a cliff and into the ocean. But the body is not recovered. Perry gives Paul Drake a nice tutorial on corpus delicti.
Prosecutor: I remind you, sir, the law that you have sworn to uphold respects substance more than form.
PM: Mr. Baxter, I remind you, the law helps the vigilant before those who sleep on their rights.
You, Mr. Baxter, have been schooled. All kinds of schooling going on tonight.
Client: I don't understand, Perry. I’m responsible for Tobin Wade’s death.
PM: It’s up to the state to prove that, not you.
Later, Tobin Wade actually is murdered, this time with a tire iron. The defendant is again charged. Didn't confess this time, since of course he did not do it. He was an unlikable character but I guess we are supposed to excuse his rants and frantic behavior as panic over the looming prospect of losing his school. It all comes out in the wash.
The actor who portrayed Tobin Wade is H.M. Wynant. He's been in 10 episodes of Perry Mason and I can never remember who he is. When I see his name in a cast list, I immediately think of that tall thin man who was "The Thin Man," Clyde Wynant. That actor was Edward Ellis and he's been dead since 1952.
Mrs. Perkins: Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Poetry you call it? I call it filth.
The instructor (soon to be defendant) tries to have a civil discussion with the woman, who is withdrawing her son from enrollment.
Mrs. Perkins: This isn’t a courtroom, it’s a private school – where I pay for the privilege of being arbitrary.
The first time the victim is murdered (staged his death), the preliminary hearing is held in another county than L.A. His client confessed to causing the victim's death by striking him. The victim fell off a cliff and into the ocean. But the body is not recovered. Perry gives Paul Drake a nice tutorial on corpus delicti.
Prosecutor: I remind you, sir, the law that you have sworn to uphold respects substance more than form.
PM: Mr. Baxter, I remind you, the law helps the vigilant before those who sleep on their rights.
You, Mr. Baxter, have been schooled. All kinds of schooling going on tonight.
Client: I don't understand, Perry. I’m responsible for Tobin Wade’s death.
PM: It’s up to the state to prove that, not you.
Later, Tobin Wade actually is murdered, this time with a tire iron. The defendant is again charged. Didn't confess this time, since of course he did not do it. He was an unlikable character but I guess we are supposed to excuse his rants and frantic behavior as panic over the looming prospect of losing his school. It all comes out in the wash.
The actor who portrayed Tobin Wade is H.M. Wynant. He's been in 10 episodes of Perry Mason and I can never remember who he is. When I see his name in a cast list, I immediately think of that tall thin man who was "The Thin Man," Clyde Wynant. That actor was Edward Ellis and he's been dead since 1952.
