***SPOILERS** Perry Mason, Rymond Burr, gets involved in a child custody case that leads to murder with a little bit of expensive Swiss watch smuggling on the side for good measure. It's little Button Blake, Claine Wilcox, that all the fuss in this Perry Mason episode is all about. Not that Button is so cute and adorable but that she's to inherit her grandpa's estate estimate to be worth four million dollars and everyone, but Button, wants to get their greedy hands on it. It's the unscrupulous and oily, as a can of sardines, yachtsman Vince Rome, Anthony Eisley, who came up with this plan to get his hands on Button's inheritance by blackmailing and marrying her mom Janice Blake, Julie Adams, in him framing her as being and unit mother. With Janice's estrange husband Dirk, Ed Nelson, trying to pay Rome off to keep the information about Janice, in her fooling around with other men and partying all night, out of the court record a fight ensues where Rome ends up shot to death on his yacht the "Blue Nymph".
You think right away that you already know who Rome's killer is, Dirk Blake, but as things turn out there's more to his murder then meets the eye. He was killed all right but only after the person who we were lead to believe killed him Dirk Blake, who only wounded Rome, left the scene and then someone else came on to the yacht and finished him off! Perry Mason who was reluctantly called into the case as a mediator in both Dirk & Janice custody battle over Button ends up defending Dirk in Rome's murder instead. There's the usual as well as unconnected side plot involving the late Rome's deckhand Cully Barsto, Mike Mazerki, and his good friend motel owner Poncho Morado, Stanley Adams, who are involved in some Swiss watch smuggling that just confuses things even more in what's the real issue in the cas, Who shot Vince Rome,is!
***SPOILERS*** The episode ends on a very unconventional note with the killer checking out of the courtroom just before Perry even has a chance to cross-examine him or her! Kidnapping Button and threatening to drop her to her death off a highway overpass Romer's killer finally breaks down and releases the terrified girl. That's when Perry's personal secretary Della Street, Barbara Hale, rushes over and knocks some common sense into his very disturbed head with some women or better yet motherly advice!
You think right away that you already know who Rome's killer is, Dirk Blake, but as things turn out there's more to his murder then meets the eye. He was killed all right but only after the person who we were lead to believe killed him Dirk Blake, who only wounded Rome, left the scene and then someone else came on to the yacht and finished him off! Perry Mason who was reluctantly called into the case as a mediator in both Dirk & Janice custody battle over Button ends up defending Dirk in Rome's murder instead. There's the usual as well as unconnected side plot involving the late Rome's deckhand Cully Barsto, Mike Mazerki, and his good friend motel owner Poncho Morado, Stanley Adams, who are involved in some Swiss watch smuggling that just confuses things even more in what's the real issue in the cas, Who shot Vince Rome,is!
***SPOILERS*** The episode ends on a very unconventional note with the killer checking out of the courtroom just before Perry even has a chance to cross-examine him or her! Kidnapping Button and threatening to drop her to her death off a highway overpass Romer's killer finally breaks down and releases the terrified girl. That's when Perry's personal secretary Della Street, Barbara Hale, rushes over and knocks some common sense into his very disturbed head with some women or better yet motherly advice!