Episode 17, "The Adventure of the Sinister Scenario," is a hugely enjoyable departure for the series, with Inspector Richard Queen and son Ellery at Hollywood's low budget Crown Eagle Studios, where director Michael Raynor (Vincent Price) is shooting a mystery film about both Queens. Lionel Briggs (Noah Beery, then busy on THE ROCKFORD FILES), cast as the Inspector, is upset that many of his lines have been given to the temperamental star playing Ellery, Gilbert Mallory (Troy Donohue), who owns a piece of the picture. Mallory is having an affair with his co-star, Pamela Courtney (Susan Damante), a constant source of humiliation for his wife Claire (Barbara Rush, previously seen as a less glamorous suspect in episode 1). Studio publicist Dave Pierce (Don De Fore) treats the Queens to lunch before shooting resumes with a rewritten scene which has Pamela Courtney shooting Mallory, wearing a bulletproof vest to 'finesse' her into thinking she had killed him; however, the prop gun fires three real bullets, and the phony vest worn by the actor fails to prevent a real murder from taking place on the set. Capt. Benjamin Blake (Paul Fix, THE RIFLEMAN), an old friend of Inspector Queen, allows them both to remain and assist the reluctant investigation conducted by Lt. Braden (Paul Carr) and Sgt. Harris (Karl Lukas), offering an amusing battle of wits between New York and L. A. police procedures. Property man Al Garvin (Jack Murdock), swearing he loaded blanks in the prop gun that morning, believes he may be a suspect due to a recent threat against Mallory. But when the stunt man, Mike Hewitt (James B. Sikking, later of HILL STREET BLUES), gets killed in a car with faulty brakes, Ellery learns the key to the mystery, and 'directs' the final gathering of the suspects (and winds up 'finessing' the murderer). The diminutive Inspector Queen 'shoots' his son in a reenactment of the initial crime, after bitterly complaining about the casting of the equally diminutive Lionel Briggs in his part, suggesting Chester Morris ("Boston Blackie"), Brian Donlevy, or Pat O'Brien (and Lee Bowman for Ellery's part). Preferring instead to go sightseeing (name dropping such luminous starlets as Alice Faye, Hedy Lamarr, Dorothy Lamour, and Norma Shearer), the distracted Inspector confuses Sgt. Harris for Sgt. Velie (which explains the absence of Tom Reese, the only episode in which Velie does not appear). The producers had already used Vincent Price on COLUMBO, a small role in "Lovely but Lethal," yet despite a great deal of screen time the usually reliable actor turns in an atypical performance, initially shrill and hammy before tapping it down toward the end. The unbilled Jack De Mave shows up briefly as Sonny North, the actor replacing the deceased Gilbert Mallory in Ellery's part.
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