- Art collector Rufus Varner has bought a famous painting from dealer Milo Girard, but the painting may be a forgery by Aaron Hubble, and Girard's wife, Evelyn, consults Perry for protection against any involvement in the suspected fraud.
- Milo Girard is a high-end art dealer who is less than honest. He's recently sold a painting, The Purple Woman, to avid collector and self-described expert Rufus Varner, for $86,000. When another art expert tells Varner he's purchased a forgery, he wants his money back but Girard laughs him off and threatens to expose his gullibility. Girard commissioned the forgery from frustrated artist Aaron Hubble to whom he promised a one man show if he could produce a painting that would fool Varner. Having met his side of the bargain, Hubble now wants his show but Girard refuses. Girard's wife Evelyn learns about the forgeries and seeks legal advice from Perry Mason. She fails to tell him that she is having an affair and that she hated her husband. When Girard is murdered, there is no shortage of suspects but it's Evelyn who is charged and Perry defends her.—garykmcd
- Wealthy Rufus Varner (Rhys Williams) is showing off his collection of paintings to art expert Laslo Kovac (Stephen Bekassy), especially "the finest collection of Van Hootens in the United States". He reveals his piece de resitance, The Purple Woman, previously believed destroyed in a fire. Kovac examines it briefly, and declares it to be a clever forgery.
At the Girard Gallery, Varner demands his $86,000 back from Milo Girard (George Macready), who sold him the painting. Smirking, Milo warns that the story will become public, and Varner, who represents himself as an art expert, will be made a laughingstock for being fooled. Milo's own reputation isn't at stake because he had advised calling in an expert on Van Hooten, but Varner arrogantly assumed his own abilities were sufficient. Varner backs down.
At the Girard home, Milo's wife Evelyn (Bethel Leslie) has received a visit from Aaron Hubble (Robert H. Harris), a struggling artist and two-fisted drinker. He brags about his forgery that fooled Varner, assuming Evelyn knows about it because Milo had set him up in a studio in a building she owned. Milo enters and Aaron demands the one-man show of his own work that Milo had promised for the forgery. Milo calls him a hack with a reputation as a drunken crackpot. Once Aaron leaves, Milo tells Evelyn he's another member of the Hate Girard Club, and she's the president. Evelyn agrees, and says that she'll never be happy again as long as he's alive.
In Perry's office, Evelyn says she wants to protect herself from being involved in Milo's fraud, mentioning how Aaron jumped to the conclusion she knew what was going on. She describes Milo's dishonesty, but says she won't divorce him because her father is a prominent clergyman.
In Milo's office at the gallery, art critic and journalist Wayne Gordon (Donald Murphy) asks Milo about Varner's rumored recent purchase, as Varner won't talk about it. Milo says he's no longer Varner's dealer, but he won't reveal confidences of even an ex-client. Evelyn enters, and Milo makes a show of introducing Wayne to her. Then he's called onto the gallery floor. As soon as he's gone, Wayne asks when he can be with her again, but she's afraid Milo will find out. Milo returns and once Wayne leaves, tells Evelyn that he knows about her amour. From his desk he pulls a stack of letters from Wayne to her, saying it was easy to pick the lock on her vanity table. Milo's plans include a "juicy" divorce and he wonders how the reverend, her father, will feel. Evelyn grabs a pair of scissors and threatens Milo with them, saying "I'll kill you" just as Milo's secretary Doris Andrews (Doris Singleton) enters the room. Evelyn leaves and Doris gives Milo a neck massage.
The next day, Doris enters Milo's office to find him hunched over his desk. She bends down to touch him then backs off, screaming, as her hands are covered with blood. Soon, Evelyn is under arrest for murder and consulting with Perry. Milo was killed between midnight and 2 AM, and the Girard servants say Evelyn was out of the house from 11:30 to past 3. The police found ashes that they were able to identify as letters to her. She says she went to the gallery to plead with Milo, but found him dead, so she burned the love letters.
Back in his office, Perry learns the background of The Purple Woman from Wayne. Van Hooten gave it to the model, who stuck it in the cellar of her house, which burned down in 1895. Wayne recommends Kovac if an expert opinion becomes necessary. Paul reports on the Varner-Kovac meeting, and informs Perry that Wayne is Evelyn's boyfriend. He learned that from the police.
In court, Doris testifies that at Milo's request she called Evelyn to say that Milo was working late, but didn't tell anyone else. She also relates seeing Evelyn attack Milo with scissors. On cross-examination, Perry produces evidence of Doris and Milo's sleeping arrangements on out-of-town trips, forcing her to admit they were having an affair. Wayne testifies that he asked Evelyn to divorce Milo, but she didn't believe in divorce. He says that she called him to ask what to do about possibly being entangled in Milo's fraud, and he referred her to Perry. Aaron testifies that after leaving the room with Milo and Evelyn, he lingered near the door long enough to here her "never happy as long as you live" comment. On cross, Perry brings up The Purple Woman and Aaron starts to discuss the forgery of which he's so proud. He mentions the Milo gave him a color sketch of the painting to work from and set him up in Evelyn's building, where he dropped by when he wanted to check on Aaron's progress. Burger interrupts, telling the judge that the jury shouldn't be prejudiced against Aaron's ability to repeat a conversation he heard by learning of his obsession with this painting. Perry says this can only be settled by producing the painting and calling in an art expert. The judge (Edwin Jerome) agrees.
The next day, Varner's painting and Kovac are in court. He testifies about his earlier pronouncement that the painting is a forgery, and looks at it closely in order to expand his comments. However, he stops himself, confused, and says he now thinks this could be the genuine Purple Woman. At this, Aaron jumps out of his seat shouting "liar", which earns him a day in jail for contempt of court. On cross, Kovac reveals that he owned an unpublished letter of Van Hooten which reveals that his model had a cast (a strabismus?) in the left eye that gave the portrait a unique quality. The painting he saw earlier lacked this, but now the eyes seem different. The judge orders scientific tests.
The tests show that the painting is almost certainly genuine. Perry and Paul go to the gallery to look for the missing forgery. Perry assumes it's there because Milo must have had the original when he gave a color sketch of it to Aaron, but now Varner has the original. Paul suggests that the best place in a gallery to hide a painting is behind a similarly-sized painting that no one would consider buying. Sure enough, they find another Purple Woman in the frame of a particularly inexcusable piece of drek.
Back in court, Varner identifies the $86,000 check he paid to Milo for The Purple Woman. Paul brings in the painting from the gallery, which Varner immediately calls a fake, and claims that he's an expert who always had the right painting. Asked why he went to Milo so soon after meeting Kovac, he says he wanted to share a laugh with his "good friend" Milo over Kovac's faulty judgment. Perry notes that Milo had told Wayne that he was no longer Varner's dealer. He suggests that Varner wanted revenge for being swindled, killed Milo, and switched his own fake with Milo's genuine painting. Varner says no, and humiliates himself by admitting that he paid Milo a second time to buy the real Purple Woman from him. Milo also took back the forgery but Varner doesn't know why, since it's worthless. Perry agrees, and asks the collector what it's like to have been taken in by a fifth-rate hack with no more creative ability than a three-year-old. Aaron again explodes at this, and the judge is about to send him back to jail when Perry asks to speak on his behalf. Aaron was sure of his talent, despite the opinion of the art world. He had even painted a copy of a Gauguin for Milo. Yes, says Aaron, and Milo liked it well enough to keep in his office, next to a Renoir. Perry reminds him that Doris never let the disreputable-looking Aaron into Milo's office. The dealer only saw his progress on the Purple Woman forgery by dropping by his studio in Evelyn's building. Therefore, the only time he could have seen where Milo kept the fake Gauguin was when he killed him. Aaron confesses, saying that Milo was a scoundrel and a cheat. As the bailiff starts to take him away, Aaron's mood lightens. Perry just gave him a million dollars' worth of free publicity. He'll have his one-man show yet.
As he has dinner with Paul and Della, Perry explains that he settled on Aaron as the murderer by process of elimination, once Varner debased himself by admitting that he paid for the same painting twice. Burger walks by and congratulates him on his handling of the case. Della is surprised that Burger is so pleased. Perry quotes a recent law journal article: "A well-tried criminal case is a credit to all involved. There is no winning, no losing in the true administration of justice." The article was by Hamilton Burger. Perry invites Burger to join them, and Della gives Perry a funny look.
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