The Case of the Fatal Fetish (4 Mar. 1965)

Larry Germaine is a young lawyer working for Hamilton Burger as an Assistant District Attorney. He's taken up with fast company however in the form of Carina Wileen, who loves to party and ... See full summary »

Director:

Charles R. Rondeau

Writers:

Erle Stanley Gardner (characters created by), Samuel Newman

Stars:

Raymond Burr, Barbara Hale, William Hopper

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Raymond Burr	...	Perry Mason
Barbara Hale	...	Della Street
William Hopper	...	Paul Drake
William Talman	...	Hamilton Burger
Ray Collins	...	Lt. Tragg (credit only)
Wesley Lau	...	Lt. Anderson
Fay Wray	...	Mignon Germaine
Karen Steele	...	Carina Wileen
Alan Hewitt	...	Curt Ordway
Gary Collins	...	Larry Germaine
Lynn Bari	...	Ruth Duncan
Douglas Kennedy	...	Brady Duncan
Erin Leigh	...	Agnes Fanchon
Richard Devon	...	Neil Howard
James Griffith	...	Jack Randall

Storyline

Larry Germaine is a young lawyer working for Hamilton Burger as an Assistant District Attorney. He's taken up with fast company however in the form of Carina Wileen, who loves to party and spend money. He really can't afford her lifestyle and Burger questions the choices he's made. Larry has decided not to pursue a criminal fraud complaint scientist Jack Randall has filed against Brady Duncan. When Burger begins to questions his ethics, Larry does not react well. His mother, Mignon Germaine, is also against his relationship with Carina, even visiting her at her home to get her to leave her son alone. Mignon has a nightclub act at the Club Caribe centered around voodoo mysticism. When she sees Carina at the club she stabs a voodoo doll in front of her and the girls collapses. It's only later when Larry visits Carine in the hospital that he is found by a nurse standing over Carine's body with a dagger stabbed through her chest. It's left to Perry Mason to sort out the killer from who ...

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 March 1965 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Stage 4, 20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paisano Productions, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

User Reviews

Had potential but left it on the courtroom

This is kind of a weird episode for Perry Mason as we deal with the art of Black Magic. Fay Wray, plays Mignon Germaine, a night club dancer that has an act where she changes herself into young women by means of voodoo.

But the real plot of the story features Larry Germaine (Gary Collins) who works as assistant DA for Hamilton Burger. He has fallen in love with this alcoholic blond named Carina Wileen (Karen Steele). All this much to the dislike of Larry's mother Mignon Germaine.

Larry has been working on a case involving Allied Chemical Company. It comes to the attention of Hamilton Burger that Larry may have been offered a job a Allied Chemical not to prosecute the case. He also learns that Carina may have ties to Allied and he has to suspend Larry from the DA's office.

When Carina goes to the club to see the voodoo show. Larry's mother, Mignon, comes to the her table with a voodoo-doll and stabs the doll in the heart with a ceremonial knife. Moments later Carina passes out and is rushed to the hospital in a coma.

Now here is when it gets kinda too far-fetched. The suspended Larry is looking for his mother and for some reason sneaks into Carina'a room at the hospital.(Why? I am not clear). And when the nurse come in the room, Larry is standing over Carina and she has the ceremonial knife sticking out of her chest.(You do have to catch the nurse screaming- I know she was an extra but you could tell she practiced that scream for a week) Needless to say, Larry is charged with the murder of Carina and Perry is to defend him in court.

The story changes gears as we enter the courtroom. We start to learn the dirty laundry of Allied Chemical Company that will lead Perry to find the true murderer. It converts back to a regular Perry mystery as we have blackmail and embezzlement coming to light. It is sort of ashame since the story of the voodoo was much more interesting that the part about Allied Chemical.

Anyway, through a spectator in the courtroom, we learn the true set of events and Larry will still be able to catch his mother's late show at the night-club.

Since the first half of the episode was so interesting- when we got to the second half I felt disappointed. It really was not a bad show but it has so much more potential that was left unexplored.