Perry Mason (TV Series) The Case of the Meddling Medium (1961) User Reviews

The writer gets an 'A' for effort in this different type show

[kfo9494 · 8/10 · 14 August 2013]

After five seasons the writers have to rely on repeating a plot in order to get the number of wanted shows filmed. But in this episode the writer used a different situation that will cause the viewer to find a new and interesting plot in the series.

The story centers around the family of Sylvia Walker. Sylvia, not long ago, had her son die and now uses paranormal activities to try to contact him. When her nephew, Philip Paisley, goes into a trance and writes a poem that only Sylvia knew about, she believes he has a direct line to her dead son. But there are others in the house that believe Philip is faking the trance in order to get into Sylvia's bank account.

When Philip gets into an elevator at Sylvia's house, the elevator breaks away killing Philip. When the police investigate, they find that death was no accident since the elevator was rigged to fall. This could have only been done by someone that knew something about machinery. And it just so happens that a cousin, that had reason to dislike Philip, knew much about how elevators work. The cousin, Bonnie Craig, not only knew about elevators but also knew about electric motors from when she worked for her Aunt's company. Bonnie is arrested for the murder and will be defended by Perry.

There is a lot going on in this episode. From trance writing, blackmail, ESP to even a Faraday Cage- this show is packed with loads of interesting material. But it will all come down to Perry putting on a demonstration that will reveal that someone else in the cast also knows much about machinery. And will end with confession that will bring the case to an acceptable closure for the viewer. Nice show.

One of the great camp episodes

[davidmorgan-85301 · 8/10 · 1 January 2021]

The show really varied widely in terms of script quality week to week. This one is one of the better unintentionally funny episodes. Stupid story. Over the top acting by the guest stars making silly faces. Perry Mason considering ESP a real thing. It's beautiful. Rated highly for great camp value only.

Great Parody: Airplane Before Airplane

[jadesroom · 9/10 · 6 June 2022]

The episode aired 10 days before Halloween and was certainly meant to be tongue in cheek and not dumb and cheap as some 21st Century viewers seem to think without knowing the holiday context.

Think of a mixture of Perry Mason, The Edge of Night, One Step Beyond, and Melodrama. This episode is hilarious and delightful.

e.s.p.

[darbski · 8/10 · 4 October 2017]

**SPOILERS** This episode does a very good job of pointing out the fact that the more we learn about the mind and the brain, the more it is revealed that we don't know.

Take the crux of this plot, E.S.P., and any connections to the physical abilities we have by using these extra powers. The one that they didn't tackle or try to explain, was the automatic writing. I mean; upside down and backwards at the same time? If it actually happens, how does one explain it without constant diligent, disciplined practice? It's a lot more than this poor scribbler can pretend to tackle.

Very good, if complex episode, and another one in which the dead guy will never be mourned. One thing they probably couldn't explain was exactly how the elevator's safety devices and back-ups were disabled. It would take more than a passing skill in electrical connectivity to accomplish. Unless the killer was a very good electrician, it would be very difficult, indeed.

Excellent Hitchcockian MaGuffin

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 19 October 2023]

Because- this not only features "Gideon the Intern", but also popular parapsychology professor Andreas Puharich.

Remember- Perry wants to "scientifically" explore if his client used ESP. So he employs several of Puharich's gadgets in this quest-

But beware! Perry also employs a Faraday Cage!

The instant he mentions this, we knew we were being beautifully tricked! But, how?

The cage features into the solution of this "conundrum", in a very clever way.

Does Perry's client really have ESP? Was Puharich the real deal or a quack?

Judging from the original broadcast date of Octo-Brr 21st, 1961, this unusual episode was that years given HOLLOWEEN entry.

And it's a doozy. All you have to remember is, it's PERRY MASON to the nth degree- just watch for his little smile, which is not as prominent as it usually is.

Look for Kent Smith and Virginia Field- Who usually plays mediums in PM. And the usual cast. Don't remember if Tragg appears, if he does it's his token cameo.

THE MEDIUM IS MURDERED!

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 7 May 2024]

A rather campy and creepy episode, which is an occasional treat in the series every now and then. Author Erle Stanley Gardner did his fair share of atmospheric whodunts, and series writer Samuel Newman continues the tradition. Newman wrote over 100 classic episodes for the series.

Guest star Virginia Field (always a treat to watch) plays a wealthy woman called Sylvia, who is desparately trying to reach her dead son through paranormal experiences. In steps her nephew Philip, who claims he is able to contact the dead, although Sylvia's daughter, Bonnie, claims the man is an absolute fraud.

In typical Perry Mason fashion, Philip is conveniently killed in an elevator accident -- and its Bonnie who is charged with his murder. You have to love this.

Excellent semi- spooky mystery, and with a very good cast, foremost Virginia Field, at one time billed as Hollywood's most beautiful actress. Field appeared in six episodes to her credit.

Sonya Wilde plays Bonnie, who was frequently cast in westerns in Indian roles. Special guest star is Kent Smith, playing the doctor. Smith, like Virginia Field, was acting in Hollywood since the 30s. Fondly remembered for NORA PRENTISS, also playing a doctor.

Guessing this one is a labor of love. From SEASON 5 EPISODE 6 remastered dvd box set. 4 dvds, Vol. 1 and 2. Released 2010.

One sweet racket

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 30 August 2019]

James Forrest is a bottom feeding rat of no discernible virtues that one can tell. He's got one sweet racket going as he's sponging off his aunt Viginia Fields by going into these trances and writing poetry. Fields's son who died a year earlier was a poet and these verses are from beyond the grave.

Forrest is so brazen he behaves like a swine to everyone else but you can't talk to the family matriarch about him.

The son was killed when an elevator in the house crashed. Wouldn't you know that's what happens to Forrest and what brings in the police. They arrest another cousin Sonya Wilde and she becomes a Perry Mason client by dint of the fact that she brought in Raymond Burr to witness one of these trances.

Did he have ESP, is there such a thing who knows. But the crime wasn't done with levitation.

Dr. Anton Kuharic an authority on the subject plays himself and becomes an expert witness for the defense. Any one else in that family could have killed the victim, pick one and hope you're right.

I did it before and I did it again! I Fixed the Elevator!

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 28 July 2012]

***SPOILERS*** By the elevator being "fixed" is what caused the death of supposedly in house psychic Philip Paisley, James Forresst. It was Philip who was shown up by his cousin Bonnie Craig, Sonya Wilde, in a psychic automatic writing demonstration at the home of her Aunt Sylvia Walker, Virginia Fields. Philip who's been using his "psychc powers" to talk to and communicate with the dead has convinced Aunt Sylvia that he can contact her recently deceased son Thomas who incidentally died the same way the Philip did in an elevator accident: or was it an accident! Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, a friend of the family who just happened to be at the scene of the accident and saw Bonnie give her automatic writing demonstration takes up her case in that she's the one suspected by the police in driving a hopelessly drunk, with Bonnie providing him with the booze,Philip to get himself killed by rigging his private elevator to free fall with him inside it!

In trying to prove that Bonnie's supernatural powers of ESP, extrasensory perception, is the real deal to show that she didn't plan to get Philip to kill himself in the first place Perry gets real life ESP expert Dr. Ardrija Puhrich to have her tested for it which she fails with flying colors. Thus making things look bad for both her and her defense lawyer Perry Mason in being accused by the police in freaking Philip out to the point where he fell into the trap, the fixed elevator, that she set for him. As it soon turns out it's really not Bonnie's psychic ability that's in question in the death of Philip Paisley but her knowledge of electronics that she needed to rig the elevator to crash with Philip getting crushed under it. And it was that ability that someone at the scene of the crime had beside Bonnie, who studied electronics in collage, who was the person who not only murdered Philip but his cousin Thomas as well!

***MAJOR SPOILERS*** Shocking electoral demonstration put on by Perry Mason which smoked out the real killer who it was discovered not only had it in for Philip but his cousin Thomas or was the killers original target. In Philip finding out what Thomas did by framing the person in the crimes that he himself committed as well as Philip finding out about it and using that information to blackmail him or her for money and a high position, vice president, in family business!

P.S Doctor Puharich playing himself was really convincing in the scenes that he was in making you for a moment think he was being played by an actor not himself until you saw his name in the closing credits. As for the acting honors in this Perry Mason episode they have to go to James Forrest who played Philip Paisley who's over the top and tooth grinding performance, that lead up to his ultimate death by elevator, rivaled even that of the killer shark in the movie "Jaws".

Weak, Dull Episode

[Hitchcoc · 4/10 · 19 January 2022]

This started off in an interesting way but got bogged down. The fake medium acted so stupidly, giving himself up as a fraud. The tests for ESP were also about as boring as could be. I never understood what they were doing, and the coup de gras was way too contrived. Probably the worst Mason I've seen. Slow to the nth degree.

Who could have guessed Halloween was coming?

[mrartiste · 5/10 · 27 November 2021]

I was only about 5 minutes into this episode when the "dark and stormy night" setting and ridiculously over-the-top acting made it obvious that this was an episode made as a prelude to Halloween. My supposition was confirmed with a quick check of its Oct. 21st first airing.

Pretty schlocky in many ways, but interesting in its campy efforts at drama and suspense. All it that was lacking was an appearance as one of the characters by Vincent Price, or perhaps Boris Karloff. :-0.

Skip this one

[bote · 2/10 · 12 March 2020]

This episode falls into the same category as do the many TV shows later in the 1960s dealing with U.F.O. sightings: just unbelievable. Save yourself an hour and skip this one.

A poor episode with some interesting features

[lucyrf · 3/10 · 25 September 2020]

Not least Andrija Puharich playing himself. This episode is almost an advert for the man and his work - debunked in the 70s by James Randi and others, who spared nobody.

A typical fake medium is seen early in the episode, calling herself "Princess" somebody. But in stories like this, someone usually turns out to have real powers. Here the door is left open. Spiritualism had been popular in the States since the Fox sisters in the mid-19th century. But will mysticism have any weight in a court of law? The judge is skeptical, but open-minded.

As others have pointed out, there is a lot of scenery chewing, and fake drunkenness (which I find unbearable in any context). Not all the acting is bad: the mother is convincing, and her admirer and doctor is played well by Kent Smith from the film Cat People.

But the Old Dark House, stuck in a permanent thunderstorm, is corny beyond belief. As with many rich, multi-generational families in movies, who all live in the same house and run the same company (what does it make?), the atmosphere is stifling and unhealthy.

The usual cast do their stuff. Otherwise the honours go to the accused woman's husband, who actually has some funny lines and delivers them in a suitably deadpan manner.

Lamest Perry Mason

[Dajad · 1/10 · 23 February 2022]

I've now watched 5 seasons and 6 episodes of Perry Mason which I generally have a high regard for. But not this one. It presupposes throughout that ESP exists and is real. A real low point in an otherwise entertaining and rational series. :(

Funniest PM yet!

[pmike-11312 · 1/10 · 26 November 2021]

Well, just when I thought PM couldn't get any worse in writing, directing, over-the-top acting, ridiculous plots and storylines, and horrendous dialogue, this one comes along! The only thing I can conclude is that this one was MEANT to be preposterous and hilarious; it just has to be!