The Case of the Ugly Duckling (21 May 1964)

Prospective heiress Alice Trilling has very low self-esteem, seeing herself as ugly and unable to live up to her late father's expectations. Her father's perverse will requires her to marry... See full summary »

Director:

Arthur Marks

Writers:

Erle Stanley Gardner (characters created by), Richard H. Landau

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. Arthur Tragg (credit only)
Wesley Lau	...	Lt. Andy Anderson
Anne Whitfield	...	Alice Trilling
Constance Towers	...	Natalie Graham
Reginald Gardiner	...	Albert Charity
Adam Lazarre	...	Anthony Usher - Artist (as Adam LaZarre)
Max Showalter	...	Talbot Sparr
Ford Rainey	...	Harry Trilling
S. John Launer	...	Judge
Jay Adler	...	Herman - Bartender
Frances Morris	...	Miss Jefferson - Landlady

Storyline

Prospective heiress Alice Trilling has very low self-esteem, seeing herself as ugly and unable to live up to her late father's expectations. Her father's perverse will requires her to marry before her next birthday or the family company, Trilling Toys, will be sold off. The business is being run by her uncle, Harry Trilling, who's been doing his best to get her to settle down but to no avail. Alice's emotions are best summed up by the the Angie doll, the company's best selling product which was created for Alice but exemplified a level of perfection she could never hope to achieve. Talbot Sparr is the company executive who actually made the doll and feels Harry Trilling is unsuitable to head the company, having blocked many of his ideas for new products. When Alice learns that Uncle Harry paid her new boyfriend to romance her, she confronts him. When Harry Trilling is found dead the next morning, Alice is arrested and Perry Mason defends her.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 May 1964 (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

Did You Know?

Trivia

The title is from the Hans Christian Andersen story.

User Reviews

Raymond Burr could have helped this episode

It always amazes me that when a TV series has a episode concerning a supposedly ugly girl- they end up getting a female model and have her wear baggy shirts and matted hair. They consider this to be an unattractive girl that everyone will take at face value. Let them get one of my family members if they want ugly- but they get a beauty contestant winner and cast her as the ugly one. This happened in this episode.

Alice Trilling (beautiful Anne Whitfield) plays the supposedly ugly heiress that is the daughter of toy company (father died) and is line to get a lot of money when she reaches a certain age. She wants nothing to do with the company and lives by herself wanting a different life style. But she is upset at a doll that her father created called the Angie Doll. This doll has all the beauty that Alice feels she does not have and as a hatred for the doll.

Her uncle Harry Trilling (Ford Raney) is in charge of the company and is trying to get Alice to settle down and come back into the family's business. So he hires a man, Anthony Sharp (Adam Lazarre) to see her daughter and paint her picture. Alice finds out about this and confronts her uncle. She believes that her uncle hired Anthony to make her look bad and she get upset. They get into a scuffle and Harry is knocked to the ground by Alice.

Then we find out that Harry has died and Alice has been charged with her uncle's death. Enter Perry to defend her in court.

We meet some other suspects along the way like the jealous secretary, an unappreciated co-work and a competitor toy maker official. (No lack of suspects in this show.)

The guest stars seemed to handle the episode well. They were emotional and made the viewer interested in the outcome of the story. However, while watching it appeared that Raymond Burr was bored with the entire script. He was robotic in his movements and delivered lines as if all the scenes had just been written. It was like this was the first time he had seen the script and it was dress rehearsal. None of the flair we are use to seeing from his first years as Perry. Maybe it was because this was the last episode of season seven- but whatever was wrong it came across on the screen.

But the storyline and guest actors made this a better watch than most anything you can find on TV today. I thought the story was interesting and was held to the screen till the end of the show.

Note- Ford Raney that played Harry Trilling in this episode was a character actor in many shows in the 60's,70's,80's and 90's. He was still acting at the age of 95 before his death a year later in 2005.