Perry Mason (TV Series) The Case of the Caretaker's Cat (1959) User Reviews

An episode with an odd visual style...

[AlsExGal · 9/10 · 13 December 2022]

... as the introduction is different from other episodes in the second season, with what looks like a scaled model of the courtroom with Perry standing in the middle. Is this the producer trying to jazz things up? Or is that carving of Perry in the courtroom Hamilton Burger's attempt at doing voodoo on Perry? But I digress.

That odd opening goes with the oddly structured episode. Rather than a setup section where the entire guest cast tells the victim of the week how much they hate him/her, there is only one scene prior to the presumed murder scene, which you see. With no explanation, you see caretaker James Hing set fire to the mansion in which his wealthy employer lives, causing that employer, Peter Baxter to die in the fire. Nobody else was home at the time. When the will is read, it turns out James Hing inherited virtually the entire estate of 3.5 million dollars. It isn't long before Hing is arrested for doing exactly what we saw him do. Or did we? Perry Mason is Hing's defense attorney, initially hired by him as an attorney to help him in the matter of practically Peter Baxter's entire family intending to contest his will.

In this episode we get to see an amused Perry. He is amused at the Baxter grandchildren's greed as well as their willingness to throw each under the bus as far as the murder of Peter Baxter in an attempt to angle for a bigger piece of the inheritance pie.

I'd highly recommend this one.

Oops, a scripted plan goes terribly wrong.

[kfo9494 · 8/10 · 8 May 2013]

After the first ten minutes of the show if you were given a guess of who is the guilty party then I am sure you would be correct. During the course of the investigation, the writers try to throw the suspicion on different parties but when the final courtroom scene is completed the obvious person will be serving time for murder.

It begins with a scheme by a rich sickly older man named Peter Baxter. It seems that Peter believes that his family is waiting for him to die so they can collect the inheritance. So he plans, with help from his long time gardener James Hing, to have the house catch on fire and Peter will pretend to have been killed by means of an cadaver. Mr Baxter tells everyone that he has left the entire estate to Hing and everyone else will get nothing. After three years if anyone contest the estate then they will be removed from the actual estate will that provides for the family.

Well this sounds nice but something goes terribly wrong during the fire part of the plan. Peter Baxter is actually killed and James Hing is accused of murder. Not many believe Hing's story that it was suppose to be a prank until Perry gets hold of the case and springs into action as he questions family members, nurses and bankers until he has a clear view of the situation.

It was nice to see the writers take a different approach to a mystery. A refreshing move from some of the rehashed plots already experience in season two. The story was good along with the cast in making this episode a good watch for viewers.

At least twoTwoTWO cats.

[ablbodyed-2 · 8/10 · 28 February 2020]

When I saw the cat Peter Baxter was stroking in bed in the opening scene, I looked over at Catania sleeping peacefully next to me on the couch. The eponymous star of the show was identical to my beauty: a full, round face with dark brown markings, dark tail and legs and a paler brown over the creamy beige of her sturdy body. My cat was too invested in sleeping off dinner than to look at the TV. I think it is a different cat in the scene where Hing is digging up the briefcase (and there was something delicious on the rock where he set the h(im)er) But in the office scene at the end of the episode it is surely a different cat: slimmer, and with much less brown and more like what has become the standard for Siamese cats. Also, the cats must have been given some of the sedation discussed in the episode: they're both too calm in what was probably a quite chaotic studio. Also, I immediately recognized Richard Crane (Dr. Keene) from the ancient, beloved(LOL) TV serial "Rocky Jones: Space Ranger"

Notes on the Obvious - I thimk

[darbski · 10/10 · 27 June 2017]

Benson Fong (ya gotta love that name) actually has glass in his spectacles - normally they don't, unless the wearer needs corrective lenses. The Judge actually has a GAVEL - normally they never use one; rapping either with their glasses or a very noisy pencil (and, from the eraser end, at that). The cat doesn't do anything but get carried around; like a mad scientist, or escaped Nazi bigshot would do. The description of the plan as "hare-brained" doesn't go far enough. It is both hare-brained and bone-headed. I mean, who's dumber? Baxter for thinking it up, or Hing for carrying it out? It was great that Perry figured out that there was a misunderstanding about who had the cover letter and intention of change of will.

I know that others have noticed this fact: the "Bad Nurse" Edith, was HOT; as in total sexpot. she was familiar, so when I looked her up in IMDb, it wasn't shocking to find that she had been Mike Hammer's sexetary in "Kiss Me Deadly" some years before. This is an iconic film noir detective story starring Ralph Meeker and Maxine cooper (Velda/ Edith), and a must-see for all good hard-boiled fiction lovers. An interesting fact: the "other" nurse said that she'd remembered something about a nurse's cap. They are given out by the school that the nurse graduates from, and stay with them for the rest of their careers. I looked it up, and this was true at the time. It's how Perry caught her. Res Gestae means "things done" - all the things from beginning to end involved in the crime.

The ending could have cleared things up a bit as far as who was cut out of the will; besides the guilty, that is. Miss Cooper is one of the very few actresses who are the equal in beauty of Barbara Hale; I like her. The supporting actors are, as usual, excellent in performance and I salute them and thank them for their hard work. Thanks to IMDb for references and this forum.

What the heck is Res Gestae! The feature race at Aqueduct!

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 9 May 2013]

***SPOILERS*** Being his loyal and faithful servant for the last 25 years who never disobeyed his employer "Old Man" Peter Baxter, Anthony Jochim, orders the house caretaker James Hing, Benson Fong, always did what he was told to do without question by his master. That in setting his master's house on fire with him in it in order for Baxter to find out if his heirs Kenneth & Stuart, John Agar & Robert Knapp, and Winnie Oakley, Judy Lewis, won't contest his last will and testament after his death. A will in which he left each of them one dollar of his almost four million dollar fortune! And that's not even counting his sprawling mansion which is worth at least a cool million in property value, not counting the antiques silverware paintings and furniture in it, alone!

It was Baxter's plan to fake his death with Hing's help and then see how his surviving family members would react with him leaving it all, his entire fortune, to caretaker Hing. What happened is that when Hing on Baxter's orders set his house on fire Baxter never made it outside! That's by someone slipping Baxter a Mickey Finn before bedtime that knocked him out cold before he could check out of the place. Thers' also the fact that the cadaver or dead body that was to replace Baxter never got there, Baxter's bedroom, either! In what's an obvious case of premeditated murder Hing is arrested and charged for committing it in Baxter's demise. Having Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, take on his case he's a bit perplexed in Hing's story and at first drops him as his client altogether. With Perry checking out all the fact and one is Hing's mindless loyalty to his former and late boss Peter Baxter he realizes that there's something to Hing's story as ridicules and illogical as it sounds!

****SPOILERS*** As it turned out Hing mindlessly following the strange orders of his feathered brained boss Peter Baxter almost landed him on a seat in the San Quentin gas chamber. What in fact happened is that someone took advantage of Hing's uncompromising loyalty for his boss and master Peter Baxter as cover to do his boss in. Perry soon realized the undebatable fact, in and out of a courtroom, that Hing couldn't be in two places at the same time: Downstairs setting the fire to the Baxter mansion and upstairs in Baxter's bedroom making sure he's out of danger and having him replaced by a cadaver that he got from a local morgue! Cast member Benson Fong is best remembered as Charlie Chan's #3 son Tommy Chan as well as the old & wise master Han Fei in the 1970's Kung Fu TV series. As for actor John Agar he's best remembered, besides being once married to America's Sweetheart Shirley Temple, as John Wayne's sidekick in the stirring war action film "Sands of Iwo Jima" as well as classic Western "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon".

The Case of the Caretaker's Cat

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 1 November 2023]

This looks like an open and shut case for Hamilton Burger not Perry Mason.

The viewer sees gardener James Hing burning down the mansion of his employer Peter Baxter, an old wealthy ill man. Hing burns Baxter to a crisp but saves the family cat.

An unusual beginning which signifies that Hing hated his employer. When the lawyer reads the will, Hing gets the entire estate. News that enrages members of Baxter's family who want to challenge the will.

Only Lieutenant Tragg arrests Hing after he is spotted burying a box full of cash.

At first Perry does not want to represent Hing because he is evasive but then is told that Hing was only following Peter Baxter's orders.

The death was meant to be a setup, for Peter Baxter to find out who would challenge the will so they can be cut off.

It does not take Hing long to realise that this was a ridiculous plan as Peter Baxter is really dead. While he is facing a murder charge.

It was a nice variation of the formula. There were a few good suspects but it had to rely on the eventual culprit giving themselves up in court.

Legatee in jackpot.

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 15 November 2018]

Benson Fong who was the groundkeeper on a large estate becomes the principal inheritor of the estate when the millionaire disappears. Disinherited are his three grandchildren, John Agar, Judy Lewis, and Robert Knapp. Fong seeks out Perry Mason.

When he sets fire to the estate and the body of the millionaire is found, Fong's in a jackpot and really needs Perry Mason. But even then out of some loyalty to his late employer Fong won't tell the whole truth to his own lawyer.

The title comes the fact that before the arson job Fong took millionaire's Siamese cat to the vet and boarded him overnight. That's making him look good to Hamilton Burger.

Lots of alternate suspects but the culprit was an easy find once Fong started leveling with Raymond Burr.

Stupid Plan

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 30 December 2021]

I agree with others who point out how ludicrous the plan was, hatched by the rich man. We have the archetypal reading of the will where the immediate heirs are virtually cut off. There are so many combatants, one would need a scorecard to keep them straight. Fun episode based on a ridiculous premise.

Res Gestae FTW

[Bills3511 · 7/10 · 17 December 2020]

Kind of a goofy plot, but I had to give a shout out to the guy who questioned if "Res Gestae" was a race horse at Aqueduct. Great call.

Completely Ridiculous

[bote · 3/10 · 17 December 2020]

The best idea this cranky old man could come up with to fake his own death was to burn down his house?!

When the story starts out with such an improbable plot device I refuse to take it seriously.

Weird and wacky

[caseyabell · 7/10 · 14 January 2023]

As the other reviews make clear, this has to be one of the craziest and most convoluted episodes in the entire PM series. A rich old man who's seriously ill - confined to his bed, in fact - plots to fake his death by having his caretaker burn down his house with another body inside, just to see how his heirs react.

There are only 99 things that can go wrong with this goofball scheme. Sure enough, the wealthy geezer croaks for real in the fire...or maybe he croaks before the fire. Stay tuned for all the nutty twists and turns, and you'll have to smile at the sheer silliness of it all.

There is an actual cat in the episode but fortunately he doesn't go up in flames with the geezer's mansion. At least no animals were harmed in the making of this program.