The Case of the Feather Cloak
- Episode aired Feb 11, 1965
- 1h
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
241
YOUR RATING
While in Hawaii to check on property for a hotel development, Perry is asked to help Anona Gilbert, who owns a critical piece of property. Her fiancé, who is involved in a scheme involving t... Read allWhile in Hawaii to check on property for a hotel development, Perry is asked to help Anona Gilbert, who owns a critical piece of property. Her fiancé, who is involved in a scheme involving the land, breaks their engagement and is murdered.While in Hawaii to check on property for a hotel development, Perry is asked to help Anona Gilbert, who owns a critical piece of property. Her fiancé, who is involved in a scheme involving the land, breaks their engagement and is murdered.
Barbara Hale
- Della Street
- (credit only)
Ray Collins
- Lt. Tragg
- (credit only)
Antony Scott
- Jon Kakai
- (as Tony Scott)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn a conversation with Anona, Auntie Hilo refers to "haole" missionaries. "Haole" is a Hawaiian term for nonnatives, particularly Caucasians.
- GoofsAuntie Hilo has a very heavy Eastern European accent, which is totally out of place for the character.
- Quotes
Douglas Kelland: Wahini, have you been smoking opium or something?
Featured review
An Errand of Mercy on Friday in Hawaii, no Della
We get another invasion from Star Trek in this Perry Mason episode
David Opatoshu (Anon 7 from Errand of Mercy) and Michael Dante (Maab from Friday's Child), team up in this episode of "Perry Mason in Hawaii but really Los Angeles", One to be shot (but not vaporized by a Klingon), The other to collect weird birds.
People get this wrong, people blame the production crew of Perry Mason on the weird miscasting of ethnic peoples in these 60s television shows, but this was actually the fault of something that is called "central casting". They actually still exist, but more effort is made today to match up the people hired to be in television shows and movies with the actual races that these people are supposed to be. fact is, back in the 60s there were not many Chinese actors, not many Japanese actors, not even very many actors of color, that were used in television shows. But Perry Mason was one of the first shows to start using more actors of color, any color. And they would cast these ethnic groups as smart, intelligent, working people.
These shows had to use the actors that were given to them by central casting, sometimes, but very rarely, this included a real Chinese person when a Chinese person was needed, and in this case a real Hawaiian person. In this case, none were available, other than Wende Wagner (Anona Gilbert), who was close but was actually a native American in ancestry. The worst possible casting was Miriam Goldina from "Ladies of the big house", who was literally a Russian by birth.
I have nothing against the actress, she just did the best she could, cast in a part that was totally wrong for her. Apparently the only actual actor from anywhere in the Pacific Ocean that central casting provided the makers of Perry Mason this particular week was Jon Hall Who played "Lieutenant Kia"- And this was in fact his last recorded role.
Of course this was 60s television and this was what they had to work with back then. They found a couple of locations that if we sat back and imagined, possibly could have been Hawaii. If not for the fact that one of the locations was a well-known LA tourist attraction Aka Magic Castle, at the intersection of Franklin Avenue and N. Orange Dr. None of the other exterior or beach locations were listed but I suppose they were somewhere near the beaches of Malibu.
Other than these well harped on, well nagged on problems, this story had some interesting elements, namely the question of "are there certain caves underneath the coasts of Hawaii that contain secrets of Hawaiian Kings?"
I am not familiar with the history of Hawaii, their kings, or their stories, mythologies, heritage, even if I were to ask any Hawaiian native about this today, their knowledge would be different than the knowledge of Hawaiian natives of 1965 or so when this was written and made. This episode was basically a possible writing experiment for hard boiled crime novelist Jonathan Latimer who also wrote under the pseudonym "Peter Coffin".
The general mystery story is valid, it is just the placement in Hawaii which is problematic.
The earlier PM episode that followed this format, "the case of a place called midnight" also in season eight, written by Jackson Gillis, was produced a lot better than this episode, using more established footage from Europe, we actually believe we were in Switzerland and in Germany. We even believed that the regular actors with which they populated bars and cafés, which we would see episode after episode during the entire run of Perry Mason, we're actually European citizens.
In this episode, the effort was taken to make us believe we were in Hawaii but it fell short in many ways.
Nevertheless a highly enjoyable episode with a satisfying resolution and dénouement.
And I always wonder about some of the actors in my favorite Star Trek episodes, who were they before they were Anon 7 and Maab? Before they were aliens, they were characters in this Perry Mason episode.
And, to tell you the truth, I haven't met an episode of Perry Mason that I disliked. Despite my love of science fiction, fantasy, even action movies, quart room drama is my favorite kind of drama and Perry Mason did it first-and the best. Even when Perry wasn't even in a courtroom.
This episode was also Perry and Paul's vacation away from Della.
David Opatoshu (Anon 7 from Errand of Mercy) and Michael Dante (Maab from Friday's Child), team up in this episode of "Perry Mason in Hawaii but really Los Angeles", One to be shot (but not vaporized by a Klingon), The other to collect weird birds.
People get this wrong, people blame the production crew of Perry Mason on the weird miscasting of ethnic peoples in these 60s television shows, but this was actually the fault of something that is called "central casting". They actually still exist, but more effort is made today to match up the people hired to be in television shows and movies with the actual races that these people are supposed to be. fact is, back in the 60s there were not many Chinese actors, not many Japanese actors, not even very many actors of color, that were used in television shows. But Perry Mason was one of the first shows to start using more actors of color, any color. And they would cast these ethnic groups as smart, intelligent, working people.
These shows had to use the actors that were given to them by central casting, sometimes, but very rarely, this included a real Chinese person when a Chinese person was needed, and in this case a real Hawaiian person. In this case, none were available, other than Wende Wagner (Anona Gilbert), who was close but was actually a native American in ancestry. The worst possible casting was Miriam Goldina from "Ladies of the big house", who was literally a Russian by birth.
I have nothing against the actress, she just did the best she could, cast in a part that was totally wrong for her. Apparently the only actual actor from anywhere in the Pacific Ocean that central casting provided the makers of Perry Mason this particular week was Jon Hall Who played "Lieutenant Kia"- And this was in fact his last recorded role.
Of course this was 60s television and this was what they had to work with back then. They found a couple of locations that if we sat back and imagined, possibly could have been Hawaii. If not for the fact that one of the locations was a well-known LA tourist attraction Aka Magic Castle, at the intersection of Franklin Avenue and N. Orange Dr. None of the other exterior or beach locations were listed but I suppose they were somewhere near the beaches of Malibu.
Other than these well harped on, well nagged on problems, this story had some interesting elements, namely the question of "are there certain caves underneath the coasts of Hawaii that contain secrets of Hawaiian Kings?"
I am not familiar with the history of Hawaii, their kings, or their stories, mythologies, heritage, even if I were to ask any Hawaiian native about this today, their knowledge would be different than the knowledge of Hawaiian natives of 1965 or so when this was written and made. This episode was basically a possible writing experiment for hard boiled crime novelist Jonathan Latimer who also wrote under the pseudonym "Peter Coffin".
The general mystery story is valid, it is just the placement in Hawaii which is problematic.
The earlier PM episode that followed this format, "the case of a place called midnight" also in season eight, written by Jackson Gillis, was produced a lot better than this episode, using more established footage from Europe, we actually believe we were in Switzerland and in Germany. We even believed that the regular actors with which they populated bars and cafés, which we would see episode after episode during the entire run of Perry Mason, we're actually European citizens.
In this episode, the effort was taken to make us believe we were in Hawaii but it fell short in many ways.
Nevertheless a highly enjoyable episode with a satisfying resolution and dénouement.
And I always wonder about some of the actors in my favorite Star Trek episodes, who were they before they were Anon 7 and Maab? Before they were aliens, they were characters in this Perry Mason episode.
And, to tell you the truth, I haven't met an episode of Perry Mason that I disliked. Despite my love of science fiction, fantasy, even action movies, quart room drama is my favorite kind of drama and Perry Mason did it first-and the best. Even when Perry wasn't even in a courtroom.
This episode was also Perry and Paul's vacation away from Della.
helpful•163
- XweAponX
- Sep 7, 2020
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Filming locations
- Magic Castle - 7001 Franklin Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA(Mr. Logan's and Prof. Heller's house)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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