Perry Mason (TV Series) The Case of the Frantic Flyer (1960) User Reviews

Veteran Actor Simon Oakland Is The Victim

[DKosty123 · 9/10 · 8 February 2009]

This show in the middle of Season 3 is again written by a team of writers who seem to be writing some good shows to supplement the 85 episodes or so that are based directly on Gardnener material during the series.

I mention Simon Oakland here as he is a well known character actor from quite a few TV series. By the time Simon started his acting career, he was already over 40 and by the time of his death in the 1980's he had logged a lot of television work including his boss role for Darren McGavin's "Night Stalker".

In this episode, he is involved with a woman trying to steal over $300,000 dollars. He murders someone with a plane and breaks his leg parachuting to safety. Interestingly, this part of the plot is used later in an episode of Columbo with guest star Johnny Cash.

From here though, it varies as this episode gets a lot done in 52 minutes. Mason has to work pretty hard to find out who has done it in this episode.

A whole lot of double crossing going on.

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 3 October 2014]

There are two murders in this Perry Mason mystery. The first is no mystery as Simon Oakland shoots the son of his employer and then private pilot Oakland fakes a plane crash with the son's body in it. All to cover the theft of 300 hundred grand from his employer.

But two things go radically wrong. First the body doesn't burn up and there's enough forensic evidence to show the burned body of the kid isn't Oakland and that he was killed in a shooting. Secondly Oakland breaks his leg on impact from his parachute landing and is forced to winter it with prospector/hermit James Bell. His absence forces his mistress accomplice Patricia Barry to make arrangements with another of the firm's employees Ed Kemmer. Just a whole lot of double crossing going on.

When Oakland turns up dead it's the widow of the man he killed Rebecca Welles who winds up the one charged. Raymond Burr defends her and comes up with a perpetrator who decided to get a piece of the action, maybe all the action.

Nicely turned and twisted plot.

"I have a cunning plan"...

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 24 December 2022]

... the Black Adder would say on the old British sitcom of the same name, usually in the season finale, usually resulting in the mass extinction of the entire cast. But I digress, but not really since Howard Walters rather sounds like that in this week's episode of Perry Mason.

Howard is one of three people at his company who know the combination to a safe that has 130K in it. That would be about 1.5 million dollars in 2022. So Howard plans to have his girlfriend who works at the same company take the money instead. Howard will conveniently be out of town when the theft occurs, so he will not be blamed.

Howard's simple plan is: 1. Pilot his plane to a planned business meeting the day of the theft.

2. Crash land the plane in some remote area so it takes awhile for anyone to get to the plane.

3. Parachute from the plane to a remote cabin where his girlfriend, with the money, will meet up with him.

4. They then disappear.

5. What about the body of Howard which will not be in the wreckage? His plan also includes getting the son of the company president to come with him to his plane where he will then shoot him. His burned body will substitute for Howard's.

6. The actual dead person, the company president's son, will thus be considered missing and be the chief suspect in the theft of the money.

Can you see how many ways this plan can go wrong? There's one more - Howard's girlfriend plans to betray him and kill him, mainly because she is greedy but also because she has been stringing Howard along and has another ACTUAL boyfriend who plans to help her.

When "Howard's End" comes - the real end, not the one he planned, his widow - yes the lying weasel is married - is accused of the crime and Perry Mason is on the case.

As the series progressed and ran out of stories actually penned by Erle Stanley Gardner, it was necessary to come up with original screenplays. On the most part these new screenplays were complex and interesting, but they lacked one thing - a good motive for the murder by the actual killer. Sure, the murderer usually had good reason to steal, to get revenge, etc., but there wasn't a very good reason to actually kill anybody to accomplish the end result given the circumstances other than Perry Mason needing at least one murder an episode. This entry is one of those episodes IMHO.

When a good plan goes bad

[kfo9494 · 22 July 2016]

In this packed episode, two people have a brilliant scheme to steal $130,000 from the place they work and then live happily with each other till the money runs out. They also have a patsy that will cause everyone to think they are clear of any theft and all the suspicion will end up on someone else. But things, as we know from watching Perry, do not always go as planned.

Howard Walters and Janice Atkins are set to rob the business. Howard knows the combination to the company safe and he gives it to Janice. Howard will fake his death in an airplane crash and all suspicion will be gone from him. But when he parachutes from the plane, he ends up breaking his legs and is found high in the mountains by a lonely prospector. He will miss the appointment he has with Janice to collect the money. But missing the appointment may not be the worse thing. For Janice already has another accomplice that will lead to deeper problems for Walter.

There is much going on in this story that will cause the events to twist near every turn. It is an interesting case of people doing nearly anything, including lie and murder, in order to collect a small amount of tokens of reward. An entertaining plot that has more turns and twist than a Rocky Mountain highway. Good watch.

Well Covered

[darbski · 10/10 · 28 July 2017]

**SPOILERS** This time, I mean it !! Go no further if you haven't seen this episode. The other three reviews have covered this so well, that I can add nothing, or take away from their contributions. I WILL say these things, though. By my count, there are four murderers in this story. First, Howard; or was it Roger, who kills Andy. Second Zack (kills Howard) Third, Janice, and/or Roger who actively participates in the robbery and subsequent murder of both men. See, in California, P.C. 187 Murder, First Degree: anyone who takes part in a crime resulting in the death of a person shares guilt equally with the actual killer.

In my so-called mind, the dirtiest of all is Janice. She was in it from the very first plan, right through to the last attempted frame up on Carol. Barry's acting just shows her craftily considering every move as things developed. Three complete creeps may be headed for San Quentin, and the gas chamber. The only problem I have with the ending is Carol wearing a giant bow as a hair accessory; it looks ridiculous. Della, on the other hand looks beautiful, as usual. I'm not quite sure about the ending line; did Perry leave Paul's check blank, or not? 

Great story, great acting, courtroom drama is excellent (it IS a show about a lawyer, right?). Kudos and thanks to the casting department, and S.A.G. for such a depth of bench.

Too Many Variables in the Plan

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 6 January 2022]

A robbery is set up, but for it to work, some things must really fall into place nicely. Since it involves an orchestrated plane crash, there are just too many problems with it all jibing. I did enjoy it, however, because we are handed several suspects. With Perry Mason, the one person we know is innocent, other than the regulars, is the accused. For those that complain about the plots being too difficult to follow, I would prefer these over the simplistic stuff that fills the airwaves these days.

Never liked this show.

[LukeCoolHand · 2/10 · 20 September 2021]

OK here we go. I realize Perry Mason has a rabid following of people who love the show. Growing up it never appealed to me at all. As an adult I still don't get the fascination with it. Raymond Burr has always been a dull, boring actor to me and the rest of the regulars are no better. The episodes always seemed very convoluted and hard to follow. That brings us to this episode that I tried very hard to enjoy. It was so convoluted it bordered on the ridiculous. I cannot say it was the worst as I have only seen a handfull of episodes over the years but if there are worse episodes they must be real stinkers.

Typically bad Mason

[pmike-11312 · 1/10 · 5 October 2022]

Ridiculous, convoluted plot. Bad writing and HORRIBLE dialogue. Awful directing and poor acting (even by a couple of otherwise good character actors). The regular cast are all mid-range character actors (Burr plays the same person all the time, including Ironsides. But, he gets to sit through that one.) All adding up to another example of "how in the world did this show stay on the air for so long?"

Ridiculous, convoluted plot. Bad writing and HORRIBLE dialogue. Awful directing and poor acting (even by a couple of otherwise good character actors). The regular cast are all mid-range character actors (Burr plays the same person all the time, including Ironsides. But, he gets to sit through that one.) All adding up to another example of "how in the world did this show stay on the air for so long?"