Perry Mason (TV Series) The Case of the Misguided Model (1966) User Reviews

Perry's in a ethical pinch in this episode

[kfo9494 · 9/10 · 11 February 2013]

Perry has a client that tells him under the 'attorney-client confidentiality privilege' that he killed a man. Now another man has been charged with the murder and Perry is in a pinch between a client and an officer of the court.

It beginning when a young model named Sharon Carmody (Mary Ann Mobley) is being threatened by a man named Art Grover. Sharon asks a young boxer named Duke Maronek to escort her home. When they get to her apartment, Duke opens the door and before he can turn the lights on he gets hit in the face. Duke fights back with Sharon outside calling the police. When the fight is over, the lights are turned on and Art Grover lays on the floor apparently dead from Duke's fist. Since Sharon is up for a spokesperson for 'White Snow' cleaning product she wants no scandal. She asks Duke to take the body outside before the police arrive. Duke does as Sharon asks and flees. Later the police arrive where Grover's body was dumped and they arrest a bum, that is robbing the body, for the murder.

Duke is scared and goes to Perry and reveals the story. He wants to make sure that Perry will not reveal the story to anyone. But when Perry learns that the bum is going to be charged with murder, he does everything in his power to try to get Duke to confess. Perry is torn between his client and making sure justice is protected.

With some help from Paul Drake and his little visit to Seattle, things are not as cut and dry as they seem. And with Duke refusing to be taken alive it will be a dangerous situation for police and Perry alike.

This was a different look at a lawyer's life as he tries hard to take the correct and ethical path. Very impressive episode with a entertaining mystery that keeps the viewer interested in the entire show. With the acting being top-notch this episode was a pleasure to watch.

beauty and humor .. spoilers

[darbski · 8/10 · 10 April 2017]

I agree with the other reviewers, but would add the observation that beauty without truth is fleeting, indeed. Mary Ann Mobley does a good job of proving that point. Naturally, Perry's client is a dimwitted stump who won't listen to the advice Perry gives him and very nearly gets himself killed. Another plus is the lovely Rita Lynn, a supporting actress whose stage time is life itself, and who makes a decision the result of which is only to be imagined. One of the (in my opinion) funniest remarks in the fine legal series is when Lt. Steve Drumm says to Mary Ann, who has just won the very coveted "Miss White Snow Princess"title, that he doesn't care if she's to be "Miss Snowplow". Small point, and inadvertent, but I laughed out loud at how these titles should probably be seen to be.

One of the most versatile supporting actors in this episode is James Griffith who plays a "Not guilty, but still a dirtbag to perfection". Fine acting all around, and a fast moving story well told.

New depth for Perry Mason (without Hamilton Burger at all!)

[psimonson · 8/10 · 27 February 2014]

The 'regulars' of the Perry Mason cast are great as usual - nothing out of the ordinary. However, this episode exposes a different side of the noted lawyer than to what we are usually exposed - vulnerability.

An innocent-appearing young woman, trying for her breakthrough job into acting by being a spokesperson for a soap company, seemingly becomes the victim of a botched burglary at her apartment. Fortuitously she has been accompanied home by a friend - an ex-boxer. As he enters her apartment he's attacked by an unknown assailant as the door closes and locks behind him. Because of his quick wits and fighting abilities he quickly overpowers the attacker and opens the door to let in the young woman, only to find it seems the attacker has been killed by his blows.

The ex-boxer has had dealings with Perry Mason before (in a contract dispute with a previous employer), so, of course, he calls him and reveals all, admitting to killing the victim. Unfortunately he further assisted by removing the body from the apartment to prevent tarnishing the career goals of the young actress. To complicate matters further, a transient finds the body dumped in an alley and, thinking it was just a passed-out drunk, he begins to take a watch and wallet only to be discovered by the police and ultimately is charged with the murder.

Many more plot twists ensue, with the man who thinks he caused the death on-the-run from the police. Predictably, Perry Mason figures out the matter and brings the episode to a successful conclusion with the true murderer being identified immediately before the end...but only after several plot twists and a cliffhanging scene posing the threat of death to Mr. Mason.

Featured in this episode are noted and highly-respected actors Paul Lukather (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0525566/?ref_=tt_cl_t7), Mary Ann Mobley (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0595039/?ref_=tt_cl_t6), and veteran character actor James Griffith (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0341526/?ref_=tt_cl_t11).

Only 4 more episodes of the Perry Mason series were aired after this - it was season 9 and CBS no longer felt it was financially feasible to continue the program...too bad. Raymond Burr and the rest of the cast had held down Earl Stanley Gardner's 'fort' admirably and could have continued had the network continued to have faith.

Agent's "sickness"

[dt123 · 8/10 · 15 November 2019]

A pretty good episode at the end of the series' run. Reviews here seem to be confused about the agent's dizzy spells, sweating, and looking like he was on death's doorstep. We find at the end that the boxer had actually fought him, not the dead man as he had assumed. The agent had taken a blow to the head and was subsequently sick from it.

Perry has an ethical dilemma

[AlsExGal · 9/10 · 5 November 2023]

Sharon Carmody tells her boyfriend, Duke Maronek, that Art Grover has threatened to cut her face because she has rejected him. She therefore wants him to accompany her home and make sure he is not hanging around. But when he opens her apartment door he is greeted by a punch in the face. A fight ensues between the two men that ends in Art Grover laying dead on Sharon's living room floor. She tells Duke that having such a thing end up in the papers will ruin her chance at getting a big job being the model and spokesperson for a major soap company. Thus Duke agrees to take the body out the "back way" and dump it somewhere else, and the two will pretend it never happened.

But Duke is tormented and goes to his attorney, Perry Mason, and tells him all. Perry wants to call the police and explain the situation was self-defense and an accident, but Duke swears him to silence since he is claustrophobic and fears being in a jail cell. The next day, when a known felon is arrested for the murder because he is found going through the dead man's pockets, Perry has quite the dilemma on his hands - violate attorney/client privilege, or stay quiet as the wrong man is prosecuted for the crime.

Meanwhile Sharon isn't troubled by any of these developments at all as she gets her big modelling job, though her agent is walking around acting very sick, like he has the plague. Complications ensue.

During the last couple of seasons Perry Mason tries to take on the relevant issues of the day without abandoning the show's traditional roots. It's a hard needle to thread, and this is one of those episodes, with PM obviously taking shots at beauty contests and false displays of and demands of virginal appearance if not outright virginity. For example, here, when auditioning models for her soap company, the owner asks if the girl currently auditioning is married or is divorced - obvious subtext for wanting the girl she hires to at least be a possible virgin.

This episode had an interesting twist in the plot - one of the more interesting ones I've seen on this show, plus the added unusual feature where Perry is on the horns of an ethical dilemma, but it also had a ridiculous part to it too. Apparently, In 1966 Los Angeles, you can engage in a protracted armed stand-off with the police and suffer no legal consequences. Then there is the old plot device of somebody going out "the back way" when Duke takes Grover's body out of Sharon's apartment. Where do these convenient back ways come from? I've had several apartments and I've never seen or had one before. Finally I'm surprised Mary Ann Mobley ever "worked in this town again" after her over the top performance near the end - Her character shrugs off a murder in her apartment, but destroys the set over a tame looking picture of her with some random guy? It appears the folks at PM were just shrugging off the details at this point as the show was going off the air in just a few more episodes. Still, that great plot twist I mentioned, the high camp of Mary Ann Mobley's performance, and the regular cast make it worthwhile.

Fern Bronwyn

[seanwhitney-34377 · 23 October 2020]

Fern Bronwyn is more deeply tied to the murder than we are lead to believe when Paul talks with her in Seattle. The very opening of the episode, right before Duke and Sharon enter her apartment Fern is seen either closing or trying to open Sharon's door. She then disappears and Duke and Sharon appear in the hallway approaching Sharon's apartment. Her appearance near the end of the episode at the studio and later at the cabin isn't really explained. Paul got the pictures from Fern that upset Sharon, but why Fern travelled to LA is a mystery.

The Case of the Commercial Spokesbore

[zsenorsock · 7/10 · 9 September 2008]

Mary Ann Mobley plays actress/model Sharon Carmody, who is one of the finalists for the most boring commercial spokesperson I've ever seen: the White Snow Queen. But she's been threatened and asks former boxer Duke Maronek (Paul Lukather) to walk her home. But when they arrives at Carmody's apartment, Duke is attacked in the dark and a big fight breaks out. When the lights are finally turned on, Duke and Sharon discover the body of the man who threatened her lying on the ground. Afraid of a scandal that will ruin her chances of becoming the boring White Snow Queen, Carmody convinces Duke it was self-defense and he should dump the body in a dumpster in an alley. Duke later confesses the deed to his lawyer, Perry Mason, but refuses to turn himself in. When two time loser Jake Stearns (James Griffith) is charged with the crime, Perry is on the spot. As an officer of the court, he can't let another man get convicted for a crime he didn't commit, yet because of attorney-client privilege he can't reveal what he knows. Or can he? In a story unlike anything done today, or in real life, Mason decides his obligation to justice trumps attorney-client privilege! Fortunately he's off the hook as he begins to investigate if Duke really did kill the man he thinks he did.

The show ends with a very atypical scene with Duke holding off the police with a high powered rifle in a mountain cabin. Perry ignores Lt. Drumm and walks up to the cabin unarmed, hoping to talk Duke into surrender.

Not so bad

[kellielulu · 7/10 · 21 October 2022]

I can understand some have issues with this one. I think it's actually pretty interesting. They never get inside the court room and the case is solved without the usual last minute court drama but there is drama!

A boxer is an easy target to pin a murder on especially over a woman he's involved with. She wants to be Miss Snow Princess or something like that. She and her manger Rudy set the young man up . She is the actual killer the victim was going to expose something that would ruin her chances . He knocks out the manager but doesn't kill anyone. That's probably why the manager seems like he has a bad headache.

There is an interesting side part with Paul Drake and a former female investigator. She has information that helps the case and is in the big reveal.

There is a scene at a remote cabin where Perry saves his client and the killer takes off in a police car! She's quickly stopped.

Mason won't bill his client since he broke confidentiality so the client takes Perry and Della out for steak and champagne.

Pretty Hard to Swallow--Hooray for Miss Snow Shovel

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 6 March 2022]

This is so ludicrous. Imagine what it would take to orchestrate the supposed killing of a man and having him mistaken for one already dead. Throw in an ex-boxer who is dumber than a box of rocks, going for help and then refusing it. Perry having to disobey attorney/client privilege. Then a shootout with police for which there is no punishment. Dumb 1960's television. Also, those pictures on the TV as Mary Ann Mobley tries to become Miss Snow Cone are pretty tame. Who is that guy? And her tantrum as she destroys the display of soap behind her. Taking one last shot to knock down the package she missed the first time. I guess I was too stupid to realized why Rudy was walking around in a daze, looking like he could die ay minute.

This one HURTS

[weavethehawk · 23 September 2020]

The worst, the most ludicrous, the corniest, the stupidest episode of any series of any genre I have EVER seen in my long life. This is a total embarrassment. From the ridiculous start, this episode progressed, careening downhill at the most alarming acceleration of total inanity one could ever wish to witness. Enough said.

Try to take him alive but if he resists protect yourselves!

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 31 May 2013]

****SPOILERS*** With the what seems like The Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, Comedy Hour winding down to it's lest few episodes until it was canned by CBS Netowrk this one "The Case of the Misguided Model" takes the cake in just how ridicules and outrageous the show's gotten now in its tenth season on the air. We have what seems like a justifiable killing right at the beginning of the episode with ex-professional boxer Duke Maronek, Paul Lukather, knocking out cold Art Gover, no credits to who played him listed, who had broken into Duke's girlfriend Sharon Carmody's apartment. It soon becomes clear to everyone including Duke that he hit him a bit too hard thus killing Grover. With Duke in a panic in him , who's very claustrophobic, being put in a jail cell even overnight and Sharon a professional model losing her chance of being given the title of Miss Snow Queen for Madam Rosa's detergent and dish-washing products Duke dumps Grover's body in an alley outside Sharon's apartment.

It's later when Duke goes to see his lawyer Perry Mason about if he should turn himself into the police it's been reported that Grover's body was found and an innocent homeless man, who was caught going through the dead man's pockets, Jack Sterns played by James Griffith was arrested and charged with Grover's murder. With Duke refusing to give himself up to the police and explain the circumstances behind Grover's death, which will hurt Sharon's chances of winning the Miss Snow Queen contest, Stern may well end up taking a one way trip into the San Quentin gas chamber! But just when you thought you saw everything in pops Sharon's agent Rudy Blair, Anthony Eisley, who's determined to get her to win the Miss Snow Queen contest and couldn't care less if an innocent man, Jack Sterns, ends up being executed for her to get it.

After trying everything he could to get Duke to turn himself in Perry is forced to do the job himself by going to the D.A and ratting his client out in order to keep an innocent man from being unjustifiably executed by the state of California. But as Perry soon discovers there's something in Grover's death that everyone missed but himself and now he has to find Duke and convince him that he's in fact innocent in Grover being killed. But with the police now closing in on him time is quickly running out for Duke.

***SPOILERS**** With Perry putting his life on the line he goes unarmed to Duke's hideout in the valley to talk him into giving himself up as dozens of police and state troopers are about to storm the place. As we soon find out it was non other then Duke's girlfriend Sharon who's working together with her agent Rudy Blair who seems to be suffering from a combination of the DT's and bleeding ulcers who were really behind Grover's death and framed the clueless Duke for it. In what's the highlight of the episode which was Just as Sharon was about to be crowned Miss Snow Queen on live TV the awful truth about her shady past was reviled in a number of x-rated photos! That ended up with Sharon losing her cool and blowing her mind as well as her blowing any of her chances of becoming Miss Snow Queen. But it also revealed her attempt together with Rudy Blair to get away with Art Grover's murder by framing her love sick boyfriend Duke Maronek for it!

...Perry lays an egg...Miss America "snow plowed"...

[gclarkbloom · 7/10 · 12 July 2022]

...this episode is similar to many in the 9th and final season of "Perry Mason"...illogical, unexplained plot twists, seemingly important clues left hanging...all down to multiple scenes clumsily edited by a crew in a series that had, clearly "jumped the shark" ( was on its last legs)...

...the one thing.that stood out to me was Mary Ann Mobley's portrayal if the ambitious Sharon Carmody...who will stop at nothing to be selected as the "Snow Princess" schilliing powdered laundry soap...

...though script engineered, Mobley's character can be seen as a not-too-subtle broadside toward beauty pageants in general; and the vaunted Miss America Pageant in particular...the implication that the wholesome "all-American girl" imagee is just that...imagery....concealing the sometimes ruthless, back-stabbing machinations used by certain contestants and their backers to win the crown...

...Mobley clearly had acting ambitions beyond her year as Miss America for 1959...and as the criminally ambitious Sharon Carmody, she saw the "crown" of a career in film and television...and she exploited her "connections" to get it...

...Mary Ann joined former Miss Americas who went on to show business success, including Bess Meyerson, Lee Merriweather and Vanessa Williams...so, it clearly "pays to have been a princess"....

...Bert Parks and his fellows in the management of the Miss America Pageant organization would have been none-too pleased with this episode...

Strange character in an odd script

[clmarenghi · 5/10 · 22 December 2018]

Why is Rudy Blair, the model's talent agent, constantly looking like he has a splitting migraine and is about to die? Is that ever explained?

See this one a mile because of the Perry Mason parameters

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 10 June 2014]

In this episode close to the end of the series run, Perry Mason explains that in fact he likes to know up front whether his client his guilty or not. So when Paul Lukather a former boxer and client of Raymond Burr comes to him with a story than in fact he just killed a man it doesn't sit well at all with Burr.

In trying to stretch things to make it seem that Perry Mason was finally going to have a guilty client the writers goofed. It is so obvious who the real killer is, but I won't even go into the plot because you'll know in two sentences.

Perry's record is intact, his client is innocent though he never sees a courtroom.

Interesting story!

[philham54 · 4 November 2023]

Mary Ann Mobley (former Miss America) plays a woman auditioning for a part for a soap company. The owner wants someone who is morally "pure" to sell her soap and Mary Ann appears to be just perfect.

However, she is being stalked by a former boyfriend and has her current boyfriend escort her home to her apartment. He hears a noise, enters the apartment, and is jumped by a man in the dark. They struggle and the current beau emerges unharmed but his adversary falls behind the couch. Mary Ann uses the pay phone in the hall to call the police and upon entering her apartment finds her stalker who is dead, lying behind the couch.

Her current beau moves the body to a nearby alley where police later find a wino standing over the body rummaging through the corpse's pockets. He is arrested for murder.

The beau goes to Perry and confesses so when the wino is brought up on charges, Perry knows he is innocent.

How the situation is solved is interesting. As for another reviewer, why Mary Ann's agent has a swimming head all the time is disclosed near the end. What had happened to him?

P.

Worst Mason?

[jameselliot-1 · 4/10 · 26 October 2022]

Even the title, Case of the Misguided Model, doesn't work. Mary Ann Mobley knows exactly what she's doing. There are so many plot holes and so many ridiculous situations that this ranks as the worst ever Mason story. It was a poor way to bring the long running series to a close. Badly written is an understatement. It's stupid beyond belief for the Mason producers and should have been trashed before shooting began.

Why would Mason walk to the cabin when Duke threatens to blast him with a high powered rifle. Why didn't the police restrain him from taking that walk? The idea of placing a photo of Mobley with a geezer in front of the camera is too dirty even for Mason. It would have accomplished nothing. Driving most of the cast to the police standoff is beyond crazy. That Duke has no charges for his actions is the height of absurdity.

You must REALLY willingly suspend your disbelief

[charlesvanderhoff · 4/10 · 21 October 2022]

Just watched this last night. Discussed it with my g/f for about a half hour. How can anyone know that Miss Snow Queen killed the guy? What happened to her. I know she was stopped as she tried to escape in a police car, but to actually know that she committed the murder and then worked with her manager (who could barely keep himself together) is hard to believe.

As you watch this episode, look closely at the first scene, where the boxer enters her apartment. Is there enough shown there for us to realize that it isn't the protagonist trying to harass the poor snow queen?

I think the Lieutenant was right, she should have just been Miss Snowplow.

Among the WORST Perry Mason Episodes Ever!

[jaxian · 1/10 · 9 June 2022]

After watching this mess, all I can add to the previous terrible reviews is, how did Mary Ann Mobley ever get another acting job after this execrable installment was broadcast? It was funny and a sad effort at the same time.

Typical PM ...

[pmike-11312 · 1/10 · 25 May 2021]

Rambling, non-sensical plot, horrendous dialogue writing, over acting - largely due to the usual pathetic direction. Add to that, one of the worst excuses for an actress ever (Mobley - a pretty face but a gawdawful actress) and you've got an even worse PM episode than usual.

I watch for laughs (and the show almost always provides plenty).