In this episode it was really not the story that made this a good watch, but the actors which transformed this script into a good show.
The plot of the episode involved an aging famed swimmer named Victoria Dawn (Patrice Wymore). Her star had faded and along with her husband Doug Hamilton (Jess Barker) and her sister Lillian Keely (Nan Leslie) they cook up this publicity stunt where she is to swim the Catalina Channel to in order to put her name back in the papers.
The problem was that Victoria was aged. She was out of shape and my no means able to swim 26 miles. So they cooked up this stunt where they hired a aspiring actress Reggie Lansfield (Jean Hale) to swim most of the way and then Victoria was going to swim the last mile or so.
While the swim was going on in deep fog (this was also planned) Reggie starts to drown and the Victoria's boy-Friday and boats-man jumps in the water to save her right before the boat explodes. The boats-man, Charles Shaw (Bill Williams) and Reggie are picked up by another boat and driven to west coast.
When Reggie believes that Victoria was planning to kill her she goes over to see her. When she enters the home, Victoria is murdered. And now, to make things even worse, she leaps outside a window only to be seen by a male nurse that she has to use her judo skills to get away.
And now she is charge with the murder of Victoria and Perry is there to defend her against Hamilton Burger's complainant.
The story is much more interesting that some of the later shows. But what makes this show come to life is the acting.- Patrice Wymore, who plays Victoria, performs greatly as the aging star. She reminded me of Betty Davis in some of her movies.(Patrice was the last wife of Errol Flynn)-Jean Hale, as Reggie, performance was as beautiful as her looks.- Bill Williams, the boats-man named Charles Shaw, performs his part perhaps better than it could ever had been acted. (Bill Williams is the husband of Barbara Hale (Della))
The acting sets this episode apart from others in season eight. A good watch with an interesting story.