Actually, this was the very first episode filmed for the famed television series, filmed in 1956. This information was procured on the back cover of a paperback edition of this Perry Mason novel by Erle Stanley Gardner. Since this was filmed a year before the series actually went on the air, this may account for the differences in hair styles on Raymond Burr and William Hopper. Also, I believe it is the only episode where Lieutenant Tragg (played by veteran actor Ray Collins) shoots someone in Perry Mason's office, in order to save the attorney's life. Anyway, since it is an episode based on one of the best Perry Mason novels, it ranks (in my opinion) as one of the top 10 out of the 271 original Perry Mason television episodes!
17 Reviews
Scary
fbm7275128 March 2010
Warning: Spoilers
This episode is a tad scary if you think about it. The police do indeed have a lot of power for one and second, a bad cop can really create a nightmare for anyone involved. The soundtrack music gives the aura of suspense when Perry & Paul are in the hotel room before stumbling onto the victim. Douglas Kennedy performs excellent as Jaffrey. Tragg is understandably upset and will stop at nothing to solve the case as it is linked to a cop killing a year back and even more so when he finds out who the real killer is. A scene which shows a license plate with a 1956 tag on it tells that the episode was filmed a year before it was aired.
Season one is full of great shows- this is one of them
kfo94945 March 2013
This is an episode taken from Erle Stanley Garner novel by the same name, it was also redone in the ninth season with the title of 'The Case of the Sausalito Sunrise'.
It begins when Perry and Della are out to eat at a place that is owned by Morey Allen. While waiting on their food one of the waitresses, Dixie Dayton, sees a man enter the restaurant and becomes scared. She runs out into the street and is hit by a car. But before being hit, two shots ring out from an alley in the waitress's direction. Someone wants the waitress dead.
When Perry finds a pawn ticket in the mink coat of the injured waitress, it starts a journey that will find people dead and a link to a gun that killed a cop over a year ago. Before long we learn that Dixie Dayton and Morey Allen are involved up to their eyeballs in a crime ring that are run by some rough dudes that will eliminate everyone in their way. And now Morey Allen and Dixie Dayton has been set up on a charge of murder that will also lead to the charges of murder of the police officer. Perry will defend both people for the charges leveled by Hamilton Burger's office.
There are some good lines by Lt Tragg against Perry in this show but it will be the team-up of the two that will lead to finding the true murderer and bring this case to a close. In the novel, Lt Tragg shoots and kills the murderer but in this TV show he just wounds the man before telling Perry to call an ambulance but "don't hurry".
The novel was one of the best reads- and it played out well when it went to the small screen. A very well done show that was entertaining to the end.
It begins when Perry and Della are out to eat at a place that is owned by Morey Allen. While waiting on their food one of the waitresses, Dixie Dayton, sees a man enter the restaurant and becomes scared. She runs out into the street and is hit by a car. But before being hit, two shots ring out from an alley in the waitress's direction. Someone wants the waitress dead.
When Perry finds a pawn ticket in the mink coat of the injured waitress, it starts a journey that will find people dead and a link to a gun that killed a cop over a year ago. Before long we learn that Dixie Dayton and Morey Allen are involved up to their eyeballs in a crime ring that are run by some rough dudes that will eliminate everyone in their way. And now Morey Allen and Dixie Dayton has been set up on a charge of murder that will also lead to the charges of murder of the police officer. Perry will defend both people for the charges leveled by Hamilton Burger's office.
There are some good lines by Lt Tragg against Perry in this show but it will be the team-up of the two that will lead to finding the true murderer and bring this case to a close. In the novel, Lt Tragg shoots and kills the murderer but in this TV show he just wounds the man before telling Perry to call an ambulance but "don't hurry".
The novel was one of the best reads- and it played out well when it went to the small screen. A very well done show that was entertaining to the end.
Probably The Most "Noir" Episode In The Series
cpattavina3 February 2012
Warning: Spoilers
The biggest impression this episode makes on me is the lighting; every interior shot is somber with the exception of the ones in Mason's office. The impression left is one of Mason as a beacon of light in a dark and dangerous world. The ending is different from the one in the novel,but since this was the pilot and had to "grab" the potential buyer, I can forgive this. Strange how nowadays viewers see pilots a couple of times before the series premiere, which is the pilot, and in '57, the October 1956 pilot wasn't aired until the 13th airing of the series. Another oddity is that none of the main characters drives. A well-worn 1950 Cadillac runs down Dixie Dayton and Mason gets from place to place in the back of a '54 Plymouth taxi. We don't see how the police and Paul Drake travel. Very odd that they would show 12 episodes that were a feast of '50s land yachts and then this one. One of my favorite men we love to hate from 50's TV,Douglas Kennedy,figures prominently in this one. Kennedy appeared as absolute rotters 5 of 271 Mason shows. My favorite Douglas Kennedy role was the very G.Gordon Liddy-like "fixer", Steven Boles, in 1958's The Case of The Lucky Loser. Absolutely stone cold!
This may be the only episode in which ...
ColonelPuntridge4 August 2020
This may be the only episode in which Lieutenant Tragg, who is usually so genial and courtly, loses his cool and uses a degrading insult to refer to another person. He calls someone a "fink", and he puts more fury and hatred into the word than actors today put into much stronger four-letter (or longer) words.
And then he delivers one of the most satisfying funny lines on any screen. The bad-guy has been shot but not mortally. Tragg tells Perry "You'd better go get an ambulance," and as Perry goes to obey, Tragg adds, sotto-voce: "Don't -- uh -- hurry."
And then he delivers one of the most satisfying funny lines on any screen. The bad-guy has been shot but not mortally. Tragg tells Perry "You'd better go get an ambulance," and as Perry goes to obey, Tragg adds, sotto-voce: "Don't -- uh -- hurry."
the best of Season 1
jwc5353123 September 2006
CotMEM goes way beyond the usual courtroom dramatics and theatrics we normally associate with the show, especially in the way Mason solves the case. I like this episode a lot because we get to see the true S1 tension that exists between Tragg and Mason and yet Tragg does the right thing in the end - Tragg becomes somewhat more buffoonish as the seasons unfold but here in the first season he goes toe-to-toe with Mason in grand fashion - we get to see more of the close relationship between Drake and Mason as well and really see Mason's relationship with Della - over the years there has been lots of talk of a gay subtext to the characters and one can certainly sense that in this episode in particular (pinky rings anyone?) - Della certainly comes off as knowing she'll never be able to be more than Mason's friend and confidante, and their relationship will never be anything more than a platonic closeness - as if she knows something but can't tell the audience - this episode comes across as much more 'complicated' than the preceding eps and the cast is uniformly quite good, especially Than Wyenn as Hoxie and Douglas Kennedy as Jaffrey and the scene with Mason, Drake and Roxanne Arlen as Mae is priceless - one of Hopper's best in the series (as is his interrogation by Jaffrey and Tragg in the hotel room later) - but what's with the weird haircuts? Although aired in '57 it looks like it carries a 1958 date - maybe there was a break in the shooting and Burr and Hopper went to the barber shop in their spare time - a very enjoyable episode with much more tension than we normally expect from the show
No wonder why the show did so well ...
tforbes-24 March 2021
Warning: Spoilers
"The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink," filmed in 1956, if proof the series was such a hit. It has a gritty noirish quality that is less evident as the series went on. Based on Erle Stanley Gardner's novel of the same name, it concerns a waitress whose mink, taken from a pawn shop, figures in what turns out to be the murder of a police officer.
One little bit of background information: If Raymond Burr's hair was different, chances are he was coming off of filming "A Cry In The Night," which also starred future PM supporting player Richard Anderson. Whatever the case, he already had a busy year in 1956.
We don't see the polished lawyer with the fancy convertibles here, and his office is clearly different. That would remain the case through Season 1, at least partially. But what we have is a terrific plot line, and an episode that clearly sold the series to CBS. And the rest is history.
One little bit of background information: If Raymond Burr's hair was different, chances are he was coming off of filming "A Cry In The Night," which also starred future PM supporting player Richard Anderson. Whatever the case, he already had a busy year in 1956.
We don't see the polished lawyer with the fancy convertibles here, and his office is clearly different. That would remain the case through Season 1, at least partially. But what we have is a terrific plot line, and an episode that clearly sold the series to CBS. And the rest is history.
Good Noir
Hitchcoc17 November 2021
A really good forties type whodunnit. A tough guy owns a restaurant and gets involved with a pretty girl waitress. Something is wrong. The waitress is chased and shot at, ending in the hospital. This leads to some neat detective work with the police out there doing their thing. Tragg is really significant in this one. One thing i noticed. Burger's objections are just about always overruled.
Decor
darbski19 May 2017
Warning: Spoilers
**SPOILERS** I can't disagree with other reviewers on this episode, but I can state again that the decor of Perry and Della's offices leaves much to be desired. We get to see the very spacious outer office, with Gertie at work, and then a walk through Della's into Perry's. If you read some of my other opinions you know where I stand. Whoever did the interior design stuck the series with this unprofessional look at Beatnik Shiek decor. Shameful, and I speak from empirical knowledge.
Maybe it comes from laziness, cheapskate beancounters, or maybe they decided to let the acting take the weight of responsibility for the presentation of this very fine series. It the last is the case, then they guessed right. The acting is almost universally impeccable, if the others, then shame, shame, forever shame. Either way they got away with it. One thing that I just noticed. Well, two, actually. Perry had yet to get his beautiful Cadillac, and only the extras in the back scenes smoked. Of course, in this episode, the action is clean, tight, and explains why this was one of the top rated shows on television.
Great courtroom, and out of court drama involving all major players. The end is fantastic, with gunplay right in Perry's office (a great reason to re-decorate) and Tragg and Perry both involved in the takedown of the killer. A gutter rat if ever there was one; played by great character actor Douglas Kennedy. Terrific episode.
Maybe it comes from laziness, cheapskate beancounters, or maybe they decided to let the acting take the weight of responsibility for the presentation of this very fine series. It the last is the case, then they guessed right. The acting is almost universally impeccable, if the others, then shame, shame, forever shame. Either way they got away with it. One thing that I just noticed. Well, two, actually. Perry had yet to get his beautiful Cadillac, and only the extras in the back scenes smoked. Of course, in this episode, the action is clean, tight, and explains why this was one of the top rated shows on television.
Great courtroom, and out of court drama involving all major players. The end is fantastic, with gunplay right in Perry's office (a great reason to re-decorate) and Tragg and Perry both involved in the takedown of the killer. A gutter rat if ever there was one; played by great character actor Douglas Kennedy. Terrific episode.
Intense action
chiefs197022 May 2019
This is a very good episode among other great episodes in Season 1. Perry took great interest in helping his friend with a fur coat and was fascinated with the pawn ticket. The cast was very good and as others have noted the film noir aspect was played out through-out the episode. Della was intentionally kept away from some of the action when Perry and Paul Drake went to the hotel. I was too young to watch Perry Mason when it was on television and never saw the re-runs either, however watching them in 2019 impresses me most with the quality of the character actors appearing in each episodes casts. This was no exception.
The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink
Prismark107 September 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This really is a hardboiled episode. Based on an Erle Stanley Gardner book.
Director Ted Post really brings the story to life.
There are some changes from others in the Perry Mason series. It turns out that this was the intended pilot.
Perry and Della are in a restaurant owned by Morey Allen. A new waitress Dixie Dayton suddenly runs out of the restaurant after seeing a shady man sat on the table. Two shots are fired at her before she is hit by a car.
It seems people are after Dixie. Meanwhile Morey is behaving strangely. He hires Perry Mason and gives him a mink coat to look after. It contains a pawn ticket.
The story takes Perry to a crime ring, the case of a murdered cop and police corruption.
There is a noirish element to the story. It is filmed like one. Both Perry and Paul Drake feel the heat from the police. They want a cop killer and Perry and Paul will not stand in their way.
Director Ted Post really brings the story to life.
There are some changes from others in the Perry Mason series. It turns out that this was the intended pilot.
Perry and Della are in a restaurant owned by Morey Allen. A new waitress Dixie Dayton suddenly runs out of the restaurant after seeing a shady man sat on the table. Two shots are fired at her before she is hit by a car.
It seems people are after Dixie. Meanwhile Morey is behaving strangely. He hires Perry Mason and gives him a mink coat to look after. It contains a pawn ticket.
The story takes Perry to a crime ring, the case of a murdered cop and police corruption.
There is a noirish element to the story. It is filmed like one. Both Perry and Paul Drake feel the heat from the police. They want a cop killer and Perry and Paul will not stand in their way.
Shoot out at the Perry Corral
AlsExGal22 January 2023
This is a very unusual episode of Perry Mason. While eating a steak dinner at a local restaurant, Perry and Della are approached by the restaurant's owner, Morrey. One of his waitresses has just been run down by a car in the street, and Morrey for some reason is very concerned about the presence, in her locker, of a mink coat. He begs Perry to take the coat and also begs Mason to represent him. Perry cannot figure out why a situation that would at most get his restaurant some negative publicity would require the services of an attorney.
But then the waitress disappears from the hospital bandages and all as does Morrie. And a pawn ticket is found in a pocket of the mink coat. The ticket redeems a gun which was used to shoot a L. A. cop several months ago. Now Lt. Tragg is really breathing down Mason's neck because he thinks he is knowingly covering for a cop killer, and Perry thinks that maybe he has been set up and had by his client to take the fall in all of this.
Without getting into too many details, the big reveal comes not in a courtroom confession this week, but in a hail of bullets in Perry's office, with veteran Tragg showing he still has some Dirty Harry in him in spite of the snow on the roof.
The atmosphere is very much like the film noirs of the time, which was normally not the ambience of an episode of Perry Mason. You have plenty of men with hats talking tough and gangsters hanging about both dead and alive with cryptic messages written in lipstick on the bottom of tables in seedy hotel rooms.
This episode of Perry Mason was actually filmed in 1956, about a year before the series started. Thus you may notice a particularly thin Raymond Burr with a much more closely cropped head of hair than he has even in the series' actual premiere.
But then the waitress disappears from the hospital bandages and all as does Morrie. And a pawn ticket is found in a pocket of the mink coat. The ticket redeems a gun which was used to shoot a L. A. cop several months ago. Now Lt. Tragg is really breathing down Mason's neck because he thinks he is knowingly covering for a cop killer, and Perry thinks that maybe he has been set up and had by his client to take the fall in all of this.
Without getting into too many details, the big reveal comes not in a courtroom confession this week, but in a hail of bullets in Perry's office, with veteran Tragg showing he still has some Dirty Harry in him in spite of the snow on the roof.
The atmosphere is very much like the film noirs of the time, which was normally not the ambience of an episode of Perry Mason. You have plenty of men with hats talking tough and gangsters hanging about both dead and alive with cryptic messages written in lipstick on the bottom of tables in seedy hotel rooms.
This episode of Perry Mason was actually filmed in 1956, about a year before the series started. Thus you may notice a particularly thin Raymond Burr with a much more closely cropped head of hair than he has even in the series' actual premiere.
All they gotta do is half believe me and I'm home
kapelusznik1826 December 2014
Warning: Spoilers
****SPOILERS**** Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, while having dinner with his secretary Della Street, Barbara Hale, gets involved in a double murder case when the waitress Dixie Dayton, Kay Faylen,bolts out of the restaurant and ends up getting both shot at as well as hit by an automobile. This all happened when Dixie spotted the creepy looking George Fayette, Marc Krah, slurping down a bowel of soup not far from Perry's table. It's later when Perry picked up Dixie's moth eaten fur coat he noticed a pawn ticket in it from a Portland Oragon pawn shop about a gun left their as collateral.
As it soon comes out the gun was involved in the unsolved murder of L.A cop Clairmont who was killed a year ago. It's then that Clairmont's boss Det. Sgt. Jeffary, Douglas Kennedy, jumped into the case in order to bring his fellow cops's murderer to justice. It's not that long after that Fayette himself is found murdered in his hotel room by who Perry suspects to have been Clairmont's killer. Putting all the loose ends together Perry soon realizes that Clairmont's murder was the results of him uncovering major police corruption in the LAPD and about to go public with it. As for Fayette he was murdered in order to shut him up about what he knew about Clairmont revelations and who murdered him.
****SPOILERS**** Said to have been th pilot episode of the Perry Mason series filmed over a year before it came on the air in 1957 it had Perry sporting a what looked like 1950's Cary Grant like crew cut haircut as well as him being the subject of an attempted murder by the killer whom he exposed in his office. It was non other then Perry's rival in the series Let. Tragg, Ray Collins, who came to Perry's rescue with Perry helping to apprehend his attacker while he tried to make his getaway.
As it soon comes out the gun was involved in the unsolved murder of L.A cop Clairmont who was killed a year ago. It's then that Clairmont's boss Det. Sgt. Jeffary, Douglas Kennedy, jumped into the case in order to bring his fellow cops's murderer to justice. It's not that long after that Fayette himself is found murdered in his hotel room by who Perry suspects to have been Clairmont's killer. Putting all the loose ends together Perry soon realizes that Clairmont's murder was the results of him uncovering major police corruption in the LAPD and about to go public with it. As for Fayette he was murdered in order to shut him up about what he knew about Clairmont revelations and who murdered him.
****SPOILERS**** Said to have been th pilot episode of the Perry Mason series filmed over a year before it came on the air in 1957 it had Perry sporting a what looked like 1950's Cary Grant like crew cut haircut as well as him being the subject of an attempted murder by the killer whom he exposed in his office. It was non other then Perry's rival in the series Let. Tragg, Ray Collins, who came to Perry's rescue with Perry helping to apprehend his attacker while he tried to make his getaway.
starts off with a bang with a pilot episode
cajun-feller20126 April 2022
Season One is by far my favorite season. The Moth Eaten Mink(the pilot),The Case of the Restless Redhead,The Case of the Sunbather's Diary,The Case of the Vagabond Vixen,The Case of the Fan Dancer's Horse are all top episodes to watch. Solid acting and directing.
A Nod to Film Noir?
pattersonros21 March 2013
Warning: Spoilers
I remember watching this one as a kid in the early 70's with my parents; it stuck out for a few reasons.
The lighting seemed so dark and seedy, even at Morey's Restaurant. Also, everyone looked/seemed shady, even the defendant(s). I still haven't figured out how the killer legibly wrote a message with lipstick on the bottom of a table.
By this time, I knew Douglas Kennedy as Fred, the sheriff on "The Big Valley"; I had a hard time accepting someone who had been a symbol of law and order, playing a bad guy. Speaking of which, the normally, straight-as-an-arrow Lt. Tragg has the memorable line of "Call an ambulance----but....don't hurry."
The lighting seemed so dark and seedy, even at Morey's Restaurant. Also, everyone looked/seemed shady, even the defendant(s). I still haven't figured out how the killer legibly wrote a message with lipstick on the bottom of a table.
By this time, I knew Douglas Kennedy as Fred, the sheriff on "The Big Valley"; I had a hard time accepting someone who had been a symbol of law and order, playing a bad guy. Speaking of which, the normally, straight-as-an-arrow Lt. Tragg has the memorable line of "Call an ambulance----but....don't hurry."
Noir at its best
jfl-6607115 October 2020
Jackpot for Restaurateur
bkoganbing6 June 2012
This episode which we learned was actually taken from an Erle Stanley Gardner novel has a good deal more action to it than a lot of the Mason TV episodes. While Perry Mason and Della Street are having what looks like a real good dinner at Robert Osterloh's restaurant one of the servers catches sight of someone and abruptly runs out of the restaurant with shots being fired after here into the street where she's nearly run down in traffic.
The waitress Kay Faylen is someone Osterloh has taken a personal interest in and he pays his friend Raymond Burr a thousand dollar retainer. As Burr correctly surmises Osterloh is in a jackpot with Faylen involving a several month old cop killing. Faylen left behind a moth eaten mink coat that has a pawn ticket with a clue to said cop killing.
Ray Collins and fellow cop Douglas Kennedy are pretty ruthless in investigating this and Burr gets right into the investigation of his own with William Hopper far more than the normal episode.
The killer is pretty obvious here, but the unmasking is not in the usual venue of a trial. A twist on the Perry Mason paradigm.
The waitress Kay Faylen is someone Osterloh has taken a personal interest in and he pays his friend Raymond Burr a thousand dollar retainer. As Burr correctly surmises Osterloh is in a jackpot with Faylen involving a several month old cop killing. Faylen left behind a moth eaten mink coat that has a pawn ticket with a clue to said cop killing.
Ray Collins and fellow cop Douglas Kennedy are pretty ruthless in investigating this and Burr gets right into the investigation of his own with William Hopper far more than the normal episode.
The killer is pretty obvious here, but the unmasking is not in the usual venue of a trial. A twist on the Perry Mason paradigm.
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