The Case of the Shoplifter's Shoe

I always thought of Margaret O'Brien as one of the best of all child actors, especially in "Meet Me in St. Louis." Here, as an adult, she has a rather dull part, where she has to defend an old lady, who shoplifts and gets into other kinds of trouble. Eventually this elderly woman is on trial for two murders. Enter Leonard Nimoy, pre-Spock. A little too much overacting for my tastes.

The universal Lurene Tuttle plays an aging women named Sarah Breel that has a habit of shoplifting items from local stores. Her niece, Virginia Trent, keeps making excuses for her until some expensive gems are missing from uncle's business.

Later, Sarah is hit by a car while running from a house where a murder had just occurred. And inside Sarah's purse the gems are found plus a gun which turns out to be the murder weapon.

Perry Mason will defend Sarah in court but seems that she is more willing to plea guilty than stand trial. Perry and Paul will determine the reason that Sarah wants to plea guilty and perhaps get to the bottom of the entire situation.

This was somewhat of a different episode than usual. Instead of someone confessing to the crime- we are left with Hamilton Burger and Lt Tragg placing circumstantial evidence together to determine who in the cast will be going to a jury trial. An interesting watch.