The Case of the Silent Six

OK, I won't go into the fact that this is based on reality, but even as fiction it is quite intriguing. We have an apartment house (almost) filled with residents who are either paralyzed in fear or apathetic to the screams of a female neighbor being assaulted -- probably not a rarity in real life. The one resident who acts winds up the murder victim. Of course we know the arrestee (a cop in this case, and brother to the beating victim) will not get convicted, the story is tight enough to leave us sitting on the edge of our seats until Perry finally sorts out the evidence and lies to unmask the real murderer, of which every one of the residents is suspect for different reasons. I have to say this one was very satisfying, from beginning to end...

The Perry Mason paradigm was shifted just a tad in this episode. Not that Perry did not have an innocent client. In this one however we don't meet the victim at all who is usually murdered in the second quarter of the one hour show format. Here he's murdered right at the beginning of the show.

Richard Anderson who played LA Homicide detective Steve Drumm in the last year of Perry Mason asks Raymond Burr to defend Skip Homeier his fellow detective who is charged with the crime. It seems as though the deceased was beating on his sister Chris Noel who lived in that same apartment. But Homeier swears he didn't do it even though his service revolver was emptied into the victim.

An investigation shows that everybody in that small apartment had something against the deceased so alternatives are plentiful. But this episode has a particular note of tragedy in that the perpetrator made some wrong assumptions about the deceased and that was what led to his demise.

I had this one figured wrong. If you see this film I think you'll think as I did about who the perpetrator was. But it was one big tease.

Good writing and great acting, especially by Virginia Gregg. Watch her on the witness stand as Mrs. Oliver. Nuanced, and compelling. But the whole cast was great.

This story was loosely inspired by the infamous Kitty Genovese murder in New York City in 1963. But it's a feeble allusion, as Kitty was brutally stabbed to death and here, the girl lives and a man dies instead, shot by a gun. If you've ever met anyone who's been shot to death six times with a gun, they will tell you it's not so bad as being stabbed. Anyway, the story zips from caring less about who beat up the living girl to who killed the dead guy.

The girl is played by the beautiful Chris Noel, who, even with bruise makeup on her face, still looks gorgeous. You should look up her bio in IMDb, what a life of public service she's had.

There are no less than four possible ways the killing could have gone down, we find out in scene two or three maybe, and Paul Drake is just the sleuth who can suss them out, after he receives his clever instructions from Perry.

Do we spot a hint at a gay relationship between Ron and Hamp Fisher? These two hunky good- looking males were "just driving around" together when the attack on the Babe and the killing took place. Homosexuality was dangerous in 1965, as Raymond Burr and everyone who cared for him knew. Perhaps the characters are just gay for the slay?

Luckily we have Good Old Judge Kenneth MacDonald on bench to keep Perry and Hamilton in check with his best "Now See Here" arguments. There'll be no stoogery in this courtroom!

In the end the Guilty Killer's dramatic confession speech tries to tie it all back to Kitty by blaming big city fears and inhumanity as the cause for his actions. I guess that works, even if the "38 passive observers" in the Kitty Genovese story was debunked in a 2016 film made by her brother.

A hot headed cop goes off half cocked and a man is killed. He is there to protect his sister. He becomes Perry's client, so we know he will get off. In the apartment building, numerous persons had a chance to come to the aid of the girl and that is an overriding issue here. Things eventually get resolved but that cop was a jerk and should have faced serious discipline. That he got off was lucky for him.