The Case of the Slandered Submarine

This script is not an Erle Stanley Gardner but is one of the better scripts by one of the writers the producers had to start hiring more and more often as the series progressed due to the number of episodes being done. There is plenty of Perry, Della & Paul Drake here. Burger & Tragg get the show off.

There is a US Navy Submarine Moray which has already been involved in a murder of a woman prior to the episode starting. The sub is testing new equipment with 2 competing companies going after the same contract. Somehow the murdered woman is involved in the industrial military contract contest.

There are some hard feelings between civilians and the commander of the Moray. Then, with all these conflicts swirling, he is murdered. Mason is retained to help sort out the truth.

At the Military Court Marshall, Edward Platt, later Chief of Control on Get Smart, is in the Burger Prosection role. With the Naval venue, and a pretty decent twisting script, this episode is pretty solid. There is a large guest cast of folks on board in this one too.

For a crowded cast- this was a surprisingly good episode. Seemed like from the start this mystery had the viewer bound to the show to see what the next set of circumstance Perry will produce.

The episode centers around the US submarine 'Moray'. Commander James Page was in charge of the sub which was testing new equipment from two companies. The two companies, Def-co and Alpha Electronics, were competing for a Navy contract. Def-co had already tested their equipment and now it was Alpha's turn to better the stakes. And it was up to Cmdr. Page to recommend which company was to get the contract.

However, Cmdr. Page has his hands full with other situations. A young women had been killed a few weeks ago and the suspects were the men on the 'Moray'. Now his learns that his father-in-law has purchased Alpha Electronics which could lead to problems with his recommendation.

So the morning of the test, with all the Alpha representatives aboard, they go to wake up Comdr. Page only to found him stabbed with a screwdriver. And one of the sailors, Robert Chapman, is the main suspect in the stabbing. Plus after investigation was found to have been married to the women that was killed earlier in the week. Thus we have Perry defending Mr Chapman in a Navy court.

There is many more great nuggets to this story that the viewer will find interesting. The episode keeps you on your feet the entire time as Perry and Paul weave their way to the truth. A good story with a good cast. Plus there is a nice plug for the Navy in the last few words of the show.

Great Watch.

Perry Mason in this episode represents a client who is before a military court martial, charged with the murder of his captain while both were on duty on a submarine. Said submarine was involved in the testing of a secret electronic device. The suspect, a sailor played by Jack Ging is also suspected in the slaying of his estranged wife, a woman of loose morals who worked as a B girl in a waterfront bar.

The estranged wife is already dead as the episode begins. The captain is Hugh Marlowe who has some problems because his father-in-law Robert F. Simon owns the company which manufactures the device. Marlowe is worried about the appearance of a conflict of interest. Also one of the partners in the firm was a rival of his back in the day for Ann Robinson who is Marlowe's wife. So there are a nice collection of suspects here.

The murder of Ging's wife and Marlowe are related, but not in the way that would be obvious because of the Perry Mason paradigm that Raymond Burr defends no guilty parties.

As he does numerous times against Hamilton Burger, Perry Mason traps the real culprit right in court. Edward Platt is the military prosecutor against Raymond Burr here.

What Burr does for the navy here should earn him 50 yard seats on the navy side at the Army/Navy game.

Perry ends up in a courts martial involving a Navy man who is accused of murdering an officer who is standing in the way of some submarine devices. There had been a previous murder which complicated things. I'm not sure how realistic the whole thing was, looking a lot like a civilian court.

This episode is slow paced, and the plot is difficult to follow.

This Navy-themed episode probably set the Perry Mason record for the most lookalike-white-guy characters. Also because this took place in the 1960 US Navy, the episode is almost devoid of women, which eliminates one of the best aspects of most Perry Mason episodes.

Maybe I'm just sleepy today, but it was hard to get thru this one without losing focus. My wife scolded me for repeatedly rewinding.

That said, it was interesting seeing Perry work in the military environment.

The show went way out of its way at many points to explain that the U. S. Navy was wonderful and would never do anything wrong.