Trama

Merchant seaman Harry Fothergill arrives in the U.S. with his mate Dickie to visit Dickie's brother and his family. Broke Dickie creates a will leaving a small fortune to Harry and his niece. When Dickie is murdered, Harry is charged.

Sailors Dickie Durham and Harry Fothergill visit Dickie's oil-rich brother, Russell. Dickie is out to make trouble, trying to squeeze money out of Russell and reminding Russell's wife, Crystal, of their affair before her marriage. His niece, Paula, likes him, but he nearly gets into a fight with Paula's boyfriend. When Dickie learns that his own brother would just as soon kill him, he goes to Perry to draw up a will. He leaves huge sums to Harry and Paula but needs Harry to pay Perry's $100 fee. When Dickie goes missing, Russell says he'll pay the $18,000 Dickie wants if Harry will find him and get him to ship out of the country. Harry does find a surly, uncooperative Dickie who walks out on him. The next time Dickie is seen, he's a corpse. To defend his client, Perry will have to navigate around shady business arrangements, private scandals, and red herrings.—arthurblock

Richard "Dickie" Durham causes quite a stir when, after some 19 years abroad, he suddenly returns to Los Angeles. Russell Durham, a successful oil man, isn't happy to see his layabout brother who has nothing but the clothes on his back. Russell's wife, Crystal, was once in love with Dickie but now would like nothing better than for him to leave. Dickie's niece, Paula, is just about the only one to like him, along with his friend Harry Fothergill. At his request, Paula makes an appointment for Dickie with Perry Mason, where he draws up a will leaving a large amount of money to Harry and a smaller bequest to Paula. Interestingly, he doesn't have enough money to pay Perry his $100 fee. When Dickie is later found dead, Harry is charged with murder and Perry defends him.—garykmcd

At a waterfront bar, sailor Richard W. ("Dickie") Durham (Liam Sullivan) gets into a fight, which ends with him punching a cop. At night court, he can't pay the $50 fine, so gets 5 days in jail. His Australian shipmate Harry Fothergill (Sean McClory) calls on Dickie's brother Russell W. Durham (Ford Rainey), who made his fortune in oil. Russell agrees to pay Dickie's fine (obviously so Dickie will get back on his ship and leave the country). However, once he's out, Dickie comes with Harry to the Durham home, where Russell's wife Crystal (Anna Lee) is shocked to see him after 19 years. Dickie finally meets his niece Paula (Barbara Parkins), the one member of the family who's glad to see him. After Paula and Harry leave, Dickie and Crystal discuss the fling they had in Tijuana, just before Crystal married Russell. Dickie, not very sincerely, expresses regret at losing Crystal, who is clearly disgusted by his pretense of affection.

Later, Dickie tries squeezing money from Russell, claiming he wants $18,000 so Harry can open a pub in Australia. Russell finally loses his temper and hits Dickie with a coffee cup. When Russell recounts this incident to his wife, he asks her to try to get rid of Dickie, and vows that if he has to talk with his brother once more, he'll kill him. Harry is on the other side of the door and hears this.

Dickie and niece Paula have gone to a night club, where they are discussing how Russell was just a low-paid accountant until the oil money came in, around the time Paula was 11. They are joined by Paula's boyfriend Gil Simpson (George Kane), a self-employed oil man. He had a date with Paula for that night, so is not pleased to find her with her uncle. Dickie makes it worse with rude treatment, calling him a fly-by-night speculator and questioning whether Gil's interest in Paula is mercenary. They nearly come to blows, but Harry appears and takes Dickie away. He angrily calls Dickie a troublemaker and warns him about Russell's vow to kill him. Dickie takes the death threat as a reason to draw up his will.

At Perry's office with his shipmate and niece, Dickie asks that a will be drawn up leaving $250,000 to Harry and $50,000 to Paula. However, he doesn't have Perry's $100 fee, and Harry has to pay it. Back at the Durham home, Harry finds Russell and asks why Dickie has suddenly moved out and where he has gone. Russell neither knows nor cares, but he gives Harry a check for $18,000, payable to Dickie, but only outside the U.S.

Back at the waterfront bar, Harry finds Dickie, who seems bothered about something, drunk, or both. Dickie refuses to endorse the check or to leave the country. He and Harry get into a brief scuffle, then Dickie leaves the bar. The bartender wants to call the police, but Harry says he'll handle Dickie. Later that night, Harry is at the dock, looking on as the police examine Dickie's corpse.

In jail, Harry tells Perry that he found Dickie after the incident at the bar, that Dickie calmed down and endorsed the check, but then asked Harry to leave him, apparently intending to meet with someone. A handwriting expert verifies that the signature is really Dickie's, so the check is not a motive for Harry to commit murder. That leaves the will, so Perry and Lt. Anderson (Wesley Lau) visit Russell to learn whether Dickie had money to bequeath. Russell introduces them to Frank Warden (Howard Smith), an associate in the oil business, then shows them a number of items Dickie had recently purchased, all charged to Russell. He affirms that Dickie was penniless. Since that eliminates the other possible motive, Lt. Anderson agrees to release Harry into Perry's custody.

Della brings Perry a note from Dickie, mailed shortly before his death, that expresses a desire to switch the $250K bequest from Harry to Paula, and vice versa for the $50K. Dickie's obsession with his apparently nonexistent estate makes Perry suspicious, and he asks Paul Drake to check out Russell's oil dealings. Talking again to Russell and Frank Warden, Perry gets them to admit that Dickie originally bought the oil rights that made Russell rich. Russell claims that when Dickie sent them to him, he assumed this was intended as payment for various loans Russell had previously made. Therefore, he felt justified in signing over the oil leases to Riprock Oil as "R.W. Durham", which could refer to either brother, and make his signature look like Dickie's. Perry says he's only interested in this fraud to the extent it affects his client. Russell reveals that the police have informed him that they've traced the murder weapon - a knife that Harry had bought in Australia.

In court, while Burger is just getting started in his long parade of witnesses, Harry tells Perry that the last time he saw Dickie alive, the latter seemed nervous and asked to borrow Harry's knife. Warden testifies that, as the shadowy Riprock Oil's representative, he was unaware of the "R. W. Durham" trickery at the time it occurred, and, when he found out, he tried to contact Dickie to regularize the legal status of the leases. When he got no response, he sent a letter to Harry, which revealed that Dickie did own valuable property. This gives Harry a motive again, but Perry defers his cross-examination. Harry tells Perry that he received a letter like that, but Dickie tore it up before he could read it. He admits that his friend sometimes had pointlessly destructive moods.

Perry goes to Crystal to find out how she was able to get Dickie out of their house when he seemed so determined to stay around, causing trouble. She admits she got him to see reason by revealing the truth - Dickie was Paula's biological father. Russell knows this, but Paula doesn't and would be devastated if she found out. Perry promises to keep the secret if he can, but wonders if Dickie may have gone to Russell and threatened to reveal this to Paula. Crystal is sure he didn't.

Perry now cross-examines Frank Warden. He has proof that Warden initiated an extensive search for Dickie around the time the oil leases under pressure from his superiors at Riprock, Warden used the fact that he'd lent money to Russell (who was broke at the time) to pressure him into going through with the fraud. Dickie eventually learned that Riprock would be ruined if he asserted his ownership rights and took back the leases. Therefore, he was holding out for much more than their actual worth - more than Riprock could afford to pay. Warden was called an old man and told that the real head of Riprock Oil would handle the situation. "So you handle it!" shouts Warden. "I already did" admits Paula's boyfriend, Gil.

In Perry's office, we learn that Dickie made the mistake of trying to get what he wanted by threatening Gil with Harry's knife. Paula decides that Dickie was a bad man after all, but Harry says it's more complicated than that. Perry says that the will that Dickie had signed was valid, so the bulk of his fortune goes to Harry. However, Harry only wants the $18,000 he needs for his pub, and he gets into a brief argument with Paula about who should be stuck with the rest. Paula also conveys her mother's thanks to Perry, although she doesn't know for what. Perry feigns ignorance.