Perry Mason (TV Series) The Case of the Wednesday Woman (1964) User Reviews

Gaye Old Time

[zsenorsock · 8/10 · 26 May 2008]

This story begins with some stock footage of San Quentin prison. Every Wednesday taxi driver Alvy Moore (Mr. Kimball on "Green Acres") take Mrs. Katherine Stewart (Phyllis Hill) to visit her husband Phillip (Philip Pine) who is in prison for a crime he says he did not commit (too bad Perry wasn't available for him at that trial!). But for some unknown reason he keeps turning her away.

Stewart makes parole dependent on him going back to work at the firm of Webber and Reed where he was charged with manslaughter by killing Reed and suspected of stealing a valuable diamond. Turns out the former insurance investigator for the company that insured the diamond, Jack Mallory (Michael Pate) told Stewart that Reed had been planning to run away with the diamond and another woman, believed to be Stewart's wife. He's watching Stewart carefully, intent on recovering the diamond and getting a hefty finder's fee. He and Stewart are seen arguing as they go into an elevator on the 11th floor. When the elevator opens on the ground floor, Perry discovers the body of Mallory in it, shot to death in a variation of a "locked room" mystery.

Good script and good performances by the guest cast and Paul, who gets cracked on the head while investigating make this a choice episode. Also notable are John Hoyt as the suspicious surviving partner, Marie Windsor as Mrs. Helen Reed, the widow of the dead man, Douglas Dick as the creepy scientist Lester Ormelby and its hard to keep one's eyes off of Lisa Gaye as secretary Joyce Hadley, who may or not be involved with at least three guys in the story.

Lisa Gaye was a breathtakingly beautiful actress that seemed to fly just under the radar in the 1950's and 1960's before retiring to raise her daughter, but every time I find her in something, I am taken by her smoldering looks and fine talent. She almost makes this one worth watching all by herself.

Something for everybody

[kfo9494 · 8/10 · 10 October 2011]

Lots of characters and lots of motives leads to a festival of 'guess-who' when Perry goes looking for the person that committed not only one crime but two.

In one of the more interesting scripts, this episode features diamonds and deception that leads to murder in a quite bizarre elevator ride. From the tops floors of a office building to the basement, the elevator ride is the hinge that holds this show together. And not only does something sinister happen on that elevator ride but the man that press the button just happens to be Perry himself.

This leads to a court scene where Hamilton Burger finally gets one up on Perry. You can even see in the eyes of Mr Burger when he delivers the lines right at the heart of Perry's examination.

As with any "Perry Mason" episode, I try to guess the person of the day at the beginning of the show. For once my guess was correct. I used the worksheet of throwing out the most hated and the most innocent character and go with the one with the motive.

Of course this worksheet I use actually works about 20% of the time compared to just taking a wild guess that works 25% of the time.

Anyway a good episode with solid acting. Guest actors are good and the plot is interesting. Only problem was the scene when one person gets out of prison and you can tell how far special effects have come since the early 60's. But good watching

Locked room with a twist

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 13 February 2013]

Phyllis Hill, wife of prisoner Philip Pine who went to jail on a manslaughter rap hires Perry Mason to help with her husband's parole. But when he does get paroled he gets his old job back as a salesman with a jewelry firm.

The original charge that sent Pine to jail involved him killing one of the jewelry designers. A very expensive diamond went missing at the same time and was never located. A rather unscrupulous private detective played by Michael Pate is using some devious methods to locate the missing gem involving Pine.

In a variation of the standard locked room murder, we see Pine and Pate go into an elevator and when the elevator reaches the bottom we find Pate shot dead with the murder weapon in the elevator with him and no one else. An interesting puzzle for any murder mystery fans let alone fans of Perry Mason. And its Raymond Burr who's waiting on the ground floor for the elevator who has the body appear right before him.

This show carried a lovely variety of suspects that include Lisa Gaye, Marie Windsor, Douglas Dick, and John Hoyt. All of them in the past have played bad people so no clues can be gathered by looking at the cast list.

One of the more clever Perry Mason episodes.

Marie Windsor

[mikereaves-129-661547 · 10/10 · 10 February 2021]

Marie Windsor never looked better than in the close-ups as she was testifying on the witness stand. And this was 1964. I have seen her in movies from much earlier and did not realize that she had such beautiful features and eyes. Remember, she was a cigarette girl at the Mogambo 20 years earlier in 1943 and did not get her first big break until 1948. WOW

Another Double Murder with a Single Killer

[coolplanter · 8/10 · 19 February 2021]

Phil Stewart won't speak to his wife after former insurance investigator Mallory lies to him about his wife of only a month, Katherine, was screwing David Reed, which justified him killing Reed, and not speaking to Katherine. That motive makes him the defendant again. It's another case centering on stolen diamonds, and diamond smuggling, mixed in with a double-murder. Great performances by the entire cast--and I must say that Lisa Gaye and Marie Windsor look very good. The technology star of this episode is the modern elevator--building to a "creepy" final scene. A good episode where the killer is introduced early, has an obvious motive, where viewers are drawn to other character's motives.

LOOK AT ALL THOSE GUILTY FACES!!!

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 25 July 2023]

Having grown up on PERRY MASON, it's a toss up as to which episodes were the most intriguing. As the series progressed, I always thought some of the later episodes were fascinating, taking on a noirish feel, perhaps due to newer writers and directors. There were also some surprises, such as Perry battling a loose gorilla in the last season.

The thing that kept me coming back to this one was a cast where almost EVERYONE looked guilty, and the dialogue will catch you off guard.

A famous half million dollar diamond is missing and a convict --who just happens to be working at a jewelry company -- is the prime suspect for robbery and murder. Why not?

Veteran Marie Windsor is a standout as Mrs. Reed, replete with some caustic one-liners. She was always at her best as tough cookies, the queen of many cult films, much like Beverly Garland. Windsor is terrific on the witness stand. Popular actress Lisa Gaye plays Joyce, and in smaller parts, look for Alvy Moore (GREEN ACRES) as a cabbie and Ralph Manza, who the following year would play bad guys on BATMAN.

Try to piece this one together. It's very good. Samuel Neuman wrote this who was also handling episodes for the OUTER LIMITS, a writer for many popular B films. 1964 episode SEASON 7 EPISODE 13 CBS dvd restored box set.

Those Darned Capitalists!

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 9 February 2022]

Once again, a man of principles is done in by the money grubbers. He has been sent to prison for involuntary manslaughter and never questions his culpability. His wife of a few months hangs in there with him. Everything revolves around a half billion dollar "Jakarta" diamond and the shenanigans that took place because of it. It was an OK episode although there is an awful lot of emotion from the people in court.

The cruel taunt of beauty

[darbski · 10/10 · 14 August 2017]

The other reviewers have mentioned Lisa Gaye's great beauty, so I'm not gonna say that she was a babe, total fox, and rival of Barbara's for best looking brunette in Hollywood; nope, not me. What I am gonna say is that many a geeky nerd has been bewitched by the unreachable fruit at the top of the tree. So it was here. Lisa's character didn't really TRY to get the educated idiot to be her fool, she just didn't stop it, either. No matter what he thought he had going on, she was not really to blame, was she??

This is a good one

[shakspryn · 9/10 · 4 November 2023]

Often when a series gets into its later seasons, the quality goes way down. That sure isn't the case here: this is an outstanding episode. Much of the credit for that goes to an exceptionally strong guest cast, including the great character actor John Hoyt and the fine actress Marie Windsor. Lisa Gaye, who plays a sexy secretary, was often on 77 Sunset Strip and other shows. Philip Pine, who played the recently released convict, as usual brings a lot of intensity and believability to his role.

The plot of this one will keep you guessing; I was guessing pretty wildly near the end, but I didn't anticipate the solution. The very final scene of the show is very vivid and memorable! You won't forget it.

A Tale of Two Lisa Gayes

[Dick24 · 7/10 · 14 June 2011]

This isn't really one of my favorite PMs but it will remain saved in my DVR as long as possible for one reason: the lovely Lisa Gaye.

This is the fourth of six Perry Mason guest appearances for Ms. Gaye and she is quite lovely as always. No, she doesn't appear in a bathing suit as she does in "Travelling Treasure" nor does she look as striking as she did in "Gulity Clients", but she is still a charmer every second her beautiful face is on the screen.

The explanation of my title for this review is that there are two distinct performances by this sexy actress in this episode. In the first she is terrific as a scheming secretary who is hounded by the nerdish lab technician. But in the second performance on the witness stand during the trial she unfortunately goes overboard in her tearful and shouting denials of guilt in the murder at issue.

But... as I am an admitted devotee of Lisa I will forgive her and look back on this episode from time to time, fast-forwarding to her scenes in the office and enjoying her sheer loveliness.

As for the rest of the episode, it doesn't really stand out for me, just another pretty good episode of a great show.

Bizarre Denouement

[bote · 8/10 · 11 June 2020]

Perry thoroughly explained in court his deduction of how the murder actually took place. But the show ended with him taking Phillip and Katherine onto the elevator for a practical demonstration.

Then the doors open on the 9th floor and THERE STANDS MRS. REED who we had just seen confess to the murder. Were we hallucinating? Was that a TV trick to represent what Mallory would've seen as the doors opened? Was this scene intended to be shown just prior to the courtroom confession?

I was good with this episode up to that point, but this denouement just left me puzzled. I guess they had 2 minutes to fill.

The case of the unlucky punch

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 15 October 2023]

Philip Stewart is in prison for a year for manslaughter because a man he punched in a disagreement later had a fatal coronary attributed to stress from the fight. Shortly before his release he begins to refuse to see his wife, whom he married shortly before the fatal altercation. He gives no reason for his refusal.

At the same time, a sleezy independent insurance investigator, Jack Mallory, is sniffing around both Stewart and his wife because a very expensive diamond went missing at the time of Stewart's arrest and lots of people think that he had something to do with it.

In spite of the fatal fight Stewart had at the company, in spite of the missing diamond, Stewart is given his old job back. At some point, Mallory shows up at Stewart's place of employment and yet another fight breaks out. In the process Stewart punches Mallory in the nose, and shortly thereafter Mallory is found in the elevator, dead of a gunshot wound. Nothing accidental here this time, plus it can be proved that nobody was in the elevator except Mallory and Stewart from the time they entered the elevator until Mallory's body was discovered. Again, Stewart is arrested but pleads his innocence and Perry Mason is on the case.

Besides the normal situation of people causing trouble for themselves and Perry by not getting disagreements and suspicions out in the open, in the words of Cher in Clueless - "This place is a lawsuit waiting to happen!" The jewelry company 's secretary is being habitually harassed by a worm of an employee who gives worms a bad name, there is no organized means of keeping track of the company's expensive inventory of jewels, and a guy convicted of killing a fellow employee gets his old job back after serving his sentence AND is allowed to keep a gun in his desk drawer!

This is really a pretty tame episode of Mason - Not particularly bad or good, with no super clever tricks up the writers' or Perry's sleeves. Still, average Mason is still superlative TV.

I know I wasn't there but I was there!

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 29 December 2016]

***SPOILERS*** Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, while trying to solve what happened to the missing $500,000.00 Jakarta Diamond ends up solving a double murder that happened three years apart. That with Phillip Stewart, Phillip Pine, standing trial for the one that put private investigator Jack Mallory,Michael Pate, on a one way trip to the city morgue. It was the strange death of Helen Reed's, Marie Windsor, husband that set things into motion with his partner super salesman Phillip Stewart was sent up the river in San Quentin on an involuntary manslaughter charge.

This all had to do with the Missing Jakarta Diamond that Reed accused Stewart of stealing! It even gets better with Stewart-Again in the wrong place at the wrong time-now accused of murdering Malloy with his secretary Joyce Hadley, Lisa Gaye,Joyce having lost the hot stone by giving it to a sailor to deliver to her contact in & convicted in Reeds death, suspected of stealing it! Despite all the obstacles in the case Perry is able to solve it the only way he can-With the help of the screen writers who made it all easier for him to figure out.

***SPOILERS**** It was when Mallory was found shot to death in Stewart's place of business elevator after having it out with him! Thus being charged in murdering him that has a beefy Perry-All 275 pounds of him- who was waiting for the elevator in the building lobby jumped into action and end up later identifying his real killer. It wasn't Stewart who left the elevator and Mallory on the 10th floor but the person who plugged him when the elevator reached the floor-the 10th- below. Not only that it was that same person who in fact murdered Mr. Reed three years before who ended up framing Phillip Stewart for his murder! There's also in this Perry Mason episode in one of his last appearances before his death in September 1964 the famed and unforgettable, by his legions of fans, the "Eternal Colonel" himself Morris Ankrum as the judge keeping order in the court and seeing that justice is served.

More silly PM, with a hilarious ending

[pmike-11312 · 1/10 · 25 February 2022]

The ending of this one (as someone else pointed out) was so over-the-top funny that it made the already usual-PM silliness even worse.

But- as also was already pointed out - at least a VERY lovely Marie Windsor was worth watching....even with the sound turned off! (Can't say the same for Lisa Gaye - she always looked very odd to me).