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[rachelkaser]

Masonry Monday: The Case of the Married Moonlighter

A teacher/part-time waiter is hurting for cash, with a sick daughter and a wife threatening divorce. One night, he offers to drive a drunk man flashing a wad of cash home. When the drunkard is found dead the next morning with the money missing, the teacher is charged, but Perry Mason thinks there's a deeper motive.

Who's Who

Perry Mason's client: Danny Harrison, a good-intentioned-but-cash-poor teacher desperate to make ends meet

The victim: Frank Curran, a friend of Danny's who causes a fuss at the diner while carrying a large bundle of cash

Suspects: Eileen Harrison, Danny's wife, who wants to divorce her financially-stupid husband to seek a better life for her daughter Luke Hickey, the owner of the diner where Danny works, who's also struggling with money but wants to help his friend Linda Kennedy, a dress shop owner and the victim's ex-girlfriend, who was desperate to see him the night of the murder Phil McCabe, Linda's business partner, who attempted to dissuade her from contacting the victim George Palmer, the victim's neighbor, who knew him better than he initially lets on

The Setup

Two repo men are taking a washing machine from a small, run-down home, despite the pleas of housewife Eileen Harrison. Her husband, Danny Harrison, returns home. He checks on their daughter Carol, who's wearing a leg brace. She'll soon need a new one worth $85, and Danny says he'll get the money somehow. Eileen tries to convince him to go to her father for help, but Danny refuses on principle. He also won't quit his teaching job or night job despite the low pay. Eileen drops the bomb: She wants a divorce. After she returns to Carol, Danny takes a gun and leaves.

Later, in the office of Perry Mason, Eileen tells him that she and Danny have had financial difficulties since Carol. She and Perry childhood friends. He offers his help, and she asks him to help her get a divorce. She loves Danny, but they're desperate for money. He could get a lucrative engineering job easily, but stays as a teacher, which he considers a noble profession, while moonlighting as a waiter. Perry tries to dissuade her and offers to talk to Danny, but Eileen refuses, saying there's been enough talking, and leaves. Perry asks Della to find Danny's night job.

That night, at a small diner, Danny works a slow shift with owner Luke Hickey. The place is dead thanks to a competing restaurant, and Luke says he'll probably have to let Danny go, and that Danny could do better with his education. A drunk man stumbles in, sits at a table, and orders chili and coffee. The man recognizes Danny and jeers at him for working such a lowly job. He knocks the chili to the ground and passes out when Luke confronts him. Danny offers to drive the man home in lieu of calling the cops, saying it's on his way.

Luke insists on getting payment for the food and coffee and rifles through the man's pockets. He pulls out a very large wad of cash, easily worth hundreds, and takes $1 for himself while stuffing the rest back in the stranger's coat. Danny escorts the man out. Later, they pull up to the Mandrake Arms apartments, where Danny unloads the man -- whom he calls Frank -- to take him up to his apartment. Two people watch from a car: The man, Phil, tells the woman, Linda, that they can't talk to Frank while he's drunk.

Danny drags Frank to the door of his apartment, with Frank loudly protesting as Danny attempts to dig in his pants pocket for his key. A neighbor opens their door and complains about the noise, spotting Danny with some of Frank's cash in his hand. He tells Danny that Frank keeps his key over the door. Danny finds the key to apartment 503, unlocks it, and puts the key back over the door. He hauls Frank in, then sometime later leaves in his own car. The next morning, the landlady opens 503 to find Frank dead with a head wound.

The Murder

Danny is having breakfast with Carol and a frosty Eileen. The bell rings, and Eileen admits Lt. Tragg, who questions Danny. He knows Danny is a schoolteacher who moonlights at Luke's Place. He asks if Danny owns a gun and Danny says no -- but Tragg notes he pawned one the previous day. Danny asks him to get to the point. Tragg informs him that Frank Curran was murdered the night before, and that Danny was the last one to see him alive. Tragg asks him to come in for more questioning, and Danny tells Eileen to call the school.

At the jail, Perry meets Danny, who gushes about Carol before they get down to brass tacks. They talk about the night of the murder: Perry says Frank was carrying $2,000 in cash, and gently asks if that's why Danny volunteered to drive him home. Danny says no, and that he didn't take the money, but Frank was so drunk that Danny wouldn't have had to kill him to get it. He tells Perry there was a couple in a convertible watching him carry Frank into the building. He recalls hunting for Frank's keys and the neighbor telling him about the one over the door.

Perry asks him what happened inside the apartment. Danny says Frank fell on the sofa, so Danny took off his shoes and left him there. When the police found Frank's body, he was wearing pajamas, but Danny can't explain that. Perry asks for any last details, and Danny notes that Frank stumbled and knocked over an end table, scattering books, magazines, and a pair of bronze bookends. Danny picked everything up, including the bookends. Unfortunately, one of them is the murder weapon, and Danny's fingerprints are on it.

Enter Perry Mason, Attorney at Law

Later, in Perry's office, Paul gives the run-down on the victim. He's a friendless bachelor who got a cushy job through nepotism and spends his money on entertainment. He won the cash he was carrying from his regular poker game at the Mayberry Hotel. Perry tells him to focus on the losers in the last game, and any girlfriends that Frank Curran had. He's going to check out Luke Hickey's place.

Tragg is already at Luke's Place, where Luke staunchly defends Danny. He lies that it was his (Luke's) idea to drive Curran home, but Tragg notes it's odd they didn't use Curran's own car, which was parked behind Luke's Place all night. Perry enters and Tragg departs with a flip remark. Perry chides Luke for lying and also probes him about his money problems. Luke says he didn't kill Curran, but he's not happy about possibly being forced to testify against Danny.

The next morning, Perry tells Della he's afraid Luke will flee rather than testify. Paul calls with an update on Curran's ex-girlfriend: Linda Kennedy, a dress shop owner. Perry and Paul go to speak with her together. In the shop, the two men pretend to be looking for a dress for Della before asking Linda about her relationship with Curran. She denies being in love with him, though she called the Mayberry Hotel seven times. She claims she was with her business partner, Phil McCabe, the night of the murder and didn't go out again.

Back at the office, Della admits George Palmer, the neighbor who saw Danny with Curran the night of the murder. Perry asks him what he was doing awake and dressed at 2 am. Palmer says he was watching TV to relax. Perry asks him why he was wound up, but Palmer gets hostile and leaves. Paul and Della enter with news: Luke is in hiding at a motel. Paul also tracked down the losers in the poker game: One of them was George Palmer. He lost $1,400, and he gave Curran an IOU.

It's not his first IOU, and Curran kept them all in a small memo book. Neither book nor IOU was found at the apartment, and Perry says they have to find out what happened to them. Danny's alleged motive is robbery, but he had no reason to take a memo book or IOUs. Paul points out they've likely been destroyed, but Perry says there's an easy way to find out: Make it so the district attorney has to produce them as evidence in his own case.

The Trial

Burger questions Lt. Tragg about the murder weapon: The bookend has the victim's hair and blood, as well as Danny Harrison's fingerprints. On cross, Mason asks Tragg if he found Danny's prints elsewhere -- they were all over the apartment. Mason points out that this only proves Danny was there, which he admitted to. Burger next tries to call Luke Hickey, who has been subpoenaed, but he's not in the courtroom, so the judge will have him brought in.

Next, Burger calls Linda Kennedy to the stand. She testifies that she saw Danny helping Curran out of the car at 2 am from her own car. On cross, Mason probes her about waiting in the car for Curran, and gets her to admit that Phil McCabe were both there. He asks what she wanted to speak with Curran about, and Burger's objection is overruled. Linda says Curran had been avoiding her -- she'd asked him to marry her, and he ghosted her. McCabe was there to keep her safe -- but Mason says there was more to it than that. He introduces her marriage license with Phil McCabe they obtained two days prior.

After the trial adjourns, Luke is surprised in his hotel room by Tragg and taken in. The next day, Burger questions George Palmer, who testifies about Curran winning big in the poker game. He went home afterwards and saw Danny with Curran before going to bed himself at 2:45 am -- he didn't hear Danny leave. At 2:30 am, he says he heard a voice, probably Curran's, say, "What are you doing? Put that back."

On cross, Mason gets Palmer to admit he lost $1,400 at the poker game, and that he only makes $130 per week. Mason questions Palmer about the IOU he gave Curran, and how Curran kept track of his IOUs in a book. Palmer once again gets testy, insisting he paid off all but his most recent IOU to Curran, and says that, though he saw the book on the night of the poker game, he doesn't know what happened to it.

The judge calls for the noon adjournment, and Burger tells Tragg they have to find the IOUs lest Mason puncture a hole in their case. Burger takes Linda McCabe aside and asks her if she knows where Curran could have stored his valuables. Linda tells him Curran had a special compartment in his car next to the steering wheel where he kept a gun. Burger sends Tragg to check on it. The police enter the impound lot, where Tragg finds the secret compartment -- the gun and memo book are indeed inside, along with George Palmer's IOU.

Back in court, Burger has begun his questioning of Luke Hickey when Tragg returns, triumphant. Burger explains to the judge that he intends to introduce the memo book to refute Mason's hints that it's a possible motive for the killing. Mason pushes back on it, but the judge agrees to interrupt Hickey's testimony to allow Tragg a few minutes to introduce the item. Tragg does indeed produce the memo book, with the IOU.

Before Burger can resume questioning Hickey, Mason asks to cross-examine Tragg. He asks Tragg about the car: It was towed from the lot of Luke's Place the day after the murder. While holding the black memo book, Mason instead asks about another unusual feature of the car, which revealed who really entered Curran's apartment with ill intentions that night...

In Summation

This is an unusual case for me: With a few notable exceptions (see: "The Case of the Terrified Typist"), Perry Mason's clients are depicted as decent human beings. Even if they're foolish or misguided, they're usually at least somewhat good people. That's so that we can root for Perry to get them acquitted of their unjust murder rap. But I'd be hard-pressed to tell you one thing I liked about Danny Harrison. I'm not saying he deserved the gas chamber, but dear god is he a useless human being.

Let's take a look at what he does over the course of the episode: He's taken a job as a high school teacher despite having the credentials to get a job in engineering, and that alone isn't enough to pay his family's bills. He's moonlighting as a waiter, but the diner he's picked is so down on its luck that Luke says there probably isn't $4 in the cash register. His home appliances are getting repo'd right out from under him; he can barely afford to feed his wife and daughter; and he's somehow managed to find enough pride to refuse to take financial help from his father-in-law.

Perry's taken on Hard Luck Cases before, but the only reason things are so bad for Danny at present moment is entirely through his own pigheadedness and belief in the nobility of his profession. Like Eileen, I could get behind it if it weren't for the fact he has a disabled child. Surely her needs come before his pride or his pupils? He even mentions at one point that her doctor said her leg would be healthily formed within a few years -- surely he could at least work as an engineer for that brief time? He even apparently made Eileen quit her job when she had Carol, so that's another mark against him.

The scene where Eileen explains to Perry why she wants a divorce is downright painful. I understand why Perry doesn't take the case -- for one thing, he's Eileen's friend and wants to give her friendly advice rather than the legal variety. He also suggests she might not be in a much better financial place after a divorce. But still, the moment when he notes that Carol hasn't yet suffered for Danny's poor financial decisions, and Eileen says, "Do I have to wait for that?" resonates way harder than it should. And not to spoil, but Danny's circumstances at least are no better at the end of the episode than they are at the beginning.

Well, regardless of my disdain for the defendant -- which, even so, I reiterate, I don't think his assholishness is worthy of conviction -- this is one of Perry's more mundane cases. Without spoiling, there's no grand conspiracy surrounding the victim that led to his death. And that's fine. Not every Perry Mason case has to have the complexity of an Agatha Christie mystery. If anything, it's more realistic that most of the potential leads in the case don't go anywhere. Still, it does leave the case feeling somewhat unfinished.

Still, if there's one nice thing about the episode, it's the presence of an adorable little toddler who plays Carol Harrison. I may not have much fondness for the character of her father, but the scene where her father's being arrested and she's determinedly spooning oatmeal into her mush in the background is a great moment of unintentional comedy. She doesn't have a clue what's going on, nor does she care -- we should all be as unbothered as that little actress is.

We do get a quick little lore drop on Perry Mason himself, though: He playfully tells Della that Eileen was the first woman who ever asked him to marry her: She was eight at the time. Perry doesn't specify how old he was himself, but Della makes the strange crack that Perry might have found her too mature -- unfortunately phrasing. But I almost like to imagine Perry was slightly older. It's cute to imagine a fourteen or fifteen-year-old Perry gently turning down the little farm girl who was following him around.

The Verdict

Judgement: ⚖ (one scale of justice out of four) Perry Mason's latest client is one of his least-likeable in the whole series, and the murder is fairly pedestrian. Only the presence of an adorable youngster and some background on Perry himself are at all noteworthy about this episode.

#perry mason #masonry monday #raymond burr #paramount plus #paramount+ #paul drake #della street #s02e07 #the case of the married moonlighter

[rachelkaser]

Stay Golden Sunday: Sophia's Wedding, Part 2

Sophia and Max decide to reopen their pizza-knish stand on Miami Beach. Dorothy picks up smoking to cope with the stress.

Picture It...

Dorothy sneaks into the garage vestibule from the kitchen with a pack of cigarettes. Just as she takes a puff, the smoke detector goes off and Rose and Blanche run in. Forestalling Blanche calling the fire department, Dorothy explains that she started smoking again. She's under a lot of stress, particularly after Sophia's marriage to Max. The couple return from their honeymoon at that moment and Dorothy asks the other Girls not to tell her.

It's for naught, as Sophia can immediately tell and lays into Dorothy for starting her bad habit again. She promises to quit again. Max and Sophia decide to get settled into their new place. There's just one problem -- they don't have a new place. At some light guilt-tripping from Sophia, the other Girls invite them to stay for a few days while they look for their own place. Dorothy struggles with her cravings.

Three weeks later, Dorothy is in the shower and tells Sophia she'll be out shortly. Without a word, Max enters, takes off his glasses and enters the shower, making Dorothy scream. The other Girls run in and there's more screaming. Blanche tells Sophia that living with Max and Sophia isn't working out and other Girls are uncomfortable. Sophia and Max (who refuses to put on a robe) agree to start looking for a new place immediately.

ROSE: Dorothy, I know what you're going through. I smoked for years. DOROTHY: You smoked? Rose, that's like finding out Lassie was an alcoholic. ROSE: Lassie was an alcoholic?! That explains why she always tipped to one side when she waved goodbye to Timmy.

Sophia and Max reconvene at the boardwalk, having not found a new place. They look out at the beach and reminisce about Sal's idea to open a pizza-knish stand on the boardwalk in Coney Island. A nearby saxophonist starts playing, and Max requests Sal's favorite: "It Had to Be You," and he and Sophia slow dance on the boardwalk. Later, the other Girls talk about Dorothy's cravings -- Rose reveals she also used to smoke, to Dorothy's surprise.

Max and Sophia return home and excitedly tell everyone they've found the perfect place and ask to show them. When they arrive on the boardwalk, the "place" is an old, boarded-up concession stand. They've decided to reopen their own business -- though they'll have to live at the house until it gets off the ground. Sometime later, they've got the stand almost ready to go, and the other Girls arrive. They warn Max and Sophia they'll get a cold if they overdo it, which Sophia scoffs at.

DOROTHY: I have to give you two credit. It looks like it's really gonna happen! MAX: Why shouldn't it happen? I know the pizza business like the back of my hand -- *look at his hand* I never noticed that before. What do you think it would cost to remove something like that?

Smash cut to Max and Sophia sitting on the couch with terrible colds. They're afraid that they won't be able to open in time for the weekend's beach festival and will lose their lease. The Girls cave and agree to help them out. That weekend, Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy are hard at work getting the pizza and knishes ready to go. Rose inadvertently triggers Dorothy's cigarette cravings. Unfortunately, they don't get the customers they're hoping for as no one seems to notice the stand.

Sophia arrives on a wave of better health to check on the stand, and the Girls tell her they haven't sold since everyone's in the water. Sophia decides to show them what's what: She looks towards the beach and starts yelling, "Shark!" The terrified beachgoers immediately surge onto the boardwalk and up to the pizza-knish stand. That night, they excitedly say they completely sold out, and the business is saved.

FIREMAN: Well, we've finally found the cause of the fire. DOROTHY: Take me away. Cuff me. FIREMAN: …well, I'd like to take you to dinner first. Then we could play the rest by ear.

Unfortunately, Dorothy gets a phone call and they rush back to the beach: The stand is now a smoking ruin. In tears, Dorothy confesses she snuck in a cigarette while locking up. Sophia forgives her, saying it was an accident. However, a fireman appears and says the real culprit was an electrical issue, and Blanche says insurance will help Sophia and Max rebuild. Sophia and Max? They both say, "Eh," to each other's surprise.

Sophia and Max both come to the same conclusion: The business isn't the same without Sal and Esther. Sophia sends the Girls home for cheesecake, and she and Max sit on their bench to talk. They decide they aren't in love with each other like they were with their late spouses, and are better off as friends. The Catholic Sophia suggests they separate, and Max decides to return to his family in Brooklyn. The saxophonist shows up and offers to play "It Had to Be You" again, and Sophia and Max dance for themselves, Sal, and Esther.

"I don't need a divorce on my record with St. Peter at spitting distance."

Max and Sophia once again put the "whirlwind" in "whirlwind romance," as they fast-track through their honeymoon, starting a business together, and finally a separation based on mutual agreement in a single episode. There's a lot going on here, even by Golden Girls standards. However, I think the saving grace of the episode is the continuity between the two-parter, and because I think it at least sort of addressed the big problem I had with the last one.

ROSE: I don't understand. SOPHIA: You should have that printed on a t-shirt.

The addition of Max, a man who invades the Girls' sanctuary (albeit by invitation) adds an extra ingredient of humor to the first half of the episode, as they can't get used to living with a man once more. Though when I've lived with men who weren't married to me, I admittedly didn't often have an issue with them joining me in the shower because they've mistaken me for their wife. I'm not sure why Max and Sophia stay with the Girls for three weeks before looking for a house, but it at least provides some conflict.

Max and Sophia's decision to try and reopen the pizza-knish stand that the Petrillos and Weinstocks originally opened on Coney Island is a pleasant nod to the first episode in the two-parter. It's nice to see an expansion on Sophia's life before she moved to Miami to be with her daughter, and to see what she and Sal got up to during their long life together in Brooklyn. I'm not sure if pizza and knishes would do as well on Miami Beach as they would on Coney Island, but I'm not going to pretend I know anything about the food industry.

BLANCHE: Why don't you want to hear about my dream? DOROTHY: Because it is always the same thing with you, Blanche: Sex, sex, sex. I am tired of hearing it. ROSE: Maybe that's because you're not getting any, Dorothy. DOROTHY: Do you want the pot again, Rose?

The issue I had with the first part of the episode was that it almost felt like Max forgot about his recently deceased wife (and Sophia's former bestie) Esther. At the end of this episode, Max admits he doesn't love Sophia as much as he did Esther, and that he prefers to remain friends with her after their separation. He also admits that he misses Brooklyn, where his family and grandkids live, which clears up a factor I hadn't even addressed about how Max must have felt moving to Miami.

As for this episode itself, the problem I have with the primary story about Max and Sophia is that it doesn't seem to flow naturally from part one to part two. At first, the conflict is that Sophia and Max need to find a new place to live, then the issue is them starting a business they might not be able to keep going. They feel almost like two different episodes smashed together -- especially since Sophia simply tells Blanche they'll both be staying in her house until the business gets off the ground, despite them moving out being the motivation to go to the boardwalk in the first place.

SOPHIA: You want a Lifesaver? MAX: What kind you got? SOPHIA: Peppermint. MAX: I don't like peppermint. I like butterscotch. You got butterscotch. SOPHIA: Does it say 7-11 across my forehead? I got peppermint!

Speaking of the boardwalk, it's one of the biggest non-house sets I've ever seen on this show -- fitting, given we spend over half the episode here. Not only do we have the full-size pizza-knish stand, but we also get to see a large section of the boardwalk, including other shops, which include a palm reader, a newspaper stand, and a candy shop. And mentioning sets, they've redesigned the Girls' only full-size bathroom yet again for the single-scene gag of Max getting into the shower with Dorothy.

There's not a B-plot in this episode per se -- Dorothy's smoking is directly related to the A-plot, and plays a role in its conclusion. She says one of the reasons she resumed the bad habit is because of her stress over Sophia's remarriage, and the married couple staying in the house with them probably doesn't help. We never actually learn if she did kick the habit. She didn't actually burn down the stand, so she may not quit out of guilt -- perhaps out of an abundance of caution over what could have happened? I have no idea.

BLANCHE: Well, how was the honeymoon? MAX: I tell you, that Disney World hotel was just wonderful. It had everything: Good service, delicious food, a beautiful room! ROSE: What did you think of the rides? MAX: . . . they got rides? SOPHIA: Don't worry about it. You had a good time and you never had to stand in line.

Another issue I have is that Blanche and Rose have far less to do in this episode than they did in the last one. They've managed to lose all interest in Elvis Presley over the course of a month, and have nothing to do in the whole episode except complain about Max, try to help Sophia, and give Dorothy motivation to kick her smoking habit. Rose manages to sneak in several inane St. Olaf Stories, while Blanche's main contribution seems to be as the voice of reason for everyone.

That said, the last scene where Dorothy gets her final resolve to quit smoking and is absolved of her guilt simultaneously, then Max and Sophia agree to part ways, is very sweet and a nice way of tying the whole thing together. Max going home to his family gives a clean break while not requiring Sophia to move back from a different location, and it's a sweet way of paying homage to the two's original spouses. Also, it's always nice to hear "It Had to Be You," especially played on a saxophone.

Episode rating: 🍰🍰🍰 (three cheesecake slices out of five)

Favorite part of the episode

Dorothy dispenses punishment to Rose.

#golden girls #stay golden #stay golden sunday #picture it #sophia petrillo #rose nylund #dorothy zbornak #blanche devereaux #s04e07 #sophia's wedding part two #Youtube

[rachelkaser]

Masonry Monday: The Case of the Buried Clock

Dr. Blane calls Perry Mason for help when his gambler son-in-law steals $100,000 from a bank. Perry and Paul Drake attempt to investigate, only to find Dr. Blane with the body of said son-in-law. His philandering daughter, a remote trail camera, and a gun borrowed from the neighbors all play a part in finding the real culprit.

Who's Who

Perry Mason's client: Dr. Vincente Blane, chairman of a bank board who is stuck when the son-in-law he vouched for goes crooked

The victim: Jack Hardisty, a gambling addict who steals from a bank and blackmails his father-in-law

Suspects: Sue Hardisty, Jack's wife and Blane's daughter, who was stepping out with her neighbor Philip Strague, Sue's clandestine boyfriend and the owner of the murder weapon Jean Strague, Strague's sister, who disapproves of his relationship with Sue Rodney Beaton, a wildlife photographer, whose trail cameras capture more than just animals around the lake

The Setup

Dr. Blane drops into the Sierra City bank to talk with its manager, Reynolds. While he's there, Reynolds asks Jack Hardisty to put some cash into the vault. Blane asks Reynolds how Jack, his son-in-law, is doing at his new job, but Reynolds is reluctant to speak ill as Blane is chairman of the bank's board. Meanwhile, in the vault, Jack shoves a large amount of the cash into a bag. As he departs with the bag, he tells Blane that he and Sue, Blane's daughter, will join the older man at his lakehouse for the weekend.

At said lakehouse, Sue greets Jack, who's late. Their neighbors, the Stragues, are already there, as is Dr. Blane. Jack enters Dr. Blane's study and rather smugly confesses to stealing $100,000 from the bank. Since the bank examiners are coming on Monday, Jack unsubtly tells Dr. Blane he'll have to help cover it up to protect Sue -- and because Dr. Blane guaranteed his bond.

In Perry Mason's office, he gets a call from Dr. Blane, with whom he's already familiar. Dr. Blane tells Perry about Jack's theft and blackmail. Jack has proposed to return $75,000 if Dr. Blane made up the rest and didn't press charges. Perry offers to get him in touch with Paul to help dig up info on Jack's extracurriculars, and Perry himself will come up to visit Dr. Blane at the lakehouse.

Enter Perry Mason, Attorney at Law

At the Hardisty's home, two of Paul's operatives stand watch. Inside, Jack receives a call from someone and is immediately on the defensive. He agrees to meet the caller alone later that night. He drives off, with the two detectives in hot (albeit silent) pursuit. Later that night, Perry and Della arrive at Dr. Blane's lake house, where they meet Paul -- who says Dr. Blane and Sue aren't there. Paul adds that there's trouble: The operatives lost Jack in Los Angeles, but he's not so far skipped town.

Paul departs to try and intercept Jack at his home in Sierra City, while Perry and Della stay at the lake house. Paul sneaks up to the Hardisty's house and checks a window: Dr. Blane is inside the house, ransacking the place. Paul confronts him, and Dr. Blane points down to the floor, where Jack Hardisty lays dead. Dr. Blane says he doesn't know what happened and he was looking for the money. Paul, with a stern look, calls the police. Later, Dr. Blane tells the detectives he doesn't own a gun, but admits to not calling them sooner.

Back at the lake house, Sue admits a man named Rodney Beaton and introduces him to Perry and Della. Beaton is a well-known wildlife photographer. He tells them he was resetting some trail cameras, which he rigs with wire so they'll go off and capture night shots when an animal trips it. Phil Strague also enters and is introduced, and he says his sister Jean is a fan of Perry's. Strague admits to Beaton he accidentally tripped one of his trail cameras earlier that evening. Beaton notes that something also tripped a camera only a few minutes before.

Dr. Blane arrives and greets Perry. He tells Sue that Jack is dead, and she bursts into tears. Later, he explains to Perry what happened in his study. He says he's worried, both because Sue won't tell him where she disappeared to … and because he did have a gun. He doesn't own one, but Strague loaned him one for target shooting and it's now missing. Perry chides him for not telling the sheriff sooner, as the police are sure to find out and they should hear it from Dr. Blane.

As Della is calling, Perry asks if anyone else knew about the stolen money. Dr. Blane says the Stragues and Beaton (and Sue) were in the house the night he fought with Jack, and he spilled the story to them knowing they'd overheard. Della can't connect with the sheriff. Dr. Blane insists he didn't call Jack before going over, saying it was an impulse and he assumed Jack would be there.

The Murder

Sue enters, still in tears, and says Sheriff Elmore is at the house, wanting to speak with Dr. Blane. Dr. Blane confesses the truth about the gun to the Sheriff, who produces a pistol from his pocket. It's the missing gun, found stuffed in the fork of a tree, wiped clean of prints. He asks the doctor why it took him over two hours to make a trip that took them 90 minutes. Dr. Blane admits he and Jack had been at odds over the theft from the bank and he considered threatening Jack but changed his mind.

Later, after the Sheriff interrogates the doctor, Perry steps outside with Sue. She insists her father couldn't have killed anyone. Perry asks Sue where she was the night before, and she admits in confidence that she and Jack were having marital problems, and she'd been seeing her neighbor, Phil Strague. She and Strague would meet up at her father's house in Sierra City, nowhere near the lake. She went there the previous night, but Phil never showed. So she doesn't have an alibi.

Back where Perry's staying, he asks Paul to check on the suspects who knew about the money ahead of the preliminary hearing in a week. Paul points out Dr. Blane has no motive to kill over money he'll have to return to the bank, but Perry says DA Hale believes Dr. Blane was in league with Jack on the theft. Paul notes that there were three sets of prints in the Hardisty house: Sue's, Jack's, and Dr. Blane's. There were three washed glasses in the dish drainer. Perry says the money is a motive -- now they just need to find out who, other than Dr. Blane and Sue, had the means and opportunity.

The Trial

As the trial commences, DA Hale greets Mason again. He begins with the testimony of the coroner, who determines the time of death to be between 7:35pm and 7:45pm, which Mason stipulates is correct. The coroner also says the cause of death is a gunshot wound, and he removed the fatal bullet for ballistics testing. Hale asks if anything else was unusual, and the coroner notes Jack had been orally drugged with scopolamine, which would have lowered his inhibitions and acted as a semi-effective truth serum. Mason has no questions.

Next, Hale calls Sheriff Elmore. The Sheriff confirms the average drive time from the lake house to the Hardisty's home is one hour, thirty-one minutes. Dr. Blane's housekeeper says he left his home at 5:45pm, so he would have arrived at 7:16pm if he went straight there. Sheriff Elmore testifies Dr. Blane claims to have arrived at 7:50pm instead. The police also found scopolamine in the doctor's home. On cross, Mason asks the sheriff if the washed glasses had any trace of scopolamine. They didn't.

Philip Strague testifies next, admitting the murder weapon is his, and that he'd loaned it to Dr. Blane. On cross, Mason gets Strague to admit he'd technically loaned the gun to the Hardistys as well. They all knew where it was kept, as did Strague and possibly Beaton. Next, Hale questions Jean Strague, who says she knew about scopolamine because the party at the lake house had discussed a magazine article about it the same night Jack fought with Dr. Blane.

Hale tells Jean that they're trying to establish the whereabouts of everyone who knew about Jack's theft, and asks where she was at the time of the murder. She says she was at her cabin with Strague all night, except for a few minutes when her brother visited the Hardisty cabin looking for a bridge game. On cross, Mason asks if anyone else can alibi Jean, and she admits no one can. Hale decides to recall Strague to clear up the question of alibis.

Strague returns to the stand and testifies that he went over to Dr. Blane's around 7:30pm, but left when he saw a strange car (Perry's). That's when he accidentally set off Beaton's flash camera on the trail, which he told everyone at the lake house about. Hale shows him a picture of himself: It's the photo the trail cam snapped when he tripped the flash. Hale submits the photo as evidence with further evidence as to its provenance incoming. Mason doesn't object.

Paul Drake takes the witness stand to testify that Dr. Blane was searching the Hardisty house, and that he (the doctor) said he'd not called the police. On cross, Mason asks Drake if he'd attempted to verify Dr. Blane's claim that he'd arrived only five minutes before Drake himself. Drake says he inspected Dr. Blane's car and found it still warm -- it was likely only idle for a few moments. On redirect, Hale asks Drake if this is an estimate or a measurement; Drake says it's an estimate.

The Investigation

Out on the trail, Perry is recreating one of Beaton's trail cams, complete with tripwire. Paul arrives with lunch and the dirt on the Stragues. Strague was discharged from the Navy eight years previously, and they lived in the Bay Area before Sierra City. Strague was "friendly" with a rich, married woman there. Perry asks Paul to find out if Jack rented a post office box next to Union Station between 5:05pm and 5:20pm the day of his murder and if there's any mail in the box.

Della notes that, if Jack was killed at 7:30pm, for the scopolamine to take effect, he'd have to have been home by 7pm. Paul adds that a P.O. box would not have been big enough to stash $100k in cash, but Perry says Jack could have used it to mail himself a key or a claim ticket. Della also says that Jack could have bluffed under the influence of scopolamine, telling the killer his original hiding place inside the house while concealing the P.O. Box location.

Back in court, Hale questions Beaton about the flash he saw on the trail from his cabin porch. Beaton says he saw the first flash at 7:30pm. He confirms the picture is the one taken when that flash was tripped. On cross, Mason asks Beaton how long he was on his porch -- Beaton says from 6pm to 10pm, but no one can confirm that. Mason asks if Strague's mention of the flash was the first time Beaton knew it was Strague who tripped the flash.

Beaton says no: He saw Strague's tracks when he reset the camera, and there was nothing unusual about them. Paul enters the court and confirms sotto voce to Mason that Jack did rent a box, and there's one piece of mail in it. Mason writes him a note and sends him off again. He asks Beaton to demonstrate the resetting of the camera, and as he does so, Mason notes a flaw in one character's alibi -- someone wasn't where they said they were . . .

In Summation

Once again, Perry, Paul, and Della have an "away" case, set outside their usual territory of Los Angeles. These episodes usually happen either because Perry is going to help a friend, or because someone managed to catch him while he was on vacation. This time, it's the former, as Perry and Della are apparently already familiar with Dr. Blane -- the good doctor explicitly says Perry is his friend, not his lawyer when Sheriff Elmore asks.

That said, I'm sure Perry wishes Dr. Blane had been his client before all this happened, so he could have advised him not to make the very stupid mistake of lying to the cops, to say nothing of failing to report the death when he discovered it. Even Paul sternly reprimands the doctor when he discovers what's happened. I know the average American is not going to understand the severity of that kind of mistake, but anyone who has Perry Mason on speed dial should know better.

Not that I can really blame Dr. Blane -- I'm pretty sure there's not one person in this whole episode who's sad to see Jack Hardisty go. An audacious, smug asshole who steals from the bank where his father-in-law got him the job and then brags about it isn't going to endear himself to anyone. That said, he's apparently got more guts than most victims, as he's able to tell a half-truth even under the effects of scopolamine (which isn't a truth serum, but let's act as if it is) as a final fuck you to his killer.

No one in this case is really an angel, if you think about it. Sue Hardisty and Phil Strague are carrying on an affair, Jean Strague and Rodney Beaton are busybodies who get into Dr. Blane's business, and Dr. Blane himself -- well, not to keep shitting on the good doctor, but who the heck just spills the whole story about their son-in-law stealing $100k from a bank to the neighbors they barely know just because they happen to be in the next room when said son-in-law leaves? Not to spoil, but that little act of indiscretion is what leads to the rest of the nonsense in the episode.

If there's anyone worth cheering for in this episode, it's Paul. This is one of the first times we see him testify in his capacity as a private detective, and he gives exemplary testimony. He's precise with details, and even forces DA Hale to reword his questions to get the exact information he wants on record. He also shows how thorough he is as a detective, in that he took the time to feel the doctor's car engine to see if its warmth would substantiate his story of having just arrived. His operatives are no slouches either, even running a red light to try and keep up with the fleeing Hardisty.

There's one recurring trope in these episodes that is either a product of its time or pure fantasy (I can't tell which): The trope that everyone keeps their firearms in the glove box of their car. Maybe this is just me -- and I grew up in Texas, so it's not like I've never seen guns -- but I can't possibly think of less-secure place to keep a deadly weapon. Cars are mobile, easy to break into, and glove boxes don't usually come with locks as far as I know. Maybe they did at the time, but even so, it's still a rather uncertain place to keep such a thing.

Sheriff Elmore and Darwin Hale return as the suburban counterparts to Tragg and Burger, respectively. We last saw them in "The Case of the Angry Mourner," where Hale proved to be a formidable opponent to Mason in court. Sheriff Elmore is played by a different actor, but it's still recognizably the same character, which is a rare bit of continuity from this series. Hale is once again professionally friendly to Mason, though Dr. Blane seems to think Hale would cut him (the doctor) some slack based on reputation alone. I've seen Hale twice, and I already knew that wasn't going to happen.

One last note: Dr. Blane's full name is never uttered in the episode, not even at his trial. Even Perry, his longtime friend, simply calls him "Dr. Blane." He doesn't even have a first name in the credits. I've taken the liberty of adding the first name "Vincente," which was the character's first name in the story on which this episode is based. I don't need to, I know, but it bugs the heck out of me when I just see a surname on my character list.

The Verdict

Judgement: ⚖⚖ (two scales of justice out of four) Perry Mason's client in this case does everything he can to make himself look guilty -- and out of all of them, he should really know better. The rest of the suspects are also a bit on the shallow side, but it's fun to watch the final gambit unfold.

#perry mason #masonry monday #raymond burr #della street #paul drake #s02e06 #the case of the buried clock #paramount plus

[rachelkaser]

Stay Golden Sunday: Sophia's Wedding, Part 1

Sophia reunites with an old friend, Max Weinstock, and the sparks fly in more ways than one. Rose and Blanche start an Elvis fan club.

Picture It...

Rose runs in, so excited she's shaking: Her application to start a branch of the Elvis Presley Hunka Hunka Burnin' Love Fan Club has been approved. Blanche, who's also a huge Elvis fan, appoints herself president (also claiming she slept with him). Sophia answers a phone call returns in tears: Her best friend from Brooklyn, Esther Weinstock, has died. Dorothy volunteers to go to the funeral with her, but Sophia refuses.

DOROTHY: Oh I'm so sorry. What happened? SOPHIA: She was fighting an oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico. She was 88! ROSE: Well, it's great that she was able to work right up to the end.

After Sophia storms out of the kitchen, Dorothy explains that Esther's husband Max and Sophia's husband Salvador were business partners running a pizza-knish stand. Max gambled their profits away one night and they went broke. Sophia reenters and says she swore she'd never see Max again, but Dorothy convinces her to go. In Brooklyn, Sophia and Dorothy arrive at the Weinstock house after the funeral. Max enters, and Sophia's still angry with him.

Max says he's finally willing to admit the truth, and begins narrating a story... Brooklyn 1949: Sophia, Sal, Max, and Esther are playing gin in the Weinstock's home. Esther and Sophia go make coffee, and Sal tells Max that he lost their money betting on the races. He apologizes to Max and says Sophia will throw him out when he tells her. When Sophia comes in, Max intervenes and says he's the one who gambled the money away.

DOROTHY: Ma, say something to him! SOPHIA: I can't. Sicilians have a hard time with apologies. DOROTHY: They also have a hard time passing wet cement without putting someone in it. They manage!

Back in the present, Max says it was worth it as the Petrillos stayed together and Sal quit gambling. Dorothy urges Sophia to apologize to Max, and she does, in her own way. Back in Miami, Blanche and Rose close the first fan club meeting with show-and-tell, a partially eaten pork chop. Dorothy isn't impressed, and Blanche kicks her out of the club for speaking ill of the King (Dorothy's not too broken up about it).

Everyone else leaves, and the Girls decide to get dinner. Dorothy goes to get Sophia, who's been depressed since Esther's funeral. She screams, and Rose and Blanche come running . . . to find Sophia in bed with Max. All three Girls are shocked, and Dorothy immediately starts yelling at her mother. Then Sophia breaks the news that she and Max are getting married, and Dorothy faints on the spot. Rose revives her with some smacks to the face.

Dorothy demands that Sophia explain. Max and Sophia said that they reconnected and fell in love while they were in Brooklyn together, and they want to marry right away. Blanche and Rose are on board, saying it's romantic, but Dorothy is still angry and say it's a mistake. Sometime later, Rose and Blanche decide to hire an Elvis impersonator for their next club meeting. Dorothy, meanwhile, is trying to avoid the topic of the wedding.

Rose and Blanche try to make her see reason, but Dorothy says she doesn't believe they're really in love after only three days. Sophia enters with her wedding dress, but tells the Girls that, according to Sicilian custom, she can't get married without Dorothy's blessing. Dorothy again refuses, and isn't scared of Sophia's threats to put a curse on her. On the day of the wedding, Rose and Blanche go to help Sophia get ready, but she's locked herself in the bathroom and says the wedding is off.

ROSE: Don't you have to be a virgin to wear a white wedding dress? SOPHIA: Please, the last time I was a virgin, the Louisiana Purchase was still in escrow.

Max and Dorothy enter, and Sophia talks about how much she loves Max but she can't face Dorothy's disapproval. Dorothy finally breaks and confesses (while the pushy caterer hovers) that she's struggling to see her mom with another husband, but she wants her to be happy. Sophia finally exits the bathroom in her wedding dress. They all wish her happiness and the four Girls have one more group hug.

The four Girls exit to the living room where Max and the priest are waiting to a surprise: A room filled with Elvises. Rose mixed up the guest list with the impersonator list. The priest begins the ceremony anyway while Dorothy, Rose, and Blanche talk about weddings. They finish the vows and the priest pronounces them man and wife. As Max and Sophia kiss, the Elvises all stand up and begin singing the wedding song from Blue Hawaii.

"Then if no Elvis in this room has any objection to this union . . ."

When I said at the start of the season that they were giving Sophia more screentime, I was not exaggerating a bit. We're six episodes in and we've gotten our third Sophia-centric episode (four, if you count "Yes We Have No Havanas"). Now we see her getting a big two-parter where she marries an old friend after reconciling a forty-year misunderstanding with him. Though there's a part of me that wonders about Max's enthusiasm given that he just lost his wife.

BLANCHE: Oh Sophia, honey, I want to wish you all the happiness in the world! SOPHIA: Thank you, Blanche! ROSE: And Sophia, I want to offer you a traditional Scandinavian wedding blessing. *rambles in nonspecific Scandinavian with a lot of F sounds* SOPHIA: I'm really touched. *puts a hand on her chin* I'm also soaking wet. All right, one group hug, and let's hit the road!

In what is apparent a recurring theme for Sophia (see also: her sister and her brother), she reconciles a decades-long misunderstanding with a loved one. Max decides to save Sophia's marriage by covering up Sal's gambling problem that leads them to go out of business. It's a noble act of sacrifice considering it gives Sal the push he needs to give up gambling (at least as far as Max knows, but we'll get to that in another episode).

There's one person in this story who I think gets a bit lost: Esther Weinstock herself. What did she think of Max's lie, assuming that she knew it was a lie? Did she keep in touch with Sophia afterwards? I would presume so, since someone from her family informs Sophia about her death. I can buy her being Sophia's best friend in Brooklyn, sure, but how did she and Sophia grow up together -- I'm pretty sure "Weinstock" is not a Sicilian name?

ROSE: Sophia, she was your best friend. Are you sure you don't want to go to her funeral? SOPHIA: Of course I wanna go. But I swore a Sicilian oath I would never cast my eyes on Max Weinstock again. And nothing you can say or do will make me change my mind. DOROTHY: I'll pay for both tickets." SOPHIA: Book business class. If I have to sit through The Three Amigos, I'll need champagne.

I also feel bad for Esther that her husband marries someone else mere weeks after her funeral. While Sophia's had two decades to mourn her husband, Esther hasn't been gone nearly as long, and presumably she and Max were happily married the whole time. It makes me question why Max is willing to move on so fast -- though I concede that such things do happen. I think it's very (sadly) telling that Esther's actress, Fritzi Burr, isn't even properly credited in the episode -- she's listed as a character named "Ruth."

Poor Dorothy flips from being fully in support of her mother reconciling with Max to being the main obstacle to their romance, so she's balancing a lot here. The final scene, in which she confesses that this is all stemming from lingering grief for her father but that she wants her mother to be happy more, is a very sweet scene. As a piece of trivia, according to Golden Girls Forever, Raye Birk, who plays the caterer, insisted on keeping the caterer's lines in when the producers tried to cut them, and I think we're all better for it.

Side note, but Dorothy feels more Sicilian than usual in this episode. She mentions paying respects to the Weinstocks after the funeral and putting people in cement, and is also familiar with Sicilian customs and curses, albeit with help from Aunt Regina. One of my favorite little touches in this episode is that an Italian complimenting someone else's food is considered to be a valid apology even by Dorothy's standards.

The B-plot, about Rose and Blanche starting an Elvis Presley support club, is a personal favorite. While their self-proclaimed fanatical devotion to the King's legacy, to the point of cooing over his half-eaten food, is intended to (and does) come across as cringy, it's also a note-perfect parody of modern fandoms. I also love it when an A- and B-plot merge at the end of the episode, and the big reveal at the end that the Elvises are the guests at Sophia's wedding is always good for a laugh.

BLANCHE: Do you know what I hate doing most after a party? ROSE: Trying to find your underwear in the big pile?

This episode has one of the most popular and well-known pieces of Golden Girls trivia attached to it: Namely, that one of the Elvis impersonators was played by none other than Quentin Tarantino. The man himself said during an appearance on The Tonight Show that the residuals from his appearance on the show helped keep him afloat while making Reservoir Dogs. So, if you think about it, this one episode is indirectly responsible for the rise of a major part of movie culture for the next decade.

I gotta say, leaving aside the effect his appearance had on the history of film, Tarantino was putting in work back there. You can tell, watching the episode, which Elvises are into their role and which ones are phoning it in (Blue Jumpsuit Elvis is barely moving one of his knees). Quentin's Sun Records Elvis falls into the former category -- his career could have ended right there and it would have been a high note to go out on.

Episode rating: 🍰🍰🍰🍰 (four cheesecake slices out of five)

Favorite part of the episode

The Elvises may not know why they're here, but they're going to do what they do best:

#golden girls #stay golden #stay golden sunday #sophia petrillo #dorothy zbornak #rose nylund #blanche devereaux #picture it #s04e06 #sophia's wedding part one #Youtube

[rachelkaser]

Masonry Monday: The Case of the Curious Bride

Rhoda Reynolds will do almost anything to keep her colorful past from her husband and, more importantly, her tyrannical father-in-law. But she won't kill, as she insists when the blackmailer who knows her secret is murdered with her ring in his hand. No believes her . . . except Perry Mason.

Who's Who

Perry Mason's client: Rhoda Reynolds, a wealthy wife whose past indiscretions have come back to roost

The victim: Arthur "Artie" Kane, a blackmailer whose wealth of knowledge angered more than one person

Suspects: Carl Reynolds, Rhoda's husband, who keeps insisting he trusts his wife despite being dominated by his father C. Philip Reynolds, a rich man who doesn't want a mysterious nurse with a past as his daughter-in-law Dr. Michael Harris, Rhoda's friend, who knows about the blackmail and sends her to Perry Mason for help

The Setup

Carl Reynolds kisses his beautiful wife Rhoda goodbye before heading to work, while a smarmy-looking man watches from a nearby car. Later, he scares Rhoda while she's alone in the house. She tells the man, Artie Kane, that she can't afford to give him the $2,000 he's demanding of her. He gives her until 2 am the next morning to raise it and tells her to bring it to his apartment, even hinting that the former nurse should drug her husband. He also calls her bluff when she starts to call the police.

Elsewhere, Carl watches his father Philip Reynolds skeet-shooting. The elder Reynolds refuses to give his son the $2,000 he's asking for, dong the whole "when I was your age" schtick. Reynolds adds that they've only had each other since Carl's mother died when he was four, but they've fallen out since Carl married Rhoda, whom he knew little of. Carl says he thinks Rhoda married him out of sympathy, as she was once his nurse. Reynolds believes she's after their money and says Rhoda's a little too close to a Dr. Michael Harris. He says neither of them will get his money while they remain together.

At the Beverly Hills Doctors Hospital, Rhoda meets with Dr. Harris, an obstetrician. They discuss Kane's blackmail, and Dr. Harris urges her to tell Carl the truth, believing he can handle it, but Rhoda says his father's the problem. Dr. Harris makes a covert pass at her, saying she should have married him, but Rhoda's not biting. Finally, he gives her the address of Perry Mason's office, saying that, if anyone can help her, the lawyer can.

Enter Perry Mason, Attorney at Law

Rhoda arrives at Perry's office as "Mrs. Crocker" and starts tell him she's here to ask a question on behalf of "a friend." Rhoda says her "friend" was married for a few months to a grifter eight years previously in Seattle. Her husband was supposedly killed in an car accident in Kansas later. Perry accurately guesses that she's since married again and her first husband has now turned up, noting that they used the "money for a fake funeral" dodge. Now comes the big question: Is her second marriage valid?

Perry tells her that, unfortunately, her second marriage isn't valid. She should divorce her first husband and marry her second husband again. "Mrs. Crocker" nervously asks if there's any way her friend can persuade her first husband to leave her alone, but Perry attempts to call her bluff and tells her that "her friend" needs to make an appointment if she wants advice. Rhoda leaves, and Perry tells Della he made a bad call not helping her more. Unfortunately, they can't just wash their hands of it: "Mrs. Crocker" gave Della a $50 retainer, and Perry has to find her now.

When Della goes to sit down, she realizes Rhoda left her purse in the office. Since Rhoda's a client, Perry searches the purse for identifying information, which includes a telegram with Rhoda's real married name on it. Perry calls Paul in and asks him to find out about "Artie," the man who sent Rhoda the telegram telling her not to forget the time of their "date" that night. Paul immediately picks up the phone and obtains the address. Perry arrives at Kane's rooming house, and speaks with a neighbor who says Kane has drunken parties. The building is listed as For Sale.

As he's about to leave, a blonde woman walks out, telling Kane she's giving him a deadline of some kind and that she's working at the Onyx. Perry speaks with Kane, who's wary of the lawyer. When Perry asks about Kane's marriage to Rhoda, Kane immediately picks up the phone to call Rhoda. He hands the phone to Perry, and Rhoda tells Perry to stop interfering and hangs up. Perry picks up a very loud alarm clock and Kane refuses to talk to him, but Perry says that's fine -- he's done all the talking, now he expects Kane to ponder his words.

The Murder

Carl Reynolds is asleep in bed at 1:45 am, with a cup of tea next to him. Rhoda sneaks out, but as soon as she leaves the room, Carl springs up and watches her leave. She runs to the garage and gets her car, then drives off. At 2 am, Rhoda drives the car up to a service station with a flat tire, and the serviceman offers to change her tire for her. Rhoda arrives at Kane's apartment at 2: 10, to his fury, and tells him she wasn't able to raise the money in time.

He decides to take her wedding ring as compensation instead, whether Rhoda likes it or not. There's a ring of the bell, but Kane ignores it. Rhoda grabs a poker from the fireplace to defend herself, but it's not enough to fend off Kane, who attacks her. Their tussle is loud enough to wake the nosy neighbor's dog, and the neighbor calls the police, saying that, "Somebody's getting killed!" The next morning, Paul reads about the "bludgeon killing" in the newspaper, which shows Kane's body, with a large diamond ring in his hand.

Della notes that the ring, which is also pictured, was the same one on the finger of "Mrs. Crocker." Perry says that he doesn't represent Rhoda, as she technically fired him yesterday, but the case against her looks rough. Perry says that Tragg probably has her in custody right now, but Della will take that bet: Rhoda herself is on the phone. Perry speaks with Rhoda, who says she's at the Doctors Hospital. He tells her he's on his way and to stay where she is. He asks Paul to get him the police reports on the killing and to identify the Onyx blonde he met coming out of Kane's building.

In Summation

I'll be honest, this is one of those cases where the motive and guilty party are not all that hard to figure out. I'm still not going to spoil it, but there's only person in the case with a stronger motive than Rhoda to commit the murder.

Case under review, please return later...

#perry mason #masonry monday #raymond burr #della street #paul drake #s02e05 #the case of the curious bride

[rachelkaser]

Stay Golden Sunday: Bang the Drum, Stanley

After getting beaned by a baseball, Sophia gets entangled with Stanley on a fraud scheme. Blanche and Rose are cast in a production of Cats.

Picture It...

Sophia and Dorothy are looking through family photo albums when Blanche and Rose come home: They were auditioning for roles in a production of the musical, Cats. The doorbell rings and Stan arrives. He's got three tickets to a baseball game for that day, and initially tries to sweet-talk Dorothy into going. Dorothy initially resists, but then Sophia agrees to go and she relents.

DOROTHY: How did the auditions go? ROSE: Great! Oh, you shoulda tried out, Dorothy. Everybody was really stinky. You might've gotten a part this year! BLANCHE: Rose, don't be silly. Dorothy couldn't get a part. We're doing the award-winning musical Cats! You have to be agile, graceful, and sensual! DOROTHY: You're right, Blanche. I mean, how could I possibly compete with you? You've given some of your finest performances in back alleys.

At the ball park, the three of them are way up in the nosebleeds. As they're watching the game -- and Dorothy gets a sweaty, shirtless seat neighbor -- Dorothy presses Stan on why he really invited her. He confesses he's bankrupt and needs money. Dorothy is ready to leave, but they stay to watch one pitch. The batter hits, and the ball comes soaring all the way up to the stands . . . where it hits Sophia right in the head. She immediately passes out on Dorothy's shoulder.

Cut to the hospital where Sophia's still out cold. Blanche and Rose arrive, in full Cats costume, from rehearsal to check on her. After being assured by Dorothy she's fine, just shaken, they go for coffee. The doctor arrives and begins inspecting Sophia, who wakes up and tries to get out of bed. They say they want to keep her for 48 hours for observation. Sophia resists, but panics when Blanche and Rose return.

STAN: What would you say if I told you I have come up with a great way to make some fast money for us . . . and all you have to do is lie on your back? SOPHIA: I'd say you're about 50 years too late on that one.

Later, Sophia is home from the hospital and Blanche and Rose are irritating her by method-acting their cat roles. Stan arrives to check on Sophia, and Rose and Blanche ask Dorothy for help with their rehearsing in the kitchen. Left alone with Sophia, Stan tells her that he's got a get-rich-quick scheme: They can sue the ball park for Sophia's "severe" injury, with Stan's doctor friend in on it. The moment she hears it could be a six-figure payoff, Sophia immediately collapses to the floor and cries paralysis when the other Girls run in.

Dorothy tries to insist Sophia go back to the hospital, but she refuses. Stan says his doctor friend is on the way, but Dorothy, Blanche, and Rose are immediately suspicious, especially when Sophia is acting chummy with him. Stan's friend, "Doctor Jerry" arrives and diagnoses Sophia with paralysis after only two seconds of checking her over. Dorothy throws him out and demands they get a second opinion.

Some days later, Sophia watching TV when she hears Dorothy coming home and vaults into a nearby wheelchair. Dorothy goes into the kitchen and tells Rose and Blanche that she's certain Sophia is faking her injury. Both Girls, ready to give advice, begin stories about lack of trust -- Dorothy tells Blanche to go first, and she tells a story about cheating on a boyfriend in high school. This doesn't sway Dorothy, who's going to try and prove that Sophia's faking it.

She goes into the living room and begins to dramatically fake having a heart attack -- Sophia ignores her. Stan arrives and Dorothy tells him she's onto him before storming out. Stan tells Sophia in private that the insurance company isn't buying "Doctor Jerry's" report, so she must be examined by their doctors. He wants to give up, thinking there's no way they can fool a real doctor, but Sophia is convinced she can keep up the act.

WHEELCHAIR LADY: I wish I had your positive attitude. But the doctors told me it'd be a waste of time. SOPHIA: Doctors, what do they know? They spend 20 years in medical school, they still don't know enough to warm their hands before they do a breast exam.

At the doctor's office, Sophia is in a waiting room full of people with casts, crutches, and wheelchairs. Faced with their suffering, Sophia is starting to have an attack of conscience, especially when a little boy with a broken leg hobbles over. He's too pure for Sophia, who stands up and finally admits she was faking and she feels terrible. On cute, everyone in the room jumps to their feet and rips off their casts. They're all actors -- Blanche and Rose's costars in the Cats production, no less.

Sophia is, naturally, quite upset about being tricked. Back at home, Sophia continues to be mad at Dorothy, but Dorothy says she just wanted to break Stan's control on her mother. Rose passes through the living room on her way to rehearsal, once again in full costume. Two seconds after she leaves, she runs back in screaming for help . . . and Harry Weston's dog Dreyfuss chases her across the living room and into the kitchen.

SOPHIA: Rose is in big trouble. That's Dreyfuss -- it took two guys to pry him off the Steinbergs' plastic flamingos.

"Stanley, I used to think you were the scum of the earth. I have just downgraded my opinion."

Stanley makes his first appearance in Season Four, and, as usual, he brings trouble in his wake. This is one of those episodes that falls apart the longer you think about it, and feels a bit out-of-character for Sophia -- though not by much, I'll confess. If anything, this is a showcase of just what a toxic person Stan is, bringing out the worst in the Girls and Sophia in particular. He's still hilarious, though, which is probably why they kept bringing him back for more episodes despite how much trouble he causes for the Girls.

That's not to say Sophia is innocent. We've seen already that she's tried several get-rich-quick schemes before, and she's the one who talks Stan into it when the plan reaches its final stages. I think the reason I rate this episode so low is because, while Sophia has resorted to silly schemes before to try and accrue some quick cash -- all the Girls have, as I'm sure Baby the Pig would agree -- and she's been willing to bend the rules when it suits her, she crosses a bit of a line in this episode.

ROSE: Dorothy, our director said to prepare for our roles, we must become cats. *to Sophia* That's why I've been playing with your ball of yarn. And Blanche has been making those high-pitched screeching sounds in her room at night. DOROTHY: You've been practicing for this part for a lifetime, haven't you, Blanche?

I mean, I get it -- she did get beaned by the fly ball and Stan does make it sound like it'd be an easy settlement. I can't help but think the ball park's insurance company will have seen someone try to pull this trick before, though. That's probably why they wouldn't accept a report from the nonspecific "Doctor Jerry." Speaking of his scene, I love that all the other Girls immediately clock that something's wrong with the whole scenario: Blanche questions how Stan would know a top neurologist, Rose is shocked Stan offers to pay for something, and Dorothy already doesn't trust Stan as far as she can throw him.

Dorothy spends the majority of the episode battling both her nefarious ex-husband and her slightly avaricious mother. She knows immediately that Stan's up to something when he shows up out of nowhere with baseball tickets, and she's correct. She knows Sophia is faking her injury (not that Sophia's great at hiding it), and she's correct. She knows Stan's only doing this for money, and she's correct. Her frustration is almost palpable, so I don't blame her for resorting to a very complicated trick to get them to cop to it -- especially when her own dramatic heart attack fails.

SOPHIA: As I was about to enter the light, a voice boomed, "Before you can enter the gates of Heaven, you must patch things up with your ex-son-in-law, Stan." STAN: You see, babe? It's all part of the big guy's plan. I am but a humble servant. DOROTHY: Mr. Belvedere is a humble servant, Stanley. You're a horse's ass.

Stan's plan to defraud the insurance company is quickly dropped as the episode only has a few minutes to wrap up, but I wonder whether he wasn't held in some way responsible. I don't know how insurance fraud works (nor am I encouraging anyone to enlighten me), but I would think the insurance company would want to hold someone liable for a fraudulent claim. Stan himself disappears after the hospital scene. We never see his reaction to the sick people revealing themselves to be actors out of nowhere.

I think the ending, in which Sophia is shamed into confessing her part in the deception by a waiting room full of sick people, would hit a lot harder if we'd not seen Sophia volunteering at a hospital only a few episodes prior. I get that it's more of a tactic on Dorothy's part to remind her that there are people suffering, but I feel she wouldn't need to hire actors to do that. And little Timmy, with his broken leg (whose name almost feels like a direct callback to Sophia's reference to Lassie earlier in the episode) and cheerful attempts to befriend an old lady, is about as subtle as an atom bomb.

Speaking of the actors, this is also the episode where Blanche and Rose get the B-plot, having been cast in Cats. The episode doesn't reveal which roles they were cast in -- I'm a bit of a musical theatre dilettante, but if I had to guess, I'd say possibly Demeter and Bombalurina? Those are the two characters their costumes most closely resemble, I think, and I could see them both fitting those roles perfectly -- Blanche basically is Bombalurina. Heck, I'm willing to be instructed if anyone has a better guess.

Both Girls spend part of their screentime in the episode in costume -- perhaps understandably as they're either going to or coming from rehearsal. Betty White and Rue McClanahan rock the heck out of those skin-tight costumes, though -- and they look excellent for a community theater production of the musical. Judy Evans apparently didn't intend for both women to have a mix of animal patterns in their clothes, but I think it sells the image of a slightly ramshackle production. Also, I think it goes without saying, but both women look bombshell-hot and I can only hope I hold up that well.

STAN: I just came from the hospital. They told me Sophia was discharged. Is she here? DOROTHY: No, I haven't taken her out of the trunk of the car yet.

Other than the musical, Blanche and Rose don't contribute much to the episode. Both volunteer to tell stories, but we're thankfully spared a St. Olaf Story as Dorothy nominates Blanche's tale. It turns out not to be very helpful, as she's trying to tell a story about how lack of trust can ruin a relationship. However, in the story, she's cheating on her suspicious French boyfriend, proving that he did have a reason not to trust her. Begs the question, though: Why would Blanche be "crushed" when that relationship ended? There's no reason she couldn't keep canoodling with the American roommate in the driver's ed Oldsmobile (wow, there's a sentence I never thought I'd write).

Episode rating: 🍰🍰 (two cheesecake slices out of five)

Favorite part of the episode:

Blanche and Rose make Sophia's hospital stay more interesting.

#golden girls #stay golden #stay golden sunday #sophia petrillo #dorothy zbornak #rose nylund #blanche devereaux #picture it #s04e05 #bang the drum stanley #Youtube

[rachelkaser]

Thoughts On . . . Dead Drop: A Carol Reed Adventure

The latest Carol Reed adventure game sees our intrepid detective get mixed up in a bit of espionage -- which turns out to be all legwork and no payoff. While the series remains as beautiful as ever, Carol Reed is not really a detective who's suited to a thriller story.

It's become a tradition: Not only is the latest Carol Reed game (which MDNA Games release every year on January 1 like clockwork) the first title I play on any given year, but I also must review it for this blog. I wish I could be this consistent in other aspects of my life -- such as completing personal game reviews in a timely fashion.

For those who don't know, this indie game series follows the outings of private detective Carol Reed, a British woman living in Sweden who gets mixed up in the most bizarre outings. The games' environments are created with photos of real locations in Sweden, including the insides of homes. The suspects and NPCs are also real people photographed to appear in the game. It makes for a series with beautiful, if haunting and surreal, visuals.

In her 2024 outing, Carol is contacted by Erik Levin, an employee of the Swedish Social Security Agency, who is being blackmailed by an anonymous person to deliver personal information at remote locations -- a.k.a. "dead drops." Carol takes over the dead drop deliveries to find out who is behind the blackmail and why they've targeted Erik . . . and not to spoil, but the latter mystery turns out to be way more complicated than it first appears.

Carol gets increasingly more involved in the dead drops, discovering connections to old spy activities and possible hidden caches of information as the source of the anonymous blackmailer's motive. She eventually becomes involved with an old Russian espionage plot that'd gone cold for years. Without spoiling, I will say that this is one of Carol's more inconclusive stories, though I'll be gentle and say the ending feels like the most realistic part of the story.

Hope You're Good at Following Instructions

Credit where it's due: Carol takes this case a lot more seriously up front than she does the previous one. She asks plenty of salient questions and easily takes over Eric's role as the dead drop-er with no hesitation. In fact, Dead Drop is almost the inverse of The Game Maker -- that game's story seemed relatively low-stakes at first, only for Carol to realize she's getting involved in something much darker and more serious than she realized.

In Dead Drop, Carol approaches the case more seriously and is quicker to put herself in the line of possible danger, and she realizes more quickly how dangerous it is. Then, as the mystery progresses, the dead drops become more focused on one particular goal -- and let's just say it's a bit less dire than it seemed initially. In fact, I preferred this game's conclusion to the one in The Game Maker, if only because it doesn't take a turn into the horrific out of nowhere.

As always, the locations in the game are beautiful. There's something about the Carol Reed series that makes her corner of Sweden seem so cozy and delightful. Part of it is that the music is always soothing, meaning there's never a sense of urgency to anything you do, but part of it is that all of the locations -- or at least the urban and natural areas, not necessarily the interiors -- are captured at the right time of day to bring out all their comforting beauty, making it seem like Norrkoping is bathed in perpetual golden hour.

There are also more locations than last time. I didn't keep count, but it felt like we bounced around a plethora of different locations. It almost felt like the developer was happy to fully be able to show off their area following the restrictions of the pandemic (which even Carol chafed under). Perhaps I would find that a bit unfocused in another game, but Carol Reed's particular kind of experience makes each new location feel magical.

Also, there's one detail that probably no one but me will care about, but that makes me extremely happy: Usually, when we visit a location, Carol just appears there after clicking over on the map screen with no explanation as to how she got there. And when you leave the location, it's by clicking on the part of the environment that says, "Leave." I've chalked this up to gameplay convention up to now -- I've even joked to my husband that Carol must owe a fortune in rideshare fees.

However, this time, when you go to the part of the environment where you leave, there's always a small bike parked next to the exit. No matter where Carol is, her bike is parked somewhere nearby. It sounds like a little thing, but it gives me some joy to have the game actually explain for once how Carol gets around -- something this series has never done before. Sure, the amount of distance she covers seems improbable for a bike rider, but heck, she could have taken public transport at least part of the way.

Espionage: Another Word for Legwork

As always, I've gotta talk about the game's flaws. I may not seem it, but I'm hesitant sometimes to bring them up, considering the game is the work of such a hardworking indie dev. However, there are a couple of bones to pick: For starters, while most of the in-game clues that are supposed to be hand-written notes look like handwritten notes, sometimes it's just placeholder text. It's like there was supposed to be a note there, but the dev never rendered it in the game.

The side missions, where Carol must do favors for NPCs in order to get their help to progress the story, continue to be a bit of a pain point for the series. I understand they're there to create more length and dimension in a game that would otherwise be straightforward and linear. However, some of the favors Carol has to do are just straight boring. In this game, she spends several minutes helping one of the characters beat a level in his mobile game (which looks identical to a Carol Reed game, funnily enough).

There's also one bizarre segment where Carol has to poke around a train station -- not as part of a case, but to fulfill a sidequest for an NPC. Remember back when I reviewed The Game Maker and I said one of the weirdest parts was that Carol spent time in public spaces where there were never any people around? It's fine when Carol's walking around abandoned places, private homes, or even some public parks, but I mentioned it was a little odd how she could walk through a shopping center and see absolutely no other people.

Well, I'd like to officially rescind that complaint, because when Carol visits the train station, there's a man very clearly asleep on one of the benches as she wanders around (I really hope he knew he was being photographed for this). It turns out that seeing random people around in the background of these scenes -- real people, for all intents and purposes -- is actually quite unsettling and the creator made the right choice by not including them.

Should you play Dead Drop?

I think, out of all the games I've thus far reviewed on my blog, this is the most engaging Carol Reed story yet. It's still not my favorite game in the series . . . it's probably not even in my top five. But it's still a decent and engaging mystery that sees Carol get up to some espionage-based shenanigans in pretty surroundings.

I wish there'd been a more detailed payoff to the mystery, but I understand why there wasn't. And some of the sidequests drag on a bit longer than they should to add length to this otherwise-short game. Also, I forgot to mention it further up the review, but the developer gets in one more cheeky urine joke that almost feels directed my way, though at this point I think I'm just used to it.

#midweek madness #carol reed #adventure games #point and click #point and click adventure #mdna games #game reviews #game review

[rachelkaser]

Masonry Monday: The Case of the Sardonic Sergeant

Sgt. Joseph Dexter is caught in a mystery when money supposedly destroyed by the Army in the Philippines turns up stateside over a decade later -- and his superior, the finance officer, starts acting squirrely. When the officer's wife finds him dead, a clumsy cover-up leads to Sgt. Dexter being charged in his murder. Out of guilt, she engages the services of Perry Mason on is behalf.

*Trigger warning: This episode mentions suicide, and some readers may find this disturbing. If you or anyone you know is suicidal, please call emergency services or the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.*

Who's Who

Perry Mason's client: Master Sergeant Joseph Dexter, a clerk in the finance office who notices a problem with the payroll money

The victim: Major Frank Lessing, the finance officer, who's connected to stolen money that was supposed to have been destroyed

Suspects: Helen Lessing, the victim's wife, who tries to cover up what she thinks is her husband's suicide Howard Evans, Helen's brother, a civilian who worked in the finance office and kept an eye on Maj. Lessing for his sister Walter Haskell, the chief cashier at the finance office, who's trying to maintain his much-younger girlfriend Master Sergeant William "Smitty" Smith, a malaria-ridden soldier who returned from Manila at the same time as the stolen money Rikki Stevens, a woman from Manila who's mixed up with several of the soldiers -- though apparently against her will

The Setup

It's Camp Gracie, at the Military Police Headquarters. Two NCOs are summoned to Captain Kennedy's office, and he introduces Mr. Blake of the Treasury Department. He presents a $20 bill to one of them, Master Sergeant William Smith, and asks which of them used it at a local bar. Sgt. Smith confirms it was him, but he got it in a card game and he's not sure who gave it to him. The other players included the man with him, Staff Sergeant Burke, several other players, and Sgt. Dexter, the chief clerk in the Finance Office.

After they go, the Lieutenant taking notes looks at the bill -- it looks good. Cpt. Kennedy clarifies it's not counterfeit, but it shouldn't exist. Blake tells the Lt. that the Army burned $10 million to keep it out of enemy hands before the surrender in Corregidor Island, that bill supposedly among them. They estimate $400,000 has been stolen. All the bills have been traced to Camp Grace. Out of the eight men who were supposed to destroy the money, six are dead; one is Tony Cusick, wanted for desertion; and one is Major Frank Lessing, their current Finance Officer.

In the Lessing house, Mrs. Helen Lessing tells Cpt. Kennedy on the phone that she doesn't know where her husband is -- as Maj. Lessing stands next to her listening. She implores him to tell her what's wrong. He reassures her there's nothing wrong and he'll talk to Cpt. Kennedy when he's ready. She leaves to take their kids to a birthday party. Later, Maj. Lessing enters the Finance and Accounting Office and passes assistant cashier Howard Evans, who quietly reassures Helen that her husband is there and that he (Evans) will speak with him.

As Maj. Lessing retrieves something from the safe, Master Sergeant Joseph Dexter enters and tells Lessing that Cpt. Kennedy and Blake questioned him. He told them that only Maj. Lessing had the combination to the safe, but Maj. Lessing corrects him: Sgt. Dexter himself knows the combo, but he's not supposed to. Sgt. Dexter confronts Maj. Lessing: When he went to the bank to pick up the payroll money, the bank also gave him the serial numbers of the bills. Sgt. Dexter checked the bills in the safe before Cpt. Kennedy and Blake arrived: The bills aren't the same.

Maj. Lessing gets angry at Sgt. Dexter, who quietly says his transfer request is in the Major's desk drawer. It's tucked under a small pistol. Maj. Lessing signs off on the request and relieves Sgt. Dexter of duty. They both storm out of the office, Sgt. Dexter locking up his desk. After he goes, another man in the office, Haskell, gets a phone call and tells the person on the other side not to call him at the office.

Enter Perry Mason, Attorney at Law

In Perry Mason's office, Della announces Maj. Lessing, who asks that she doesn't take notes of his meeting with the attorney. He explains that he plans to disclose a crime -- possession of stolen funds -- the next morning to Cpt. Kennedy, Camp Grace's criminal investigator. He wants to retain Perry as counsel and offers $1,500 as retainer. Perry tells him to give the whole details. Maj. Lessing says coming clean will destroy his wife and daughters, but it must be done. Perry agrees to meet him the next morning in his office.

It's 10 pm at Camp Grace, Sgt. Dexter is in the Finance Office, and can't find his transfer request, which he tossed into the outbound tray. The return to quarters bugle sounds, and he leaves. Later, at around 3:30 am, Helen wakes up, having dozed off in her living room. She notes her husband still isn't home. She calls his office and there's no answer. She quickly dresses and goes to the office -- the door is open. She enters Maj. Lessing's office, and finds his body slumped over at his desk, the pistol in one hand and a note in the other.

Helen bursts into tears when she realizes her husband is dead, then takes the note from his hand. It's addressed to her, and confesses to using his office to dispose of stolen money. She crumples up the note, puts it in the ashtray, and burns it before throwing the ashes out of the window. Then she makes a mess of his desk and the room, pries the gun out of his hand, and wipes it off with her handkerchief before dropping it on the floor. She then calls Cpt. Kennedy and tearfully reports her husband murdered.

The Murder

Perry Mason arrives on base the next morning at the Lessing house. Evans opens the door and allows Perry in, introducing himself as Helen's brother. Perry already heard the news from Cpt. Kennedy in Maj. Lessing's office. Evans says Maj. Lessing told him about meeting Perry and asks if anything the Major said could give a clue as to his killer. Helen enters and Perry gives her the envelope containing $1,500 back.

The doorbell rings, and Cpt. Kennedy enters. He apologizes to Helen for having suspected her husband. They believe Sgt. Dexter killed her husband. Helen tries to protest his innocence, but Cpt. Kennedy leaves. Helen tells Perry that Sgt. Dexter didn't do it, and returns the retainer, begging Perry to defend him. She says she knows he's innocent, but won't say how. In the Stockade, Sgt. Dexter protests ignorance of the Corregidor money and insists he's been framed.

They found $10,000 of the stolen money in his footlocker and $50,000 in the finance office safe. Sgt. Dexter says he was sure Maj. Lessing made the substitution, but now he isn't sure. He and Evans picked up the payroll money the morning before, then turned it over to Maj. Lessing. It was out of his sight twice: Once when he went back into the bank to cash Maj. Lessing's personal check, and then when Haskell, the chief cashier, counted the money. Sgt. Dexter swears on his word of honor that he didn't kill Maj. Lessing, and Perry believes him, agreeing to represent him.

Paul meets Perry with a list of all the finance office employees who were on the base the night before. Haskell, Paul notes, has a much-younger girlfriend named Rikki Stevens. He's been maintaining her somehow despite his low salary. Perry tells him to ask Rikki herself. Later, Paul visits a local bar and sits next to Rikki, who seethes as Sgts Smith and Burke catcall her. She tosses a drink on him and threatens him with a broken glass.

Paul approaches her and offers to buy her a drink. She agrees, and the bartender apologizes for Sgt. Smith. He was in Manila 7 months previously but was sent back when he caught malaria. Paul notes Rikki arrived on base at the same time, and she immediately gets her back up. She refuses to let Paul pay for her drink, tosses down a $5, and leaves. Paul pays the bartender $10 for him to keep the bill and examines it closely. Perry visits Haskell's home and questions him about Rikki. Perry tells him at least one of the stolen bills has been traced to her. Haskell refuses to speak further.

In Perry's office, Della gives him a manual on court marshal proceedings, and he preps for his defense with the appointed defense counsel, Cpt. Ralph Stewart. Evans calls the office and puts Helen on. She tells Perry that her husband committed suicide and she burned the note. He asks if she'd be willing to tell that to Cpt. Kennedy, and she agrees. They go to meet at his office.

45 minutes later, Cpt. Kennedy asks if Helen can remember the exact words in the note. She can -- and is shocked when Cpt. Kennedy begins to read them to her. She asks how he could get the note. Cpt. Kennedy says Maj. Lessing didn't write it. Perry asks why Sgt. Dexter hasn't been released. Cpt. Kennedy doesn't answer, but tells Helen that her husband didn't commit suicide, but tried to protect Sgt. Dexter. Helen faints.

The Court Marshal

At the military court, the court marshal gets underway. Sgt. Dexter pleads not guilty. The prosecutor, Major Lewis, calls Sgt. Jean McKnight to the stand. She works at the message office, and she testifies that Sgt. Dexter's request for a transfer vanished between 9pm the previous night and when she returned the next morning. On cross, Mason tries to question McKnight, but Maj. Lewis objects.

Maj. Lewis questions Cpt. Kennedy, who says that the MP patrol reported Sgt. Dexter entered the finance office shortly after Maj. Lessing did the night of the murder, leaving 15 minutes later. The autopsy shows Maj. Lessing died between 9:30 and 10:30 that night. Maj. Lewis asks him to identify a typewriter ribbon, which Cpt. Kennedy says he removed from Sgt. Dexter's typewriter. It's possible to "read" a clean typewriter ribbon with a magnifying glass.

Cpt. Kennedy starts to read the words on the ribbon, the same as the suicide note. Mason objects, as there's no connection between Sgt. Dexter and the note. Maj. Lewis will establish the connection, and asks Cpt. Kennedy if Maj. Lessing could have typed his note on Sgt. Dexter's typewriter. Cpt. Kennedy says no, as it was typed by a touch typist based on the evenness of the letters on the ribbon. Maj. Lessing was not a touch typist, but Sgt. Dexter was, and his desk with the typewriter in it was locked.

On cross, Mason asks about the Corregidor money, and whether they have any evidence that Sgt. Dexter was connected to the plot to steal it -- they don't. Regarding the $10,000 found in Sgt. Dexter's footlocker, Mason asks whether it would be unobserved while the Sergeant was out of his room -- it would. He then asks Cpt. Kennedy about the lock on the desk. Mason points out it's a simple lock that can be picked with any small object, and Cpt. Kennedy confirms there have been complaints about that. Cpt. Kennedy also confirms that 212 people on base are touch typists.

Rikki Stevens enters court. Maj. Lewis asks Sgt. Smith about the Corregidor bill he used in the card game, and Sgt. Smith said Sgt. Dexter introduced it -- it was the only $20 in the game. Mason has no questions on cross, but reserves the right to recall him if needed. The next day, Maj. Lewis calls Haskell to the stand. Haskell says that, when he received the payroll money, some of the bills were scorched, and that Sgt. Dexter had sole possession of the money.

On cross, Mason asks if Haskell could have switched the money -- he says it's possible, but he denies it. He presents him the $5 bill Rikki used at the bar, which is also scorched. Mason also has a receipt for Rikki's rent, which Haskell paid for. Haskell confesses that he has given Rikki money, but not because she's his mistress -- she's his daughter, who he had in Manila 25 years previously. She left Manila in 1949 to visit him, then returned to Manila 8 months previously. He protests he wouldn't involve her by giving her the stolen money.

Later, in Perry's office, he's pacing as he says there's something about the case that's not adding up. Then he looks through the personnel records that Paul got for him, and immediately sends Della out to verify certain fingerprints, while he gets on the phone to call Camp Grace's surgeon, who examined the body . . .

In Summation

This is such a difficult episode for me to watch, but not because there's anything wrong with the mystery itself. It's the tiny little factual errors that they get wrong with regards to the military details. I know it wouldn't even tickle the brain of the average civilian, but I grew up on a military base and my mother worked in a military museum, so I had errors like these pointed out to me in almost every film and TV show we watched that involved the Army. I know that I probably have made a few small errors of my own in this post -- I'm not perfect, but I'm also not writing a military script!

It starts right at the first line: Cpt. Kennedy greets the NCOs entering his office by saying, "Which one of you is William Smith?" He should have said, "Which one of you is Master Sergeant William Smith?" or, "Which of you is Master Sergeant Smith?" Soldiers don't properly salute each other, especially not when they're dismissed. Nobody uses military time. I could buy civilians possibly working in the finance office, but not that Maj. Lessing would walk around out of uniform. Credit where it's due, though: Most of the soldiers wear the correct patches and insignia, but the rest of it still gives me the itch.

Although, speaking of errors, I would like to personally take accountability here for something. I have said in the past that I appreciate that Perry Mason makes the effort to cast Asian or Asian-American actors to play Asian characters (not a given for the time period). I have also pointed out that the series sometimes inverts racist tropes, particularly in "The Case of the Empty Tin," when Gow Loong says he plays into the expectation that he'll speak "broken English" to divert attention from himself. It was naïve of me, but compared to some of the other media I've watched from the same time period, Perry Mason seems relatively progressive.

That's why it was such a shock to me to watch this again and hear Paul refer to Rikki Stevens' mother as "definitely an Oriental." I had to pause, because the reminder that this show is a product of its time -- no matter how much I might wish it otherwise -- was pretty abrupt. But that is the case, and it sucks because Rikki Stevens teeters on the verge of the aforementioned trope subversions. She doesn't speak with a ridiculous "Asian" accent, she's played by an actress of at least some Filipino heritage, and the inference that she was an exotic dancer in Manila is implied to be Smith stereotyping her rather than an actual fact.

Case under review; please return at a later time...

#perry mason #masonry monday #raymond burr #paramount plus #paramount+ #paul drake #della street #s02e04 #the case of the sardonic sergeant

[rachelkaser]

Stay Golden Sunday: Yokel Hero

Rose has been nominated for St. Olaf's Woman of the Year, and Dorothy and Blanche decide to "help" her get the award.

Picture It...

Blanche, Dorothy, and Rose return home, sweating, from a charity softball game, only to discover the air conditioner is out. They go into the kitchen for ice cream and find Sophia basking in the fridge with her robe open. She already called the repairman, who's running late. Rose exclaims when she finds a letter in the mail -- she's been nominated for St. Olaf's Woman of the Year, her town's highest honor. She really wants to win and goes to tally her achievements. The AC repairman arrives to a bit of an unwelcome sight.

Days later, Sophia, Blanche and Dorothy are still overheating. Rose wanders through the living room in tears, and the other Girls pursue her into the kitchen. Rose says she was writing down her accomplishments and realized she hasn't achieved very much. Dorothy and Blanche attempt to reassure her by talking about all the things she does to help people (Sophia isn't much help). After Rose leaves the kitchen, depressed, Blanche and Dorothy talk about how they wish they could show Rose how great she is.

Dorothy comes up with the brilliant idea to "punch up" Rose's Woman of the Year resume, and Blanche immediately agrees. They look over Rose's list of accomplishments and begin adding increasingly unbelievable embellishments -- which they believe they can get away with because "this is going to St. Olaf." Later, Rose is feeling better just as three St. Olafian men appear at the door: They're the Toppelkoffer triplets, they're on the Woman of the Year blue ribbon panel, and they're here to give Rose her final interview.

DOROTHY: How odd. You don't look anything alike. BEN: Oh really? Well back in St. Olaf, nobody could tell us apart. SVEN: You can imagine all the fun we had playing tricks on our teachers in school! SOPHIA: Which of you brothers has custody of the brain?

As Rose goes to get refreshments, the Triplets tell the other Girls they need to verify the facts in her biography -- but if Rose wins, the girls are invited to St. OIaf to attend the ceremony. Blanche and Dorothy attempt to dissuade them, but they are adamant they must question her. Rose comes back, and the Triplets ask her about the exaggerated stories. She's baffled, but Dorothy successfully deflects, citing Rose's humility. The Triplets confer for a moment, then declare that Rose has won and is St. Olaf's Woman of the Year.

As promised, the Girls are on their way to St. Olaf -- by way of a tiny tin can of a plane, which Rose explains is small enough to land at the St. Gustav airport. Rose is ecstatic to return to her hometown and says the award represents the fundamental goodness and honesty of the people in St. Olaf . . . Blanche and Dorothy get very uncomfortable. At they prepare to land, Rose drops the news that the trip to St. Olaf will take a couple of days...days?!

BLANCHE: Sophia?! DOROTHY: Ma?! SOPHIA: *muffled* What? DOROTHY: Ma, where are you? Are you alright? *toilet flushes* SOPHIA: I am now.

The Girls make it onto the train to Zumbro Falls, but the airline lost their luggage, so they have nothing but their purses and the clothes on their back. Rose and Sophia leave the car to go sight-seeing. Dorothy confronts Blanche and says she thinks they should come clean to Rose about lying on her biography. Blanche agrees and they decide to confess when she returns. However, they're distracted when Sophia apparently disappears in the Zumbro Falls tunnel.

Next, the Girls are on the "shuttle" to St. Olaf, a hay wagon drawn by a donkey. Rose contemplates the familiar sights on the outskirts of town and "calls" her old friend Ingrid by hollering into the night. Rose is all aflutter about winning the award. Realizing who she is, the wagon driver turns around and says he's honored as she beat out local legend Emma Immerhoffer for the award. He notes all that Emma did, including running an orphanage and soup kitchens and Rose is again stunned that she won.

INGRID: *in the distance* BYE-BYE ROSE! ROSE: BYE INGRID! Oh thank you, Blanche, that was a great idea! SOPHIA: It's great bringing two idiots closer together. DOROTHY: I think that's the motto of the St. Olaf Telephone Company.

Blanche and Dorothy finally confess that they exaggerated things in her biography. Rose is furious, saying they lied about her. She immediately demands the driver stop at a payphone, saying she's going to confess what happened and that she won't be accepting the award. Back in Miami, Rose is giving them the silent treatment, though she forgives them after they apologize to her. There's a knock on the back door: It's Dr. Harry Weston, their neighbor, with the mail they got while they were gone.

Dorothy criticizes Blanche for aggressively hitting on Harry, who's a widow of 18 months, which Blanche argues is enough time. Rose opens a package she received: It's the Women of the Year trophy. She says they awarded it to her anyway because of her honesty and integrity (Emma Immerhoffer was disqualified). As they prepare to devour the gold foil-encased chocolate trophy, the other three Girls raise their mugs in tribute to Rose.

"Congratulations, Rose Nylund! You are St. Olaf's Woman of the Year! Oof-dah!"

How many episodes has it been now of Blanche and Dorothy going behind Rose’s back and doing something that almost ruins their friendship? I’ve genuinely lost count. This isn’t even the first episode where they’ve done it under the misguided belief they were helping in her in some bizarre way — though at least this time they didn’t accidentally get her a date with the weirdest incel on God’s green earth.

BLANCHE: Sophia, why don't you want to sit back here with us, honey? SOPHIA: Because after three days on the road with you guys, this jackass smells better. DRIVER: Thank you!

I can understand the impulse, though: Poor Rose's self-esteem takes a hit when she believes she's not worthy of Women of the Year. Ain't that always the way? You can see all the good things your friends do, but they can't see it themselves? Also, if I thought my exaggerated biography was going to St. Olaf, I might also be tempted given the town's colorful outlook on the world.

Still, while their hearts were in the right place, Blanche and Dorothy swiftly realize they're in the wrong and that they have to tell her the truth. At this point, I don't know if I can even be upset with Rose for forgiving them so easily -- it sounds bad to say, but this is far from the worst thing they've done behind her back, even in the name of "helping" her.

The fact that the committee that gives the award -- who nominated Rose in the first place, anyway? -- recognizes her integrity and chooses to give her the award anyway is a nice outcome of the whole thing. The disqualification of Emma Immerhoffer may have had something to do with it, but it's still good to see others recognizing Rose's good qualities as a person. Even the Toppelkoffer Triplets need little prompting to name her Woman of the Year.

To be honest, I think I'd rate this episode a bit lower if it weren't for the extended travel sequence, which gives us some fun glimpses of the Girls trying to get to St. Olaf, where the logic gets moonier the closer they get to the city in question. We see the Girls on a plane, a train, and an automobile-of-sorts (a hay wagon) to get to St. Olaf. Also, the Girls' bad luck with airlines continues as their luggage is lost yet again.

SOPHIA: What happened to Emma Immerhoffer? ROSE: She was disqualified when they found a skeleton in her closet. DOROTHY: What was it? ROSE: Mr. Immerhoffer.

They haven't even gotten to St. Gustav when a guy flings himself out of the plane to get to Beaver Falls. The very bored-looking stewardess pulling the doors closed behind her is the cherry on top. Then they get on the train to Zumbro Falls, which isn't as strange, except it goes past Mount Losenbaden, the inverse Mount Rushmore. As provincial as it is, the hay wagon is somehow the most sedate part of their travel.

I have a couple of questions about the heating issue that takes up the first few minutes of the episode (and is presumably at least part of the motivation for the other Girls to fly to Minnesota with Rose). In the very first scene, the reason it's so hot is because the air conditioner is broken, but the repairman shows up. Yet in the next few scenes, it's still hot in the house. So did he not fix the air conditioning? Did Sophia sprint through more sprinklers in her skivvies?

ROSE: I just can't believe we're on our way to St. Olaf. Oh, I'm so excited! You girls are going to love it! But I guess everybody thinks his hometown is pretty special. SOPHIA: I know I do. I'll never forget when I went back after many, many years. Everything was just as I remembered it. Garbage in the streets. Prostitutes in the doorways. A couple of guys hanging by their heels in the town square -- oh, I can't go on. Got a handkerchief? BLANCHE: Honey, why are you getting all teary? Sicily sounds just awful. SOPHIA: That wasn't Sicily. That was my first apartment in Brooklyn.

Speaking of Sophia, I like the fact that she's not left behind in an episode where they leave the house. With Estelle Getty's stage fright, it'd be so easy to do this with the character, but Sophia being on the trip adds an extra bit of acidity that you don't get when she's not around. There's also a bit of softness from her this time around: She may cut all of her roommates and even the Triplets down the entire episode, but when Rose wins, she's the first person to stand up and sincerely congratulate her in the same way the Triplets did.

This is the first time we see Dr. Harry Weston -- the main character in the revamped Empty Nest spinoff. The first episode for Empty Nest aired in October 1988, and this episode aired in November, so they wasted no time with the crossovers, which will recur occasionally. Funnily enough, the pilot episode was also about a woman coming onto Harry 18 months after the death of his wife. This is also the first we see of his beautiful dog, Dreyfuss, who would make more appearances in The Golden Girls than Harry himself.

Episode rating: 🍰🍰🍰 (three cheesecake slices out of five)

Favorite Part of the Episode

Sophia deals with the Miami heat:

#golden girls #stay golden #stay golden sunday #picture it #rose nylund #sophia petrillo #dorothy zbornak #blanche devereaux #s04e04 #yokel hero #Youtube

[rachelkaser]

Masonry Monday: The Case of the Pint-Sized Client

A teenage boy, Nicky, witnesses robbers hiding their ill-gotten loot and visits Perry Mason to ask if he's allowed to keep the money. However, before Perry can give him a satisfactory answer, Nicky tells his grandfather -- who's implicated in the robbery and arrested for murder when one of the thieves turns up dead.

Who's Who

Perry Mason's client: Anthony Renzi, a working-class tinkerer who gets mixed up in a robbery and murder trying to help his grandson

The victim: Frank Anderson, a career thief whose pedestrian robbery of a finance company becomes more complicated than he thought

Suspects: Nicky Renzi, a teenage boy who witnesses robbers hiding their ill-gotten gains and wants to out-pilfer the pilferers Arthur Crowley, a career criminal who agrees to help Anderson with the Hargrove robbery in exchange for a cut of the money Iris Anderson, the dead man's widow, who's forced to stay with him despite hating his shady business Joseph Kolichek, a friend of the Renzis who catches on to Nicky's unusual amounts of pocket money

The Setup

In a dingy room, two men in suits -- one named Anderson, the other just called "Pop" -- ask a scruffy-looking drunk named Crowley if he'll accept their deal. He's hesitant to get involved in their plan, until they up his cut. As he says, he's a "three-time loser" and will get life in prison if he's caught again. When he agrees, Anderson tears seven $100 bills in half, hands the stubs to Crowley, dumps Crowley's whiskey and begins to explain the plan to rob the Hargrove Finance Company.

Cut to the Hargrove Finance Company, which has a very noisy air conditioner. Receptionist Lois Gilbert complains about the racket, then gasps as three men in masks carrying guns enter the office. The main man (Anderson in disguise) demands a man named Hays open the safe, but he refuses and Anderson deals him a pistol whip to the face. Pop gets to work on the safe with a stethoscope as Crowley stands guard.

Lois manages to press the alarm on the floor just as Pop gets the safe open. They empty the cash into a bag and flee. Somewhere on the outskirts of town, Anderson arrives at a derelict house with a briefcase as a teenage boy, Nicky, is screwing around in the front yard. Anderson leaves the house without the briefcase as Nicky watches from behind a tree.

Enter Perry Mason, Attorney at Law

Della enters Perry Mason's office, wearing the smirk that means there's an interesting client waiting to meet the lawyer. In this case, it's 14-year-old Nicholas Renzi. Upon meeting Perry, Nicky asks him if finders-keepers is a legal principle. He won't give concrete details on what he's found, but proposes a hypothetical situation where he'd like to keep it or at least be offered a reward for it. When Perry asks him to be more specific, Nicky balks and leaves the office.

In an apartment building, Mrs. Iris Anderson is surly to the uniformed cop and Sgt. Bender, who are waiting for Anderson. The man himself arrives and Sgt. Bender asks if he has an alibi for the Hargrove robbery, but Anderson is too slippery. Iris is furious that her husband's mixed up in shady business again, and starts trying to pack a suitcase when Anderson forcibly stops her.

In a small apartment, an old man -- one Anthony Renzi -- is fiddling with an electronic mechanism. A shopkeep named Kolichek enters and tells Renzi that his grandson, Nicky came to his store and spent $50. According to Kolichek, Nicky says he found the money. Nicky comes running in, and Kolichek leaves. Renzi asks Nicky where he got the money, and Nicky gets his stash from a hiding place: The briefcase Anderson dropped in the derelict house. It's got thousands of dollars in it.

Renzi is shocked and says they must turn the money over to the authorities. He'll find some way to pay back the $50 Nicky spent. Nicky retrieves what he bought with the money: A fine new coat for his grandfather. There's a knock at the door: It's Sgt. Bender, who spots the money on the table and says he's found what he's looking for. Cut to Renzi and Nicky in front of the derelict shack, trying to explain to Lt. Tragg that they were attempting to bring the money to the police.

Tragg asks where Renzi was both the previous afternoon and late in the evening. The answer to both is home -- both Renzi and Nicky were at home, with no one else there. Sgt. Bender approaches with a crowbar, which Renzi confirms belongs to him. Tragg tells Renzi to step inside the shack, with an irate Nicky waiting outside. Inside the shack, Tragg shows Renzi the body laying on the floor: It's Frank Anderson, dead from a blow to the head.

The Murder

Back in Perry's office, Della is keeping Nicky entertained when Paul arrives. Paul says they searched the Renzi apartment and sternly tells Nicky they found $12,000, the other half of the hold-up money, hidden in flour in the kitchen. Nicky shamefacedly says that was his doing, as he didn't want to give all the money back, but Paul and Della are visibly unconvinced. Nicky starts to cry at the mess he's gotten them in, and Della hugs him.

Perry confers with Renzi in jail, telling him the court will believe Gramps himself hid the $12k. An eyewitness, Lois Gilbert, also claims Renzi is "Pop," the man who opened the safe at the Hargrove robbery. She also accurately identified Anderson as the ringleader, so her identification, even with the masks, holds weight. Anderson once lived in Renzi's neighborhood -- hence how he knew about the derelict house -- but Renzi says he didn't know the man. Perry assures him the truth will out.

In the Hargrove office, Perry tries and fails to speak to Lois, as the air conditioner rattles overhead. She turns it off and introduces him to Mr. Hays, the man who was slugged. Perry asks him about the identification, and Hays says Lois is the only one who could identify Pop. Lois says she knew Renzi as Pop by his mannerisms and his voice, and says the third man was called "Riley." Perry suggests she could have been mistaken, but Lois says she has an excellent ear.

Paul visits Iris, who is dressed very pretty as she has to return to her work as an entertainer. Paul asks her if she knows any of the names of her husband's associates, especially Riley, but she protests ignorance. Paul notices something unusual on her vanity: Seven halves of $100 bills. Back in Perry's office, he tells Paul that this could have been part of the hold-up money.

Paul brings in one of his informants, a stool pigeon named Eddie Merlin. Merlin is initially reluctant to sing in front of Perry and Della, but eventually gives the details on Anderson: He was formerly in the Chicago mafia, and he has no associates named Riley. Perry tears a $100 bill in front of Eddie and asks if Anderson had an associate he might not have trusted. Eddie eventually gives them one name: Arthur Crowley. Paul ushers Eddie out as Perry realizes that has to be the same person as "Riley," and tells Paul to find him, no matter what.

The Trial

At Renzi's trial, District Attorney Hamilton Burger asks Tragg about the crowbar. Tragg found it next to the body and testifies it has the initials "A.R." on it. Tragg also testifies that he found lots of lock-making tools in the Renzi apartment, all of them inscribed with "A.R." Burger asks about Tragg's search of the apartment, and Tragg says they found the $12,000 hidden in a bag of flour in the kitchen. On cross, Mason notes there aren't any prints on the murder weapon and asks why anyone would wipe them from a tool inscribed with their own initials.

The next witness is Kolichek, the shopkeeper. He testifies that he spoke with Renzi two days before the robbery, and Renzi said he expected to receive a large sum of money within a couple of days. On cross, Mason asks how often Kolichek had heard Renzi say something similar -- Kolichek said hundreds of times, as Renzi had a dream of getting rich quick with some kind of invention. Lois is next on the stand, and she recounts the robbery in great detail. She identifies Renzi as "Pop."

On cross, Mason notes she's wearing glasses. She claims she can see just as well without them, and proves it by reading the sign at the other side of the courtroom perfectly. He questions her apparently flawless recall of the day and leads her down a series of details from the day, all of which she remembers -- including that the very noisy air conditioner was on. That night, in Burger's office, he and Tragg are looking over the "invention" that was going to make Renzi rich. Tragg says whatever it is, it doesn't work.

The phone rings -- it's for Tragg, and it's Eddie Merlin. He tips Tragg that the third man in the Hargrove robbery was Arthur Crowley. In the Anderson apartment, Crowley pleads with Iris to help him find the other half of the $700, which Anderson never gave him. Iris couldn't care less and threatens him with a pair of scissors when he tries to get tough. She gets a visitor and tells Crowley to beat if unless he wants to run into the cops.

The next day, Hayes testifies that he has now changed his mind and is confident that "Pop" is Renzi. He says he now recalls that Renzi came to their office sometime before the robbery to inquire about opening an account -- Renzi tells Mason that he was never at Hargrove. Hays also testified he's the only one who knew the safe combination. Mason asks if he can defer cross-examination as he wasn't prepared for Hays to testify.

The next witness is Crowley. He testifies that Anderson visited his apartment with "Pop Renzi" and offered him a part in the robbery. He claims that he turned Anderson down and didn't participate, and that Anderson said "Pop Renzi" was a "great safe man." On cross, Mason asks if he's ever, in the past, ratted anyone out on the stand, and Crowley is offended. Mason then questions why he's so willing to put the finger on Renzi -- Crowley claims it's because he's on parole.

Mason asks for a moment, then covertly swaps something out with Paul. He approaches Iris in the gallery and, where Crowley can't properly see what's happening, he asks her if she wants to tell him anything. She refuses, but the appearance is enough. When he gets back to the stand, he presents torn bills to Crowley, who fumbles and tries to claim Anderson asked him to hold onto the bills as a favor -- which still constitutes a parole violation. By the time Mason is done, Crowley's testimony is in shambles.

The next witness is Cagle, an expert in safe manufacturing. He testifies that it was possible to open the lock at the Hargrove safe without the combination, but only if you had experience cracking similar locks. Burger's had a replica of the Hargrove safe brought into the court, and asks Cagle to try and open it. Mason objects, saying they shouldn't use a replica, but the actual safe at the office. At the judge's insistence, they reconvene at the Hargrove office, where a vital clue reveals who's been lying this whole time . . .

In Summation

As the title of the episode suggests, Perry Mason takes on his first (but not last) youthful client, albeit briefly. Despite the episode being named after him, Nicky is not Mason's client for long, with his grandfather instead being the one charged with killing a crook. But it is Nicky who gets the two of them involved in the case by trying to rob money from robbers. As stupid a plan as that was, I can't fault Nicky for it -- teenage boys aren't exactly known for thinking through consequences, and even if he did, he couldn't possibly have foreseen what happens to his grandfather.

There is something I noticed while looking at reviews for this episode on iMDB: I think we've been a bit spoiled on the idea of what teenagers look like. I saw people saying that the actor who played Nicky looked ridiculously small for his age despite being 14 when the episode was filmed. Perhaps we're just not accustomed to seeing teenagers not played by adults, but I think he looks like the correct size to me, especially when standing next to Raymond Burr, who's not a small man. He also behaves the way I would expect a 14-year-old to act when given access to a lot of money out of the blue: Not thinking about the long-term consequences.

The one that really got me was a reviewer who complained about Della's interactions with Nicky, claiming she was babying him more than what a 14-year-old would have allowed. You'd think, if you only read that review, that Della was practically breastfeeding him. But all she does is make him a bowl of soup -- which he thanks her for -- and hugs him when he starts crying after his grandfather is arrested. I know teenage boys act tough, but I don't think it's unrealistic for Nicky to cry when he realizes his thoughtless avarice may get his only family member sent to the gas chamber.

Case under review, please return later...

#perry mason #masonry monday #raymond burr #della street #paul drake #s02e03 #paramount plus #the case of the pint-sized client

[rachelkaser]

Masonry Monday: The Case of the Lucky Loser

Young Ted Balfour is convicted of vehicular manslaughter that he can't remember after a drunken night out. Perry Mason is hired to help overturn his conviction, but refuses to play ball with the underhanded Balfour family. Then young Ted needs his help again when the murder weapon is determined to be not a car, but a bullet.

Who's Who

Perry Mason's client: Theodore "Ted" Balfour, a nepo baby who gets mixed up in a hit-and-run that later becomes murder

The victim: George Egan, a former boyfriend of the Balfour matriarch who's in the wrong place at the wrong time

Suspects: Lawrence Balfour, Ted's uncle, a jealous husband who attempted to catch his wife act with ruinous results Harriet Balfour, Ted's aunt, who kept a lover on the side and wanted to conceal it from her family-in-law Addison Balfour Steven Boles, the Balfour family fixer, who does everything he can -- no matter how illegal -- to keep Ted out of jail Florence Ingles, Fred Haley

The Setup

Harriet Balfour bids farewell to her husband, Lawrence Balfour, as he's on his way to a remote archaeological dig in the Sierra Madre mountains. Having ridden with him as far as the last station, she departs the train. Balfour watches her depart in a cab, then jumps off the train and follows her in his own car. He follows the cab all the way to the Sleepy Hollow Cabins, where Harriet disembarks and enters a cabin, where she falls into the arms of an unseen man.

Balfour parks his car, then approaches the other man's car and looks at the registration. The car is a rental, but the slip says it's rented to George Egan. He creeps closer to the window and overhears Harriet say she'll take Egan's car home and say goodnight to her father-in-law before returning. She exits and drives off. Balfour bursts into the dark cabin, gun in hand, and demands Egan show himself. The other man shines a flashlight into his face, and Balfour fires his gun wildly. Seeing the other man's body on the ground, he flees.

Back at the Balfour estate, Lawrence calls Steven Boles, the family's fixer. Sweating, he tells Boles everything and asks what he should do. Boles asks if anyone saw him enter the house, and Balfour says no -- his nephew Ted is still out at a party and everyone else is asleep. Boles tells him to take the family's private plane to Tuscon ahead of the train, then to get back on and to say he was on it the entire time. Later, Boles drives onto a remote road called Sycamore Lane and hauls a body out of the trunk, then backs his car over it.

As Boles peels out, a man in a small jeep drives up and sees the body. Cut to the police asking questions, and the jeep driver, Haley, says he saw the driver look at the body before driving away. He also clocked the license plate: KYL907. The police pull up to the Balfour estate and ask the butler if they can speak to Theodore Balfour. Harriet admits them and takes them to Ted, who's sleeping off a hangover. He says he drank at his uncle's going away party, but can't remember driving home. They inform him his car was used in a hit-and-run and take him away.

Enter Perry Mason, Attorney at Law

Sometime later, Florence Ingles, the woman who threw said going-away party, is in Perry Mason's office. She protests that Ted didn't do it. He left at 11:30pm, around two hours before the death occurred. Perry tells her he can't approach Ted at her request -- it would be unethical and the Balfours already have lawyers. She decides to talk to Ted herself, which Perry perceives is because she's got something for Lawrence Balfour.

Later, Steven Boles arrives at Florence's apartment. He asks her to give Ted an alibi by saying he stayed at her party until two in the morning. She's not sure, but Steve tells her what happened: Lawrence killed George Egan, a former boyfriend of Harriet's, in a fit of pique. Boles took the body to Sycamore Lane because all but a small piece is Balfour property, with the small piece owned by Haley, the man who found the body. So she can help protect both Balfours by giving Ted an alibi, which she hesitantly agrees to do.

Next Boles approaches Haley, who's busily working on his boat. He says the Balfours are willing to invest $25,000 in his business since he's a neighbor. Haley is skeptical they'd do that, but Boles points out he could be "not quite so sure" about what he saw that night on Sycamore Lane. Haley quickly flips and, on the stand, testifies that he's not sure about the last three digits of the license plate. Cut to Boles reading in the newspaper that they got a hung jury in the case.

However, the celebration is short-lived, as the very next scene shows a different newspaper headline: Ted was convicted at the second trial, with suspended sentencing. In the DA's office, ADA Faris, who prosecuted Balfour's trial, said he took a guilty plea from Ted because his case collapsed with Haley's reversed testimony. Hamilton Burger, who was out of town, is upset that the Balfours could have bribed a witness, and orders the body of Egan be exhumed to find out what they're so eager to hide.

Perry is summoned to the Balfour estate, where he meets with bed-ridden patriarch Addison Balfour. The elder Balfour is furious that Ted's previous lawyer made a deal with the DA, saying the case was all but won. He asks Perry to take up the case and try to get the conviction overturned. He also sneers at Harriet when she tries to voice her support. Perry asks Ted what he wants, and Ted says he wants to know if he actually killed someone. Boles objects, saying they shouldn't dig deeper, but Addison refuses. Perry agrees to represent Ted, and Addison shoos everyone but him out.

He tells Perry that Ted's his last hope for the family, as Lawrence is hopeless and Harriet's a selfish gold-digger. Even Ted was in love with her at one point. But he says he wants Ted to fight for his future and for Perry to help teach him. Perry departs and later calls Florence. He's going over the trial transcript and notes there's a three-hour discrepancy between when she told him Ted left and what she testified to. She pleads with him not to question her further, and he relents. Paul enters with some news: George Egan's body was exhumed, and the fresh autopsy unearthed a bullet in his skull.

The Murder

In the courtroom, Mason attempts to get Ted released on grounds of double jeopardy, but the judge isn't impressed. Burger stipulates the DA's office is dropping charges of involuntary manslaughter. Mason presents precedent for a lower charge representing an acquittal of the higher charge, and the judge believes a higher court should rule after the trial has completed, and denies the writ.

In Perry's office, Paul gives the rundown on Egan. He was living in LA until 14 months prior, when he vanished only to later turn up in the morgue. He also has dirt on Steven Boles: He takes down $100,000 a year, has a staff of 150 people, and answers only to Addison Balfour. Perry asks Paul to get in touch with Lawrence Balfour, who's still somewhere out in Mexico. Perry meets up with Boles, who tells him the story as he understands it: Lawrence shooting Egan in the dark, Boles telling him to fly to Tucson, then the body dump.

The gun Lawrence used was Ted's, and it's at the bottom of the Pacific now. As for why he used Ted's car, Boles' own vehicle is a sports car with no trunk, and Ted's was the only one in the garage with the keys in the ignition. He's also the one who convinced Florence to flip on Ted's alibi. But he thinks the once in jeopardy defense is much sounder, for which he thanks Perry. He attempts to convince Perry to throw the trial, so it can later be overturned on appeal with the jeopardy plea. Perry very firmly turns Boles down, and serves him a subpoena to appear as a defense witness.

Back in Perry's office, Della gives him a letter from the Balfours. The letter, signed by Addison, discharges him from Ted's defense. Perry isn't surprised -- until Gertie announces that Thurston, the Balfour family's butler, is in the office. Thurston tells Perry he isn't sure Boles is swaying the family in the correct direction: He gives Perry telegrams Boles sent to Lawrence in Chihuahua, Mexico, telling him not to return. Thurston says he spoke to Ted, and the young Balfour wants Perry to disregard Addison's discharge and remain as his lawyer. Perry agrees to do so.

The Trial

XXX

Case under review -- please return later for final judgement

#perry mason #masonry monday #raymond burr #della street #paul drake #s02e02 #the case of the lucky loser

[rachelkaser]

Stay Golden Sunday: The One That Got Away

Blanche has another chance with the one man who ever rejected her, but does she want it? Rose and Dorothy see a strange light in the sky, which Rose believes to be a UFO.

Picture It...

Dorothy, Rose and Sophia are playing poker on the lanai -- Sophia flees when she's caught cheating. After she goes, a flashing light soars across the sky, startling Rose. She thinks they just saw a UFO, but Dorothy insists it was a plane. Rose is over the moon, as it were, insisting she wants to go up into their spaceship. Dorothy leaves her out on the lanai.

DOROTHY: Blanche, are you in a good mood? BLANCHE: Dorothy, you always could see right through me. SOPHIA: Keep it up with those Chips Ahoy, and Superman couldn't see right through you.

In the living room, Blanche is practically vibrating with glee. Dorothy finally bites and asks her why she's in such a good mood, and she says it's because she got a call from her old college friend Ham Lushbough. He's in town on business, freshly divorced and her date for her Saturday work function. Blanche says she and Virginia competed for him, and she asked him out at homecoming their senior year. He said, "Maybe some other time, Blanche." He's the only man who's ever rejected her, and she's gonna for him again.

On Saturday, Dorothy finds Rose out on the lanai, trying futilely to signal the UFO. Dorothy once again insists that what they saw wasn't a UFO, but Rose insists it wasn't a plane -- and Major Barker, the military officer she contacted to report it, agrees. Dorothy is mortified that she's taking it that far. Blanche, meanwhile, is all a-twitter when the bell rings: A very large gentleman in a tuxedo comes through the door. Blanche is shocked at the changes to Ham Lushbough since their college days, but quickly recovers and they depart.

BLANCHE: Girls, look. How do I look? ROSE: Great, Blanche. BLANCHE: Great? Or gorgeous. ROSE: Gorgeous. BLANCHE: Well, what about sexy? ROSE: Yes! BLANCHE: Enticing? DOROTHY: I'll handle this. Blanche, no woman ever looked better than you look right now, and no one ever will. BLANCHE: Thank you, Dorothy! Honestly, Rose, sometimes it's like pulling teeth just to get a little compliment out of you.

The Girls are as surprised as Blanche is that he looks so different from his yearbook photo (Sophia making her usual cracks). Rose runs back out to the lanai and after Sophia also exits, the bell rings. In walks Major Barker, in full uniform. He questions Dorothy about what she and Rose saw, with Dorothy confirming the details. He assures here there's a logical explanation. Dorothy's relief quickly turns to horror as he drops the bomb: What they saw was a UFO.

Later that night, Blanche and Ham return. They spend a few minutes catching up, and Ham showers Blanche with compliments. She finally asks him the same question she asked 30 years prior: Does he want company tonight? His answer: "Maybe some other time, Blanche." The same night, Dorothy is out on the lanai with binoculars when Rose joins her. She breaks and confirms to Rose that what they saw was a real UFO.

BLANCHE: There's only one thing for me to do. I'm going to call him up, and tomorrow night I'm going out with that man again. And I don't care what amount of seducing it takes. But as God as my witness, I am not returning to this house until he has begged, beseeched, and pleaded with me to go to bed with him! *she marches out* SOPHIA: . . . you know, that was the original ending to Gone with the Wind.

They run into the kitchen, Rose ecstatic and Dorothy on the brink of an anxiety attack. Dorothy says she promised Major Barker that they would keep this a secret. Blanche and Sophia enter the kitchen -- Rose almost gives the game away within seconds -- and laments how humiliating her date was. It's not even that she's attracted to Ham anymore -- there cannot be a man that Blanche cannot have. She's going to take him on one more date and won't come home until she's successfully seduced him.

The next night, she and Ham are having dinner, and the waiter comes over to pour the champagne. Blanche starts talking about how the champagne may lower her inhibitions, and starts putting the moves on as strong as she can -- the waiter eventually has to excuse himself -- before finally propositioning Ham one more time. What does he say? "Maybe some other time, Blanche." Furious, she gets up and berates him for embarrassing her, then storms out with a conga line of men following her.

She returns home and initially lies to Dorothy and Sophia that she succeeded, but Ham himself shows up and wants to explain. He says the reason he turns her down is because he doesn't want a repeat of their tryst in college. Blanche is confused, until he goes into detail and she realizes it wasn't her he slept with -- it was her sister, Virginia. Ham flips immediately and wants to take Blanche up on her offer, but Blanche, satisfied that no man actually can resist her, withdraws the offer and kicks him out, then goes to call Virginia.

Sophia mentions an article she's reading in the newspaper: About a top secret military bomber plane that flew off-course and over Miami, which the military tried to cover up. Dorothy immediately heads out to the lanai and tells Rose that this means there was no UFO. Rose, disappointed, talks about how much fun it is to still believe and Dorothy falls asleep in the lounge chair. Then, with a thrilled Rose as the only witness, another flashing light soars across the sky.

"That's a Sicily you don't see on postcards."

Here's a sentence I never thought I'd write: Of the two "fat joke" episodes of The Golden Girls, I prefer the one where Blanche fails to seduce an old flame over the one where she tries to convince her daughter to leave her abusive fiancé. The jokes land a little bit better this time around, if only because it feels less like Sophia is punching down every time she opens her mouth. This episode is a bit hit-or-miss for me, and I'm not a fan of the B-plot, but it's got some good lines in there.

I think the difference between the jokes this time is that, when Becky was the guest of the episode, it was treated as some kind of grave tragedy that she'd put on weight, especially when her abusive fiancé used it against her. In this episode, it's treated much more lightly that Ham lost the physique of a college football player over the course of 30 years -- Dorothy even outright says that these things happen. And Blanche doesn't seem to mind once she gets over the surprise. She's only furious that the "one man [she] cannot have" is not even someone she'd typically be attracted to.

If I were a bit more of a wet blanket, I feel I might criticize Blanche for thinking that all men must want her -- surely she knows how to take "no" for an answer, right? But I don't criticize her for that because it's pretty well-established that all men do want Blanche Devereaux. After she publicly excoriates Ham for rejecting her and saying she'll find a man who does want her, five men immediately follow her out of the restaurant, trying to get her attention -- one even leaves his date to chase after her.

I also get it from Blanche's perspective. She says, in this episode and many others, that she bases a lot of her self-image and confidence on her ability to pull any man she desires, so to be so brutally and publicly rejected by the heartthrob of her college -- valedictorian and captain of the football team -- must be something that still rankles. Hell, if a man had a marching band spell out his rejection of me on a field and I had the option to get some petty revenge on him, even 30 years later, I'd do it without question.

BLANCHE: Ham Lushbough! Just look at you! SOPHIA: What else can we look at? The man's covering half the pictures on our wall!

Also, let's be real, here: Ham repeatedly rejecting Blanche -- who pulls out all the stops to try and seduce him, to the point the waiter has to leave before he embarrasses himself -- because they had one crummy roll in the hay (he thinks) in college 30 years prior is more than a little dumb on his part. People can change, even in bed! It begs the question: What could Virginia possibly have done in Grady's Motor Lodge that put Ham off of the woman he thought she was all those years?

Moving over to the B-plot, I think the whole "Rose goes alien-crazy after she thinks she sees a UFO" story was a lot more appealing to me as a child than it is to me as an adult. Rose appears wholly incapable of listening to reason, as she's hopefully pontificating ascension to an alien spacecraft within literal seconds of seeing a flashing light in the sky. That's not off-brand for Rose, but I think it's almost a little too Rose, if you know what I mean.

BLANCHE: Oh, I wonder what would happen if somebody called up my sister Virginia and told her this terribly embarrassing story? *with a big grin* I guess there's only one way to find out!

When Major Barker seemingly confirms that what they saw was a UFO, Dorothy gets a bit panicky as she grapples with the concept of aliens. Rose is much more chill about the situation, though she's disappointed when it turns out to be an attempted cover-up. That moment at the end of the episode where she sees another flashing light and is content to believe it's the real McCoy is still cute. Now, however, all I can think about is what it would be like if the Girls ever actually did meet aliens -- how much do you want to bet Blanche would try to seduce them, too?

The revelation that the UFO sighting was really a top-secret plane that flew off-course has some basis in history, as that was a real explanation behind several supposed sightings. According to documents declassified a few years ago, the U.S. military flew several top-secret planes a little too close to civilian eyes. And it makes sense why someone would think they were alien -- one was literally based on the Klingon Bird of Prey, because evidently Area 51 has been infested with nerds for quite some time.

DOROTHY: *trying to give Blanche privacy* Ma, listen, maybe watching some TV in another room might be a good idea. SOPHIA: Fine, Dorothy, but keep the volume down.

This is one of those episodes where Sophia sort of hangs around the periphery, which I'm fine with because she got so much focus last week. She gets a brief moment in the spotlight at the beginning of the episode when she attempts to cheat at poker, only to get caught. But she does tell one brief story about a would-be lover of hers, and it's a bit darker than some of her usual stories, as the lover was seemingly murdered by his jealous wife. As she says, that's a Sicily you don't see on postcards.

Episode rating: 🍰🍰🍰 (three cheesecake slices out of five)

Favorite part of the episode:

Dorothy and Rose confront the possibility of other life in the cosmos in the only way either one of them knows how.

#golden girls #stay golden #stay golden sunday #rose nylund #sophia petrillo #dorothy zbornak #blanche devereaux #picture it #s04e03 #the one that got away #Youtube

[rachelkaser]

Stay Golden Sunday: The Days and Nights of Sophia Petrillo

Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy lounge around the house during a rainy day. Meanwhile, Sophia has an active and fulfilling day volunteering, raising money for charity, and fighting with customer service people.

Picture It...

Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy sit in the kitchen on a rainy morning in their pajamas. Sophia enters, fully dressed and carrying an umbrella, on her way to the market to buy a nectarine. After she leaves, the other Girls opine that Sophia has nothing interesting in her life before trying to decide what to do to fill the rainy day. They initially decide to reline the kitchen shelves until they get distracted by a box of cookies.

At the market, Sophia is picking out a nectarine and runs into her friend Claire, who's looking for a refund on a lamb chop. The employee says they can't take it back, but Sophia starts arguing, claiming to be a representative of the Network of Older People Retired but Living (NOPRL). When a manager comes over, she then claims to be with the Organization of Retired and Elderly People (OREP) and threatens a boycott against the store if her friend doesn't get a refund. The manager pays the lamb chop refund out of his own pocket, and Sophia guilts Claire into paying for her nectarine.

SOPHIA: Hey! Hey, you got any decent nectarines? WORKER: There's nothing wrong with those nectarines. SOPHIA: Please, I've got a bowl of wax bananas that'll be ripe before these are. WORKER: You're crazy! This nectarine is byoo-tee-ful. I never saw a more perfect piece of fruit. SOPHIA: No? Then try kissing my behind. It's a real peach!

Back in the kitchen, Rose and Dorothy are listening to Blanche tell stories about her encounters with men -- in particular a date with one Preston Bougainvillea, a gentleman with long, floppy ears (and apparently other long, floppy appendages). They no longer feel like relining the kitchen shelves and change tasks to rearranging living room furniture, deciding not to wait for Sophia to get back.

On the boardwalk, Sophia is conducting a small jazz band of old ladies, who sound very lackluster. She eventually stops them and says they're no longer raising enough money for the clinic. Two other women talk to her about who's paying for lunch, and she says it's her day at the hospital. They realize they've attracted a crowd now that the rain has stopped. With renewed vigor, they launch into a spirited rendition of "When the Saints Go Marching In" and the onlookers happily throw money into their basket.

SOPHIA: Let's see, who's buying? WANDA: Pulse or pressure? SOPHIA: Pressure. ESTHER: 140 over 80. WANDA: 130 over 80. SOPHIA: 120 over 70. Your treat, Esther.

Back at the house (again), the other Girls finish up a pizza, having not really finished any work thus far. Rose keeps trying to get Dorothy and Blanche motivated to do some work and not waste time, which she does by telling a St. Olaf Story about Pigpen "Johansson" who ruined Founder's Day by wasting time. She eventually segues into another story.

At Biscayne General Hospital, Sophia arrives for her shift as a volunteer Sunshine Lady. Her fellow volunteer says her "boyfriend" Sam was looking for her. The elderly Mrs. Leonard approaches and asks if any of the delivered flowers are for her. Sophia quickly divests herself of a task and makes Mrs. Leonard's day by saying all the flowers are for her and letting her wheel the whole cart away. A little boy, the aforementioned Sam, wheels himself into the waiting room to visit Sophia.

Back in the kitchen (yet again), Rose is on her umpteenth St. Olaf Story as they've waited 45 minutes for a cake to bake. Rose worries if Sophia's exhausting herself coming back from the market, and Dorothy talks about her grandmother's high energy levels later in life. The Girls go into the living room to watch Jeopardy and eat their cake. Back at the hospital, Sophia is entertaining Sam and gives him the nectarine.

Sam tells her it doesn't matter if he eats healthy, since they "goofed up [his] blood" with a transfusion and there's no cure. She tells him that there will be some day, and Sam could be the first one. Back at the house, it's nighttime and Rose laments their lazy day. Sophia finally returns home and the other Girls say they took care of "odds and ends" around the house. Dorothy asks her what she did that day.

SOPHIA: What did I do today? What I do everyday: I bought a nectarine.

"Remember the clinic and work hard! Remember your art and be proud! Remember an F-sharp and blow!"

This is the episode specifically that prompted me to write a tribute to Estelle Getty a couple of weeks ago. This is one of only a few Sophia-centric episodes in the whole series, in which Estelle gets the lion's share of the screen time compared with her costars. In Jim Colucci's Golden Girls Forever, the primary theme of the anecdotes about this episode is Estelle's stage fright, and how it would make filming more difficult.

ROSE: Now we agreed we weren't gonna waste time. That'd be a big mistake, something we'd regret for the rest of our lives. DOROTHY: Rose, we're eating pizza, not getting tattoos. ROSE: I just hate the idea of wasting time. I always have. Ever since what happened to my neighbor in St. Olaf-- BLANCHE: Rose, are you about to educate us on the evils of wasting time by telling a long, tedious St. Olaf Story? ROSE: You know a better way? DOROTHY: She has a point, Blanche.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I admire Estelle for doing her best and putting in such good work despite the fear and anxiety that her job gave her. According to the stories Colucci collected, everyone on set tried their best to be patient with her, knowing the at Estelle lacked the experience of her costars. One of the ways she tried to mitigate this was by writing down her lines on any paper, prop, or bit of set dressing that wouldn't be in direct view of the camera.

I'm so glad she made the effort, because this episode about what Sophia gets up to on an average day is one of my favorites. Not only does it have a central story about Sophia maintaining an active and satisfying life even at an advanced age -- which is both fun to watch and instructive for anyone who thinks being old means you can't thrive -- it has a contrasting B-plot where the other Girls worry about Sophia's lack of fulfillment in her life while they themselves spend all day lounging around the house.

ABE: It's after 1 o'clock. You're late. SOPHIA: So dock me. ABE: You do this for free. SOPHIA: Then be grateful! Anything happening? ABE: Yeah, three in surgery, two in x-ray . . . *indicates cart of flowers* and you have to deliver these on your break. SOPHIA: In your dreams! I'm a Sunshine Lady, not a Teamster.

Sophia's day out consists of her original stated purpose of buying a nectarine at the market -- while also bullying the employees to take back a fatty lamb chop with a threatened boycott from phony elderly organizations -- conducting a jazz band to raise money for charity at the boardwalk, and volunteering at the hospital and befriending a sick little boy. I would say I hope I'm that active when I'm Sophia's age, but truthfully, I wish I was that active now.

it won't come as a surprise to anyone who knows Sophia's character well, that she's so charitably minded. She may be irascible and even goes out of her way to avoid work, but she spends her entire day making everyone else's better. She brightens Mrs. Leonard up, gives everyone at the boardwalk a good performance, gets her friend $1.17 back for a bad lamb chop, and even keeps Sam's spirits up. I can see why she won the Best Friend of Good Health award back in "The Flu" over her roommates.

ROSE: Whatever happened to [your grandmother]? DOROTHY: She colonized life on Venus. Rose, she was 94 when I was 6. She died, you idiot. ROSE: How did she die? DOROTHY: You know, we're not sure. One night, she left in her wheelchair and she never came back. The next day, the neighborhood kids had a go-kart with two really big back wheels.

Speaking of Sam, I think it's worth mentioning here that there's subtext in his interactions with Sophia that some modern viewers won't pick up on. I sure didn't the first time I saw it, until my mother explained it to me. They don't outright say it, but it's heavily implied that the young man's terminal illness is AIDS -- he says there's no cure, no one's ever beat it, and that he got it because they "goofed up his blood" with a transfusion. Golden Girls will address the HIV/AIDS panic more directly in later episodes, but this is the first time.

As for the B-plot, I appreciate the contrast it offers: Sophia out having a productive day while the other three Girls sit at home and screw around. As much as I admire Sophia, I also think there's nothing wrong with just sitting and having a lazy day. Despite Rose's disgust at the idea of wasting time -- thanks to the apparent laziness of Pigpen "Johansson" -- it's sometimes nice to forgo being constructive in favor of resting up.

MRS. CARP: Excuse me, I'd like to check on my husband Mr. Carp -- prostate surgery? SOPHIA: Nothing yet, but he'll be fine. I went through it myself thirty years ago. MRS. CARP: You had prostate surgery? SOPHIA: What do I look like, a crossdresser? My husband had the surgery. I was the one who went through it.

The best part, to me, is the fact that all three women choose to fuss over Sophia's apparent lack of said constructive activity, while she's out running rings around them. I always wondered a bit why Sophia simply tells them she's out "buying a nectarine" and not what she's actually doing during the day. But it's honestly not their business, and given how protective and smothering Dorothy can be, I can't blame Sophia for keeping it under wraps.

Dorothy, Blanche, and Rose all have their chance to tell silly stories during their lazy day in, with Rose apparently getting in several St. Olaf Stories while their cake is baking. While the cynical side of me wonders if this wasn't an excuse to use some unrelated stories that had been cut from other episodes, it's still fun to watch the women sit around and yarn with no pesky plot to get in the way.

Episode rating: 🍰🍰🍰🍰🍰 (five cheesecake slices out of five)

Favorite part of the episode

After conning a supermarket manager into refunding her friend's lamb chop, Sophia can't help herself:

SOPHIA: Oh listen, how much for the nectarine? MANAGER: Take it. It's on the house. SOPHIA: Oh, we can't do that. It's against the bylaws. MANAGER: Alright, you can pay me. That's 45 cents. SOPHIA: 45 cents for one lousy nectarine? What's inside -- a pit or a pearl? *weighs the bag* This is a 25-cent nectarine. MANAGER: Fine, sold. SOPHIA: Claire, don't stand there like a bump on a pickle. Give the man a quarter. *swans out of the store*

#golden girls #stay golden #stay golden sunday #sophia petrillo #rose nylund #dorothy zbornak #blanche devereaux #picture it #s04e02 #the days and nights of sophia petrillo #Youtube

[rachelkaser]

Masonry Monday: The Case of the Corresponding Corpse

The latest Perry Mason client is a dead man -- or at least, he's supposed to be. The "deceased" George Beaumont resurfaces after an insurance investigator finds him, only to die for real as he attempts to turn himself in. Mason sides with the prime suspect, Beaumont's jilted girlfriend.

Who's Who

Perry Mason's client: Ruth Whittaker, a hapless art student whose boyfriend wasn't who she thought he was

The victim: George Beaumont, a legally dead salesman who intends to 'fess up to his insurance fraud

Suspects: Laura Beaumont, the victim's "widow," who built a business on his life insurance payout and may not want to relinquish the money George McKay, a sales manager at Beaumont's company, who has eyes for Laura and thought little of Beaumont Harry Folsom, a slimy insurance investigator who tracked down Beaumont three years after he faked his death Jonah Whittaker, Ruth's sick-but-loud father, who didn't approve of his daughter's relationship with Beaumont

The Setup

In a rundown house in Crestview City where a woman's portrait hangs on the wall, a man who admits his name is George Beaumont is negotiating with an insurance investigator who's tracked him down named Harry Folsom. Folsom implies he's willing to keep Beaumont's location and new identity a secret for a price. There's a knock at the door: It's Ruth Whittaker, Beaumont's lady friend. Beaumont minces no words, telling her Folsom plans to blackmail him, as he could be jailed if he's exposed. Ruth immediately volunteers to pay. Folsom hands her a card and leaves. Beaumont angrily refuses to give Folsom anything.

Later, Folsom is waiting in a much bigger (but equally rundown) house -- Ruth's. She gives him $7,000 and he gives her the copies of his report. She demands to know the source of his information, but he won't say. A man screams Ruth's name, and she hustles Folsom out, then tosses his reports in the fire. The loud man is Ruth's father, and she angrily tells him she's leaving, storming out with a suitcase over his objections.

In Perry Mason's office, Della takes a message from Beaumont, then reports on it to Perry when he arrives for work. Perry is baffled, as George Beaumont has been dead for three years. He supposedly perished in a plane crash on a business trip. Their resurrected client will call back at six that night. At Beaumont's house, the woman's portrait has been removed from the walls along with all of Beaumont's belongings. The landlady tells Ruth that "Mr. Hollister" moved out. Beaumont left her a note and the portrait, saying he won't hide anymore and that he loves her.

Enter Perry Mason, Attorney at Law

In the Beaumont Office Equipment Inc headquarters, sales manager Glenn McKay enters and cheerfully greets the secretary before letting himself into the office of general manager and boss Laura Beaumont. McKay tells her about a large order they've received, and not-so-subtly asks Laura out, but she's hesitant to date after her first marriage. The secretary interrupts to say that Perry Mason -- her late husband's lawyer -- is waiting in the outer office.

Laura introduces McKay and asks Perry what he's there for. He tells her they were organizing his office and found George Beaumont's file, asking if she'd like to keep any of the papers for personal reasons. She declines and bins the file. Perry thanks her and leaves. Sometime later, a cab arrives at the Villa Motel and drops off Ruth Whittaker, who enters the hotel room of the very alive George Beaumont, who appears to be waiting for someone.

Ruth asks Beaumont why he left, and Beaumont says he plans to turn himself in, even if it means prison time. Ruth tells him that the insurance company doesn't know he's alive, but he's not listening. He's hoping that Perry, his lawyer, can get him a light sentence, and he plans to patch things up with Laura -- his wife. He wrote to her to tell her he was still alive. Ruth is furious, especially when Beaumont refers to her as his "friend."

Beaumont confesses that he never stopped loving his wife, and that he actually missed the plane because he'd stopped to buy her a gift after an argument. Ruth berates him for not telling her about all of this when they first met, and confesses that she spent all of her money to pay off Folsom. She grabs a letter opener from the desk and yells at Beaumont some more. The motel manager interrupts and berates them for the noise, then gives Ruth the key to her own room. She storms out.

The Murder

Della and Perry wait up for the expected call from George Beaumont, but it hasn't come by 10 that night. Paul says his goodnights, as Perry wants to wait up longer. The phone rings, but it's not Beaumont -- it's Lt. Tragg, who's in a certain cabin in the Villa Motel. George Beaumont is dead, for real this time. They find Perry's number on a paper in his pocket. Perry agrees to identify the body, and he and Della drive to the Villa Motel (Perry refuses to let her see the body).

Perry confirms the dead person is George Beaumont, and Tragg says it's unusual for someone to die twice. He notes the letter opener is the murder weapon. Tragg says Burger suspected Perry counseled Beaumont to lay low, which Perry denies. They've figured Ruth for the killer, as she was upset about Beaumont's plan to return to his wife -- turns out someone heard her yelling at Beaumont. Tragg thanks Perry for cooperating.

Sometime later, Perry meets with Ruth in a holding cell. She tells him about meeting Beaumont (or "Hollister") in an art class, and about Folsom's blackmail. She also refuses to let Perry contact her father. When Perry asks if she killed Beaumont, she insists she didn't. Once she'd cooled off, she realized his untenable situation and that he still loved his wife. Perry tells her that he'll act as her lawyer, and she breaks down in tears.

The Investigation

Later, Perry meets with Laura, who's frosty with him. McKay enters and Perry asks him if he knew Beaumont -- he did. McKay worked for him for six months, and felt Beaumont was a failure. Next, Perry asks if Folsom approached either of them. Laura, at least, had good reason to entertain a blackmailer, as Mercury Mutual paid her $90,000 in life insurance on Beaumont. Laura tells him she had no idea Beaumont was alive, but Perry doesn't need her word -- Paul Drake is in Crestview City, meeting with Folsom as they speak.

During said meeting, Folsom tells Paul that he got an anonymous call about Beaumont -- he can only say the caller was a man. He denies that Ruth paid him, but Paul notes he hasn't filed the report on Beaumont with Mercury. Folsom gets nasty at this point, and claims that Beaumont told him that Perry Mason was the one who told him to lay low after the plane crashed, with Mason collecting $25k on the deal. Paul isn't impressed, and asks again about the anonymous call -- Folsom confesses that it was Jonah Whittaker, Ruth's father.

Back in Perry's office, Paul says he doubts Folsom killed Beaumont, but Della points out he had a motive: Beaumont had no reason to conceal Folsom's attempted blackmail when he came clean. As for Whittaker, he wasn't at his home, but Paul tracked him as far as a bus to Los Angeles. Perry surmises he'll try to contact Ruth, though he hasn't done so yet, and Della says Ruth had to know her father was the informant. Paul gets a call from one of his men. Whittaker's being held by the district attorney's office.

The Trial

Tragg opens the testimony at the preliminary hearing, testifying as to the layout of the murder room. They found blood of the victim's blood type on the murder weapon, as well as Ruth's fingerprints. On cross, Mason asks about the stab wounds -- Beaumont was stabbed in the back while kneeling in the corner of the room. Burger next calls Leon Corby, the Villa Motel manager, and he testifies as to the argument between Beaumont and Ruth.

On cross, Mason asks about what Corby saw when he interrupted the argument. Corby saw Ruth holding the letter opener without gloves, and Mason notes she would have left her fingerprints on the weapon at that time. That was at 3pm, and Corby found the body at 8pm, meaning another person wearing gloves could have handled it at that time. On redirect, Burger asks when Corby next saw Ruth -- he saw her at around 5:45, coming out of Beaumont's room. He didn't see Beaumont then.

Next, Folsom testifies about Ruth's presence at his initial meeting with Beaumont, and also that she paid him $7,000 so he wouldn't file his report. Burger interprets this as her wanting to keep her relationship with Beaumont. On cross, Mason wastes no time calling Folsom on his blackmail, and notes that he's made a deal with the DA to avoid a charge for it. Folsom cops to the blackmail of Beaumont, but denies getting touch with Laura. Given that he knew Beaumont was going to turn himself in, Folsom definitely had a motive.

Laura Beaumont testifies about her late husband's business trip and the crashing of the American Eagle he was supposedly on. He never got in touch with her afterwards and she never knew he was alive. She refers to her office diary as to her movements on the day of the murder. She goes through her day, including Mason's visit to her office, which Burger notes. She became ill that afternoon and spent the rest of the day at home on the orders of her doctor.

On cross, Mason asks Laura about her illness -- allegedly it was food poisoning. He asks about Beaumont's correspondence, and Laura maintains that she received none from her husband. Ruth looks surprised at this. Burger calls Jonah Whittaker, but Mason asks for a moment to speak with Ruth, and the judge calls the noon adjournment.

Perry speaks with Ruth, who says she told her father about Beaumont's real identity, but can't remember if she also told him about Laura. She insists Laura must have known Beaumont was alive, as he said he wrote her a letter. She'd forgotten, but then remembers all the details, including that Beaumont didn't telephone Ruth. Perry suddenly freezes, then leaves the holding cell in a hurry, saying he's got to speak with Paul.

Back in court, Burger questions McKay while Paul slips into the courtroom. McKay testifies that Tragg, while investigating the Beaumont offices, found an envelope addressed to Laura with Beaumont's initials. Mason examines the letter -- it's from Beaumont, apologizing and claiming he's going to call her after speaking with Mason himself. Mason and Burger both note that the seal has been tampered with, meaning someone knew Beaumont was alive and intended to turn himself in . . .

In Summation

After almost one whole season of scoundrels and bitches as the victims of each case, the first victim of Perry Mason Season Two is no vicious, abusive bastard -- just a pathetic failure of a person in need of a little karma who somehow won the hearts of two women who are way too good for him. It's a welcome change, because the first season was getting more than a little same-y in that regard.

That's not to say he's not an asshole. Stringing Ruth along for years only to reveal at the last minute that he's still in love with his wife and considers her a "friend" is classic dick behavior. Don't we all know that one person who can't get over their ex even though they were the one to call it off (or vanish off the face of the earth, in this case)? While I'm glad Ruth stands up to him in the moment and straight tells him she's not the one who should be ashamed of her behavior, it still irks me that she's later more forgiving of him.

This episode is a bit of a twist on the mystery trope of a person faking their death. George Beaumont's "death" via plane crash appears to have been nothing but an improvement for his wife and business, and neither one was searching for him nor would welcome his return. Instead, it's the insurance company that's most interested in dredging him out of his artists' hovel and getting their money back -- not particularly romantic, but realistic for sure.

The central clue of the case appears to be the letter that Beaumont sent before he died, which can be a bit confusing since it's mentioned once early in the episode and then doesn't reappear until near the end. It's a bit of a flimsy device compared with others in the season, because the mechanism by which it becomes a clue isn't introduced until the final scene -- I don't want to say too much more for fear of spoilers, but I think you'll see what I mean when you watch the episode.

There are certain parts of the episode that don't quite make sense to me -- it's not exactly clear, for example, how Jonah Whittaker found out about Beaumont's lie and which insurance company to contact. It's also not explained by Ruth is so out of sorts with her father despite living in his house. Ruth is a feisty woman: If she didn't want to be around her father, I don't think she would be. Also, how did she manage to follow Beaumont all the way back to Los Angeles and track him down as precisely as the correct hotel room?

Overall, this is a solid case from which to start the first season, even if the central story hook gets less engaging the longer the case goes on. My favorite part is Perry's bafflement when Della tells him that Beaumont contacted his office -- it's rare to see our favorite lawyer taken off-guard. I didn't mention it in the recap, but the reason Della didn't know about Beaumont was because she was on an extended vacation -- nice to know Perry offers her lots of chances to relax!

I always enjoy it when a character -- particularly one with no legal background -- criticizes Perry Mason's legal technique. In this case, it's his tendency to find the guilty party rather than simply aim for an acquittal. They aren't wrong, but within the context of Perry Mason's world, that technique works. The only people who would have any standing to whine about that would be Hamilton Burger and maybe some of the judges.

Speaking of which, this is the first episode where we ever see a female judge behind the bench. Character actress Lillian Bronson, who appeared in Season One's "The Case of the Sulky Girl" as Clara, would make three appearances as the series' only Her Honor. She was not breaking new ground, necessarily, as notable female attorneys and judges already served in real life, but it's still nice to see a bit of diversity in a rotating cast of white male judges.

The Verdict

Judgement: ⚖⚖ (two scales out of four) A man no one really wanted alive returns from the dead, and the case gets marginally less interesting when he dies for real. However, the central plot hook is interesting enough to keep the pace up until the mystery ends, baffling final clue or no.

#perry mason #masonry monday #raymond burr #della street #paul drake #s02e01 #the case of the corresponding corpse

[rachelkaser]

Stay Golden Sunday: Yes, We Have No Havanas

Blanche dates an older Casanova who sets his sights on one of her roommates: Sophia. Dorothy teaches a history class for adults with a surprise student: Rose.

Picture It...

Dorothy tells Rose and a cranky Sophia that she's teaching a history class for adult students who never got their high school diplomas, which piques Rose's interest. Blanche is about to depart for a date, with her beau being an older Cuban gentleman. Blanche introduces Fidel Santiago, and Sophia recognizes his family as having made cigars. Blanche and Fidel depart, and the other Girls express shock at how much older he is than Blanche.

ROSE: Girls! Girls, guess what! I've got-- SOPHIA: Wait a minute. Wait a minute! Why do you always come into a room and say "Girls, girls!" Do you see Molly Ringwald sitting here? ROSE: Boy, you're awfully cranky today! SOPHIA: Well forgive me. My arthritis is bothering me, my Social Security check was late, and I realized today I haven't showered with a man in 22 years. DOROTHY: Ma, pop's been dead 27 years. SOPHIA: What's your point? DOROTHY: What are you saying? ROSE: Isn't it obvious, Dorothy? She showered with a dead man for five years!

Dorothy arrives at her history class and begins calling roll -- only to stop, shocked, when she gets to the name "Rose Nylund." When she takes her aside, Rose admits (while perplexedly fending off the advances of a fellow student) that she never actually finished high school after getting mono, and she thinks she can finally do it if Dorothy's her teacher. Dorothy relents, though Rose immediately disrupts class by insisting on saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

Sometime later, Dorothy is in the kitchen with a red pen, grading the history tests. Rose asks how well she did -- not good, though Dorothy says she's doing well in every other subject. Rose blames her high school history teacher, Fritz Stickelmeyer, who she claims was a former Nazi. Blanche enters in a tizzy -- she says Fidel is seeing another woman, as he has little time for her anymore. Dorothy tells her not to jump to conclusions.

ROSE: *about Stickelmeyer* He was part of a nefarious plot by the Germans to teach misinformation so America's youth would be really stupid when the Germans invaded. St. Olaf was the first town chosen for their experiment! DOROTHY: I guess they figured they had a leg-up there.

Since they've all had rough days, Dorothy offers to treat her roommates to dinner out. After dinner, the three of them are out for a stroll on the boardwalk when Rose spots someone: Fidel, with his arms around another woman. Blanche confronts him and demands to know who could possibly be more desirable than her . . . and, to the shock of the other three Girls, Sophia steps out from behind Fidel.

Blanche demands answers, and Fidel says he became interested in Sophia during conversations while waiting on Blanche before their dates. He says he wants to date both of them, but that's up to them. After he blithely strolls away, Blanche and Sophia immediately begin trading barbs before storming off. Weeks later, Sophia returns from a date with Fidel and has another roast-off with Blanche, the two of them almost coming to blows.

Blanche goes into the kitchen for cheesecake, with Rose and Dorothy following to run interference. They both point out that she wasn't that interested in Fidel and that she's only still pursuing him for vanity's sake. Sophia enters and wants to settle things: She's tired of the fight and decides to concede to the younger, prettier Blanche. Blanche, touched, says she'll back off, to which Sophia gleefully agrees and runs out.

A few days later, Dorothy gently breaks the news to Rose that she failed her history test and won't get her diploma. Rose looks at her graded test and points out she got one question right: She identified Fritz Stickelmeyer as the leader of the Third Reich, protesting he looked identical to Adolf Hitler. Dorothy isn't convinced until Rose correctly identifies Eva Braun in a picture of the two, and relents, giving Rose a D-. Rose is a high school graduate!

ROSE: Sophia, I'm a high school graduate! SOPHIA: Congratulations. Now you can get any job involving a cardboard hat.

Sophia and Blanche enter and both claim to be going on a dinner date with Fidel. They're poised for another fight, but then Dorothy gets a phone call: Fidel isn't coming. Smash cut to a funeral home, where the Girls are surrounded by women. The priest eulogizes Fidel, until Sophia interrupts to ask a question: Who was Fidel's girlfriend? Every woman save Dorothy and Rose raises their hand.

There's general consternation, and one woman is about to storm out when Sophia interrupts to take over the eulogy. She calls Fidel a cheat and a liar, but protests that's not how she wants to remember him: She wants to remember the man who made her feel young and beautiful. After she steps down, Blanche apologizes to her for all of the fighting and says she wishes she could have let Sophia have Fidel. Sophia's not impressed with this.

SOPHIA: OOOH, you're so generous! The man's packing material and now you're letting me have him? I have coat racks livelier than him. *standing up and walking out* She's giving him to me. The man's face has more powder on it than Ann Miller's, and she's giving him to me. A piece of lumber would make a better dancing partner! Thanks for niente!!

"You mean 'The Three Rs?' Reading, writing, and rooster inseminating?"

Launching into Season Four, it's another Girl vs Girl fight, this time between the unlikeliest romantic rivals: Sophia and Blanche. When a 70-something Cuban fellow puts the moves on both of them, the two turn on each other. As much as I dislike seeing my Girls fight, I admit seeing the two wittiest insult-slingers on the show face off is comedy gold. And, as I said in my tribute post to Estelle Getty, this is the first episode of the season where they begin to give Sophia more focus.

The A-plot, which follows the Blanche-Sophia conflict, doesn't at first seem to be particularly compelling. We've seen the Girls fight over men before, and the setup for this episode initially makes me think that they should be more angry at Fidel than each other. However, it gets slightly more complex as time goes on -- Blanche is more invested in the fight than Fidel, while Sophia enjoys that he makes her feel attractive again (this after she admits she's had a 22-year "showering" dry spell).

DOROTHY: Rose, would you please hand me my gradebook? ROSE: Sure. *hands Dorothy the book, Dorothy smacks her on the head with it* [...] BLANCHE: After all, he has dipped his toes in the lake known as "Blanche." ROSE: . . . that wasn't stupid enough to deserve a hit?

Then, at the very end of the episode, their blindness to Fidel's part in the duplicity comes back to bite them, when they discover (after his death, no less) that he was schtupping every woman in the neighborhood except for Rose and Dorothy. Even then, neither woman can bring herself to be angry at Fidel, as he was just too good of a boyfriend. I've never seen a man in this show get off this easily for what should be a devastating betrayal. Patrick Vaughn in "The Actor" essentially pulled the same maneuver and they ran him out of town on a rail (no pun intended).

I think it's pretty hypocritical of Blanche to be so possessive of Fidel when she, by her own admission, has lots of other boyfriends. Dorothy and Rose both call her on the fact that she doesn't seem particularly fond of Fidel -- she even flubs his name once -- she just doesn't want to lose to Sophia. By the end of the episode, she seems to realize that her relationship with Sophia is the one she doesn't want permanently damaged.

DOROTHY: It means you won't get your diploma. ROSE: Yeah? Well you have a big behind! DOROTHY: Rose please, let's try and keep this at an adult level. And if you wanna talk behinds, they could show How the West Was Won on yours.

Fidel himself is pretty chill about the whole situation, all things considered. He makes it clear to both women he doesn't wish to be exclusive and finds them both equally wonderful. He even somehow ends up being the voice of reason during their big fight at the midpoint of the episode. I almost wish we could see a bit more of Henry Darrow as Fidel -- any man who can seduce Blanche, Sophia, and about twenty other Miami women (some of whom look young enough to be his granddaughters) has gotta have rizz for days.

As for the B-plot, it's by far one of the goofiest in the show's run. I don't mean Rose attending Dorothy's history class -- that would be goofy-but-believable. I mean the revelation that Rose's original high school history teacher may or may not have been Adolf Hitler himself -- and that Rose may or may not have given mono to Eva Braun. That's not a diss; this B-plot is the stuff of legends.

BLANCHE: Girls, is this dress me? SOPHIA: It's too tight, it's too short, and it shows too much cleavage for a woman your age. DOROTHY: Yes, Blanche, it's you.

If one assumes that Stickelmeyer was Adolf Hitler, you gotta admire Eva Braun's audacity at going by her real name, St. Olaf or not. But the fact that caught my attention was that Rose mentions that she contracted mono while volunteering at a kissing booth, and then passed it on to 50 boys and "one very confused female P.E. teacher who smelled of Old Spice." Then she later clarifies that Eva Braun was her high school P.E. teacher. So, was that just an awkward copy-paste moment in the script or did Rose actually make out with Eva Braun??

Rose admitting that she never got her high school diploma and that Dorothy being her teacher might finally give her the courage to do it is kinda sweet. I kinda want to know if Rose went out with Jim Shu -- he was definitely interested. I also note that Rose exposes an exact date when she graduated high school: While sick with mono, she missed the integration of Major League Baseball, which happened in 1947 when Jackie Robinson began playing for the Dodgers.

BLANCHE: My god, he had his burro hitched to every bedpost in town! [...] SOPHIA: He made me feel attractive and desirable again. He probably made the rest of you feel that way, too . . . and looking out at this kennel club, that was no small accomplishment.

I do have one question, though: If Rose was only three weeks out from her graduation, wouldn't that mean she'd already completed the work and just needed the diploma? The graduation ceremony isn't mandatory. Or does that mean she missed perhaps some final exams? Why wouldn't the high school allow her to retest due to her illness? Surely St. Olaf of all places isn't that draconian. Wait, I've got it: It must be the nefarious Stickelmeyer's influence -- comeuppance for kissing Eva Braun!

Episode rating: 🍰🍰🍰🍰 (four cheesecake slices out of five)

Favorite part of the episode

The line is legendary for a reason.

#golden girls #stay golden sunday #stay golden #dorothy zbornak #sophia petrillo #rose nylund #blanche devereaux #picture it #yes we have no havanas #s04e01 #Youtube

[rachelkaser]

Stay Golden Sunday: Estelle Getty, In Memoriam

It's been over 15 years since we lost Estelle Getty, the first of the four main actresses of The Golden Girls to die. Let's take time to honor the life and accomplishments of another of the extraordinary women who starred in this show.

Picture It, Sicily...

When I first did an In Memoriam post, at the beginning of 2022, it was because the incomparable Betty White had just died. I wanted to take that moment, more than ever before, to talk about her fascinating life and the work she did, for The Golden Girls in particular. It's impossible to overstate how hard that hit us GG fans -- we were all hoping she'd live forever.

Sadly, all four of main actresses from the show are gone, so I don't have an urgent need to do another post, but I wanted to go over the others' lives just as I did for Betty. As much as we love and adore the characters they play, we shouldn't forget the interesting, extraordinary women who put in the work for our favorite show. And since Season Four features a substantial increase in Sophia time, I felt Estelle Getty was an appropriate choice.

Estelle Getty (whose real last name was Gettleman) is probably the actress about whom I know the least, if only because her career was not quite as well-documented as the other ladies. When the show began, she was the relative underdog of the cast, in the sense that Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Betty White already had several major TV shows on their resumes.

Getty, not so much -- though it certainly wasn't for lack of trying. She achieved her "big break" fairly late in her life, but she had worked in show business for a very long time -- since her youth, in fact. She was also, like her costars, an outspoken activist, particularly for gay rights and AIDS victims.

That being said, the more I learn about Getty, the more I grow to admire and respect her. Most of the behind-the-scenes tidbits I've gleaned has focused on some of Getty's limitations. She was working at significant disadvantages every time she was onscreen, and she still managed to frequently steal the show from her more-experienced costars.

So this week, let's take a look at the life and career of the woman who brought the wizened wisecracker Sophia Petrillo to life. Who was Estelle Getty, and how did she come to be a star on The Golden Girls?

"Sticks and stones can break your bones, but cement pays homage to tradition."

Estelle Scher was born on July 25, 1923 in New York City, the daughter of Polish-Jewish immigrants. She quickly developed a fondness for theater and comedy, and tried for several years to get her break on the stage in New York. In fact, for most of her career, Getty was a New York-based actress. She married Arthur Gettleman in 1947 and had two sons, and kept auditioning for roles while working full-time and taking care of her family.

According to an account in the Jewish Women's Archive, Getty's friendship with actor-playwright Harvey Fierstein was the source of her most important role pre-GG. When he wrote his autobiographical play Torch Song Trilogy, he wrote the mother character, Ma Beckoff, with Getty in mind, and she originated the role both on and off Broadway. Getty, who was in her fifties at the time, eventually made it to Hollywood while doing the West Coast tour of Torch Song.

I'm not exaggerating when I say the story of Estelle Getty should be everyone's case study for why you should never give up on your dreams. She was in her fifties when she got her break on stage, and sixty-two when she landed the role that would make her a household name. She was sixty-five when she won her Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress.

That's not to say that her career is the only noteworthy thing about Getty. She was also notable for being an advocate for gay rights and for victims of HIV/AIDS -- during the 1980s hysteria, no less. She cared for her own nephew when he was struck with the disease, and later helped open a hospice for victims in his hometown after his death. She also professed to having many LGBTQ+ friends in show business (many of whom she'd sadly lost to the disease) and once said in an interview that one of the lines she drew was never doing "gay-bashing" jokes.

Getty died just a few days shy of her 85th birthday in 2008, and afterwards her family revealed she suffered from Lewy body dementia (which you might recognize as the same illness Robin Williams had at the time of his death). Her costars said, in a melancholy interview, that by the time of her death, she wasn't lucid enough to speak for long and rarely recognized them -- but that they loved and admired her to the very end.

"You're old, you sag, get over it."

When the casting directors at NBC began work on The Golden Girls, Sophia was allegedly one of the first parts they focused on. According to Jim Colucci's Golden Girls Forever, they believed that the role of the spicy octogenarian was going to be one of the hardest to cast -- they weren't even sure what she would look like. Getty had previously auditioned for (and lost) a part in NBC's Family Ties, and casting director Judith Weiner remembered her.

I'm going by anecdotes in the same book, but apparently Getty had all but given up on Hollywood and was only in town for two months in 1985 -- during which time she auditioned for the show. Strangely, Getty's talents at playing mothers almost failed her at this point. She was at first dismissed as a viable candidate for Sophia because, at sixty-something, she was too young. But according to her memoir, she knew she could play older mothers, so she mixed her own background with Sophia's, creating the Brooklyn-Italian woman we all now know.

Tony Thomas was the first of the three producers who saw Getty audition, and he immediately told Paul Witt and Susan Harris that they had to see her. They called her back several times and all three loved her performance, with their only apparent reservation being that she was too young. Getty's manager hired a makeup artist to give Getty wrinkles during one of her auditions to show she could look the part. By the time of her final audition, the role was already hers.

It was during this point that Getty also obtained one of (if not the) most iconic Golden Girls props of all time -- Sophia's bamboo purse. She found it in a thrift store in Los Angeles while putting together an audition costume, and it remained her primary prop for all seven seasons. Estelle Getty may not have been the biggest name they snagged at the time of casting, but she seemed to have committed throughout the process to show how she could play the 80-year-old Italian mama.

Now we get to some of the background on Getty, and the reasons why I admire her so much. In my main SGS recaps, I sometimes complain or ding an episode's rating because Sophia is not in much of the episode. However, I want to note that I know there is a good reason for this: Estelle Getty had crippling stage fright, and the writers and producers frequently pared down Sophia's roles in order to accommodate her.

According to interviews with her costars and the crew of the show, Getty would frequently have trouble with her lines, and would sometimes have to redo them after the studio audience had been sent home. That's also one of the reasons why The Golden Girls never aired a live episode, despite having at least one opportunity to do so. I believe at least some credit has to go to the show's editors for making Getty's performances look so seamless, but most of my admiration goes to Getty for having the guts to give such good work when just doing her job caused her such anxiety.

Betty White also added in an interview that Getty was afraid of death, and was deeply unhappy whenever the writers wrote jokes about death or brought the topic into the show. And, if you know anything about Golden Girls, you know this happened quite frequently. But would you ever be able to tell that from watching the show? I don't think you could.

"Not part of the show, people! Not part of the show!"

Getty's personal history is one of the primary influences for Sophia's character, and it was under her guidance that the "fat Italian mama with a bun" (the producers' words, not mine) became the acerbic Brooklyn-Italian grandmother. Getty's particular kind of humor was honed by years on New York-based stage work and a childhood love of vaudeville, and you can clearly see this in how physical comedy is always a component of everything Sophia does.

Sophia's a complicated character, for all that she sometimes only appears in episodes for a few quick lines. She's witty and feisty, yes, and there's no one who's too high and mighty that she can't knock them down a peg. She has barbs for every single one of her roommates, reminding Rose that she's dumb, Blanche that she's old, and Dorothy that she's single at every opportunity.

Throughout the show, there's a suggestion that Sophia's attitude towards others is in part her way of caring. In "On Golden Girls," she deals Blanche's grandson a solid clock to the cheek when he gets in her face, and Dorothy later tells him that she wouldn't have dealt this blow if she didn't care about him. In "Comedy of Errors," she uses a few well-placed heckles to help Dorothy find her groove when she tries stand-up comedy. As she herself says in "The Heart Attack," she's not an affectionate person and doesn't always show her love in the traditional way, but she leaves her loved ones in no doubt of her care and regard.

Like all the Girls, Sophia will stand up for herself and her loved ones when the occasion calls for it, but notably, she usually does so in subtler ways than the others do. There's no shoving little girls out of doors or calling out of asshole men -- she's not so ostentatious as that. Instead, Sophia is the type to defend her Girls from themselves. The first instance I can think of is in "Joust Between Friends" where she breaks the tension between Blanche and Dorothy and rubs Blanche's nose in it, to boot.

I'll go even further: I think her most awesome moments on the show are when she humbles the others. It's a running gag that Sophia is sometimes pushed out of things by the other Girls, including vacations and outings. Perhaps her best moment was in "Ladies of the Evening," when she not only swiped the Girls' Burt Reynolds tickets, but managed to charm several celebrities, including Burt, in her evening with them -- all after they were planning to leave her behind.

"They had said he would never walk again. He walked."

That said, Sophia was not without her layers. For all her outward acceptance of gay people, such as Jean and Clayton, she's less willing to accept her son Phil's crossdressing. "Ebbtide's Revenge" is the culmination of her intolerance, as she confesses, after much prodding, that she couldn't understand Phil and that led her to alienate him for the rest of his life. Getty struggled with this episode, and eventually put her foot down when the writers expected her to make a joke while Sophia is standing over her son's body in a casket. I think I speak for all of us when I express my appreciation of that particular choice.

There's also the implication that Sophia's wit and acidity are born from a need to protect herself. She says outright in "All Bets Are Off" that her insults are a defense mechanism. This is also apparent in "Old Friends," when Dorothy breaks the news to her that her friend Alvin has Alzheimer's Disease. Sophia at first cracks a joke, then earnestly tells Dorothy that she might be happier not knowing. I've said it's one of the finest pieces of acting in the show's run, and I still stand by that. Getty's performance of a woman going through the stages of grief over such bad news is a heartbreaker.

Sophia's not a perfect human being and she can be unnecessarily mean sometimes: Pretending to be possessed by Rose's dead husband for $20 in "Where's Charlie?" springs to mind. However, Getty played Sophia as being capable of learning and growing. In "72 Hours," upon learning Rose might have AIDS, Sophia initially balks at touching anything she has touched, even marking Rose's coffee cup with an R. By the end of the episode, she's happily drinking out of one such marked cup. I can't imagine Getty being happy about Sophia being the "villain" of the episode, but I hope she eventually understood how important and monumental the episode in general -- and Sophia's growth in particular -- were for the time.

"I'm old. I'm supposed to be colorful."

Let's wrap up this post with a collection of some of Getty's sharpest deliveries in a compilation of Sophia insults:

#golden girls #stay golden #stay golden sunday #sophia petrillo #estelle getty #picture it #very special episode #rose nylund #dorothy zbornak #blanche devereaux #blanche deveraux #rip estelle getty #Youtube

[rachelkaser]

Masonry Monday: Season One Docket

The first season of Perry Mason was one filled with episodes wildly varying in quality, and it's also the longest season out of the series. There's a certain experimental quality to these early episodes, as the writers, producers, and actors find their groove, but when it's good, it's very good. Let's breakdown the season!

Note: This is a placeholder for the season one wrap-up of Perry Mason, to be completed over the course of the next week. I just wanted to get it published before too much time had passed. Stick around and refresh to see how the recap unfolds!

#perry mason #masonry monday #raymond burr #della street #paul drake #season 1 recap #paramount plus