The Perry Mason TV Show Book
Episode Guide - The Sixth Season

May 16, 1963 [181] "The Case of the Witless Witness"

Director--Arthur Marks
Teleplay--Samuel Newman
Story--Marshall Houts and Samuel Newman

The story starts with Perry actually losing a case. More accurately, he's losing an appeal. Though the details are never discussed, the first scene sets up Perry's relationship with the sitting appellate judge, a man named Daniel Redmond.

Redmond is up for the nomination for lieutenant governor. But he learns that Martin Weston, a hopeless alcoholic, will testify that the judge was involved in a plot to defraud the government back in 1943.

Things get really complicated when the charges soon include homicide, as Weston is found poisoned and Redmond is arrested.

Several of TV's familiar faces appear in this episode, including David White ("Betwitched"), Jackie ("Uncle Fester") Coogan, and Florida Friebus, who played the mother in "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis."

With its unusual, well-played plot, and some more dramatic than usual music and highly atmospheric lighting--especially in scenes that take place in the judge's chambers--this is one of the best episodes of the Mason series and a fitting end to the show's 1962-63 season.

Judge Daniel Redmond--Robert Middleton (defendant)
Gus Sawyer--Jackie Coogan
Victor Kendall--David White
Marian Lamont--Florida Friebus
Martin Weston--Vaughn Taylor (victim)
Judge--Grandon Rhodes

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The Perry Mason TV Show Book Copyright © 1987 by Brian Kelleher and Diana Merrill. All rights reserved. Presented here by permission of the copyright holder. Commercial use prohibited. Web page Copyright © 1998 D. M. Brockman. Last edited 04 Nov 2004.