***SPOILERS*** No it's not the famous Mister Ed who's the horse in this confusing Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, episode by the seven year old palomino named Starelight who's been horse-napped and held hostage until the truth comes out about just what connection the horse's owner John Callender, Hugh Sanders, has to do with an accident that got Perry Mason as a Good Sumerian get involved in this strange and baffling case. Perry for his part had no good feeling about Callender after he made a complete a** of himself by busting into his office and accusing Perry of trying to either shake down or blackmail him.
It wasn't that long after that Callender was found stabbed to death, with a Japanese Samurai Sword, in his hotel room with Lois Fenton, Susan Commings, not only being the prime murder suspect but in secret Callender's estranged wife. We go from a horse-napping to a murder to a case of mistaken identity that seem so unconnected to each other that it's like watching three different episodes all at the same time. Perry of course has no trouble, with the help of the screenwriters, in figuring out this mess of a murder mystery but doesn't do it in the courtroom like you would expect but over coffee and crumpets at a local diner. It's there Perry explains to both a less then interested Della Street & Paul Drake, Barbara Hale & William Hopper,who Callender's killer was as if they really cared to know!
This Perry Mason episode was the last screen or TV appearance of actress and former star of the Howdy Doodie Show Judy Tyler who played the duel role of Irene Kilby and fan dancer Cherie Chi-Chi. Judy was killed together with her husband on July 3, 1957 in a car smash up in Wyoming. At the time of her death Judy was about to make a major breakthrough in the movies with hit's like "Bop Girl goes Calypso" and "jailhouse Rock" co-staring with "The King" himself Elvis Presley. Like the late James Dean who also was tragically killed in a car accident just as he was about to become a major star Judy was 24 years old at the time of her death.
It wasn't that long after that Callender was found stabbed to death, with a Japanese Samurai Sword, in his hotel room with Lois Fenton, Susan Commings, not only being the prime murder suspect but in secret Callender's estranged wife. We go from a horse-napping to a murder to a case of mistaken identity that seem so unconnected to each other that it's like watching three different episodes all at the same time. Perry of course has no trouble, with the help of the screenwriters, in figuring out this mess of a murder mystery but doesn't do it in the courtroom like you would expect but over coffee and crumpets at a local diner. It's there Perry explains to both a less then interested Della Street & Paul Drake, Barbara Hale & William Hopper,who Callender's killer was as if they really cared to know!
This Perry Mason episode was the last screen or TV appearance of actress and former star of the Howdy Doodie Show Judy Tyler who played the duel role of Irene Kilby and fan dancer Cherie Chi-Chi. Judy was killed together with her husband on July 3, 1957 in a car smash up in Wyoming. At the time of her death Judy was about to make a major breakthrough in the movies with hit's like "Bop Girl goes Calypso" and "jailhouse Rock" co-staring with "The King" himself Elvis Presley. Like the late James Dean who also was tragically killed in a car accident just as he was about to become a major star Judy was 24 years old at the time of her death.