Show240
Lot of really stupid people in this episode. When Ward is untying Grant on the ship, Grant tells Ward all about the real Frank Jones. He claimed he knew the guy was a phony and that there was a warrant for his arrest. OK, so why on Earth did you authorize the use of the export license? Why didn't you stop this whole thing before it began?
+ It may not be in the syndicated version but Grant hires Paul to investigate Frank Jones after signing the paperwork and doesn’t find everything out until the morning of the shipment. That is why he ends up on the boat, trying to warn Ward and stop it. - HPW 9/29/24
Then there's Ward, a mush mouthed bleeding heart Cold Warrior. His ineptitude really takes the cake. He agrees to ship the cargo using his father's company without questioning anything? He seems shocked to learn that the cargo was not really medical supplies. He was appropriately suspicious when he first met Jones sitting in his car. Yet he backed down immediately when Jones implied the "mission" would be on behalf of the govt. Having grown up the son of an importer, he should have known that there's no reason the government would select a random company to do this type of dangerous job. His desire to "make a mark" allowed him to become the perfect patsy for the bad guys. Somehow Perry's clients are getting more and more naive and ridiculous as we approach the end of the series.
The fight between Ward and Frank Jones was so poorly choreographed that it was comical. They didn't even try to make it look real. The camera angles were set up wrong so it was so obvious they weren't hitting one another and were pulling their punches. When Jones "accidentally" throws himself overboard, it was unintentionally hilarious instead of suspenseful. As has been noted elsewhere, the skill and experience of the PM crew from the 50s has been replaced by inept amateurs in the 60s.
Most PM episodes avoid mentioning specific years when referring to specific dates of incidents ("March 14th of last year", "October 4th of this year", etc.). Perry cites a Supreme Court case regarding libel as being decided March of 1964. This was New York Times Corporation v. Sullivan. Submitted by Chief Kurtz 13 January 2022.
Charlie Rose asked Raymond Burr why Perry Mason ran for 9 years. Raymond replied that people are interested in "our form of justice" and that minorities saw it as "their show" because PM prominently featured Asian, Black, & Female characters (PM 50th Anniversary Edition Special Features). Mike Bedard 2.5.15.
+ And in addition to the Asian-American characters, we had a return -- after months -- to having an African American courtroom spectator. Submitted by catyron, July 13th, 2018
"Nightwatch 10-16-1985" Interviewer
CR: "What was the MAGIC of it?"
RB: "The audience wanted to believe in our court system...still the best in the world...It was even an important show in foreign countries where they have the Napoleonic Code rather than the Anglo-Saxon code...some of the shows in the United States helped change the laws in those countries." Mike Bedard 2.23.15.
Douglas Henderson (Frank Jones) is best known for another role with Cold War associations in The Manchurian Candidate.
This may be the most technically dense episode, stuffed with a lot of admiralty law and shipping regulation. Still, it is a welcome switch from our last, and possibly worst, episode "TCOT Grinning Gorilla". DOD 3/8/18
"To define and punish piracies and felonies committed ON THE HIGH SEAS" is a Congressional power under the Constitution [Article 1, Section 8]. Mike Bedard 5.26.16 MeTV airing.
Back to the corrupted variation of the end credit music. Sigh. Submitted by catyron, July 13th, 2018
The Bamboo Curtain Closes in all of PM's 271 episodes there were only two defendants - out of the >271 - who weren't white: in ep 189 TCOT Floating Stones Irene Tsu played a Chinese female, and here we have a Japanese male. Male and female...China and Japan...much like a Taijitu, balanced and complementary. And thus the show's most visible efforts at diversity - modest by today's standards but somewhat daring for early 60's television - were over. Notcom, 080219.
+ In addition to the two episodes mentioned by Notcom, both "TCOT Caretaker's Cat" (#58) and "TCOT Blushing Pearls" (#73) had defendants--Benson Fong and Nobu McCarthy, respectively--of Asian descent. Submitted by BobH,3 August 2019).
Goof: As Perry explains the basis of his writ to move the case to federal district court, Hamilton says, " Why, that's ridiculous! You know better than that, Perry!" To which Perry replies, "Yes I do, and so will you tomorrow morning." jfh 15Apr2021