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When we meet Charles Burroughs (at 12:10), he is practicing golf with a putter in his study. I had predicted the putter would be the murder weapon. Actually, he gets stabbed with a carving knife. This knife had been shown earlier (at 7:00) being used by Carol Delaney to carve meat at her own dinner table. The dinner scene even starts with Carol pulling the knife from its sheath. I commend Gene Wang for placing his clues well and for ably making it hard to predict his story line! Submitted by 10yearoldfan, 27 May 2012.
Vaughn Taylor plays Bishop Mallory very well: he is genuinely delighted to hear Carol's answers to his questions (at 4:30), proving that she is the girl he is looking for. On the other hand, Della is given lines to mislead the viewer, casting doubt on the Bishop's authenticity (at 11:40): "There's no one alive who can vouch for his story." I tend to trust Della's instincts. Once again, I commend Gene Wang for making it hard to predict his story line. Submitted by 10yearoldfan, 27 May 2012.
Is it just me, or does the stuttering bishop not stutter all that much? Ed Zoerner, 11/15/12.
In the opening scene the sign on the hotel wall says room 214 should be down the hall to the left. Not to the right of the sign. Kilo 10/24/2019.
When Kidd and Janice Burroughs discover the 1st body, she had dipped fingers rather well into the pool of blood outside the door. Then when she finally sees the dead form, she screams and puts her hands over her face. No blood. Quick cleanup. Sgt.Cola 05Sep2022
I didn't understand that whole scene with the operative Blanch pretending to be Janice's mother. What was the point? Kilo 10/24/2019.
+ The operative was hired to pump Janice for information. jfh 05Aug2020
When court reconvenes after the discovery of Bishop Mallory's body we can see Janice and Lang sitting together in the front row. Within seconds Lang is replaced by some stranger. There's also a rearrangement of the spectators behind them as well. When Philip Burroughs is recalled they're all back to their original positions. Kilo 7/21/2020.
Jonathan Kidd does a wonderful job in his part, teetering on the edge of overacting but just staying within bounds of lovely, smarmy, scenechewing. OLEF641 12/18/2020
We are given a strong clue that Philip Burroughs is lying when he pays his first visit to Mason's office (at 17:20). He tells Mason, "I told him [Charles] he was wrong!" But earlier (at 12:50) Charles Burroughs had disparaged Philip for never having had the nerve to contradict him. Submitted by 10yearoldfan, 27 May 2012.
Sometimes in Perry Mason, the killer could be any of a number of suspects. In this episode, all the evidence incriminates Philip. He is completely unsurprised (at 18:26) when he sees blood flowing under the door to his uncle's study. His line (at 19:15), "Something is wrong with the light switch" is unnatural for someone who knows the house and its lighting fixtures so well. He is again completely unsurprised (at 19:27) when he turns on the light to reveal the dead body. He is utterly creepy (at 20:24) when he insinuates that Janice might have been the killer (look at those evil white eyes and wart-covered cheek). His proposal to conspire with Janice to pin the blame on Carol is clearly pre-meditated. Aside from Perry's client, he alone had motive to kill Charles before the will could be changed. Even Della disparages him (at 31:20), "He has all the finer instincts of a scorpion." Once again, Gene Wang has made the Perry Mason series as a whole unpredictable, by occasionally making the real culprit so obvious that the viewer is tempted to look elsewhere. Submitted by 10yearoldfan, 27 May 2012.
10yearoldfan, pretty astute. Jonathan Kidd's 'Philip Burroughs' is one of the more loathsome characters to ever appear in a Mason story .. but I equally thought that 'Wallace Lang', or 'Janice Burroughs' might have done the deed. I often wonder if actor Ken Lynch scared small children and sensitive adults with that rock-grinding voice of his! This was a pretty good episode. 'Wallace' looked like he'd had a knife stuck in his gut as Perry peeled the layers off of his scheme with 'Janice', and poor 'Janice' looked as though she was going to faint, throw up, or both! Submitted by MikeReese, August 23,2013.
+ Ken Lynch played Chief Engineer Vanderberg in Star Trek's "Devil In The Dark," Detective Sergeant Grover in "McCloud" & Admiral Gray in "The Winds of War" [189 IMDb credits]. Mike Bedard 6.20.16.
+ Lynch's voice reminds me of Froggy of the Our Gang movies from the early 40's. Submitted by Kilo 4/18/2018.
Sorry, but the murder scenario makes no sense. If Charles Burroughs had been sedated, he wouldn't be by the door, he would be sitting or lying down somewhere, and not necessarily in the office. And just where did all that blood come from? Where did Philip get it and how did he put it under the door before breaking into the room? And how did Philip get into Carol’s apartment to find a weapon he didn’t know would be there and where was it when he broke into the room? Nothing works. DOD 07/10/18
+All good questions, but the blood is the key, I think. If the study door was locked, it was presumably the victim who locked it, before he succumbed to the Nembutol. So how did the blood get there? We're to believe that Philip's carefully wrought plan was get home precisely when the alleged granddaughter was leaving, break down the study door, and, while ostensibly fumbling in the dark, find the unconscious old man and stab him before turning on the lamp? But even if that's so, where did the blood come from? This seems to be rather sloppy writing; it would not have taken much adjustment to make the scene more plausible. Vladimir Estragon 022324.
The envelope: At the end of the show Perry handed a letter to the real Janice from her mother. Why didn't Wallace Lang and Leo find it in the hotel room? Weren't they looking for that type of item? Submitted by H. Mason 10/18/14
+ although, in the letter, Mrs. Burroughs refers to the child as "Carol". jfh 28Mar2023
Loose End? I was left wondering about the multiple clues, including stutter/no stutter, that the Bishop Mallory we saw was an imposter. Almost everybody was sure he was a fraud. In the end, his body was identified by his friend. So how do we account for the suspicious elements surrounding his character that suggested he wasn't the real bishop? I know they were red herrings, but a better script would have included a plausible explanation. Submitted by JazzBaby, 8/14/2019.
May we approach the Bench for some "Loose Ends"? The whole scene of the discovery of the Bishop's body is leaping to confusions. e.g. The Bishop's car went off a dock into the bay and he had a bump on his temple which Perry maintains is from a blunt instrument and the judge falls for it. And this implicates Philip Burroughs as a double murderer? Definitely not one of the better conclusions to a case. Joe B. 04/21/22
To put in my two cents about the blood. I surmise that Philip drugged his uncle during the mid-afternoon, then before he left Philip put his unconscious uncle next to the door and placed the blood underneath so that it would slowly spread out. He needed his uncle to still be alive when Carol arrived at 5:30pm.
And it helped when Janice said that he heard him snoring before she went out riding at 5:30pm. Why she didn’t notice the blood I can’t answer. It may have been that the blood didn’t fully leak out at that point. Or it may have been that she simply didn’t look down.
But the blood was necessary to make it appear that Philip was not the murderer and to provide an excuse to break down the door. Having Janice report that she heard his uncle snoring at 5:30pm only helped take the focus off Philip.
I’m not trying to say that the whole murder scheme works, but that I can see where part of it makes some sense. Submitted by Kenmore 01/07/2025
> placed the blood underneath so that it would slowly spread out But how does one do that? Blood in a carpet, like any fluid, spreads by capillary action; which tends to be rather quick (certainly "quick" in the context of the hours that would have elpsed in implementing the suggested scheme). What would really be needed is some kind of 'drip irrigation' system to slowly build up the amount in the carpet...not sure which is bigger, the Rube Goldberg or the EWH! aspects. Notcom 010825.
> If Philip had placed his unconscious uncle next to the door at close to 5pm, then left for Mason's office, only 30/45 minutes would've passed before Janice would've walked by the door. So, not "hours" at that point. The blood could've spread further out over the next 90 minutes. Keep in mind that Philip left Mason's office at 6:30pm and arrived back home at 7pm. He could've lied about leaving at 4pm which would make some sense.
Regardless, the easier answer is that Janice didn't look down to notice the blood on the floor. Like I said, it's not a perfect murder scheme, but a plausible one for the most part. In terms of what we've seen in Perry Mason, it's about average in terms of believability. I submit "The Case of the Runaway Corpse" if you want a truly whacko scheme about how to frame someone. Submitted by Kenmore 01/11/2025.