"Perry Mason"
The Case of the Wednesday Woman (1964)

TV Series:

"Perry Mason" (1957)

Original Air Date:

2 January 1964 (Season 7, Episode 13)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Suspect | Twist | Beautiful Woman | Secretary | Clue

Cast

Raymond Burr	...	Perry Mason
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Morris Ankrum	...	Judge
John Cliff	...	Guard
Douglas Dick	...	Lester Ormesby
William Fawcett	...	Pawn Broker
Lisa Gaye	...	Joyce Hadley
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez	...	'Rosie' Dell
Greta Granstedt	...	Manager
Phyllis Hill	...	Mrs. Katherine Stewart
John Hoyt	...	Thomas Webber
Bill Idelson	...	Ticket Agent
Ralph Manza	...	Amos Elwell
Alvy Moore	...	Cabbie
Michael Pate	...	Jack Mallory
Phillip Pine	...	Phillip Stewart
Marie Windsor	...	Mrs. Helen Reed

Gaye Old Time

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This story begins with some stock footage of San Quentin prison. Every Wednesday taxi driver Alvy Moore (Mr. Kimball on "Green Acres") take Mrs. Katherine Stewart (Phyllis Hill) to visit her husband Phillip (Philip Pine) who is in prison for a crime he says he did not commit (too bad Perry wasn't available for him at that trial!). But for some unknown reason he keeps turning her away.

Stewart makes parole dependent on him going back to work at the firm of Webber and Reed where he was charged with manslaughter by killing Reed and suspected of stealing a valuable diamond. Turns out the former insurance investigator for the company that insured the diamond, Jack Mallory (Michael Pate) told Stewart that Reed had been planning to run away with the diamond and another woman, believed to be Stewart's wife. He's watching Stewart carefully, intent on recovering the diamond and getting a hefty finder's fee. He and Stewart are seen arguing as they go into an elevator on the 11th floor. When the elevator opens on the ground floor, Perry discovers the body of Mallory in it, shot to death in a variation of a "locked room" mystery.

Good script and good performances by the guest cast and Paul, who gets cracked on the head while investigating make this a choice episode. Also notable are John Hoyt as the suspicious surviving partner, Marie Windsor as Mrs. Helen Reed, the widow of the dead man, Douglas Dick as the creepy scientist Lester Ormelby and its hard to keep one's eyes off of Lisa Gaye as secretary Joyce Hadley, who may or not be involved with at least three guys in the story.

Lisa Gaye was a breathtakingly beautiful actress that seemed to fly just under the radar in the 1950's and 1960's before retiring to raise her daughter, but every time I find her in something, I am taken by her smoldering looks and fine talent. She almost makes this one worth watching all by herself.