User Reviews

This turns out to be a wildly entertaining case. Mason & Della get involved when they are invited by Frances Bavier (Aunt Bee on Andy Griffith and the doting Aunt here) to her nieces apartment. Here Mason finds 2 girls have been poisoned with barbiturates. In the nieces purse he finds keys for 2 apartments at the Mandrake Arms Apt complex.

After getting the doctors update on the niece and her roommates condition, Mason & Della go to the Mandrake Arms and find a dead man who is married, living in the apt under an assumed named, and is having affairs with several women. He is having a swinging life with several women until his death and one of them leaves the lipstick kiss of death on his forehead which Mason and Della see first hand when they find his corpse.

Burger and Tragg think they have the right person, as usual and are so confident they invite Mason for lunch to talk plea bargain. Mason turns them down flat and then becomes a pit bull in court trying to destroy their air tight case.

One thing different with this one, when the truth comes out, more than 1 suspect is arrested, after Mason proves his client is innocent. The drama is quite well done, and so is Paul Drakes work on the case. Another solid first season episode.

Based on an original story by Erle Stanley Gardner, "The Case of the Crimson Kiss" has withstood the test of time and is quite entertaining 50 years after it was made.

The story involves two women who share an apartment (they each only make $75 a week), Fay (Sue England, given virtually nothing to do in this episode, her first of five Mason appearances) and Anita (Jean Willes). Fay is getting married. Anita wants the same man, even though she's having an affair with a married man who later turns up murdered, a crimson kiss on his forehead.

The story and mystery are good enough, but this episode is loaded with extras: Berger gets Della on the stand to question her about Perry; the judge actually SUSTAINS two of Berger's objections; a suspect threatens to throw herself out the courtroom window; the breathtakingly beautiful Joi Lansing (381/2-23-35) makes a brief appearance as the girlfriend of some rich older man; and Frances Bavier appears as Aunt Louise (a friend of Perry) in time to save Fay and Anita from an overdose of barbiturates. Things like that never happen in Mayberry! A very enjoyable episode.

**SPOILERS** Yeah, I know; it's ALWAYS sumpthin back in Mayberry. Anyhoo, it's good to see Frances Bavier before Andy's show, and AFTER "The Day The Earth Stood Still". I wonder; what happened to the key that Perry left in the flower Box? Even after it was told in court that He and Della had been in Carver's apartment, nobody asked HOW did they get in? If they had a key, as the witness said, where was it? Also, nobody pointed out that Fay was supposed to use TWO kinds of poison (Cyanide, and Barbiturates) that part doesn't make sense, does it?

The lipstick tells it all, though. The glass that had it; the kiss on the dirtbag's forehead (no match to Fay). Why didn't they get Vera's lip prints? That would have been interesting, wouldn't it? Of course, HOW did Vera and her date get in the outer door? Hamilton was playing serious catch-up after Perry asks these questions. When Anita is trapped by Perry, and her own words, she breaks down and cashes out the prosecutor's case. There was only one possible suspect, and Perry got her with her own lipstick marks on a notepad. He didn't have to use the fact that she'd arranged to have the apartment across from Carver's, but he had it like a trip hammer ready to drop on Hamilton.

Anita's taking a long fall off a steep cliff; she probably won't have a date for a long time since Burger didn't need any testimony from her. No pity; that was a dirty frame she tried to hang on Fay, and of course her attempted murder, which she had ZERO remorse for. Bye bye, scumbag. Dynamite blonde Joi Lansing was a pleasure to watch, as usual. A good actress and vocalist, but all us young guys knew some of her pin-ups; a shame she passed away young (R.I.P. Joi). This is one you'll want to get and keep for your own. Great acting; thanks to S.A.G., and IMDb, for the references.

SPOILER ALERT!! HERE BE SPOILERS!! (Well, one spoiler, anyway.)

Perry Mason proves his case with his final trick in a series of tricks. To do this, he asks the judge's permission to question a witness "informally", meaning, without swearing her in or making her go to the stand. She is seated in the front of the gallery, close to Lieutenant Tragg, and Perry is on the opposite side of her from Tragg (ie she is between the two of them). When Perry springs his trap, she tries to flee, and Perry grabs her by the shoulders and shouts "Grab hold of her, Tragg!" The two of them are able to restrain her, until she realizes that the exits are guarded by bailiffs and escape is impossible, so she stops struggling. The elderly, Lieutenant Tragg, unaccustomed to sudden exertion, lets go of her and sits down, relieved. But at the moment when he releases her, we see his face in profile, and even in profile you can see, he has one of the funniest expressions I've ever seen: exasperated but also amused, like he's thinking "With Mason's cases, there's always some crazy drama!" Shaking his head a little bit.

Tragg is always an endearing character, because he always seems to be chuckling under his breath, even as he delivers horrible news to a suspect (like: "you'll have to come with me; you are being charged with murder,") or to Perry or Della (like: "Mister Burger is planning to file a complaint against you for tampering with evidence, Counselor!"). He's terrific contrast to the almost-always-irate prosecutor Ham(ilton) Burger.

The show lost a great deal when Ray Collins left (I'm not sure whether he retired or died).

I was particularly struck by the Perry Mason we see in this early episode. As the show evolved, the desperate to win PM we saw in this ep was not seen.

Also of great interest to me was Hamilton Burger being introduced as a politician seeking high office. He was not the relatively fair-minded prosecutor we came to know who was more interested in following the ethics of the Bar and in justice generally. This Burger wanted and needed a win in this potential death-penalty case.

Another unique happening was Della on the stand being forced to admit to the shenanigans she and Perry had engaged in at the murder scene on the night of the murder. She was ready to perjure herself, but her glances to Mason were met with nods of the head indicating that she answer truthfully.

The actual hearing was perhaps the most technical as to the rules of evidence and ethics. Super complicated. The judge was struggling mightily to give PM the rope he needed, but Burger, and a 3rd attorney, made it difficult.

Mason had almost nothing he could use to put a real dent into Burger's case. It looked like the case was certain to be bound over for trial. Then came some unrealistic real-time forensics. Burger about had a cow, and he was right. The tactics proved that Mason's client was innocent (duh), but Mason insisted the judge not declare the proceedings final.

He asked to "unofficially" question a witness to establish actual guilt. The judge, who had been rather fastidious in his prior rulings, readily consented. This resulted in the most shocking courtroom act by Mason in the entire history of the show, imo. Without warning, he grabbed the scruff of the witnesses' neck and forced some contact paper on her mouth to elicit an imprint of her lips. Again, this was done in the wake of a hyper-exposition of rules and ethics. Truly stunning.

I would have loved to see much more of this PM in later seasons. This guy was a brawler, niceties be danged. He was still exceptionally perceptive. But, when the chips were really down on several occasions, the man resorted to measures of great desperation.

This is most certainly among the most interesting eps. I very much appreciated the major complexities introduced by the writers and was fascinated by the showdown in court of a Mason and a Burger who each were at their most ruthless. Each was willing to win by hook or by crook. Great drama, not repeated to this extent ever again.

****SPOILERS**** Just three days away from marrying rich and handsome socialite Dane Grover, Douglas Dick, Fay Allison, Sue England, and her roommate Anita Bonsal, Jean Willes,are found unconscious and barley, in the case of Fay, clinging to life by their friend Lousie Marlow, Frances Bavier. It seemed that somebody spiked the girls hot chocolate with cyanide before they turned in or went to sleep. While this is all going on lover-boy and 1st class heel, in cheating on his both wife & girlfriends,Carver Clement, John Holland, is also found dead of cyanide poisoning in his pad, or love nest, with red lipstick, in the shape of a smooch or kiss, on his forehead!

With Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, being a good friend of her's Louise Marlow called him to check things out it soon becomes apparent that it was non other then Anita who was behind all this carnage. That in her being jealous of her friend Fay for stealing that dreamboat of a man Dane Grover away from her as well as that heel Clement, whom she was having an affair with,treating her like a piece of trash and planning to drop her when someone better looking came around. Even though he's dead throughout almost this entire Perry Mason episode it's Carver Clement actions, when he was alive, that started the ball rolling in all this. And it's now up to Perry the save Fay, who's been indited in both Clement's murder as well as attempted murder of Anita Bonsal, to clear this whole mess up. As well as save Fay from taking a trip to the San Quentin gas chamber.

****SPOILERS**** It was the big red kiss mark on Clement's forehead that turned out to be the clue to who murdered him. And Perry used lip prints not fingerprints to prove that point. Ther's also the sad case of the dejected, by handsome and rich Dane Grover, Anita Bonsal in it was her plan to get even with Fay that made her a #1 suspect in Celements's murder. That sparked the biggest shock as well as surprise in the Perry Mason episode with her bolting from the witness stand, as Perry was cross-examine her, and threatening to jump out of a third floor window! Check out John Hermman as the lab man who became famous in the 1970's and 80's staring, as a doctor, in such horror movie classics as "Hitch-Hike to Hell" and "Microvave Massacre".