This episode opens with a woman in an asylum hitting a nurse over the head with a vase and escaping. It turns out she is Evelyn Cartwright, the sister of Arthur Cartwright, and she had a nervous breakdown after her husband, Clinton Foley, stole all of her money and then took off with another woman, who just happened to be Arthur Cartwright's wife, Polly. Evelyn comes to live with Arthur as she appears to be much better now, although it is odd there is never a legal reckoning over hitting that nurse over the head. But I digress.
So apparently Clinton Foley, Evelyn's ex husband, is now cheating on his current wife, Polly, with yet another woman. This time the other woman has no money, so it must be love. Since Clinton Foley is this week's guest villain, of course he winds up dead. Perry, who was initially entangled in all of this due to a simple will request by Arther Cartwright, is now defending Evelyn Cartwright for the murder of her ex husband.
There are quite a few twists and turns in this one, some of those twists done rather awkwardly. I imagine the kinks in the script have to do with this adaptation of Erle Stanley Gardner's novel being problematic because of its severe production code busting aspects including the fact that central to the plot there are a man and woman living together but not married and that Perry Mason uses lots of underhanded tricks to get his client off. These were features not bugs in the 1934 film starring Warren William, mainly because William's on screen persona in his pre codes were that of the cad that you hate to love, but you just can't help yourself.
There is one odd similarity. The voice of Gordon Westcott who plays Arthur Cartwright in the 1930s movie and the voice of the actor who plays him in the TV episode sound very similar. I don't know if that was done intentionally or not.