The BEST episodes of Perry Mason season 2
Every episode of Perry Mason season 2, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Perry Mason season 2!
There are few actors so closely tied to a persona than Raymond Burr as Perry Mason. This long-running series was built upon Erle Stanley Gardner´s many novels about a brilliant defense lawyer and his staff, that solved many a crime with surprise witnesses and stern cross-examinations.It was the first mystery series to feature chalk or tape outlines to mark the spots where bodies were found. Filmed almost exclusively in the Los Angeles area, Raymond Burr had Gardner's seal of approval in the role. The cases were usually won by way of pivotal confessions of witnesses, solicited by Perry Mason (Burr's) surgeon-like examination or with last-minute, key evidence brought into the courtroom by private investigator, Paul Drake (William Hopper). Della Street (Barbara Hale), Perry´s faithful secretary, was always at Perry's side in the courtroom where hapless Hamilton Burger (William Tallman) was the Los Angeles District Attorney who never seemed to win. As to the myth that Perry Mason never lost, there were 2 episodes where it did occur... but you'll have to watch to find out.The show was revived in 1973-74, with other actors in the familiar roles (Monte Markham as Mason), and then again with the some of the original cast, in a string of feature length TV films from 1985 until Raymond Burr´s death in 1993.
#1 - The Case of the Lucky Loser
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/1958
Perry has all kinds of troubles in this one when a murder brings him into the tangled financial and personal affairs of the wealthy Balfour family.
#2 - The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom
Season 2 - Episode 29 - Aired 6/13/1959
Perry returns to his office late one night and finds an attractive woman climbing into his balcony window. She claims to be Virginia Colfax, the secretary of Ed Garvin who has an office next door to Perry's. Ms. Colfax says that she climbed into Perry's office in order to escape from Garvin's hot tempered wife but Perry later learns that Garvin is married to two women. Garvin and second wife Lorrie are sent to Mexico by Perry until he can clear up the matter but when Garvin's first wife, Ethel, is murdered there's an even bigger mess on the scene. And just who in the world is Virginia Colfax, the woman climbing in the window?
#3 - The Case of the Calendar Girl
Season 2 - Episode 24 - Aired 4/18/1959
A building contractor is charged with the murder of a wealthy political Mr.fix-it.
#4 - The Case of the Lame Canary
Season 2 - Episode 30 - Aired 6/27/1959
Ruth Prescott wants to divorce Walter Prescott so that she can be with her true love, Jimmy MacLaine. After a brush with death, Ruth becomes convinced that Walter is trying to kill her rather than give her the divorce. Walter then turns up dead and the police are convinced that Ruth shot him but Perry, as usual, doesn't think so. A lame canary and unusual bruises on the victim hold the keys to the puzzle.
#5 - The Case of the Howling Dog
Season 2 - Episode 23 - Aired 4/11/1959
Evelyn Forbes escapes from a mental institution only to be charged with murder. The key to the case is a dog that continues to howl no matter what.
#6 - The Case of the Pint-Sized Client
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/4/1958
Robbers lift a bundle from the Hargrove Finance Company and Frank Anderson is murdered in the aftermath. Anthony "Pop" Renzi is identified as one of the robbers and charged with both the robbery and the murder. Perry sets out to clear him of both charges.
#7 - The Case of the Caretaker's Cat
Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/7/1959
Wealthy Peter Baxter decides to test the loyalty of his heirs. He pretends to change his will cutting them all out and leaving his entire estate to groundskeeper, James Hing. Hing is then supposed to burn down Baxter's house and Baxter would substitute a medical cadaver for his own body. If any of the heirs contested the will, they would be disinherited. Hing does as he is instructed. He burns down the house but the body discovered inside is really that of Peter Baxter. Perry tries to sort through this muddled mess and arrive at the truth.
#8 - The Case of the Shattered Dream
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/3/1959
Sarah Werner asks Perry to find her husband, Hugo Werner, who ran off with her inheritance. Hugo, now using the name Hans Breel, is now working on a gem scam but his scheme backfires when he is murdered and Sarah is charged with the crime.
#9 - The Case of the Stuttering Bishop
Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 3/14/1959
Bishop Arthur Mallory is met in his hotel room by Wallace Lang, an associate of a wealthy man named Charles Burroughs. He is warned thru physical violence to stop looking for the real granddaughter of Charles Burroughs. Carol Delaney helps the bishop with his wounds and hears an incredible story that she may be the real granddaughter, Janice Burroughs. She doesn't believe him at first but changes her mind when she is also visited by Wallace Lang and warned to drop this idea. Carol is invited to meet Charles Burroughs and later the same night he is found dead. Carol is accused of his murder when the knife used to murder Mr. Burroughs is found to belong to her carving set.
#10 - The Case of the Spanish Cross
Season 2 - Episode 28 - Aired 5/30/1959
Young Jimmy Morrow can't seem to catch a break. Already on probation for car theft he's charged with stealing a valuable Spanish cross and killing its owner. Perry feels sorry for the kid and decides to take the case.
#11 - The Case of the Bedeviled Doctor
Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 4/4/1959
Dr. David Craig discovers that tapes of conversations with his psychiatric patients are missing and being used for blackmail purposes. When the suspected thief and blackmailer, Mark Douglas, turns up murdered, the good doctor is charged with the crime.
#12 - The Case of the Jilted Jockey
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/15/1958
Jockey Tic Barton is in a mess of trouble. First he's fired when his horse loses a fixed race and then he's charged with murder after confronting Johnny Starr, the man actually responsible for the fix. And, oh yes, Tic's wife was having an affair with the murder victim. It's up to Perry to set things right.
#13 - The Case of the Dangerous Dowager
Season 2 - Episode 26 - Aired 5/9/1959
Matilda Benson is a tough old broad who rules her children with an iron hand and the promises in her will. Her family then gets involved in a gambling scandal involving sinister nightclub owner Danny Barker. When Barker is found dead the scandal expands to include murder.
#14 - The Case of the Curious Bride
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/18/1958
Rhoda Reynolds is charged with murdering her blackmailing ex-husband, Arthur Kane. At the trial, Perry moves the proceedings to the room in which Kane was murdered in order to re-enact the fatal night.
#15 - The Case of the Married Moonlighter
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/8/1958
A moonlighting school teacher is charged with the murder of a male acquaintence he had taken home after the acquaintence had earlier raised a disturbance at his night job at a cafe.
#16 - The Case of the Borrowed Brunette
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/10/1959
Eva Martell is hired out of numerous candidates by Melvin Slater to impersonate a woman named Helen Reynolds. Eva is paid extremely well and given a nice apartment to live in with her Aunt Agnes as long as she continues with her impersonation. Both Eva and her aunt suspect a rat and seek Perry's advice. Then Melvin Slater turns up dead in the apartment.
#17 - The Case of the Romantic Rogue
Season 2 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/14/1959
An heiress to her uncle's fortune is charged with the murder of a female private investigator during a search for her missing uncle.
#18 - The Case of the Jaded Joker
Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/21/1959
Danny Ross is a television comedian who is waiting to hear about a new television show. It has been three years since his last television show was cancelled. Charles Goff is an advertising executive who promised Danny he would pitch him for a new show in return for an introduction with the president of a large big-budget advertiser. Danny does his part but learns from Goff's secretary that Goff landed the deal without him. When Charles Goff is found dead in his office the next morning, Danny's friend, Freddie Green, is accused of the murder after finding his fingerprints on the murder weapon.
#19 - The Case of the Purple Woman
Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/22/1958
An art collector, Rufus Varner, is told by a reputable art critic that one of his most prized art paintings named ""The Purple Woman"" is a forgery. Varner visits the art dealer from whom he purchased the painting, Milo Girard. After he finds out the dealer knew it was a forgery, he realizes the news would damage his reputation as an art collector. At the Girard home, an artist Aaron Hubble, tells Evelyn Girard, the wife of the art dealer, that he painted a forgery of The Purple Woman for her husband. Milo Girard is found dead in his office the next morning and his wife Evelyn is charged with his murder.
#20 - The Case of the Lost Last Act
Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/21/1959
Playwright Ernest Royce is found shot to death in the same manner as a character in one of his unproduced plays. The play dealt with characters very close to real people and the real life murder of a New York underworld figure years before. Perry's client, Frank Brooks, is charged with Royce's murder and Perry must find the missing final act of the play in order to clear Brooks.
#21 - The Case of the Corresponding Corpse
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/1958
Perry receives a telephone call from George Beaumont, a man who supposedly died in a plane crash nearly three years before. In reality, Beaumont missed the plane and after hearing about the accident decided to disappear leaving wife Laura with his life insurance money. Since then, Beaumont has been cavorting with girlfriend Ruth Whittaker and living under an alias. He has grown tired of this life and wants to return home but someone cuts short his return by sticking a letter opener in his back. Ruth is then charged with the murder.
#22 - The Case of the Glittering Goldfish
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/17/1959
An inventor of a cure for sick fish is charged with the murder of the purchaser of a pet fish store.
#23 - The Case of the Fraudulent Foto
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/7/1959
A District Attorney is charged with the murder of a chairman of the bids committee to a defectively built hospital whom he is investigating for a series of bribes being passed around.
#24 - The Case of the Sardonic Sergeant
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/1958
Major Frank Lessing, a payroll officer on an Army base, is found murdered and Sgt. Joseph Dexter is charged with the crime. The case hinges on a payroll robbery committed in the Phillippines years before. It seems as though some of the bills from that robbery were turning up on the base.
#25 - The Case of the Petulant Partner
Season 2 - Episode 25 - Aired 4/25/1959
Harry Bright and Chuck Clark were once best friends and business partners until Margaret entered the picture. Margaret was a much younger woman on the make who entranced Chuck into marrying her. When Margaret is found shot to death, Harry is arrested for the crime but the more Perry digs into the victim's past the more convoluted things get.