Perry Mason (TV Series) The Case of the Gilded Lily (1958) User Reviews

A Blond extravaganza

[kfo9494 · 7/10 · 13 October 2011]

When Stewart Brent (Grant Withers) does a quickie wedding to blond Anne Rowan(Mari Aldon) it sets off a storm in Mr Brent's business office. Upset at this marriage is his personal secretary Enid Griffin (Barbara Baxley) and the office secretary Peggy Knudsen (Shelia Bower) who both just also happen to be blond.

Then to make matters worse someone shows up demanding money or they will release the transgressions of the new Ms Baxter. Which in most "Perry Mason" episodes leads to blackmail and then murder. And anytime we have three blonds in the same episode, we already have three suspects.

Seeing Grant Withers playing a business man is like a fish out of water. He was one of John Wayne's pick in about nine of his movies. He also played in "My Darling Clementine" and was considered a western movie regular. His health was about to take a nose dive and he ended up committing suicide two years later.

During the courtroom scene we also see one of the worse confessions of the entire series. It reminded me of a high school play where the students try to get a point across by seeing who can yell the loudest.

But do not let the confession fool you. There is more to this episode than what we see in the courtroom. Make sure you watch the entire show or you could convict the incorrect person.

Even with some poor acting this episode is fun. A guessing game where most people will be wrong.

Peroxide City

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 10 December 2021]

Blondes certainly show up a lot in the Perry Mason episodes. In this one there are three of them. Each has secrets and are at the center of the murder of a blackmailer. We also have a business tycoon whose actions are idiotic. It's amazing how many of these characters have guns and have trouble keeping track of them.

Yup, I Wuz Right

[darbski · 10/10 · 25 May 2017]

I don't think any spoilers are necessary, but, just maybe ..... Because, see, there's this thing. I mention it, and it's come up again. Before we get to the thing, though, there's another thing, so, yeah, **SPOILER**

Another case wherein Perry's friend/client will not listen to him when he advises to call the police about blackmail. That's a deal I don't get. People are always worried about scandal because the person they married, long lost (fill in the blank) did something wrong, and then nobody'll think they're perfect anymore. I think that nobody's perfect anyway, and a little naughtiness makes girls interesting. The secretary who overdosed? Her friend? Enemies. His wife? Questionable because she didn't tell about her past.

Enter Richard Erdman, (Binney, the Blackmailer); the reason for this report. He proves the point I've tried to make several times now. This is a guy whose acting talent is wide and deep. My goodness, I think he's STILL acting. He's had all kinds of parts, and can make you frustrated, angry, amused, bewildered, and all without noticing that he's ACTING! He's truly one of the greats, and is one of many that this program used with regularity. Those of us who have enjoyed these performances, we salute you, Richard!! Absolutely all the others who are so terrific, also. Believe me, every time I see you on Perry Mason and know I'm gonna hate you; it's a compliment to your talent and hard work. Thank You !

One other thing I've noticed is that there is usually a beautiful brunette either in the gallery, or in this case, the jury. This time she's in the first row, about three from the far end. I wonder who they are, and what happened to them; like this young woman, they are very pretty. Roses among the, well, less ornamental. Who knows? On loan from UCLA Drama school? I've gotten to look for them, and I've thought to myself "I wonder if it is a particular director or producer that places these actresses"? Maybe I should investigate; maybe it's obsessive and creepy... oh well.

Loved this episode, in July, Perry willing, I'll finish out my Perry Mason collection from Amazon.

Pay them off?

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 12 October 2018]

When a man like Grant Withers asks Perry Mason what to do about a blackmailer and that he's asking for a friend you don't have to be as shrewd as Raymond Burr to know the inquiry is about himself.

The blackmailer is Richard Erdman who says that he has knowledge that Mari Aldon, Withers new wife did a year in prison for insurance fraud. Withers decides to pay and the instructions are to go to a certain motel and check in. He would be contacted there and presumably the payoff would be made.

All that happens when Withers checks in he gets a nice clock on the head and he wakes with no money and a dead Erdman. Now he does Perry Mason.

I did like the fact Ray Collins had a piece of evidence with him for quite a spell before he knew it. Lt.Tragg not on the ball here.

As for the real murderer it doesn't come in court. But one of the principals gets the real murderer to convict himself.

Nicely done by the way.

Blackmail like cancer needs radical treatment

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 4 April 2013]

***SPOILERS*** Having three blonds in the cast Shelia Bowers Enid Griffin & Anne Rowan Grant, Peggy Knudsen Barbara Baxley & Mari Aldon, that were almost identical to each other it was hard to know just who was who in this very confusing and disjointed Perry Mason episode about blackmail & murder. It all started when Enid saw a newspaper article announcing her handsome boss Charles Stewart Brent's, Grant Withers, marriage to this gorgeous blond, like herself, Anne Rowen and she just went bananas. You see Enid was secretly in love with her boss and the news of his marriage, not to her, was just too much for Enid to take! Attempting to kill herself with an overdose of sleeping pills Enid's life is saved by her roommate Shelia who got to her just in time to have her stomach pumped out.

It's just then that this guy Arthur Binney, Richard Erdman, pops up at Brent's office with a load of information about his newly married wife Anne revealing her criminal past, she was convicted of embezzlement, and demands 30 G's in advertisement space in his tell all tabloid magazine to keep it all quite and under wraps. Before Brent can pay the guy off at a room in the Valley Motel he's knocked out and when he awakes he finds Binny dead from a gunshot! If this isn't bad enough for Brent he's by now so fatalistic that he admits to the police that he was the one who murdered Binney in him trying to protect his wife Anne whom he think really murdered him! Even if it means him taking a one way trip to the San Quentin gas chamber!

***SPOILERS*** Things just get even worse as the Perry Mason episode merrily rolls along with Perry, Raymond Burr, taking up Grant's defense with Grant not all all cooperating with him which makes you wonder why Perry would waste his time with the guy at all: It's obvious that Grant doesn't want his help in the first place! Perry dose manage to get Grant off in one of the weirdest confessions in court room history with the person who supposedly murdered Binney who didn't have to be in court at all, in knowing she or he would be identified by one of the witnesses to Binney's murder, breaking down and confessing, now her's a new one, that he didn't do it but knows who did! To find out who just murdered Binney we had to suffer through another few mindless minutes of out of courtroom acrobatics for his actual killer to finally reveal himself and admit his crime which if you watched the scene closely he in fact didn't!

P.S Actor Grant Winters was to commit suicide a year later and it's not quit sure why he did himself in. It may well have been due to a combination of deteriorating health problems as well as the rotten parts, like in this Perry Mason episode, that he was getting.

The Case of the Gilded Lily

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 19 February 2021]

When wealthy businessman Stewart Brent suddenly gets married to blonde Anne Rowan after a whirlwind romance.

It causes consternation at his office. The secretaries in his office who are also blonde have taken a shine to him.

However Brent's new bride has a criminal record for insurance fraud and someone shows up demanding blackmail money.

Brent goes to a motel to pay the ransom and gets hit on the head. When he wakes up the money is gone and the blackmailer is dead.

I did wonder why Brent would be bothered about other people knowing about his wife's criminal past. He is not bothered by it after Paul Drake verified it.

It was just a question of which blonde might be in on the blackmail. The reveal of the murderer in hindsight might have been obvious but it does raise a question as to why they thought Brent had a lot of money with him.

Better than the Previous Episode. But not much.

[jqdoe · 4/10 · 13 November 2020]

So many things are not explained in this episode and do not make sense - starting with the basic setup in which the defendant (or is it his new wife?) is being blackmailed because the blackmailer knows that she had served a year in prison in the past. Why is that even a subject for blackmail? What is the blackmailer going to do with this information anyway? Her husband knows about it - and does not care. Yet that is supposed to be the motive for the defendant to have murdered the blackmailer.

Then a piece of planted evidence shows up in Tragg's car. Tragg doesn't even question how it got there or how he found out about it. Ridiculous.

The murderer is revealed out of nowhere at the very end, and confesses (or does he/she really?) out of court for absolutely no reason. How the murderer is even connected to the defendant or the victim . . . who knows? The motive is money (it usually is), but how did the murderer even know about this money? Again, who knows?

This would have been a one or two star review, except we get one of those brief end-of-the-episode scenes between Mason and Tragg that occur from time to time where we see, despite everything, how much they respect each other. And I'd like to think the writers want us to understand that, secretly, they like each other despite the numerous blow ups betwen them over the years. Genuine affection is shown here, I tell ya! It put a smile on my face, and it might do the same for you. And that smile alone was worth an extra two stars in this review.

A bit weak

[VetteRanger · 5/10 · 2 February 2023]

As much as I loved this series, and I've seen all the episodes at least twice and many much more than that, this isn't one of their stellar efforts.

I've also worked my way through more than half of the 80+ novels ... which were all at one time or another adapted into the TV episodes. Typically when I finished one I watched the episode to compare. Here, the murderer was the same as the novel. The situation surrounding Brent's wife was the same. Many details about the secretary and the murder event itself were changed.

Several things about the setup of the crime scene were added or changed just to make it more complicated for the viewer, and Mason's revelation about how he figured out the murderer was weak. I could give several other explanations for what he claimed made him suspect the real killer.