S1.E26

The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife

Episode aired Mar 15, 1958
TV-PG
1h

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Phyllis Avery and Stewart Bradley in Perry Mason (1957)

Perry Mason defends an old wartime buddy, Frank Lawton, who is framed for murder. He is a handy man accused of having an affair with the woman he works for and killing her husband. The evide... Read allPerry Mason defends an old wartime buddy, Frank Lawton, who is framed for murder. He is a handy man accused of having an affair with the woman he works for and killing her husband. The evidence is piling up against him en masse.Perry Mason defends an old wartime buddy, Frank Lawton, who is framed for murder. He is a handy man accused of having an affair with the woman he works for and killing her husband. The evidence is piling up against him en masse.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

8.1/10

462

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
The swank convertible that Scott Shelby drove in this episode was a rare limited production 1958 Buick Century. They now sell for over $100,000.

Goofs
Art Williams photographed a murder scene from a small boat. The camera angle shows the picture to have been taken from the shore.

Quotes
Marion Shelby: [to Frank Lawton] You know, you're the handiest handyman I ever knew.

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Review

Featured review

6/10

The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife

This case was based on a story by Erle Stanley Gardner. This might explain why the set up takes it time and it also has a crime noir element.

Frank Lawton is an old army buddy of Perry Mason. He works as a handyman for wealthy Scott Shelby and Lawton has aspirations to be a writer.

Shelby though seems to think that Lawton is getting a little too friendly with his wife.

The viewer sees Shelby setting something up and plans to leave Lawton as a patsy.

When Shelby disappears, Lawton is a suspect and Perry Mason is called in. Perry thinks that Shelby has faked his own disappearance because his company was in financial difficulties. Later Shelby's corpse is found.

Unusually here Detective Sgt Phillip Dix is prepared to consider that Shelby might had faked his disappearance. There are several references in the courtroom scenes that Perry might have been hoisted by his own petard.

It is difficult to buy though that someone who claimed to have taken photos on a particular day could be said to have a cast iron alibi. After all those photos could had been taken on some other day.

Shelby's manner of death was nasty so the reveal of the murderer might be shocking.