Perry Mason (TV Series) The Case of the Angry Astronaut (1962) User Reviews

Hello Newman

[DKosty123 · 8/10 · 7 December 2010]

Samuel Newman, writer of 22 episodes of Perry Mason, contributes this story about an Astronaut testing program. James Colburn makes a brief guest shot as a General who gets shot about mid-episode.

There are, several possible suspects but the story keeps you guessing because the motive behind the murder is not real clear. Only Mason's client seems to have one but it develops a little differently than that. Another large guest cast & during this stretch it is good to see both regulars for Tragg & Burger on the hunt to hang Perry's client.

This one includes a elaborate test for Paul Drake on the space equipment. At the end, they don't make a Monkey out of Paul.

This episode was made more complex than needed.

[kfo9494 · 6/10 · 10 September 2013]

This is one of those episode where you have an interesting subject and an intriguing murder but when you get to the courtroom things are so slow and confusing that it takes the fun out of the entire show. This is exactly what happened in this show when we get a demonstration presented in court that was one of the most complex and puzzling performances ever presented in the series.

What has transpired is that the new leader of Winslow Aeronautics, Addison Brand, has been murdered. And it appears that a person working for the company, Mitch Heller, is the person that committed the murder. With evidence like an already poor relationship with Brand, conversations about being fired and a recording that makes threats- Lt Tragg has a lot of evidence against Heller. But it will take Perry to get around the problems and prove that his client is innocent.

With the space program hitting an all time high in the early 60's this episode was very interesting. But when Perry has the courtroom floor and shows a weird demonstration of the murder scene, things tend to sour. Perry wants us to believe that the murderer changed the room around several times and then had the ability to change his voice to sound like the murder victim. That was hard even for the most avid 'Mason' fan to comprehend.

Silly

[darbski · 6/10 · 31 October 2017]

**SPOILERS** Normally, I'll let a lot of stuff go when the producers/directors cast real babes in scenic roles. Not here. The other reviewers are correct with the age differences, hell, the ages in the first place. And then to have Paul, practically a chain-smoker be able to take a stress test and do better than someone who is supposed to be in fantastic physical condition? Ridiculous. The casting director should have been canned forthwith.

How about one other small thing? When Perry's demonstration involved dragging the dead body of Brand (on a ragg rug)out of sight, and then back into view and not leave a massive blood trail? A one shot wound from a .45 caliber Army issue automatic is gonna make a hole that will bleed like a stuck pig for at least a few minutes. One shot is gonna be either heart or head; either will bleed profusely.

The invention? The redemption agreement? Very important stuff, and the real reason for the murder. The writers should have been able to figure out a better scenario. Ultimately, though, it comes down to poor casting, directing, and writing; Babes Jeanne Bal,Paula Raymond, and Patricia Donahue can't make up for those problems. I love this series, but, sorry... not a good episode, a 6.

Way Way Out

[zsenorsock · 6/10 · 28 March 2008]

Trying to cash in on the space craze, the powers that be put together this episode where a space test pilot is accused of murdering the General who first washed him out of the astronaut program and now fires him from the test program.

Not a bad little story, but the real mystery in this one is how Robert Bray managed to get cast as astronaut Mitch Heller while James Coburn, 9 years his younger was cast as General Adison Brand. I hate to say anything against Lassie's future owner (Bray played Corey Stuart on the final Lassie series) but he's 46 here and looks a good ten years older--too old for the early space program, too old for the part. Meanwhile they try and age Coburn, but he's an awfully young looking General at 36. He would seem to have been a much better fit as the astronaut and Bray as the General.

Other than that, the case is okay, involving an elaborate set up using photos and a bit of hard to believe vocal mimicry (couldn't they find someone to do Raymond Burr's voice at least instead of dubbing it??)

An elaborate ruse

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 12 December 2012]

Robert Bray is both Perry Mason's client and cast in the title role in this episode. Bray works for an aeronautical firm as a test subject and the head of the aerospace division is James Coburn. Bray and Coburn have some nasty history together going all the way back to the Korean War. So Coburn is later shot to death and Bray arrested.

On this episode the key here is that Bray is a fall guy for someone who also had it in for Coburn. In fact a rather elaborate deception is used to frame Bray. You don't have much sympathy with the perpetrator because of that.

But what gets me is that Raymond Burr points out in some crime scene photographs that it has to be a ruse of some kind. That that fact escaped Ray Collins, Wesley Lau, and William Talman was a bit much to swallow. From there we unmask the real killer.

The writers were slipping with this one.

Testing the very limits of credibility

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 1 November 2017]

***SPOILERS*** Taking advantage of astronaut John Glenn, who's even mentioned in this Perry Mason episode, circling the globe in outer space six weeks earlier there's the mixed up in the head astronaut Mitch Hiller, Robert Bray, losing it when he's kicked off the Moonstone project for being mentally incompetent by his boss Gen. Addison Brand, James Coburn, who's later accused in the general's murder. With Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, taking the case on for Hiller he ends up going through a number of legal as well as physical acrobatics to get Hiller off that blows the mind of the prosecuting D.A Hamilton "Ham" Burger, William Talman, as well a those of us watching. After being fired by Brand Hiller is invited to his house not knowing that his girlfriend Linda Cary,Jeanne Bal, is there with him. This only get the already somewhat unstable Hiller even crazier then he already is.

It's later when Hiller is told, by phone, to meet Brand at a local McDonalds to smooth things out over a Big Mac & fries he's stopped in transit by the police and charged with Brand's murder. Even though he talked to Brand not less then ten minutes ago Hiller is told that Brand's been dead-murdered-for at least two hours! Perry feeling that Hiller didn't kill Brand finds out that someone has been involved in framing him for Brand's murder in order to get back at Brand for what he did, that without knowing, to him early in the Moonstone project that ended up bankrupting him.

***SPOILERS*** Mindless story that has so many complications to it that if the killer didn't admit his crime no jury on earth would have been able to find him guilty. That even in his admission of guilt he makes no sense at in his actions. The killer himself looks totally confused in confessing his crime with no one in the courtroom including Perry Mason and Hamilton "Ham" Burger seeming to either take him seriously or understand what the heck he's talking about. James Coburn who luckily for him was killed off at the beginning of the episode, thus limiting his suffering in it, was to repeat the same kind of performance as a crazed gong ho and mentally unstable US Navy Cmdr. Paul "Bus" Commings two years later-1964- in the film "Emily" with James Garner & Julie Andrews.

Ridiculous Portrayal of a Space Program

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 25 January 2022]

Imagine putting a huge amount of money into a scientific program and then hiring one man of suspicious quality to be your one asset. The guy has breakdowns and temper tantrums and can't pass a minimal set of tests. But there is another aspect: he is an inventor. Well, the baddies get hold of this and decide to frame this guy by killing Jame Coburn. The gyrations of plot just don't wash.