Perry Mason (TV Series) The Case of the Bullied Bowler (1964) User Reviews

Not a thinking man's episode

[kfo9494 · 7/10 · 14 November 2011]

This episode had some far reaching beliefs to make the story hold together. So one has to take the writer at his word even though the wisest person would shutter to believe the circumstance.

It begins with two brothers that own a bowling alley in a neighboring city of LA called Tesoro. Bill and Alan Jaris own the bowling alley and the person with the most influence Bonnie Mae Wilmet, also known as the Dutchess, wants the bowling alley shut down. It seems she believes that bowling alley lead to gambling and drinking.

Well it just so happens that dysentery breaks out in the small town and the city health doctor, Max Taylor, shuts the bowling alley down because it seems everyone sick had the alley in common.

Since Perry is in Europe, Paul's lawyer friend, Joe Kelly (Mike Conners) takes the case of re-opening the bowling alley with a court order. But before that can happen Dr Max Taylor ends up dead with Bill Jarvis finger prints on the murder weapon. So Joe now has to take the murder case.

Spoiler AHEAD---- In court we learn that the Duchess's business, oil refinery, is on the same water line as the bowling alley. With this information they would shut the oil refinery down for months, so this adds suspicion to a number of more people.

Along the way we learn some strange circumstance can be only be made by writers. 1-Bill Jarvis use to be married to the Duchess's daughter. 2-They had a baby together. 3-The mother, duchess's daughter, dies during child birth. 4-the doctor that delivered the baby was Max Taylor, the city health doctor. 5-The Bowling alley water is supplied by pipes that run near the oil refinery and the alley is the only customer on that pipe line. 6-Even though the water line runs in the city toward the bowling alley, the oil refinery is in another county.

So as you can see thinking is not part of this episode. the viewer must sit and watch and take all these things as a writer's privilege of plot management.

Even without Perry plus seeming the storyline was far-fetched, it was nice to see Mike Conner doing his best as the visiting lawyer. Raymond Burr fans please do not take this wrong- but in the eighth season Mr Burr seemed, at times, stale and bored with the character. Mr Conners, as Joe Kelly, was like Raymond Burr in the first two seasons. His presents on screen leaped out and one could tell that he was going places. But nothing can take the place of Raymond Burr on the series.

Here is hoping for a speedy return of Perry from his vacation. Well that is what the producers lead us to believe.

Not the best plot but a nice view for most 'Perry Mason' fans.

Mannix to the Rescue

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 19 February 2022]

Mike Connors subs for Raymond Burr in this one. He gets roped into it while Perry is in Europe. The case involves a matriarch who runs a town and who has it in for a couple guys who run a bowling alley. She has her fingers in every pot. Not a bad plot but once again the suspect acts like an idiot.

The Duchess

[Bills3511 · 9/10 · 15 July 2020]

Looks like we have a classic case of overbearing "biotch" here. Once you look last the proposition of how one woman can run an entire town as judge and jury of all affairs, the story plays out fairly well. Mike Connors does a good job filling in as the defense attorney for a vacationing Mason, who is galavanting his way across Europe. All in all, a good episode even though "The Duchess" obviously is wearing panties that are too tight, because she's definitely got some issues. It just reinforced the old axiom cliche that "things don't go right when your shorts are too tight".

The Duchess

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 3 July 2019]

This episode has Perry Mason on a trip to Europe, but when William Hopper's old friends Robert Harland and Paul Lukather, a pair of brothers who own a bowling alley are being subjected to illegal and extralegal pressures from their local government he steps in and an attorney friend Michael Connors helps out.

Harland's mother-in-law Anne Seymour is the queen bee or as she's referred to as the 'Duchess' hates him and hold him responsible for her daughter's death. She wants to ruin him any way she can and she has the clout to do it.

But when a doctor who had been saying there was illness being spread at the bowling alley winds up dead, Harland is arrested.

One thing I did like about this episode was that the one you wanted to see as the murderer turns out to be said killer.

I think viewers will find this satisfying.

Contaminated

[darbski · 6/10 · 25 May 2017]

I'm giving it a 6 because the normal actors playing their normal parts did a good job. Main problem is that the story is LAME-O. There is one very interesting SPOILER here; when the show opens the camera captures the town's name, elevation (I think it was 726), population "we're growing !!", and something you'll probably never see again (unless it's in a parade): about seven teenagers riding in a convertible Ford, sitting on the window sills and top of the back seat. Maybe the director did this to spice up the first part of the show. Even then, it was highly unsafe, and probably a ticketable offense. Anyway you cut it, it was stupid.

Mike Connors was great as Mannix; here, not. I'm gonna get it all out. Walter Pidgeon - boring. Michael Rennie, great as Klatuu; here, forget it. Hugh O'Brian good cowboy (a little too pretty), but on this show, no dice; and the icing is Bette Davis. Whatever charm she has is completely lost on me, in any regard. I don't know why, and I don't care; I just don't think she was ever that good. As a lawyer, not a chance. Yeah, I know; all the super critics thought she was a goddess, I've never had any use for her.

This story is too wound up in complicated details that in my mind, can only be unraveled by Perry himself. I think that's the main problem I have with all the other pretenders to the leadership, here. I have always held that Perry is a genius; there is no way the others can compare. I know that they have Paul's help, and Della's beautiful business management. Don't care. The writers should have noted this fact and dumbed down the problems to fit in with the replacement attorney's limited skillsets.

The acting is good, as usual, but even these unsung saviors cannot rescue this problem ....sorry.

The Case of the Gutterball

[zsenorsock · 5/10 · 30 June 2008]

This takes place while Perry is in Europe (the next episode, "The Case of a Place Called Midnight") so its up to Paul Drake and his lawyer friend Joe Kelly (Mike Conners) to carry the ball.

Paul and Joe go down to Tesoro, where they discover Bonnie Mae Wilmot isn't satisfied with running MOST of the town. She wants to run it all, and that means closing a bowling alley run by Pauls friend Bill. Yeah, this is about a bowling alley.

A dysentery outbreak threatens to close the bowling alley and when the doctor who connects the outbreak to the bowling alley turns up dead, its up to Joe (Kelly, not Mannix) to defend Bill, the prime suspect.

Sorry, the bowling alley thing makes it seem like the Mason team is slumming a bit while Perry is away. According to the Perry Mason book, the producers strongly considered using Mike Conners to replace Burr for the next season if he refused to come back. Thank goodness Ray decided to do the next season. While I liked Conners as Mannix, he's a bit too blustery and brusque as Joe Kelly. Don't think it would have worked. This didn't.

Perry Mason takes a vacation

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 29 April 2016]

****SPOILERS**** Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, couldn't have taken a vacation-in far off Europe-at a better time when this case of contaminated drinking water at the Tesoro bowling alley came up that had his good friend Joe Kelly, Mike Connors, get stuck handling the case. It turned that the town medical examiner Dr. Max Taylor,Milton Selzer, shifted the blame on the bowling alley and its owners the Jaris brothers Bill & Alan, Robert Harland & Paul Lukather, from the real culprit the oil refinery owned by the person who's known as the Duchess of Tesoro Bonnie Mae Wilmet, Anne Seymour.

Just as things started to get a bit boring, with nobody getting murdered in the first 20 minutes of the episode, Dr. Taylor is found stabbed to death in his office with Bill Jaris standing over him. Arrested for the murder of Dr. Taylor it soon comes out that Dr. Taylor delivered Jaris baby boy two years ago that resulted in his wife's, the daughter of Bonnie Mae Wilmet, untimely death! Could revenge on Jaris' part have been the reason for doing Dr. Taylor in or better yet was Jaris in some way framed for his murder?

***SPOILERS****The trail had Kelly substituting for Perry Mason bring out the truth to who killed Dr. Taylor and why. It all had to do with Dr. Taylor covering up the reason for the people in Tesoro coming down with severer cases of dysentery which he was about to go public with. And the person who did him in also did in or stood up the two women whom he promised to marry and flipped the bird on them making them both in the courtroom come clean in his manipulating them to cover up his crime.

Mike Connors lifts PM, if only for one episode

[pmike-11312 · 2/10 · 17 April 2023]

I gave this one more than my usual one-star rating solely for the temporary addition of Mike Connors. Somehow, he is able to take this poorly conceived, written and usually-acted tripe and make it interesting...something Burr, et.al, were unable to do with any regularity. Unfortunately, it only lasts one episode. Shame, really.

I gave this one more than my usual one-star rating solely for the temporary addition of Mike Connors. Somehow, he is able to take this poorly conceived, written and usually-acted tripe and make it interesting...something Burr, et.al, were unable to do with any regularity. Unfortunately, it only lasts one episode. Shame, really.