Perry Mason (TV Series)

The Case of the Lost Last Act (1959)

David Lewis: John Gifford

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Quotes 

• John Gifford : Time and again he tortured me with this gun. Put in my hand, defied me to use it. But he knew I couldn't kill. That night I came back to plead with him about the play. He taunted me again. And this time the gun spoke out for me.

  Lt. Tragg : Better give it to me, Mr. Gifford.

  John Gifford : This gun has limited vocabulary, speaks one short word. Everything that is, is suddenly revised. What is becomes what was, and what might have been, can never be.

  Lt. Tragg : Please, Mr. Gifford, the gun.

  John Gifford : It has one more word to speak...

  Perry Mason : It would be the wrong word, Mr. Gifford. A tragic ending to a play based on an old and sad mistake. You know as well as I, it was not you who killed Royce.

• John Gifford : [On the witness stand, full of emotion, choking back tears of relief, speaking without a trace of humor]  Thank you, Mr. Mason. You saved me from becoming a cheap, melodramatic anticlimax.