- An ex-gangster decides to pull out of a play the author is basing on a real-life, mob-related killing. His threatening request is recorded so when the playwright is murdered, he is charged with the murder as Perry sorts out the actors.
- At a script read-through of a new play by Ernest Royce, the last act has been stolen. Royce has words with the producer, John Gifford, and the publicist, Jim West, who think the new play is dreadful. None of the Royce written plays produced by Gifford have had good revues or produced a profit. The new play may even be a roman a clef that could be hurtful to the real people characterized. Royce threatens Gifford with exposure if the play is not produced. Meanwhile, Royce is having an affair with Faith Foster, the ingenue of the play. Tough guy Frank Brooks who has a mob related background has $75K, and his girlfriend Faith, invested in the play, and he wants his assets back. Brooks rather rough request for his money back to Royce is recorded on Royce's Dictaphone. Royce is murdered, and Brooks consults with Perry Mason, who is concerned the New York City mob may be involved.—richardann
- At his home, playwright Ernest Royce (Jerome Cowan) reads aloud from his new play to a group of people who will be involved in its production. In the play, a character named Steve claims to know the others' secrets and is about to start writing the last act of the play-within-a-play. After the other characters leave, he starts dictating, but a shot rings out and he slumps over, dead - the end of Act II of Ernest's play. Producer John Gifford (David Lewis) wants to hear Act III before pronouncing judgment, but Ernest finds that the pages for the final act are all blank, even in his spare copies. Publicity man Jim West (Richard Erdman) doesn't mind, as he hated what he's heard so far. Gifford says it's full of snarling viciousness, but Ernest refuses to change a word. He says it's based on real people whom he knows, and that he can rewrite Act III by the end of the week. The others leave, except for ingenue Faith Foster (Joanne Gilbert), who kisses Ernest. The doorbell rings and Ernest peeks outside. It's Frank Brooks (Stacy Harris), Faith's boyfriend. Ernest goes into his study, where he pretends to be answering mail, while Faith hides just outside the study. Frank enters the house through the unlocked door, finds Ernest in the study, and asks him where Faith is. Ernest claims she left with the others, but Frank knows he's lying. He says he's pulling his money from the show. Ernest says he can't return it because he already gave it to Gifford. Frank tells him to get it back, because he'll be coming back later that evening for the cash. He adds, "And if you ain't got it, you ain't gonna get another chance to get it." Ernest's Dictaphone catches all of this. Frank leaves, and Faith reenters the study. She says she can change Frank's mind, but only in exchange for Ernest rewriting her part to be more sympathetic. Ernest threatens to reveal their relationship, saying Frank might kill him, but only after killing her first. Late that night, Ernest returns to the study to begin rewriting the missing act. A shot rings out and he slumps over, dead.
At Perry's office, Gertie (Connie Cezon) shows in an insistent Frank, who offers the lawyer $10,000 to defend him against the charge of murdering Ernest. His fingerprints are all over Ernest's house and he has an old criminal record. He insists he came by the money he's offering as a retainer honestly, as he now owns a nationwide chain of burger drive-ins. He says he went to Ernest that night to get back the $75,000 he put into the play, then went home and has no one to confirm his alibi. Perry says lots of people's fingerprints will be found in Ernest's home, and an old record is insufficient to sustain a murder charge. He returns the $10,000, and after Frank leaves he tears up Della's notes of the meeting.
Frank goes home and is greeted by Faith, who is happy about the publicity surrounding the murder. She thinks it will be good for her career to have her name in print alongside a big star like Helen Dwight (Katharine Bard), Gifford's wife and frequent leading lady. Frank disagrees, and gives her money so she can get out of town. Faith says, "I don't see why I have to run away just because you threatened...", then realizing her slip, admits that she heard Frank's talk with Ernest. Frank is telling her that they're through when Lt. Tragg knocks, demanding admission. Inside, he seems to be savoring the moment, and says it's easier for him if someone asks him "Whaddaya want?" Faith obliges, and Tragg pulls out a warrant, telling Faith, "I'm sorry to bother you this way." Then he turns to Frank, taps him with the warrant, and says, "You're it." Perry has a client after all.
Perry visits Gifford and West at a studio where they're shooting a movie. Gifford says that all he knows about Frank is that his check was good. West says that in the past Gifford produced four plays by Ernest, all of which were artistic and financial flops. Gifford agrees to provide Perry with a copy of the surviving two acts the new play. Perry asks West why he disliked Ernest so much. West goes into a speech about his love of the theater, saying that a great performance made him feel like we was walking the streets of heaven. Ernest was a litterbug.
At a restaurant, Perry and Della are dining with Michael Dwight (Robert McQueeney), Helen's brother and business manager. Perry asks why she and Gifford would commit themselves to a play before they had even read it. Michael says he doesn't know - he just did what he was told, but is glad the play is dead along with Ernest. Dinner ends when Paul arrives, and he reports that twelve years ago, when Frank was a small-time operator in New York, Rick Volpone, a major figure in the numbers racket, was murdered. The case was never solved, so after Frank's record came up in the new murder investigation, LAPD and NYPD compared notes and discovered that the bullets that killed Volpone and Ernest came from the same gun. Although this looks bad, Perry doesn't believe Frank murdered Ernest, because that should be someone who corresponds to a character in Ernest's play. That lets out Frank - unless he's in the lost last act.
In court, Michael identifies the voices on the Dictaphone tape as belonging to Frank and Ernest. West testifies to having seen Ernest and Faith embrace. On cross-examination, he testifies to having been a reporter prior to becoming a publicist. He wrote about the Volpone case, and around the same time saw Helen in her first play, produced by Gifford, and freely admits that he fell in love with her then. "Even her husband knows that," he adds. After a short argument on admissibility, Perry, Burger, and the judge (Richard Gaines) agree that testimony relating to the Volpone murder will be allowed.
Gifford testifies that his first New York production was originally slated to be Ernest's first play, starring newcomer Helen. Perry asks him how he could possibly get financing for a play with all those unknowns, but Gifford claims he doesn't remember. Perry asks, didn't Ernest himself give him the money, on the condition that the play star Helen, who was then Volpone's girlfriend? Burger objects to this line of questioning, but is overruled when Perry points out the parallels with Ernest's play. Gifford again claims he doesn't remember. He does recall that he visited Ernest the morning before the play reading. Since it was a business meeting, Michael came along, so they were all together except briefly when Michael went to make a phone call. Perry asks why Gifford gave Ernest a check for $75,000 the day after receiving a check for the same amount from Frank. Gifford says it was an advance on royalties, and reacts to doubts about such a large advance by insisting it was his money and he could to what he wanted with it. Perry counters that this, and all the plays by Ernest that Gifford produced were actually blackmail. Ernest would find a backer to pay Gifford, who would turn the money over to Ernest and finance the play himself. Letting Gifford see that he's holding pages titled "Act III", Perry says that Volpone learned that Gifford and Helen, his girl, had fallen in love. Volpone threatened Helen, Gifford shot him, and Ernest knew about it. Perry asks where is the gun that killed Volpone. Gifford produces the gun from his coat pocket (which makes me feel better about those long lines to go through the metal detector when I'm on jury duty in L.A. County). He confesses to murdering Volpone and says that Ernest had promised to dispose of the gun but instead kept it for blackmail. Gifford ignores Tragg's pleas to give him the gun and is ready to use it on himself. Perry says they both know he didn't kill Ernest, and adds that Helen didn't kill Volpone. Suddenly, West jumps up. He grabs at Michael and shouts, "You! You killed Volpone and you killed Royce!" Michael admits it, saying he killed them to protect his sister. Helen rushes to the witness stand and kisses her husband. He says, "All these years I thought you killed him." "I tried to tell you, but I couldn't," she answers. Gifford thanks Perry for saving him from becoming a cheap and melodramatic anticlimax.
Later, Perry explains that he figured out what happened when Gifford mention that Michael was briefly absent from the morning meeting with Ernest. Michael took the Act III pages at that time and also took Gifford's gun that Ernest was holding. Later, he used it to kill Ernest, following which Helen took it from him and Gifford took it from Helen, repeating the pattern of the Volpone murder. Tragg enters, as they're all invited to dinner at Frank's drive-in in Wilshire, where they feature flaming burgers served on a sword. Tragg wants to know how Perry managed to find the lost last act, so Perry shows him what he had in court - just more blank pages. Tragg tells Perry, "You take the hamburger, I'll eat the sword."
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