Perry Mason (TV Series) The Case of the Lost Last Act (1959) User Reviews

A written play is becoming true life in this entertaining mystery

[kfo9494 · 9/10 · 9 May 2013]

This episode begins at a reading of a play written by the known playwright Ernest Royce. As Royce is reading this play concerning a murder it is being listen to by a group of people that includes the producer, the lead actress, a reporter and a company manager. When Royce gets to the final Act of the murder, he finds out that someone has replaced his written words with blank pages. The last Act that includes the murderer's name is missing.

Royce then sets out to rewrite the last Act of the play. While using a tape-recorder to help in the writing, an ex-gangster and now money backer Frank Brooks barges in the office wanting his money back that he invested in the play. He goes as far as saying that Royce could get hurt if the money is not returned and all his conversation is captured on tape. When Royce is later shot the tape recording will be used to issue a murder warrant on the ex-con Brooks.

Perry will defend Frank Brooks on the charge as we learn that the written play is following the exact situation of Royce's murder. If the last Act is found then perhaps the murderer will be revealed and also the reason for some strange happenings with other characters in the show.

This is an excellent mystery. A written play that is following an actual murder will have any person intrigued. With such a interesting story the mystery ended in a rather confusing manner. The confusion does not involve the suspects or characters but the murder weapon. The murder weapon is pulled out by a character while in the witness stand but how the person got the gun is hard to comprehend. It seemed it changed hands a number of times before nearly being used one last time in the LA courtroom. That was one situation that was hard to swallow. But with that said the story was strong enough to produce an entertaining and compelling watch for viewers.

NOTE- One scene is a great moment. When Lt Tragg serves the murder warrant on James Brooks, it is a moment that is classic Ray Collins.

Overly ambitious episode highlighted by good cast

[Panamint · 8/10 · 21 April 2017]

This is a very dramatic episode and it makes you really admire the extremely hard work that was often done by actors and producers in the old TV days. The hard work in this case was necessitated partly due to the episode's over-reach to what is probably the limits of concept and story that can be accomplished via weekly TV. You either will buy into the "live and die by the play" persona of Jerome Cowan's character or you won't, but Cowan does bring stature and gravitas to his pivotal role. He portrays a playwright and the episode is partly a sort of homage to Shakespeare who is quoted by the characters including lawyers in court. Heady stuff, a very ambitious TV concept and as I say maybe an over-reach.

The cast is terrific and they accomplish a dramatic ending, with skilled acting by TV perennial David Lewis. Lewis was around for many decades on television as well as having good parts in notable films such as the classic "The Apartment". He was highly respected in his era but is not very well known nowadays.

This episode was written by the distinguished Hollywood scriptwriter and literary editor Milton Krims. His participation is an indication that this episode of "Perry Mason" was in fact intended to be a really serious and high concept TV production but I didn't know that when I first saw the name "Krims" on the screen. I thought this must be a joke or a nom de plume- "Krims" spelled backwards is "Smirk", but now I realize who he was and that this is his real name.

Intensity and a heavy tone with little or no relief or levity is tricky to do in a series TV episode, yet this one does manage to elevate to a high standard in my opinion despite the limitations of the genre.

Make it an 8.5!...

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 30 December 2022]

... since it is more entertaining than an 8/10 and doesn't quite reach to a 9/10.

Ernest Royce (Jerome Cowan) is a hack playwright who has written a play that is liked by nobody associated with it - the producer, the actors, - nobody. He refuses to rewrite the play. Speaking of plays, Royce is playing around with the ironically named Faith Foster, an actress. There is no way that she finds Ernest irresistible, and it soon becomes clear that she is playing one end (Ernest - to get good parts) against the other (her ex-gangster boyfriend, to financially back the plays in which she gets good parts). But said ex-gangster boyfriend, Frank, figures out Faith and Ernest are an item and says he is taking Faith and his money out of the play. He threatens Ernest if he doesn't cough up the money he gave him by later that night. But later that night, somebody shoots Ernest dead. The dictaphone was on when Frank threatened Ernest, and so Frank is arrested for Ernest's murder. Perry is on the case.

Perry is thrown into the unusual world of the theater, and this episode has people acting rather theatrical. In particular, actress Helen Dwight and producer John Gifford are given several rather over the top scenes that demonstrate that they are something rare on Perry Mason - A happily married couple married longer than a decade.

Sound And Fury

[darbski · 10/10 · 29 June 2017]

**SPOILERS** I can't disagree too much with the previous reviews; but I would like to point out a couple of discrepancies. Main problem is wardrobe; when Frank the Gangster (herein referred to as Frankster) first comes on the scene looking for his selfish, cheating girlfriend, his pants are too short, and it looks like he's wearing workboots instead of wingtips. When Perry, Paul and Della are leaving the restaurant, P+P are wearing sportcoats, and Della is dressing in a stadium coat and gloves as if it's 30 degrees out. These two issues constitute a wardrobe crash at least.

The whole episode is about playwrights and dialogue, and in this, it is truly one of the best episodes of all time. Tragg has some really great lines; droll and very witty, and his last lines is fabulous. Burger quotes MacBeth "A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing"; Perry replies from King Lear "Nature's above art in that respect". An excellent exchange.

Thereafter develops terrific courtroom drama and dialogue, and it's been well covered by the other reviewers. Richard Erdman (playing Jim West) gives an earlier preposterous soliloquy concerning the very deserving dead guy and calls him a litterbug - it was perfect. I liked the defendant, Frank Brooks (Frankster); He was betrayed by Royce and Faith (his lying, cheating, no-good girlfriend) and still remained cool, even if he's wearing workboots - could this fact be a subtle reference to a man very involved in his business, and NOT crime? After all, NO connection was ever made between him and organized crime on the west coast; it was only assumed. He probably left that life behind when he moved to California and started his "Brooks Drive-Ins". He remained cool during the trial, even when he was being lied about. NOT a normal Perry client - very different. His girlfriend's career in acting is finished, though; we all know that, don't we? Liked her looks, though. The ending courtroom scene was very romantic. It could have been revolting drivel, but the writers turned it into a love song. I'm a sucker for a well written romance. Flaming burgers on a sword? Look it up. One thing I'm grateful for is the fact that I'm almost done with my Perry Mason collection, thanx to Amazon. IMDb is priceless for references, but the real thanks HAS to go to the writers and actors of this episode: impeccable talent. Loved this show, and it deserves highest honors.

It's All Inside

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 31 December 2021]

This whole episode is based on knowledge by a closed society. It is about Broadway play production, directors, writers, and producers. But there are secrets all over the place and the connections are hard to follow. Even at the end, I found myself a bit confused.

It sounds corny but...

[fybamgd · 10/10 · 19 February 2021]

It was one of the best Perry Mason mysteries! Loved it! Nobody does it like Perry's Mason.

The Case of the Lost Last Act

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 6 January 2024]

Perry Mason goes to the theatre when playwright Ernest Royce is murdered.

He wrote a play that would reveal the truth about a past killing. However his actors and producers do not like it and the last act disappears.

Ex gangster Frank Brooks has invested money in the play and wants to pull out. Not because the play is lousy but because Royce has been fooling around with his girlfriend Faith Foster.

She got a leading role in the play as Frank was a major investor. However the dispute between Frank and Royce makes him the main suspect.

It turns out that the gun that killed Royce was also used some years earlier in another murder twelve years earlier, the one the play was going to expose.

Perry discovers that Royce had the dirt on a lot of people involved in the theatre world. It was all to do with the earlier murder. To free Frank Brooks, Perry needs to find the lost last act.

Part of the story was confusing, even a little flaky. What was not though was Perry Mason taking a gamble. Something Tragg discovers at the end of the episode.

It's always easier for you to say "Well what do you Want"! Well 10 to 1 it's not a hamburger.

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 11 May 2013]

***SPOILERS*** It's old man Lt. Tragg, Ray Collins, who's the real hero in this Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, episode who's clam and cool actions prevented an innocent man from blowing his brains out right on the witness stand for a crime that he didn't commit but tried to take the blame for. Let. Tragg's actions were totally different to those fast on the trigger cops that we read about in the news today who shoot first and ask questions, to the police review board not their in most cases innocent victims, later.

It this case the murder of playwright Royce, Jerome Cowan, in L.A is connected to a previous murder 12 years earlier, in 1947, of this hoodlum Rick Valponi in New York City. Royce was to finish or rewrite the final act in his play, that mysteriously disappeared, that had a lot of persons that he was involved with over the years feeling very nervous and for good reasons. It was Royce's blackmailing those he wrote into his play that got him the help he needed to have it financed and produced. It was also what he was to put in his explosive final act that lead to his murder! Royce knew too much and was to make that knowledge public not only to the theater audience but the police, in L.A & NYC, as well!

The story take a bit of time to develop in all the sub-plots and characters in it but what would at first seem to be its confusing and illogical climax does make sense after a second viewing. Perry with the help of his in house private investor Paul Drake, William Hopper, tracks down the gun that was used to murder Royce to a previous murder in NYC 12 years earlier. It's Perry's client reform hoodlum Frank Brooks, Stacy Harris, who had earlier threatened Royce over a $75,000.00 payment he gave him, and now wanted back, to finance his play who's on trial for his murder. The fact that Brooks was in both places, NYC in 1947 and L.A in 1959, where the two murders took place made Perry's efforts to get him off that much more difficult.

***SPOILERS*** Doing his best to brake down whom he feels murdered, which is not Brooks, Royce theater producer John Gifford, David Lewis, for his blackmailing his wife the star of Royce's play actress Helen Dwight, Katharine Bard, Perry gets the real murderer to reveal himself in court! not in the usual Perry Mason court room theatrics but in one of the persons connected in the murder case fingering him!

The Pits.

[pmike-11312 · 1/10 · 20 August 2021]

The writing, the direction, and this time, the acting......this may very well be the most laughable epi sode in the whole series (hard to choose, actually).

The ending where the guy on the stands pulls out his gun and everyone stands there looking at him with Lt. Tragg within inches and he does nothing. LOL! I swear I shot my coffee out of my nose!

And this: "Perry Mason: Why didn't you like Royce, Mr. West?

Jim West: The theater is something very special to me, Mr. Mason. It's been my family, my home; everything I've ever wanted. When I'm inside a theater, I'm in a church. When I see a great play, I hear angels singing. When I see great performances, I'm walking the streets of Heaven. Those streets are very clean and beautiful, Mr. Mason. They should be kept that way."

Such "writing"....