Perry Mason (TV Series) The Case of the Pathetic Patient (1961) User Reviews

Familiar Faces

[zsenorsock · 7/10 · 4 March 2008]

Sam Drucker as a con man? Wally Brown of Brown and Carney in a bit part? Percy Helton (the drunken Santa Claus from "Miracle on 34th Street")? This episode is a IMDb lovers treasure.

Another familiar face, Skip Homeier plays Dr. Edley, a good doctor who is working to build a local community center when an old patient named Joe Widlock (Frank Cady) shows up and threatens to sue him for malpractice (he's willing to settle for $5,000 a ridiculously low figure in today's day and age). Looking to prove he didn't misdiagnose Widlock leads to a body buried in a flower bed and a murder charge that makes the doctor the prime suspect.

While the mystery is okay, the real treat is seeing old favorites like Frank Cady (wearing a toupee in one scene) play against type. Skip Homeier is always good and the underrated Peter Whitney also appears briefly as an angry red herring. Former top comedian Wally Brown has little more than a walk on, only about a dozen years after he was headlining "Zombies on Broadway" and other comedies with partner Alan Carney.

The Doublemint Twins

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 19 January 2022]

This all starts as an effort by a man to bring a malpractice suit against a young doctor who is just getting started. It turns out that he has a rival and that guy gets murdered. We ultimately learn the secret but it is really a stretch. Lots of good character actors, however, make this quite watchable.

From malpractice to murder

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 30 August 2019]

Frank Cady comes in on crutches to Dr. Skip Homeier's clinic and threatens to sue for not discovering a broken hip when he was treated. But for a generous amount of cash up front he'll go away. What Homeier doesn't know is that attorney Ed Kemmer who was Homeier's rival for Bek Nelson fixed this whole affair.

William Hopper has a big part in this episode tracking down Frank Cady. Paul Drake really knows his malpractice rackets. Cady, the future grocer Sam Drucker of Hooterville is a real piece of work.

But oddly enough Cady really has nothing to do with the murder. The show brought in another murder which is a year old and now discovered and the perpetrator was from the left field bleachers.

Still a good show though.

By tomorrow morning I'll have the dope on every broken hip by every con man that collected five cents!

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 18 November 2012]

***SPOILERS***Multi storied Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, episode that involves a simple medical malpractice case that leads to a double murder that spans two continents as well as being more then a year apart! This all has to do with a Mr. Widlock, Frank Cady , who claims that the handsome and up and coming in the medical profession, in opening a new free clinic in town, Dr. Wayne Edley, Skip Homeler, misdiagnosed his broken hip for a case of bursitis and thus left him a helpless cripple! In Widlock Wanting $5,000.00 to drop the damage suite Dr. Edley has no choice but to pay the guy off unless he finds the original X-rays of Widlock's hip that he's sure would exonerate him. The problem for Dr. Edley is that the X-rays were burned in fire in his doctor's office a few months ago and the only hope he has now is to find the original notes by his wife Janice, Bek Nelson, Uncle Dr. Gates who's now living in blissful retirement in far off Switzerland.

Checking Gates old abandoned country home Dr. Edley in finding his notes burned is then confronted by his wife Janice's old flame Leslie Hall, Ed Kemmer, whom he accuses of together with Mr. Widlock framing him. That's because he still hasn't forgotten that Janice dumped him for, the handsome and up and coming doctor, himself. Before you know it Dr. Edley is knocked out cold by an enraged Hall who insulted his wife Janice by claiming that he damped her not the other way around and all he ended up marrying was damaged goods! When the doctor came too it was Hall who was fond dead with a doctor's, his,scalpel stuck in his chest!

Perry Mason taking on Dr. Edley's defense soon realized that the medical malpractice case, that he had originally took on, had no connection to Hall's murder. But what in fact did was what turned out to at first be the disappearance of Dr.Gates! Dr. Gates was in fact murdered and his body planted in a large flower pot at his old country home! And it was the late Leslie Hall who's been keeping not only this from the police but was blackmailing Dr.Gates' murderer in paying him off to keep quite! Which in fact lead to Hall eventually being murdered by Dr. Gates killer himself!

***SPOILERS*** Ridicules final with both Dr. Gates and Leslie Hall's killer breaking down in court and tearfully, at least five handkerchiefs worth, admitting his or her crime before he could even be called to testify under oath and get a chance to be cross-examined by Perry Mason. It's then that we get the info that was really behind this baffling and brain twisting double murder that in fact stemmed from a case of abandonment: Of Both Dr. Gates' country home and the person who eventually murdered him!

Good mystery left hanging by a terrible ending.

[kfo9494 · 5/10 · 30 July 2012]

Even though this episode had a mystery that left the viewer on the edge of their seat-- when it came down to the end of the show we get a confession that is as lame as any in the entire series. Without the slightest piece of evidence the writers decide to make the true murderer someone that even Jessica Fletcher would have never guessed.

With many 'Perry Mason' episodes you can look back and get some hint of why the person would be a prime suspect. But in this case, do not even try there is no reason to suspect the person -- which makes the outcome of the show particular upsetting.

As stated, the show's mystery is interesting. It begins when a young doctor, Dr Edley, is trying to make a businesses in a small community outside of LA. He has taken over for a long time doctor that has now retired and went abroad. Dr. Edley is visited by a swindler named Joe Widlock. He is trying to sue for malpractice but will be happy with a $5,000 pay out.

While Dr. Edley is talking this out with Perry, someone pays off Joe Widlock. Dr Edley believing that his wife has paid the man off, is angered. When he starts looking for his wife, it leads him to the house of Leslie Hall. (Hall happens to be an old boyfriend of his wife.) Inside Hall's house he finds what appears to be his wife's gloves and also evidence that Hall was destroying records on Joe Widlock. A small fisticuffs breaks out before Dr. Edley leaves.

The next day, the police find Leslie Hall dead and the old retired doctor buried in a flower box. All evidence points to Dr. Edley as the murderer. Perry will defend our Doctor Edley in court on charges of murder.

With all this action, plus some more interesting twist with the malpractice patient, we are on the edge of our seat waiting on the trial. Only to have it blow up in our face like an over-inflated tire. Thus bringing us to the confession that is in need of a slightest bit of proof.

This could have been a great episode-- instead leaves the viewer dazed and confused. Better luck on the next episode.