****SPOILERS*** The very ethical and straight laced Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, bends the law a little to get the killer of drunken gambler Frank Curren, Stacy Harris, to confess to his crime by telling him that his fingerprints were found in his victim's car which in fact they weren't. Perry also stiffs his good friend and in house private investigator Paul Drake, William Hooper, by not paying him for his services in that Perry, can you believe it, was dead broke at the time. I would assume after he got the cash he owned Drake Perry paid him or else he would have been brought up for theft of services and lost his license to practice law. As for the person who Perry is defending school teacher diner counterman and part time waiter Danny Harrison, Arthur Franz, he's in no financial position to pay Perry who takes the case on Pro Bono or in plain English for free.
It was Curren who dropped into Lunke's Diner, where the money strapped Danny is moonlights, in order to get himself a sizzling hot bowl of chili after a hot poker game where he ended up winning some $2,000.00. As things turned the drunk and barley on his feet Curren make a spectacle of himself in not liking the service, which from what I could see was excellent, that after making a mess of the place tried to belt the owner Luke Hickey, Jesse White, missing him by about six inches and falling dead drunk flat on his behind. Wih Danny assisting the passed out Curren back to his apartment to dry out he's found the next morning murdered with the $2,000.00 he had on him missing. Indited for Curren's murder Danny is not only facing bankruptcy and his home being for-closed and infant daughter not getting a desperately needed new leg brace for her polio but facing a trip to the San Quentin gas chamber if he's convicted of murder. This guy really has problems.
****SPOILERS**** Perry realizing that Curren's murder was because of the money he had on him checks out all the members of the poker game that he was involved in just before he was whacked. That in Perry thinking that it was because Curren cleaned them out in the game of poker that one or more of them took advantage of his being too drunk to know what's happening to steal the cash off him. And for good measures to keep him from talking put him to sleep for good. As it turned out Perry was half right in that Curren was murdered for the money he had on him. But his killer wasn't a member of the poker game that he was involved in. But in the end CUrren's murderer ended up paying a lot more, life behind bars and possible execution by the state, then any of those who lost to him in what turned out to be a deadly the game of cards.
It was Curren who dropped into Lunke's Diner, where the money strapped Danny is moonlights, in order to get himself a sizzling hot bowl of chili after a hot poker game where he ended up winning some $2,000.00. As things turned the drunk and barley on his feet Curren make a spectacle of himself in not liking the service, which from what I could see was excellent, that after making a mess of the place tried to belt the owner Luke Hickey, Jesse White, missing him by about six inches and falling dead drunk flat on his behind. Wih Danny assisting the passed out Curren back to his apartment to dry out he's found the next morning murdered with the $2,000.00 he had on him missing. Indited for Curren's murder Danny is not only facing bankruptcy and his home being for-closed and infant daughter not getting a desperately needed new leg brace for her polio but facing a trip to the San Quentin gas chamber if he's convicted of murder. This guy really has problems.
****SPOILERS**** Perry realizing that Curren's murder was because of the money he had on him checks out all the members of the poker game that he was involved in just before he was whacked. That in Perry thinking that it was because Curren cleaned them out in the game of poker that one or more of them took advantage of his being too drunk to know what's happening to steal the cash off him. And for good measures to keep him from talking put him to sleep for good. As it turned out Perry was half right in that Curren was murdered for the money he had on him. But his killer wasn't a member of the poker game that he was involved in. But in the end CUrren's murderer ended up paying a lot more, life behind bars and possible execution by the state, then any of those who lost to him in what turned out to be a deadly the game of cards.