The most memorable element of this middling Perry Mason programmer is the opening segment where Perry and secretary Della (Warren William and Claire Dodd) interrupt the judicial activities of Judge Aunt Polly/Emily (Clara Blandick) and demand to be married. In her chambers, Blandick teases Perry over a nickle she owes him for a newspaper from decades before. The "Tom Sawyer" vet (pre-"Wizard of Oz") is a lot of fun even though the insinuation of a Perry/Della marriage is absurd.
As for the case involving mysterious woman in black Winifred Shaw, it's the "Lullaby of Boredom" where she's seen entering a room with a gun, you hear the shots, and she runs down the same staircase that Rosalind Russell would 20+ years later in "Auntie Mame". The convoluted mess of a case involves a lot of people, including Perry and Della, getting colds and sneezing over and over. The messy plot that just gets very irritating even has Perry called a suspect and features a bunch of people just yelling non-stop. Interesting that the film cut Perry from an A- run time of 75 minutes with "Lucky Legs" to be a C+ at just over an hour.
As for the case involving mysterious woman in black Winifred Shaw, it's the "Lullaby of Boredom" where she's seen entering a room with a gun, you hear the shots, and she runs down the same staircase that Rosalind Russell would 20+ years later in "Auntie Mame". The convoluted mess of a case involves a lot of people, including Perry and Della, getting colds and sneezing over and over. The messy plot that just gets very irritating even has Perry called a suspect and features a bunch of people just yelling non-stop. Interesting that the film cut Perry from an A- run time of 75 minutes with "Lucky Legs" to be a C+ at just over an hour.