Perry Mason (TV Series) The Case of the Shattered Dream (1959) User Reviews

A gem of an episode in more ways than one.

[kfo9494 · 8/10 · 25 April 2013]

This is one of those full plate episodes. From beginning to end the viewer has to follow along in order to trace the trail of the gem and to keep everyone separated in this interesting tale.

It begins when a cad of a gentleman named Hans Breel is late on paying some money to some bookies. They give him 48 hours to come up with the scratch. The first thing he does is go to his sweetheart and advises that he will sale her diamond. But as usual he is trying to swindle her out of the money.

Next we learn that Hans is also known as Hugo Werner, a married person that has left his wife and small child. His wife, Sarah, has looked up with Perry in order to find her husband and make him pay back the money he swindled from their child's trust fund. So this guy is an all out bad guy when money is concerned.

The story then goes to the diamond that he is going to cut himself and then try to sell both parts for even more money. But the diamond shatters in front of several witnesses and he is left with small inexpensive pieces.

So when he is found dead in his apartment there is a host of suspects that are not sad about his passing. When the diamond that was supposedly shattered is found in the possession of Sarah Werner, then Perry has more work than just finding a husband. He will defend Ms Werner on charges of murder.

There are a lot of characters in this episode and at times it maybe hard to follow. But when we get to the courtroom scenes the entire story comes together. When a person confesses to the crime, Perry has doubts. And with the approval of the court and Hamilton Burger, Perry will examine one more witness to find the true murderer of Mr Breel/Werner. Good watch.

Nobody would have mourned this victim

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 28 August 2019]

Osa Massen comes to Perry Mason's office hoping he can help locate her no good rat of a husband Kurt Kreuger under whatever name he's traveling under now. But Kreuger has a real good reason for trying to keep a low profile, he's in deep with loan sharks. But he has a scheme involving an uncut diamond to make him rich and get him out from under.

Won't say what the scheme is, but it goes bad and Kreuger does wind up murdered and Massen is held for it. She's a sweet thing I could hardly believe the LAPD believed it was her.

When Raymond Burr does figure it out it's out of the courtroom when the perpetrator confesses. Hope he takes that case as a defense attorney.

Dreams Are Often Shattered by The Alarm

[DKosty123 · 8/10 · 14 January 2010]

This story involves gems, particularly diamonds, & how large ones are split into smaller ones, carefully so that the total of the smaller ones are greater than the whole big one was. It involves a large stolen diamond the the efforts to divide that which leads up to a murder.

While this story is not as strong as some in the series, veteran Director Andrew V. McLaglen makes it move along quite well. The pace of it doesn't slow down, and this is 4 years prior to the Director doing a John Wayne Comedy, McClintock! Mason won't, Mason won't, the he** he won't solve this one.

While not the best one, it does make the viewer guess pretty good.

Starting 1959 on a noir note

[tforbes-2 · 10/10 · 24 July 2020]

"The Case of the Shattered Dream" is the first Perry Mason case for 1959, and it begins the year on a very strong note. Right off, the music is very different, in that it is crime jazz that seems to take cues from the NBC show Peter Gunn, then beginning its run.

The story has a real noirish feel as well, and it has a real style to it. Hans Breel (aka Hugo Werner) has a stylish convertible, and is the one who ends up dead. Lots of rough characters, and we get to see Perry Mason's apartment.

The music soundtrack, which was used for a time on Season 2, adds something special, especially given the show's black and white look. On the whole, a cool, yet hard-boiled episode.

Dream On

[darbski · 10/10 · 7 October 2017]

**SPOILERS** Pretty good, mainly because I liked the way the writers showed the audience the facts. To wit: how a con works, and how dumb people can be when they are "in love". All of the women were used by the delightfully deceased dirtbag, and let's face facts, here. He WANTED to be killed. I reference Mario Puzo as concerns the character Luca Brasi. He did everything to try and make it happen, and he got his obvious wish; merry x-out.

SPOILER I liked the killer, but even so, I don't think she'll get more than manslaughter out of it. Any case against her was presented in court, and a good attorney can throw doubt on a first or second degree homicide charge. Man 2 probably; 10 years. Mind you, she'll never see that fur coat again, and any ownership of the diamond is long gone. It now belongs to Virginia Trent and Adolph Van Beers. It did not belong to Perry's client, and she may be charged with grand theft for trying to steal it and run back to Chicago. she was colossally dumb for trying.

If you've read any of my other reviews, you know how I feel about happy endings. This one truly didn't make sense. Perry didn't have any interest in the rough diamond, so he wouldn't have been there when and if it was cleaved. Also, if the option to actually SAW the diamond, why risk cutting it by cleaving? The acting was good, and the story moved right along. The old man Van Beers' didn't have a good reason for not absolutely standing in the way of Virginia buying the Pundit's Dream in the first place, but it worked out anyway. Perry's client? Nowhere at all. She's badly burned by the creep she trusted, but she at least has her life left.

Very interesting.

[antjerpar · 9/10 · 5 May 2020]

One good there's a microphone boom visible when Perry and Paul are in the hall.

Too Many Deals

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 24 December 2021]

This story centers on a huge diamond that has not been cut because it may be unstable and shatter. A guy with a serious gambling problem is in the middle of this along with a woman who, for some reason, cares about him. As is usually the case, a poor woman ends up accused of murder. It just doesn't have much sparkle (sorry!).

Adolph has been gun shy ever since

[sol1218 · 5/10 · 16 August 2013]

***SPOILERS*** Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, episode that has some three persons confess to a murder in less then three minutes showing just how hated the murdered diamond dealer and cutter as well as wife deserted Hans Breel, Kurt Kreuger, was. It was Breel who was into some $15,000.00 in gambling losses to Las Vages mob boss Wee Willie Walker, Ted Marcuse, who together his #1 goon Jerry Marlow, Chris Alcaide, gave him just 48 hours to come up with the cash. In trying to come up with the money Breel comes up with this plan to cleve or cut the unmarketable piece of ice "the Pundit Dream" and have it re-cut into dozens of small diamonds made into valuable jewelry that would be worth as much as $100,000.00.

Of course the cagey as well as desperate Breel had other plans for the "Pundit Dream" by switching it with a worthless piece of rock that he shattered in trying to cleve it which later lead to him being murdered. But the strange thing about all this was it wasn't Wee Willie Walker, known to his friends as triple "W", who was charged in having Breel done it. It was in fact his estranged wife that he deserted back in Holland Sarah Warner, Osa Massen, who was as you would expect being at the scene of the crime who was indited in her heel of an husband's murder. Perry Mason coming to Sarah's defense was in fact the person together with his friend private investigator Paul Drake, William Hooper, who discovered Breel's body. That after getting a strange phone call from Breel's next door neighbor and fellow diamond cutter Adolph Beers, Ludwig Stossel, to come over and check out the place!

***SPOILERS*** What soon turned out to be a three ring circus not a trial had what looked like a confused Perry Mason trying to hold things together not just for his client Mrs. Werner but for the prosecuting D.A Hamilton "Ham" Burger , William Talman, who at times looked more confused then anyone else, including Perry, in what was going on in the courtroom. After a number of false alarms or confessions we finally get the picture to who was responsible for Hans Breel's murder. It was in Breel's partner in crime whom he double crossed in the switching of the "Pundit Dream" who in fact did him in. And it wasn't over money at all it was over love!

The Case of the Shattered Dream

[Prismark10 · 5/10 · 3 March 2023]

Not really a gem of a story. Perry Mason defends Sarah Werner the estranged and abandoned wife of Hans Breel.

He is a swindler and a gambler with huge debts. Given 48 hours by his bookie to raise the cash.

Hans cooks up his next swindle. His latest sweetheart Irene Bedford swoons over him and she has a large valuable diamond in her possession.

Hans wants to cut the diamond and plans to sell each piece for more money. Unfortunately when he attempts to cleave the diamond it shatters.

He goes off with the broken pieces to sell for what he can get for them. Hans is later found dead and Sarah Werner is arrested.

Of course it was a con. Hans shattered a fake diamond. He planned to sell the uncut diamond Virginia Trent but it seems she too was cheated by Hans.

This time a man confesses to the murder at the trial but Perry is sure he is no killer. It was a bit of a let down that some gem experts present did not think it was odd that the diamond shattered so easily.