PERRY MASON: THE CASE OF THE GRINNING GORILLA

Raymond Burr with special guest-star

PERRY MASON: THE CASE OF THE GRINNING GORILLA. Season 8, episode 28. 1965. Director: Jesse Hibbs.  

Now here's a weird one. Della Street (Barbara Hale) buys the diary at auction of a woman -- the secretary of an eccentric millionaire who keeps various kinds of apes in his home -- who died while at sea during a storm. Della wants her boss, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr), to somehow get involved, but he winds up giving advice to Josephine Kempton (Lurene Tuttle), a housekeeper who is suing her former employer -- said millionaire -- for slander after he fired her for stealing. Perry is able to find out who actually stole the items in dispute, but has to defend the peppery and difficult Miss Kempton when she's accused of murder. Did she stab somebody with scissors or was it the "grinning gorilla?"

Perry confers with his client, Lurene Tuttle

Jackson Gillis' script for this twisty and entertaining episode has some strange elements, foremost being that Perry and Della occasionally act out of character. I mean, Della has tripped over plenty of dead bodies accompanying Perry, so it seems strange for her to get hysterical when she sees a gorilla far in the distance, or to worry unduly about Perry going into the millionaire's mansion to meet Josephine. Perry seems very impatient with his secretary throughout most of the episode as well. However, Lurene Tuttle of Psycho fame gives an excellent performance in this, and we've also got Gavin MacLeod from the Mary Tyler Moore Show and Victor Buono from What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, along with Robert Colbert as a DA and Janos Prohaska as a gorilla. Yes, Perry faces a gorilla-on-the-loose at one point!

Suspects in Grinning Gorilla

There have been better episodes of Perry Mason than Grinning Gorilla, but it is fun and suspenseful and has some clever twists. Perry does not appear in a courtroom at all in this episode, and the whole business is resolved before there even is a trial, something that did not happen too often on the show. Raymond Burr appeared in more than one gorilla-oriented movie, such as Gorilla at Large with Anne Bancroft and Bride of the Gorilla with Barbara Payton, but he was also in such classics as Hitchcock's Rear Window. 

Verdict: Perry has more than one encounter with an adorable chimp! ***

CLAUDELLE INGLISH

Arthur Kennedy, Diane McBain, Constance Ford

CLAUDELLE INGLISH (1961). Director: Gordon Douglas.

Claudelle (Diane McBain) lives in a rented farmhouse with her father, Clyde (Arthur Kennedy), and her unhappy mother, Jessie (Constance Ford). Jessie is horrified at the thought of her daughter marrying a poor man, Linn (Chad Everett, who was 24 but looks about 12), and living the same kind of deprived life that she has. Claudelle has nothing to worry about on that score, however, as Linn falls in love with somebody else and she is devastated. Determined not to ever marry anyone, Claudelle embarks on a campaign to date very many boys and acquire gifts from all of them in exchange for you-know-what. In this amusingly lurid soaper, Claudelle's sensuality pits fathers against sons, inflames the lust of her father's boss (Claude Akins), and even starts her mother on the pathway to back seat action! 

Chad Everett, Diane McBain, Will Hutchins

Claudelle isn't really "evil," but the production code insures a "sin and suffer approach" to the proceedings. McBain [Parrish] was very appealing in some roles, and perhaps her casting prevents her from being too slatternly, but she doesn't quite throw herself into the difficult part as other actresses might have done; she's simply a bit too lightweight (although one could argue that she underplays). Arthur Kennedy was always a good actor but sometimes, as in this, he just seems to be going through the motions; Constance Ford is better as his rather desperate wife, and Claude Akins [Tentacles] is just terrific as horny, old Crawford. Claudelle's "suitors" include Will Hutchins, Robert Colbert, Frank Overton, Jan Stine, and an especially charming Robert Logan [77 Sunset Strip]. Claudelle Inglish is trashily entertaining, but it lacks the good dialogue and characterizations that might have lifted it above a soap opera level. Based on the novel by Erskine Caldwell, who also wrote "Tobacco Road." Gordon Douglas also directed the excellent creature feature Them.

Verdict: Lots of fun in spite of itself, but it might as well have been even trashier. ***.