Fay Wray

            On Saturday I still had a cold though it was pretty functional but I was horking up mucous from time to time. I skipped going to the food bank again. I mostly needed to not take on any more writing. I had to finish my review of Shab-e She’r and get caught up on my journal so I could start working on my term essay.

             It felt cold enough to snow when I went out to the supermarket. I bought raspberries, a loaf of Dave’s Killer Bread, a loaf of cinnamon-raisin bread and the chicken legs were so cheap that I bought two packs. I put the chicken in the freezer when I got home.

I went back out to buy two cans of Creemore and saw Bruce, one of the volunteers at the food bank who hasn’t been there in a while. He says he hasn’t gone to the food bank because he started getting his pension and his income has gone up. He told me that the leftover bread from the food bank is going to go towards making beer. He wondered if we would be able to get a six-pack there in the future. I wondered about cannabis brownies. He shook his head and said he would have preferred if government had legalized marijuana but just let the dealers sell it. He feels the same way about booze. He says they should just let the bootleggers handle the business. I’m sure that down the road things will be loosened up, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing that the government is there to regulate product quality.

            Talked to Benji about the fact that the landlord has yet to turn the heat on. He says the Coffeetime downstairs is bankrupt.

            I spent a lot of time writing.

            That night I grilled a couple of burgers and had one with ketchup, Dijon and a slice of onion while watching Perry Mason. The story begins as Lorraine is working late for the Larkin Import-Export business. One of the executives, Philip Larkin asks if he can come over to her place. She coldly says “no”. He persists and insists he cares about her. She says if he did he wouldn’t make cruel accusations. He says the accusations are true and he has the detective report to prove it. She says, “Why won’t you leave me alone?” “Because I want you and if I can’t have you nobody else will!" Lorraine is sent to pick up a package at a jeweller shop at a certain time but there is no package there. She calls her boss George Durell. His wheelchair bound and emotionally disturbed wife Claire answers and begins screaming accusations at her. She calls Philip and we see his dead body lying near the phone. Standing over the body is Philip’s mother’s ex-husband, Joseph Harrison who picks up the phone, puts it back on the hook and then leaves. The police come to Larkin’s house and find his body. The gruff maid who lets them in is played by Nancy Kulp who would later become a star of The Beverly Hillbillies as Miss Hathaway. Joseph comes back to the house while the police are there to ask what's going on. He says he just returned after being away for six months. Tragg has Joseph's fingerprints taken because it was his antique German WWI mauser that had killed Philip. His fingerprints are all over the gun case. When Philip’s mother Ethel had married Joseph she’d given him control of the business, much to Philip’s protests. Joseph is arrested and charged with murder. Ethel goes to Perry Mason to ask him to defend Joseph. She says he says he didn’t do it and she is finished with not believing him. Mason goes to talk to Durell and he says they will gladly open up their books for Mason to investigate. Philip's secretary Irene is explaining that she had been Joseph's secretary for 23 years. Suddenly George’s wife Claire begins screaming at Lorraine again. Claire apologizes to George as he wheels her away. Irene apologizes to Lorraine that she had to experience that. She explains that George feels guilty because he was driving the car in the accident that disabled Claire. Mason drives Lorraine home and she invites him in. She tells him about how she had spoken to Claire on the phone from the jewellery shop. Mason tells Lorraine that she is the only one in this case with an alibi. Mason finds that Lorraine got her job through Irene. In court a home movie is shown of Joseph and Philip arguing and then Joseph punching Philip. At the jail Joseph refuses to tell Mason who was behind the camera that day. Claire calls Mason while trying to disguise her voice and tells him where Ethel is. The address is Irene’s place and Ethel is there. Irene urges Ethel not to testify because it would hurt an innocent person. Mason figures out that it was Irene that shot the home movie. Tragg arrives to take Ethel into custody so she will testify as a hostile witness. In court Irene testifies that Joseph had punched Philip because he had accused him of being Lorraine’s father. Mason reveals records that show that Lorraine was boarded as a child with an elderly couple in Massachusetts and that regular cheques of $70 a month were sent to them by Irene for 19 years. Mason asks her if she is Lorraine's mother and she admits it. She wanted to protect her from Philip. Suddenly George steps forward and admits that he killed Philip to protect the daughter he couldn’t call his own. When he used Joseph’s gun he had not known that Joseph would be returning that night. It hadn’t been his intention to frame him. He was the one that had sent Lorraine to the jewellery store so she would have an alibi while he killed Philip.

            The cast for this episode was quite outstanding.
            Irene was played by Virginia Field. I had thought that her French accent sounded authentic and it turns out that though she was born in London she was educated in Paris. Her father was the King’s Counsel and her mother was a cousin of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It is thought that Virginia might have been a bigger star if she hadn’t been so independent minded and outspoken. She once clubbed Hollywood producer David Selznick over the head with a decanter for making a pass at her. 

            Lucille was played by the exceptionally beautiful Canadian actor Fay Wray, who said once that whenever she passes the Empire State Building she says a prayer because a good friend of hers died there.