- Title: Perry Mason – The Case of the Drowning Duck
- wiki: link
Throwback Thursday takes us back to the courtroom of Perry Mason. There are two crimes for Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) to solve in “The Case of the Drowning Duck,” a recent murder in the small California town and a murder from decades before which may have ended in a miscarriage of justice. Mason’s current client is a young man (Gary Vinson) whose mother was being blackmailed by a seedy private investigator (Harry Landers) who discovered the boy’s father was convicted for a murder decades before. Looking into original case, Mason sees several peculiarities which make him question not just what happened in the past but whether or not the town has the right person in custody this time around.
Given the recent poisoning was committed by someone with an understanding of chemistry, that gives Mason’s client both motive and means. The title of the episode, adapted from Earl Stanley Gardner’s original story, comes from a magic trick the defendant performs for local kids in which he makes a duck sink (a bit of theater that nearly sinks him in the courtroom). The small town, a community predisposed to prejudge his client based on the actions of a father he never knew, secrets, and blackmail all add up to an intriguing case where the lawyer will have to untangle the truth behind two killings in order to save his client and corner the real killer.