Perry Mason The Case of the Nine Dolls (1957–1966) Online

Top notch episode with good acting by the guest-cast makes this show a must watch in the 4th season line-up. Even the person that played the young eight year old girl was a pleasant surprise as her acting was more on the adult level and not like the uncomfortable reading of lines that happens so many times when children are used in a series.

When Peggy Smith was dropped off at a boarding school at the age of three she has never known her true family. She is now eight years old and the only link to her history is that the school funds are paid plus she also receives two dolls a year and both, the fee and dolls, are paid from a bank in Switzerland.

Right before Perry is to take a vacation to Scotland- eight year old Peggy makes a visit to his office. And with a little prodding from Della, Perry decides to make a visit to Switzerland to find out who sends the money to the school and hopes of finding her some form of a family.

When Perry returns to his hotel after check about the dolls, he discovers a sinister message that only make the case more interesting. So Perry cancels his trip to Scotland and returns to LA to look into this interesting mystery.

What he finds is that she is related to an rich ornery man named Courtney Jeffers. Mr Jeffers had no idea about the child and when shown the documents decides to add Peggy to his will. Before that can happen Mr Jeffers is found beaten to death with a fire-poker. And a butler sees his grand-daughter, Linda Osborne, leaving the room. And when murder charges are obtained, Perry decides to defend Ms Osborne mainly because of the young Peggy Smith.

From then own, it is a good who-done-it episode that is a joy to watch. Good writing, good acting and an ending that leaves a viewer feeling better than when the show began. Good watch!!

This is a top notch entry in the Mason series because it goes off formula & has a special charm of its own. Perry is getting ready to go on a real fishing expedition when Della Street brings him a very unusual client, a 10 year old girl. The girl has not been accused of murder but she is a boarding school student with an unusual problem. She has no family & she really wants to know where her parents are as she is all alone at her school other than Swiss dolls little Peggy receives twice a year, from a toy maker in Switzerland.

Finding the parents & family for Peggy proves to be a major challenge. Mason visits the boarding school and finds out that all Peggys expenses are paid for each year by a Swiss Bank- no name attached. Mason takes the bank name & the toy maker name and sets out to Switzerland. There are some backgrounds here that look like they were shot there.

In Switzerland, Mason meets a Swiss Banker (John Banner, Sgt Schultz on Hogans Hero's). He is told that because the expenses are from a Swiss numbered account, he can not by law find out who Peggy's Benefactors are. Then he visits the toy store which proves to be a dead end as the store is also paid by the bank. The store owner is interested in who the dolls are being sent too as he is assuming Peggy Smith is a collector. He is surprised to learn she is a 10 year old in a boarding school.

Mason is being followed by some American tourists when he visits to toy store. They follow him back to the hotel, and here is where things get interesting. When Perry returns to his room after dinner, he finds a broken doll & a note threatening Peggy Smiths life. This stimulates a call to Paul Drake, & a lot of work from Paul & Della taking care of little Peggy while Mason returns to LA.

Mason finally locates Peggys rich grandfather, and then he is murdered. This is when we get back to the who done it, as Mason has several suspects & since the Grnadfather has just drawn up a new will leaving his millions to Peggy, there are several logical suspects.

The story here is rich & heart tugging without being overly sentimental, & the conclusion when Mason breaks the murderer down to confess on the stand, and then Peggy reaching out to her Aunt in the final scene make this one a very well done & busy Mason episode.

Poor Perry Mason who is ready to go fishing in Scotland gets a client he can't resist. An 8 year old girl named Peggy Smith played by Lauren Perreau without a clue to her identity comes knocking on his door and Raymond Burr can't resist. Her plaintive cry was one that Medusa couldn't resist. She wants to know who she is.

A Swiss bank account with an automatic checking privilege pays for her in fine style at an exclusive private school where she boards. But young Ms. Perreau has never been contacted by any family. This intrigues Burr so that he goes to Switzerland to check out John Banner's Swiss bank and just who sends dolls routinely twice a year to her at the boarding school. Normally that would have been a job for Paul Drake, but William Hopper is kept busy enough in this episode.

It all traces to reclusive, cantankerous, oil millionaire Francis X. Bushman whom many regard as the first matinée idol of the silver screen. Bushman played many character roles as he got older having gone through a few fortunes. Later when Bushman winds up murdered, a niece Margaret Field is charged with his murder.

How Field is connected to Bushman and Perreau, in fact how they all connect is for you watch the episode. But the Perry Mason paradigm prevails, Perry never defends guilty clients.

This episode is a bit far-fetched, but charmingly presented.

This has got to be one of my favorite Perry Mason episodes! The little girl was quite adorable, and Perry and Della were both cute with her! Perry is planning to go on vacation and is is planning on not having any appointments for the day. Until Della tells Perry about the female client who he'll fall in love with as soon as he sets eyes on her and Perry then concludes he better tell her in person! Peggy comes to Mason to find out who she is! The only thing we really know about Peggy is her name, her age, she has a doll named Maggie, she was brought in a limo and left at a boarding school, and receives 2 dolls every year from Switzerland! So Perry sets out to found out who Peggy is and of course.. there is a murder involved! This is a good watch!

A couple of good sub-plots in this Perry Mason episode. I viewed it because another web page listed it high on the all-time best-episode list. If you are off-guard, that little girl will steal your heart. Be careful. The story line is lifted considerably by an international backdrop, and the needs of a very sweet, and very reasonable little girl, who doesn't know who she is. Q: Is the grouchy millionaire really all that mean? You decide.

**SPOILERS** Real quick - - who wins - A fishing trip to a cold loch in Scotland, or a cute kid with a mysterious benefactor? Well, with Della Street on her side, is there really any question?? I'd seen this episode before, and rewatched it because I found Margaret Field so pretty. This time, the part played by Lauren Perreau was such a refreshing change from the snotty simpletons on "Leave it to Beaver" (immediately preceding this show on METV), that it actually made me like the kid.

Another thing that I liked was the use of the Lockheed Constellation in the flying sequences. The most beautiful of the airliners, this was truly an unusual flight; considering the unbelievable success of the Boeing 707.

I just loved the way Perry dissected the witnesses and evidence in one of the best courtroom interplays of this series. Also, I'm gonna forgive (just this once) Linda, Perry's client, for holding back information. The rotten way she had been treated explains it very well, and the fact that there was no avarice on her part redeems her in my eyes, at least; (plus the fact that she's very good looking). From personal experience, I know exactly what it's like to have two friends destroy your life, so....

There is always some dirty deal around an inheritance in these stories, and this one is no exception; it's well done and believable. I wonder if the killer's Huz knew she did it? Any way you cut it, though, as Butler and maid, they were probably doing alright, and with the 10Gs in extortion for five years, with just a little planning, they would've had a decent retirement. Knocking the old fart off was unnecessary and vindictive. Murder one: book 'em. Tragg. Now, if she protects her Huz, he'll probably be doing better than alright.

In the end, Peggy (cute kid) wins over Linda (aunt), and in this ONE case I'll let the sentimental drivel go unopposed; even though they missed a golden opportunity for Della to show Linda how much she needed this little girl in her life. Very good episode.

**SPOILERS** Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, cancels a fishing vacation in Scotland to go to the Swiss Alps village of Gustad to find who's been sending little eight year old Peggy Smith, Lauren Perreau, dolls every June 11th, Peggy's birthday, and paying her tuition in the boding school in L.A that she's been attending and living in for the last five years. It's from Swiss bank manger A. Tobler played by future Sargent Schultz of "Hogens Heroes" John Banner Perry later finds finds out that it was a relative of old man Courtney Jeffers, Francis X. Bushman, who being well into his 80's looks like he's about to kick the bucket, pass away, any day now.

Connecting little Peggy to Jeffers Perry realizes that she's in fact his granddaughter who's mother was his daughter Margaret who was killed in an accident five or six years ago!Not only that it's Maragrte's best friend Linda Osborne, Margaret Field, whom she stole her husband Clark Lawson away from and eloped to get married in Vegas. Thus leaving Linda alone at the altar on what was supposed to be her wedding day! It now became clear that little Peggy will inherit old man Jeffers nine million dollar estate after he checked out of this world. Not in a flying saucer but pine box! But before Jeffers can rewrite his last will & testament he's found murdered in his study. And it's no surprise that it's Linda who's found there by the police with the murder weapon a fireplace poker with her fingerprints and traces of Jeffers blood type on her!

With Perry defending Linda he not only traces who was sending Peggy the dolls and paying her tuition but what were the reasons that old man Jeffers was murdered.This all had to do with changing his will that would leave all his earthly belongings to little Peggy who proved to be his long lost granddaughter. The trick for Perry is to find out who among those in Jeffers' will that would be cut out of it did the old guy in.

***SPOILERS*** Greed & Murder go together in this Perry Mason episode like Gin & Tonic and it didn't take long for Perry to get to the bottom to who was it that ended up cracking Old Man Jeffers' skull open with the fireside poker. The person who did tried to frame Linda by a very bad and obvious impersonation her. It was Perry who soon realized that the poker was switched in order to implicate Linda in Jeffers murder because he earlier handled it himself yet only Linda's not his fingerprints, that Jeffers killer unknowingly wiped clean, were found on it!