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The Best Episodes of Perry Mason

Every episode of Perry Mason ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Perry Mason!

Binge this in 9d 18h•Peaking at 9.0/10

The cases of master criminal defense attorney Perry Mason and his staff who handled the most difficult of cases in the aid of the innocent.

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Perry Mason Season 3 Episode 6 - The Case of Paul Drake's Dilemma
    9.0/10(475 votes)

    S3:E6

    Frank Thatcher is involved in a hit-and-run accident but does not report it. He uses Paul Drake to take care of the aftermath of the incident. Later, Thatcher is found dead in the same apartment with Paul, after he wakes up—and Paul’s accused of the murder.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Perry Mason Season 7 Episode 4 - The Case of the Deadly Verdict
    9.0/10(531 votes)

    S7:E4

    Janice Barton is found guilty of the murder of her wealthy relative and sentenced to death. Can Perry find the evidence to clear her of the crime before the pellets in the gas chamber fall?

    Director:Jesse Hibbs
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Perry Mason Season 9 Episode 30 - The Case of the Final Fadeout
    9.0/10(652 votes)

    S9:E30

    A nasty actor with a lot of enemies is murdered. Perry gets his accused killer off the hook but then HE turns up dead and an aging, eccentric actress is blamed for that one. Are there two murderers on the loose or are both the work of one person?

    Director:Jesse Hibbs
    Writers:Orville H. Hampton, Ernest Frankel, Erle Stanley Gardner

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  4. Perry Mason Season 7 Episode 1 - The Case of the Nebulous Nephew
    8.9/10(477 votes)

    S7:E1

    Con artist John Brooks comes up with a new twist to convince Sophia and Ninevah Stone that he's the rightful heir to their fortune. Perry ends up reluctantly defending Brooks when he's charged with murder.

    Director:Arthur Marks
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Perry Mason Season 5 Episode 16 - The Case of the Shapely Shadow
    8.8/10(409 votes)

    S5:E16

    Naive secretary Janice Wainwright carries out boss Morley Thielman's orders and places a briefcase containing more than $100,000.00 in a train station locker. Then she waits for the arrival of Thielman's ex-wife but Lt. Tragg arrives instead with an arrest warrant for Janice on the charge of murdering her boss. It seems as though witness Fred Carlyle saw a woman's shapely shadow through the shades of Thielman's office window shortly before the murder occurred.Carlyle believes the silhuette belonged to Janice. Perry manages to get to the bottom of things once the courtroom proceedings begin.

    Director:Christian Nyby
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Perry Mason Season 6 Episode 9 - The Case of the Weary Watchdog
    8.8/10(444 votes)

    S6:E9

    Della asks Perry for $25,000 for her friend Janet Brent, who is being blackmailed. Edward Franklin, an employee of Janet's husband, has staged compromising photos of her in a motel. At a party, Janet confronts Franklin and hits him with a small statue of a "weary watchdog." The police arrest Della when they find her driving Janet's car from the scene of the argument. Franklin is dead, struck three times on the head with the statue. Perry defends Janet knowing that if he loses, Della will go to prison as an accessory.

    Director:Jesse Hibbs
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Perry Mason

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  7. Perry Mason Season 4 Episode 9 - The Case of the Nine Dolls
    8.7/10(530 votes)

    S4:E9

    Perry's fishing trip to Scotland is interrupted by seven year old Peggy Smith. Peggy is living at a boarding school and searching for her identity since she has no idea who her real parents are. After searching into the matter, Perry comes to believe that Peggy is the daughter of Clark Lawson and Margaret Jeffers Lawson. Margaret was the daughter of wealthy Courtney Jeffers who disowned her after she eloped with Clark. Both parents died shortly after Peggy was born. Jeffers, a mean and miserable old man, has his heart warmed after meeting Peggy and changes his will to leave everything to her. The next day, he is found dead, killed by a blow from a poker.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Perry Mason Season 8 Episode 14 - The Case of the Ruinous Road
    8.7/10(317 votes)

    S8:E14

    The foundations of a large company are shaken when the chief engineer uncovers evidence of budget tampering.

    Director:Jesse Hibbs
    Writers:Esther Mitchell, Bob Mitchell

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  9. Perry Mason Season 9 Episode 6 - The Case of the Carefree Coronary
    8.7/10(334 votes)

    S9:E6

    The Safeline Insurance Company notices an increase in heart attacks among their policy holders. The company suspects fraud and hires Perry and Paul to investigate. When Paul goes undercover as a construction worker, he almost doesn't survive the assignment.

    Director:Jesse Hibbs
    Writer:Orville H. Hampton

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  10. Perry Mason Season 1 Episode 13 - The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink
    8.6/10(682 votes)

    S1:E13

    Restrauteur Morey Allen, a friend of Perry and Della's, has a problem: his waitress, Dixie Dayton, was struck by a car while fleeing the restaurant after spotting a man stalking her. The only item she left behind was a moth-eaten mink. When the stalker is found murdered, Morey and Dixie both eventually get arrested for the murder. The case also ties in with the murder of a young policeman several months before.

    Director:Ted Post
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Perry Mason Season 1 Episode 30 - The Case of the Screaming Woman
    8.6/10(554 votes)

    S1:E30

    Gossip columnist Mary K. Davis is found murdered and it seems there is no shortage of suspects.

    Director:Andrew V. McLaglen
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Perry Mason Season 2 Episode 2 - The Case of the Lucky Loser
    8.6/10(525 votes)

    S2:E2

    Perry has all kinds of troubles in this one when a murder brings him into the tangled financial and personal affairs of the wealthy Balfour family.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Perry Mason Season 4 Episode 3 - The Case of the Ill-Fated Faker
    8.6/10(459 votes)

    S4:E3

    Jim Ferris is having an affair with his uncle's bored young wife. They concoct a scheme to finagle $80,000.00 from the uncle by faking a kidnapping. Things go horribly wrong when secretary Betty Wilkins, acting as a go-between, is charged with the murder of Jim Ferris.

    Director:Charles F. Haas
    Writer:Edward J. Lakso

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  14. Perry Mason Season 5 Episode 13 - The Case of the Renegade Refugee
    8.6/10(402 votes)

    S5:E13

    A journalist is murdered while tracking an ex-Nazi war criminal who may be posing as an executive at a company called Space Associates, Ltd.

    Director:Bernard L. Kowalski
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Perry Mason Season 6 Episode 28 - The Case of the Witless Witness
    8.6/10(352 votes)

    S6:E28

    A judge is accused of murdering a government witness who planned to expose him as a crook.

    Director:Arthur Marks
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Perry Mason Season 7 Episode 18 - The Case of the Nervous Neighbor
    8.6/10(328 votes)

    S7:E18

    Mason's client: an amnesia victim on trial for the murder of her husband.

    Director:Arthur Marks
    Writer:Robert C. Dennis

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  17. Perry Mason Season 9 Episode 19 - The Case of the Sausalito Sunrise
    8.6/10(317 votes)

    S9:E19

    An art dealer and his girlfriend are arrested for a two murders related to a series of hijacks. Paul goes undercover to ferret out the hijacking ring and Perry finds himself staring face down the barrel of a gun pointed by a killer even he never considered.

    Director:Jesse Hibbs
    Writers:Orville H. Hampton, Ernest Frankel

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  18. Perry Mason Season 1 Episode 19 - The Case of the Haunted Husband
    8.5/10(584 votes)

    S1:E19

    Claire Olger, a hitchhiker, is picked up by Michael Greeley. He loses control of the car and has an accident due to his being intoxicated. Eventually, her friend, Doris Stephanak, asks Perry Mason to help. When Perry is unable to contact Claire at her hotel, he goes there and finds Michael Greeley dead in her room.

    Director:Lewis Allen
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Perry Mason Season 3 Episode 11 - The Case of the Violent Village
    8.5/10(439 votes)

    S3:E11

    Perry goes on a fishing trip in a small Sierra Nevada town with his old friend, Sheriff Gene Norris but, as usual, manages to get sidetracked into another murder case when Phil Beecher returns from jail.

    Director:William D. Russell
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Perry Mason Season 3 Episode 12 - The Case of the Frantic Flyer
    8.5/10(427 votes)

    S3:E12

    A double cross, a double murder, a plane crash, missing money, and yet another innocent widow charged with crimes she didn't commit are the elements of this case.

    Director:Arthur Marks
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Perry Mason Season 3 Episode 13 - The Case of the Wayward Wife
    8.5/10(442 votes)

    S3:E13

    Ben Sutton is listed as the author of a best-selling book describing his experiences in a Korean POW camp. When the real author is released from an Army hospital, Sutton is slain before he can tell the truth and his widow is arrested for the murder.

    Director:Walter Grauman
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Perry Mason Season 3 Episode 14 - The Case of the Prudent Prosecutor
    8.5/10(436 votes)

    S3:E14

    DA Hamilton Burger asks Perry to defend an old friend who once saved his life in a boating accident ten years before. The old friend of Burger's is now facing a murder charge.

    Director:Robert Ellis Miller
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Perry Mason Season 3 Episode 17 - The Case of the Mythical Monkeys
    8.5/10(436 votes)

    S3:E17

    Author Mauvis Meade sends her secretary, Gladys Doyle, out to a mountain cabin to pick up a package. Gladys gets lost and her car gets stuck in the mud. She then walks to a cabin looking for help and encounters a mysterious man who appears to know her. While Gladys freshens up, the man leaves and Gladys discovers a dead body.

    Director:Gerald Mayer
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Perry Mason Season 3 Episode 25 - The Case of the Irate Inventor
    8.5/10(384 votes)

    S3:E25

    James Frazer wants a divorce and his cheating wife refuses to give him one. She's also stealing the plans to his invention in order to bait her engineer lover into staying around. Frazer leaves town for three months in order to cool down, but on the night of his return he finds his wife murdered in his office—and he has the only key to a unique, burglar-proof lock that he invented.

    Director:Gerald Mayer
    Writers:Marianne Mosner, Francis Rosenwald

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  25. Perry Mason Season 5 Episode 14 - The Case of the Unwelcome Bride
    8.5/10(394 votes)

    S5:E14

    Wealthy Walter Frazer has always blamed his daughter-in-law Sue Ellen for his son Gregson's failures. You can only imagine how he feels when Sue Ellen is accused of Gregson's murder.

    Director:Gilbert Kay
    Writer:Unknown

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Best Episodes Summary

"The Case of Paul Drake's Dilemma" is the best rated episode of "Perry Mason". It scored 9/10 based on 475 votes. Directed by William D. Russell and written by Unknown, it aired on 11/14/1959. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Case of the Deadly Verdict".