8.3/10323 votes#1 - The Case of the Jealous Journalist
Season 5 Episode 1 - Aired 9/2/1961
The drowning death of a newspaper executive during a fishing trip sets off all kinds of repercussions at the newspaper itself.
Director: John English
Writer: N/A
7.7/10314 votes#2 - The Case of the Impatient Partner
Season 5 Episode 2 - Aired 9/16/1961
Paint manufacturer Amory Fallon suspects that his partner Ned Thompson is behind a mysterious fire and explosion.
Director: Arthur Marks
Writer: Adrian Gendot
8.1/10315 votes#3 - The Case of the Missing Melody
Season 5 Episode 3 - Aired 9/30/1961
Perry and Della attend the wedding of Polly Courtland to Eddy King. The ceremony is halted at the altar when Polly begins screaming, "No! No!" and hurriedly exits the church. It seems as though Polly had spotted slimy George Sherwin holding an envelope containing photos of her younger sister checking into a Las Vegas hotel with a musician named Bongo White. Sherwin plans to ruin Polly and her family's reputation unless she gives up Eddy for him. Sherwin's plan comes a cropper when he's found shot to death. Eddy King is arrested for the crime.
Director: Bernard L. Kowalski
Writer: N/A
8.0/10300 votes#4 - The Case of the Malicious Mariner
Season 5 Episode 4 - Aired 10/7/1961
During a terrible storm at sea, First Officer Jerry Griffin dumps a million dollars worth of goods into the sea in order to lessen the chances of his cargo freighter sinking. Once on shore, Jerry is hauled before a maritime court which holds him responsible for the loss of the cargo. Captain Bancroft's testimony can clear Jerry but he is murdered before he can give it. Now Jerry stands accused of that crime too. Perry and Paul try to set things right once again.
Director: Christian Nyby
Writer: N/A
8.0/10301 votes#5 - The Case of the Crying Comedian
Season 5 Episode 5 - Aired 10/14/1961
Comic Charlie Hatch learns that the woman he loved and lost, Anne Gilrain, has escaped from a sanitarium to which she was forced to commit herself by her husband, Tom. When Tom Gilrain is murdered, Charlie is afraid that Anne did the deed and sets himself up as a likely suspect to protect her. Perry arrives on the scene to try and free Charlie from his abysmal stupidity.
Director: Arthur Marks
Writer: N/A
7.6/10336 votes#6 - The Case of the Meddling Medium
Season 5 Episode 6 - Aired 10/21/1961
Phony psychic Phillip Paisley meets a grisly death when an elevator that has been tampered with crashes. In the climactic scene Perry sets up another fantastic demonstration to prove his client innocent and expose the real culprit.
Director: Arthur Marks
Writer: N/A
7.9/10309 votes#7 - The Case of the Pathetic Patient
Season 5 Episode 7 - Aired 10/28/1961
Perry finds himself defending Dr. Wayne Edley who has been accused of committing two murders.
Director: Bernard L. Kowalski
Writer: N/A
8.0/10299 votes#8 - The Case of the Traveling Treasure
Season 5 Episode 8 - Aired 11/4/1961
Perry and Paul are all set to go deep see fishing on a boat owned by their friend, Scott Cahill, but when Cahill's regular customer wants the boat for the weekend they have to charter another. Later, Perry gets word that the Coast Guard has boarded Cahill's vessel looking for stolen gold. They found some of the bullion and the corpse of Karl McGovern. An autopsy reveals that McGovern was killed with a fatal dose of digitalis. Scott Cahill is charged with murder when the police theorize that he and the dead man were partners in stealing the gold. Writer: Robb White
Director: Arthur Marks
Writer: N/A
8.4/10310 votes#9 - The Case of the Posthumous Painter
Season 5 Episode 9 - Aired 11/11/1961
Artist Jack Culross fakes his own suicide and sees the sales of his paintings go through the roof. His only problem was that he forgot to inform his wife Edna of the scheme. After Edna sees a completed painting of Jack's that she knows he didn't finish while he was "alive" she gets wise. Edna manages to track down her "deceased" husband but they fight and she knocks him down. Then he's found dead. Edna must stand trial for murder.
Director: Bernard L. Kowalski
Writer: N/A
7.5/10293 votes#10 - The Case of the Injured Innocent
Season 5 Episode 10 - Aired 11/18/1961
A really weird courtroom confession scene highlights this episode about the murder of a race car driver.
Director: Bernard L. Kowalski
Writer: N/A
8.2/10308 votes#11 - The Case of the Left-Handed Liar
Season 5 Episode 11 - Aired 11/25/1961
Health club instructor Ward Nichols wants to marry the daughter of his employer, Bernard Daniels, but Ward's estranged wife, Veronica, is pressuring him for money and claiming to be pregnant. Things blow up in everyone's face when Bernard is found crunched with a dumbbell at the club. Perry, as usual, arrives on the scene to get at the truth.
Director: Jerry Hopper
Writer: N/A
7.9/10278 votes#12 - The Case of the Brazen Bequest
Season 5 Episode 12 - Aired 12/2/1961
Charles Cromwell, the president-elect of Euclid College, worries that some less than stellar moments from his past will be exposed when Maisie Freitag arrives on the scene to make an unusual beguest to the college. Needless to say, murder eventually finds its way to the campus.
Director: Arthur Marks
Writer: Robert Leslie Bellem
8.5/10338 votes#13 - The Case of the Renegade Refugee
Season 5 Episode 13 - Aired 12/9/1961
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: N/A
8.5/10332 votes#14 - The Case of the Unwelcome Bride
Season 5 Episode 14 - Aired 12/16/1961
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: N/A
8.0/10290 votes#15 - The Case of the Roving River
Season 5 Episode 15 - Aired 12/30/1961
Perry is hired to help settle a land dispute in the Manzana Valley but the key witness is blown up by a homemade bomb. As usual, Perry's client is accused of the crime.
Director: Jerry Hopper
Writer: N/A
8.8/10337 votes#16 - The Case of the Shapely Shadow
Season 5 Episode 16 - Aired 1/6/1962
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: N/A
7.8/10291 votes#17 - The Case of the Captain's Coins
Season 5 Episode 17 - Aired 1/13/1962
Historian Phillip Andrews tries to make a case that his fiancee, Evelyn Faraday, is entitled to a share of a shipping company fortune. Phillip then finds himself accused of murdering the company's top man.
Director: Arthur Marks
Writer: N/A
7.6/10266 votes#18 - The Case of the Tarnished Trademark
Season 5 Episode 18 - Aired 1/20/1962
Axel Norstaad sells his much respected furniture trademark to Martin Somers, described by some as the slide trombone of the furniture business. Somers immediately begins stripping the company of its assets and churning out inferior products. Axel protests these developments vehemently and when Somers is found murdered he gets arrested for the crime. To complicate things, Axel is in love with Edie Morrow whom he suspects might be the actual killer.
Director: Jerry Hopper
Writer: N/A
8.5/10352 votes#19 - The Case of the Glamorous Ghost
Season 5 Episode 19 - Aired 2/3/1962
Eleanor Corbin pleads amnesia after police find her running and screaming through the woods near her apartment building. Her loss of memory is of little help to her when she is later charged with murder.
Director: Arthur Marks
Writer: N/A
8.0/10304 votes#20 - The Case of the Poison Pen-Pal
Season 5 Episode 20 - Aired 2/10/1962
A casual pen pal relationship leads to insider information and murder.
Director: Arthur Marks
Writer: N/A
8.5/10296 votes#21 - The Case of the Mystified Miner
Season 5 Episode 21 - Aired 2/24/1962
Mason tries to clear his young, naive woman client, a corporate executive secretary, as a twisting and wheeling plot of murder, kidnapping, and embezzlement unfolds.
Director: Francis D. Lyon
Writer: N/A
7.7/10266 votes#22 - The Case of the Crippled Cougar
Season 5 Episode 22 - Aired 3/3/1962
Mike Preston is a bitter man who despises Hugh Jamison because he mistakenly believes Jamison stole $100,000 from him and is responsible for him being crippled. Trying to entrap Jamison, Preston makes a mistake and is set up for murder by the real thief.
Director: Jesse Hibbs
Writer: Bob Mitchell
8.3/10328 votes#23 - The Case of the Absent Artist
Season 5 Episode 23 - Aired 3/17/1962
Cartoonist Pete Manders is elated when the owner of the comic strip "Zingy" offers to sell him the strip for a song. Pete is less than elated when he learns that his girlfriend Leslie is running away to Europe with Gabe Phillips, the strip owner. When Phiilips is murdered, Pete is charged with the crime and retains Perry's services. Investigating the case, Perry soon discovers that the deceased Phillips was leading a double life.
Director: Arthur Marks
Writer: N/A
7.6/10254 votes#24 - The Case of the Melancholy Marksman
Season 5 Episode 24 - Aired 3/24/1962
Ted Chase discovers that his bitchy second wife, Irene, might have killed his first wife and contemplates revenge but someone else gets to Irene first. In his defense of Ted, Perry discovers that Irene's past was even more sordid and corrupt than previously believed.
Director: Jerry Hopper
Writer: N/A
7.6/10280 votes#25 - The Case of the Angry Astronaut
Season 5 Episode 25 - Aired 4/7/1962
Astronaut Matthew Heller is suspected of killing his old service rival, General Addison Brand, after Brand is put in charge of the astronaut program.
Director: Francis D. Lyon
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Perry Mason Season 5
Every episode of Perry Mason Season 5 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Perry Mason Season 5!
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.
Genres:MysteryDramaCrime
Network:CBS
Season 5 Ratings Summary
"The Case of the Jealous Journalist" is the best rated episode of "Perry Mason" season 5. It scored 8.3/10 based on 323 votes. Directed by John English and written by N/A, it aired on 9/2/1961. This episode is rated 0.6 points higher than the second-best, "The Case of the Impatient Partner".