BURKE'S LAW - "Who Killed Mr. X?" (1963)

 

This Wednesday's TV Extravaganza is from season one, episode two of the great 1960's TV show "Burke's Law."

"Burke's Law" was on for 81 episodes from 1963 to 1966, and went through some different transformations over the years.

The first two seasons all had episodes that started off with "Who Killed..." This particular one was called "Who Killed Mr. X?"

There's a party going on at an amusement park!

One of the guests is not going to make it to the party! Who is this mysterious man, and why is he dead? That's what Amos Burke and his crack team are going to have to try and figure out!

Amos Burke is a very wealthy man, but he is also a Captain in the Police Department. He's having a poolside party, and this woman is trying to get his attention! Novel, but it doesn't really work!

Burke gets a call that there's an unidentified dead body by a merry go round. The party wasn't really that important to him anyway, so off he goes to investigate.

The dead man has absolutely no identification, and the only clue they can find is a vintage book of matches from the "Crystal Pier Ballroom" with a number, possibly a phone number, written inside it.

This is Burke's main team. There's Regis (The Phantom Creeps) Toomey as Detective Les Hart, and Gary (I Was A Teenage Frankenstein) Conway as Detective Tim Tilson. Regis Toomey had an amazing career that went from 1929 to 1982, and included 272 credits.

 

Over it's three seasons, "Burke's Law" had a truly amazing array of guest stars, and beautiful actresses like Elizabeth Montgomery, and that's the reason my editor, Perry White Dittmar sent me on this assignment! Just for the record, if you're interested in hearing the very best in alternative music of all styles, he's the guy you need to go visit!

What can I say about Elizabeth Montgomery? I just think she's great no matter what she does, and Perry and myself agreed this might be one of her finest performances. Here she has the role of a Stacey Evans, a kept woman! It was her phone number found inside the matchbook.

Stacey is a bit of a lush! She's an actress that has been set up by a rich guy named Emery Flood. He gave her this nice house, and she gets $500.00 a week, but she has yet to get a job as an actress. She never sees him, and five years have passed by.

Captain Burke rather fancies Stacey Evans. Here he asks her what she'd like to listen to, classical music or jazz.

It's time to talk to this Mr. Emery Flood, but Mr. Flood is nowhere to be found. His main man here gets calls every day, but hasn't seen him in thirteen years. The man who watches over all his stuff is called Mr. Gregory, and was played by Charles (The Invisible Woman) Ruggles. Charlie worked consistently from 1914 to 1976.

What a cast is all I can say! Here's Dungeon Hero Soupy Sales as Henry Geller. Back in 1953, Soupy had his own Saturday morning kid's show that was unforgettable. Besides being a terrific comedian and a great actor, Soupy was also the Father of Fox and Hunt Sales, who were in the fantastic band Tin Machine with David Bowie, as just one of their musical accomplishments.

There are at least four kept women in Emery Flood's life, and Stacey Evans is just one of them!

Stacey gets the most on screen time, because she's the one that both Burke and myself are the most interested in.

Barrie (It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World) Chase is Alison Grahame, another one of Emery Flood's kept women. She too has a drinking problem. It seems to come with the territory!

A third kept woman is Dina Merrill as Barrie Coleman. Dina was Calamity Jan in three episodes of the "Batman" TV series. In the 80's and 90's Dina was in films like "Twisted," "Fear," and "Suture."

 To top off this all-star cast is another Dungeon Hero, Jim Backus as Harold Mason. Jim, of course was Thurston Howell III on "Gilligan's Island," and the voice of Mr. Magoo in countless cartoons.

 

It seems like they could have continued this story. Stacy's still drinking and Amos Burke just might get lucky! If you 'd like to see for yourself, and I recommend that you do, the Internet Archive is the place to go!