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The Court of Last Resort - The Mary Morales Case
episode 1.23
USA 1958
produced by Elliott Lewis for Paisano Productions, Walden Productions/NBC
directed by James Goldstone
starring Lyle Bettger, Joe De Santis, Marian Seldes, Carl Benson, Junius Matthews, Walter Barnes, John Cliff, Robert Grifin, John Zaremba, Peter Breck, Herbert Lytton, Georgia Simmons
written by Max Ehrlich, Arthur Weiss, series created by Erle Stanley Gardner, Harry Steeger
TV-series Court of Last Resort
review by Mike Haberfelner
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A marital dispute between Mary (Marian Seldes) and Juan Morales (Joe De
Santis) gets out of hand when she pulls a gun at him. She has emptied the
gun beforehands, yet it still goes off and kills an innocent bystander.
Mary is condemned to life in prison for second degree murder, but after
five or so years, her case lands at the Court of Last Resort, and
the court's investigator Sam Larsen (Lyle Bettger) reinvestigates the case
- only to find out Mary never had a chance because she was Mexican, and
most of the evidence against her was based on hearsay or even outright
lies. Sure, she had killed someone, but never had teh intention to, so she
should be convicted for manslaughter, not second degree murder. Sam keeps
the ultimate proof that relieves Mary of the murder charges for last
though, when he proves that even though her gun was emptied, a bullet
still remained in its chamber, as is default with guns of this series -
and that's a mistake anyone could have made. One certainly
cannot condemn this episode for its pro-Mexican immigrants-message, in
that respect it is even insightful for its time, but the story that
carries the message is just awfully over-constructed and borders
incredulity. Too bad, the message as such would have deserved a better
carrier.
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