"The Case of the Wary Wildcatter" is one of the best Perry Mason TV series' episodes. Everyone in this story is out for money, a totally cynical story written by Robert Bloomfield. Bloomfield wrote 4 Perry Mason episodes and this one, his last, is the best of the lot. The story starts off with a guy sending a car over a cliff, the car containing the body of his murdered wife. Somehow, a nature photographer/blackmailer with a movie camera is nearby, camera recording the action.
William D. Russell directed this episode, so it is a class job. Somehow, Russell went from directing "Perry Mason" episodes (28 episodes in total through 1960) to directing the "Hazel" TV series (136 episodes, starting in 1961). Russell's presence could only have helped "Perry Mason" from Season Four on, when the series' quality and toughness declined under regular directors Arthur Marx and Jesse Hibbs before hitting rock bottom in Season Nine. Writer Bloomfield wrote a crime novel, "When Strangers Meets" (Pocket Book edition, 1957), that the producers of "Perry Mason" must have read. Bloomfield's career in American television ended around 1967. Bloomfield's credits also includes a 1965 play called "Portrait of Murder." This play is set entirely in the living room of a writer's home, which cuts down on staging costs. An Internet search shows this play gets produced pretty often by theater companies in Great Britain.
For those of us not traveling overseas to the UK in the near future, this Perry Mason episode is a super way to see writer Robert Bloomfield's best work.