This was an enjoyable episode of the original BURKE'S LAW which sort of spoofed the film POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES as well as the old Sherlock Holmes story THE MAN WITH THE TWISTED LIP. In those stories the mystery involved how a person who was a beggar or a seller of apples actually was able to give his family or her daughter tremendous financial support. People tend to overlook how much money one can accumulate through casual daily charity. The man in the Conan Doyle story is able to buy a "gentleman's house" and estate in Kent for his wife through his money as a beggar. "Apple Annie" is able to send her daughter to finishing school and see her married to the son of a Spanish grandee.
Rosie Sunset is like "Apple Annie" - a person who is seen on the streets of a major local - but a lowly person. Rosie does not sell apples in the Great Depression, but she sells maps to the Hollywood locales where various stars live. But she is found murdered. To Burke and his staff it doesn't make sense - what would this woman have to lead to being killed?
Well she had more than anyone expected. She was floating many business enterprises. This includes a wax flower emporium run by one Waldo Fleishachker (Dennis Day, in a rare non-singing talking part). Waldo is...well in 1965 they would have said the character was "high strung". We would say gay. It turns out he was Rosie's son. She was the financial muscle behind his store (which is the best wax flower store in Beverley Hills. "What nature makes beautiful," Waldo beams, "Waldo makes better - artificially."
Another person in the story is Eddie Albert, as an old fashioned printer who believes in the work ethic and tells everyone who hears him (including a bored Gene Barry) that modern society has become too liberal and soft.
In the end the twist in the story deals with the source of Rosie's wealth. Let me just say it did not come out of Hollywood maps.
Rosie Sunset is like "Apple Annie" - a person who is seen on the streets of a major local - but a lowly person. Rosie does not sell apples in the Great Depression, but she sells maps to the Hollywood locales where various stars live. But she is found murdered. To Burke and his staff it doesn't make sense - what would this woman have to lead to being killed?
Well she had more than anyone expected. She was floating many business enterprises. This includes a wax flower emporium run by one Waldo Fleishachker (Dennis Day, in a rare non-singing talking part). Waldo is...well in 1965 they would have said the character was "high strung". We would say gay. It turns out he was Rosie's son. She was the financial muscle behind his store (which is the best wax flower store in Beverley Hills. "What nature makes beautiful," Waldo beams, "Waldo makes better - artificially."
Another person in the story is Eddie Albert, as an old fashioned printer who believes in the work ethic and tells everyone who hears him (including a bored Gene Barry) that modern society has become too liberal and soft.
In the end the twist in the story deals with the source of Rosie's wealth. Let me just say it did not come out of Hollywood maps.
