The Case of the Glamorous Ghost

A lot going on in this episode as we get a little taste of blackmail, smuggling, falsehoods and murder all combined in 52 minutes. Then add a terrific mystery and you have a show worthy of a great 'Perry Mason' episode.

The story begins with a young women being found wandering around a park in a very strange state of mind. When the police arrive, the women passes out only to awake telling that she does not know her name.

Later her name is discovered to be Eleanor Corbin and was last heard when she called her family on her way for a quickie marriage in Las Vegas with a man named Douglas Hepner. Now she is in a hospital and the Corbin family wants Perry to investigate her whereabouts for the last few weeks.

It will not be long before Douglas Hepner's body will be found by police. He had been shot in the head with a gun that was owned by Eleanor. And to make matters worse, Perry finds out that his client, Eleanor Corbin, has been faking her memory lost and actually knew where the body of Douglas was located even before police. It will not be long before Lt Tragg and Lt Anderson come calling with warrants for murder.

With Paul Drake doing most of the investigating, Douglas Hepner will prove to be more than just a guy wanting marriage. Seems that he has done the Vegas marriage plan with more than just Perry's client as we are introduced to a women with the exact same marriage proposal as Eleanor's. This will lead Paul on a path of smuggled gems and blackmail.

By the time the show ends the viewer has been treated to a very nice mystery that is positively entertaining. Good watch for viewers.

Another creative title, guaranteed to draw you in as it did me, and this story has a lot going for it. One of the few episodes in which it opens with the victim already DEAD, so you don't get to see them at work and what lead to their demise... However clever, as the story unfolds we find out the gentlman is an "artist" in a multitude of ways.

Mary Murphy (known for THE WILD ONE), plays Eleanor who is found wandering a park with the man's body nearby. Yes, she has a connection to the deceased, and it's also discovered she's playing a little game with the cops, pretending to have amnesia. Open and shut case? Enter several other pretty young women(!), and any one of them could have pulled the job.

Turns out the victim was not only a ladies man, but a crafty smuggler (in this case diamonds), and how about some blackmail as a side gig. I agree with the last reviewer, an impressive cast of actresses, if not suspects; future soap opera star Jeanne Cooper plays Ethel, Israeli actress Ziva Rodann plays Suzanne, Merry Anders (as Sadie) and Colleen Gray as Olga, who hires Perry to defend her sister.

Guessing the guilty party is labor of love. Signed, sealed and delivered. Kenneth MacDonald returns as the stern judge, perhaps the best actor for the role, who ironically was a foil for the Three Stooges in many of their comedies.

No better combination than writer Samuel Newman, who also produced the series and director Arthur Marks, two authorities on whodunits. Marks passed in 2019.

Best of SEASON 5 EPISODE 19 CBS dvd box set. Volumes 1 and 2. 4 dvds. Thanks to METV for running these mysteries both morning and late night.

While this episode provided lots of mystery, the people involved were so scummy that there was little joy. This includes the defendant, who is attractive, but a whiney little snot. Apparently, the guy who was killed had almost carte blanche when it came to attracting rich, beautiful women. Their idiotic attraction to him is at the center, especially when expensive jewelry was involved. Perry, Paul, and Della work together to unearth evidence. Unfortunately, I have to say I figured out who the murderer was less than half way through the episode.

Some of the most beautiful starlets of the day grace the cast of this Perry Mason episode including Mary Murphy, Jeanne Cooper, Merry Anders, and Ziva Rodann. It's Murphy who is Raymond Burr's client in this episode which involves Murphy faking amnesia after supposedly running off with a charming gigolo.

The charmer is never seen, in fact he's found shot to death in a park across from an apartment where several of these women live. The victim in fact had a nice charming racket where he had a nose for smuggling. Depending on the amount and what was being smuggled he and an accomplice would either turn the guilty party into customs for a reward or blackmail the perpetrator for a share of what the item might bring.

In this case it's smuggled diamonds and the deceased thought that Murphy could have been doing the smuggling. Of course it isn't, but apparently he got her involved in his scheme in any event. He must have been a charmer.

Sad to say the writers messed up with this one on two accounts. First the deceased was shot and dumped in the park and that was never an issue during the trial. Sloppy police work from Ray Collins and Wesley Lau. Secondly the murderer was really rather obvious in the behavior. Usually that means a red herring, but in this case definitely not.

William Hopper came in for more than his usual kudos for his detective work in locating the accomplice whose testimony broke William Talman's case apart.

Did you think it wouldn't?