The Case of the Duplicate Case

William Hopper got his boss Raymond Burr involved in this case which concerned a most unhappily married former baseball player now selling arch supports out of a department store. Martin West is married to Susan Bay and you can see that back in the day she just loved being married to a glamorous athlete. Now he's just getting by on a paycheck in a job he hates working in the same department store as Bay is. And he knows full well that Bay is stepping out on him. Before long we learn it's with half the employees of the store.

When Hopper picked up West's case by mistake he found it contained a lot of cash. Later on when Bay is murdered, the cops zero in on West, but there are a host of alternative suspects. And of course Raymond Burr ferrets out the right one.

What was interesting about this episode was that while West got off as Burr's clients always do, there is no guarantee of a happy ending. This guy for all intents and purposes is still a washed up ballplayer with no great prospects for the future. Unusual for a Perry Mason episode where usually the loose ends were always tied up.

Right from the outset, the eventual defendant and the murder victim are blatantly obvious in Act one. While the story was a tad better than some of the more recent entries, it still had its flaws. I thought the character of Herbie was a little too naive (or purposefully detached) for his own good, while Millie was far too obvious to be successful in all her dishonest plots and schemes to ever get away with them with so many people. While the court scenes tied everything together, there was so much going on that it seemed rushed. The apex was Perry's trickery in Millie's office that is explained (sort-of) in the epilogue...

After the last few episodes were sort of duds, this episode brought all the good things that made Perry Mason a great series to watch.

This episode centers around Herbert Cornwall (Martin West). Herbie is a former baseball player that is now reduced to a salesman of arch supports. It is very easy to say that Herbie is down on his luck and stuck in this dead end job.

But there is more, He is also married to Millie Cornwall (Susan Bay). Millie is an accountant at a large department store. She married the big-time ball player but now is not to happy to be married to a arch-support salesman. In her world of executive business she has become the 'slut-of-the-office'. Seems like everyone in the office, plus some outside on the streets, has ridden Millie like an old bicycle.

When Herbie goes to visit his wife at her office, she advises that she cannot go out to eat that they have to work late for an surprise audit. He storms out of the office picking up a brief case and goes for a drink. But just about an hour later, Herbie sees his wife out eating and drinking with the owner of the store. Herbie staggers home and goes into a fit inside his house.

When he throws the briefcase against the wall it is filled with money. He had picked up the wrong case when he left his wife's office. And he believes that his wife is stealing from the company and planning to run off with one of her affair guys.

He finds his wife packing to leave him and gets into a argument and hits her. He leaves and then calls a friend to help him get the embezzlement information to the police. When the police arrive to talk with him, they take the case with the money and then tells him that his wife has been found dead and he is the main suspect.

Thanks to Paul Drake, Perry is called to defend the hapless Herbie in court. And it is up to Perry to find exactly what is going on in that office and to find the real killer of Millie.

There is some good acting in this episode that keeps the viewer interested. Martin West does a good job of playing the down-on-his-luck former baseball player that finds his wife cheating. It was easy to feel his pain in the way Mr West portrayed the character.

Susan Bay as the cheating wife also did a good job of making the viewer have disdain for her. Her acting of the obvious cheating spouse made no one shed tears for her when she did not make it to the credits. That is what makes a good show in my opinion. You connect with the characters and the story. And the remaining cast was just as interesting. Seems like even Perry was a step above his regular acting.

After being disappointed during the last two episodes, I find myself looking forward to the next show. This episode brought back all the good qualities of the 'Perry Mason' series.

I liked this one. Millie is a great femme fatale and is leading every man she encounters by the nose. Her wiles get her information because fifty something guys are willing to throw it away for you know what. Her husband is a dope who is just being used because he is so weak. Anyway, I thought the way it all played out with Mason setting the table was quite wonderful.

Interesting non-jokey episode. Martin West gives an intense performance as a washed up baseball player now selling arch-supports. His character is a sad failure, humiliated by his cheating shrew of a wife played by Susan Bay Nimoy. It's a worthy entry in the Perry Mason series. And Don Dubbins is super handsome sexy.