The Case of the Empty Tin

Three men, Carr, Hocksley, and Lowell, were involved in business in China from the 1930s until 1956. This included guns. One of them (Lowell) betrayed the other two to Chinese Communists. Hocksley was killed. Carr survived and now wants to give money (MILLIONS) to Hocksley's daughter. There is a specific way the daughter can self-identify and it involves the "empty tin" of the title. The episode begins in San Francisco, with Doris Hocksley meeting with the proprietor of Lowell's Photo Shop, discussing an ad placed ny Carr seeking the daughter. Doris goes to LA and meets with Mr. Neal (Carr's nephew) who is screening respondents. Neal is a slippery character who basically offers Doris a deal. Carr ends up dead; Doris is charged and Perry defends. By rifling the tin box in court, Perry gets the evidence to exonerate Doris. Neal also ends up dead. Perry fingers the killer, and then says to Berger I'll buy you a drink. This episode may have a secondary meaning. The trio were kicked out of China in 1956, not in 1949. This would be right after the first Formosa Strait incident in 1955, wherein the US contemplated the use of nuclear weapons against Communist China. The second Strait incident involving the shelling of Quemoy and Matsu would occur in fall 1958. The speech of Loong in the Empty Tin might seem more relevant to this political crisis than to the details of the case.

This, along with many season-one episodes, was very well-crafted and filled with suspense. It's a shame that the writing faded so badly after a few seasons. Well wriiten, acted and directed. Of special note is the denouement scene, as Perry catches the killer off-guard in the presence of Burger and Tragg and elicits an emotional confession (and not in court). Perry & Hamilton's last couple of lines after the killer is led away are the cream in the soup -- understated and very well done. I very much enjoyed this tale -- and not just because of the fact that I do restoration work at the very SoCal estate used in the establishment shots...

In this episode Perry Mason starts out representing Toni Gerry who is the possible heir to a gift of money from her father's old business partner, if in fact she can prove she's the real daughter. In the meantime the partner gets himself shot and she's the only other person in a locked room.

The locked room is a favorite of mystery writers everywhere not excluding Erle Stanley Gardner. But remembering the paradigm of Perry never defending a guilty client, the real murderer is an obvious one.

For an added attraction another murder and a near fatal shooting occur. All by the same perpetrator. One of those was someone I thought was the guilty party, but he was one of the best red herrings ever provided in a Mason episode.

As for the solution, it's in the bible of Perry's client. That whet your appetite a bit?

Doris Hocksley might be the daughter of someone who was once a business partner with Elston Carr who made his fortune in the far east.

Carr wants to give $2 million to his late partner's daughter and places an ad in a newspaper.

Doris answers the ad and is interviewed by Carr's nephew who calls her a fraud. She goes to visit Perry Mason.

Later when Carr is killed, Doris is found in the room with him. Perry now has to defend her in a murder charge.

Unusually Perry does not break someone down in a witness stand, although at one point that is what you think will happen. There are several possible suspects.

The empty tin in question might prove the identity of the true inheritor of the money.

It was good to see Perry finding enough leads to apprehend the actual murderer away from the courtroom.

There were several possible suspect and an overriding international factor, dealing with Chinese communism. A man who was betrayed in China in the Forties, decides to give money (two million dollars) to the daughter of one of the men. This leads to some chicanery on the part of the guy entrusted with interviewing possible recipients. But there is violence and death and an innocent woman getting charged with a capital crime. The workings of the writers to craft this story is remarkable to me, considering how many episodes they had to produce. And yet most of them are above average or even wonderful.