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#115: The Case of the
Barefaced Witness
Original Airdate: 03/18/61

Summary Edit

From The Perry Mason TV Show Book
This offbeat episode should be a delight for hard-core Perry-watchers. The fact that Paul is arrested early on for the crime of "not wearing a beard" is just one of the oddities in the show. There is almost a faint hint of "The Twilight Zone" in the mood and setting of the story, a small town somewhere in California where, at least for a few days, all males must wear beards.

The plot itself is routinely complicated. The town's former bank president returns from prison after being convicted of embezzling $33,750, money that was never found. A former client of Paul's asks him for the second time to try and locate the loot. Perry becomes involved and later, after Paul finally does find the money--and a body--the lawyer travels to the town to help his detective friend straighten the whole thing out.

The flavor of the 1950s is everywhere in this episode. When one character sits down to eat in a restaurant, the menu features steaks for .95¢; fish and chips for $1.00, and jumbo shrimp for a whopping $1.25.

Also, blooper fans will spot a strange black band that appears at the top of their television screens during the opening shots of the episode. As the scenes look like on-location shots and involve characters entering and leaving stores, possibly the blackout was put there at the last minute by the producers not wanting to give actual store owners a plug on TV. The show stars Adam West, who went on to play Batman.

Credits Edit

Cast

Paul Fix as Prosecutor Hale
Josephine Hutchinson as Miss Sarah
Malcolm Atterbury as Alfred Needham
Roy Roberts as W. L. Picard
Adam West as Dan Southern
Enid Janes as Iris McKay
Russ Conway as Fred Swan
Eloise Hardt as Marta Wiltern
Lewis Martin as Judge
Tom Fadden as Beller
Charles Briggs as Policeman
Russ Bender as Chief Hagerty
Rosemary Day as Secretary

Trivia Edit

Location: In the scene where Paul is on his way to W. L. Picard's office, two California state highway signs can be seen, one for route 23 and the other for route 118. These roads actually converge in the city of Moorpark, not in the "Pinon City" of the show. See here. Submitted by Steve Fox, 10/7/04.

That Mysterious Black Bar that appears in the scene with the roadsigns is there to cover up a sign. More here. From a post to the Perry_Mason Yahoo! group by Rich Erickson, 12/16/06.

I scanned this episode on the Perry Mason 50th Anniversary DVD for the scene of the Mysterious Black Bar and find that there is no black bar. It looks like the scene has been stretched vertically to eliminate the bar. Tricky! Posted by daveb, 4/8/08.

I noticed a blooper in the opening scene. When Adam West looks at the registration for the truck, it says it is a "Ford Pickup". In the next shot, when the truck pulls up it can clearly be seen that it is a GMC truck. J Fleming 12/31/2009

In another entry of TCOT All-Purpose Address, the above truck registration indicates that Fred Swan is yet another resident of 1040 N. Las Palmas in LA (also used in episodes #78, #89 and #100). As daveb mentioned, Hollywood Center Studio is the long-time tenant of that address, and at their website the Mason series appears in the 'Featured List' of TV productions filmed there. Submitted by FredK 1/3/10. There's more about this on the Location Trivia page.

+Eloise Hardt makes her only Perry appearance here as Marta Wiltern. When I initially watched the episode, I thought she was Barbara Bain, the resembleance is remarkable. In 1968 Eloise Hardt's only child, Marina Habe, a 17 year old college student, was kidnapped and murdered. The murder was never solved, but a lot of people believe it had something to do with the Manson crowd. Submitted by PaulDrake 33. 29 January 2010.

Comments Edit

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