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#144: The Case of the
Mystified Miner
Original Airdate: 02/24/62

Summary Edit

From The Perry Mason TV Show Book (Revised)
There’s something very wrong at the Corning Company. First, $200,000 mysteriously turns up in a shoebox. Then an employee reports she’s been forwarding a large payroll to the company’s Mojave Monarch Mine. Trouble is, the mine is “dry.” Things really get strange when a woman claiming to be the company owner, Amelia Corning, shows up; no one has ever seen her before. No matter, because she soon disappears.

When Paul gets involved to try to straighten out the mystery, he gets charged with breaking and entering. Perry enters the case when the mine’s foreman winds up dead and one of the company’s employees is charged with the murder. This thoroughly enjoyable episode is based on one of Erle Stanley Gardner’s later books.

[Revised to correct “Mojave” spelling.]

Credits Edit

Opening

Starring Raymond Burr
in Erle Stanley Gardner’s
The Case of THE MYSTIFIED MINER
Based on The Case of the Spurious Sister
Barbara Hale, William Hopper, William Talman, Ray Collins

Trailing

Directed by Francis D. Lyon
Teleplay by Jackson Gillis

“Perry Mason”
Art Seid | Producer
Gail Patrick Jackson | Executive Producer
Jackson Gillis | Associate Producer
Produced by The CBS Television Network in association with Paisano Productions
Samuel Newman | Story Consultant

Raymond Burr as Perry Mason
Barbara Hale as Della Street
William Hopper as Paul Drake
William Talman as Hamilton Burger
Ray Collins as Lt. Tragg

Cast

Kathie Brown as Susan Fisher
Josephine Hutchinson as Amelia Corning
Carlos Rivas as Alfredo Gomez
Bartlett Robinson as Endicott Campbell
Sheila Bromley as Elizabeth Dow
Wesley Lau as Lt. Anderson
John Gallaudet as Judge
Stanja Lowe as Sophia Elliot
Louise Lorimer as Cindy Hastings
Patrick Thompson as Carlton Campbell
Michael Harvey as Ken Lowry
Helen Brown as Carlotta Jackson
Maidie Norman as Maid
Robert J. Stevenson as Myrton Abert
Lenny Geer as Station Attendant
Pitt Herbert as Autopsy Surgeon
Howard Redman as Boy No. 1
Martin Dean as Boy No. 2
Christian Pasques as Boy No. 3

Uncredited Actors
Lee Miller as Sgt. Brice

Crew

Director of Photography … Robert G. Hager
Art Direction … Lewis Creber
Assistant Director … Robert G. Stone
Film Editor … John D. Faure
Casting … Harvey Clermont
Makeup … Irving Pringle
Hair Stylist … Annabell
Wardrobe Supervision … Ed McDermott, Evelyn Carruth
Set Decoration … Charles Q. Vassar
Properties … Ray Thompson
Production Sound Mixer … Herman Lewis
Script Supervision … M.E.M. Gibsone
Sound … Glen Glenn Sound Co.
Automobiles Supplied by … Ford Motor Company
Titles and Opticals by … Pacific Title

Perry Mason \ A Film Presentation
A CBS Television Network Production

Trivia Edit

Location: The establishing shot of where the Corning Company offices are (presumably) located is the former Tishman building at 615 S. Flower. (The lettering at the top of the building probably says “Tishman 615”). Nowadways it also has an entrance at 811 Wilshire. The building was built circa 1960 and at the time was one of the tallest buildings (22 stories or so) in LA. I think LA used to have a prohibition against really tall building because of the earthquake danger. When these images where taken, the building had a rather striking blue applied ceramic tile exterior. It was remodeled in the early 1990s and has a travertine facade now. While the lines of the building are the same, it looks very much different. Not sure what direction the Perry Mason image is taken from at present, though. Today it’s dwarfed by much taller buildings which, IMHO, have ruined the character of places like San Francisco and Los Angeles. Submitted by billp, 23 November 2010.
+ If you want a good idea of what the building looked like circa the time of this episode, watch the beginning of the cult sci-fi classic, The Omega Man, which was filmed circa 1971. The building features prominently in that film’s opening. See here for how the building used to look, about 42 seconds into the excerpt. Note the YouTube poster has edited another musical selection onto the clip. It actually used “A Summer Place.” For other pics, see also here and here. Submitted by billp, 23 November 2010.

About 45:44 into the episode, we see a police car travel down East 1st Street, heading in a roughly southeasterly direction. The camera starts shooting near the entrance to City Hall South, travels southeast with Parker Center on the left, etc. Submitted by billp, 25 November 2010.

Uncredited Actors: Very fleetingly, as Paul strolls through a restaurant’s dining room to Perry’s table, we see Bert Stevens at a table with a lady companion. Later, Lee Miller makes a cameo as the tight-lipped Sgt. Brice. Submitted by gracenote, 7/19/2011.

Sightings: In the back row of the courtroom gallery, we find Little Old Lady #1 and Quiet Old Man #1, not to mention Distinguished Gentleman #1 on the other side of the courtroom. These are some of the many favorite frequent faces to lurk in the background of this long-running series. Submitted by gracenote, 7/19/2011.

Words of the day: Campbell uses two fancy words for embezzlement when speaking of Ms. Fisher: peculations and defalcations. Submitted by gracenote, 7/19/2011.

Comments Edit

According to IMDb, Ray Collins once again did not appear despite being billed as Lt. Arthur Tragg. (I forgot to note this at the time I watched it, so I am not sure if this is so.) Submitted by gracep, 1/7/2010.
+ Having just seen the episode, I can verify that Ray Collins does appear in the episode. He has a rather amusing scene at Della’s desk with Perry as he learns about the fingerprints left on the rental car. Submitted by Kenmore 1/15/2011.

Very unusual episode in that the murder victim is someone who appears in exactly one scene, and doesn’t seem to be very important (at least not at first). But it is thoroughly enjoyable, as the Summary says, with plenty of surprises. Submitted by gracenote, 7/19/2011.

It really was a kinder, gentler time. You can bet if Perry gave a set of car keys to a group of youths in LA today, he would likely not return to the car with the tire changed. Submitted by Mason Jar, 7/21/2011.

One of the women is kidnapped and sequestered several days before the preliminary hearing. When Tragg and company locate her during the hearing, drugged and on a bed, her hair and makeup including lipstick still look well cared for. I guess that the kidnappers took good care of her appearance because they didn’t know if or when the police would drop by unannounced. Submitted by masonite, 23 November 2010.
+ That’s actually not too farfetched. I remember seeing a TV show based on a Graham Greene story; a British businessman was arrested in the old USSR and accused of spying. (I think he was, but the story initially portrayed him as innocent.) Just before his trial “in camera” came up, they served him a big meal, and he said, “Ah, they want to fatten me up for the spectators.” (Not verbatim.) He tucked right in to it. Submitted by MikeReese, 12/1/2011.

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