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#19: The Case of the
Haunted Husband
Original Airdate: 01/25/58

Summary Edit

From The Perry Mason TV Show Book
Hitchhiker Claire Olger is charged with grand theft auto and manslaughter when the driver of the car she's riding in hits a truck, killing the truck driver, then flees the scene, leaving Claire to take the blame.

Perry agrees to help Claire and eventually does locate the missing driver. Trouble is, he's dead. Burger drops the previous charges against Claire and files a new one: first degree murder. A second murder only complicates things more.

Credits Edit

Opening

Starring Raymond Burr
in Erle Stanley Gardner’s The Case of The Haunted Husband
Barbara Hale, William Hopper, William Talman, Ray Collins

Trailing

Directed by Lewis Allen
Teleplay by Gene Wang
Ben Brady | Producer
Produced by CBS Television in association with Paisano Productions
Gail Patrick Jackson | Executive Producer
Sam White | Associate Producer

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

Karen Steele as Doris Stephanak
Grant Richards as Jerry Heywood
Patricia Hardy as Claire Olger
Fredd Wayne as Tanner
Helen Westcott as Marcia Greeley
John Hubbard as Michael Greeley
Harlan Warde as Harold Hanley
Herb Vigran as Charlie (Bartender)
Sydney Smith as Judge
Jack Gargan as Court Clerk

Uncredited Actors

Don Anderson as {	Crane (Lab Technician)
	Courtroom Spectator

(added by gracep 12/17/2010)

Crew

Gene Wang | Story Editor
Production Supervisor … J. Paul Popkin
Director of Photography … Frank Redman, A.S.C.
Art Direction … Lyle Wheeler, Lewis Creber
Assistant Director … Maxwell Henry
Editorial Supervisor … Art Seid, A.C.E.
Film Editor … Otto W. Meyer, A.C.E.
Makeup … Mel Berns
Wardrobe Supervision … Dick James
Hair Stylist … Annabell
Set Decorations … Walter M. Scott, Charles Q. Vassar
Properties … Ray Thompson
Recorded by … Alfred Bruzlin
Rerecording Mixer … Harry M. Leonard
Script Supervisor … Cosmo Genovese

This has been a CBS Television Network Production
Filmed in Hollywood by TCF Television Productions, Inc.

Trivia Edit

CARS: 1957 Lincoln, 4dr sedan, black. From The Cars by Greg Cockerill.

At the end of this episode, Lt. Tragg moans, “Oy gevalt” when Mason explains how he cracked the case. This a Yiddish expression that translates as a combination of amazing and awful. Any other examples of Yiddish in the series? Submitted by Rabbi Mayer Schiller, 7/23/2007.

At the beginning of the show Perry is wearing a light-colored (maybe it is tweed) suit coat instead of his usual dark-colored jacket. The coat definitely does not match his trousers. Submitted by PaulDrake 33, 10 February 2010.

Uncredited Actors: This episode is another double bill for Don Anderson. In the murder investigation scenes, he wears a pair of glasses and a white lab coat to play a police lab man whom Tragg addresses as “Crane,” though Anderson has no line in return. In the courtroom scenes, he appears without the glasses as a spectator on Mason’s side of the courtroom. Submitted by FredK, 30 September 2010.

Character Names: Tanner’s frist name is Ernie. Submitted by gracenote, 8/29/2011.

Sightings: In the courtroom gallery sits a bespectacled man we call Distinguished Gentleman #1, in at least one close shot. But who is he? Submitted by gracenote, 8/30/2011. + Also among spectators we find Distinguished Lady #4. Submitted by gracenote, 9/6/2011.

Comments Edit

Paul Drake says Jerry Heywood makes $3,000 a week or $156,000 a year. That’s $1,146,653.98 today. Della’s right, even for two, that will work. Submitted by billp, 1/1/2009.

It rains in this show, so we get a chance to view Perry’s stylish raincoat. Note the handsome checked lining. Submitted by gracep, 17 December 2010.

The two young protagonists in this episode stay at the Gateview Hotel for $4.50 per night. In 2011 dollars that’s still only $35 and change. You can’t even stay in a fleabag in a small town in rural upstate New York for so little, much less in San Francisco, I would imagine. Even the roach motels around here cost nearly $60. If you want to be safe, expect to pay $100 a night or more (and again, that’s in rural areas). So, evidently, hotels used to be much more affordable in the 1950s (though I’m sure the Gateview Hotel is on the low end).

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