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#40: The Case of the
Corresponding Corpse
Original Airdate: 09/20/58

Summary Edit

From The Perry Mason TV Show Book
Perry gets a phone call from George Hartley Beaumont, a man who supposedly died in a plane crash over the Atlantic nearly three years before. Actually, George missed that plane and decided to take advantage of the accident to disappear, letting his wife collect the $90,000 insurance policy. Meanwhile George has been living incognito with his girlfriend, Ruth Whittaker.

George grows tired of life-on-a-limb and wants to return home. His plans are cut short, however, when someone buries a letter opener in his back.

Perry defends Ruth when she's arrested for the murder.

Credits Edit

Cast

Joan Camden as Ruth Whittaker
Vaughn Taylor as Harry Folsom
Jeanne Cooper as Laura Beaumont
William Ching as Glenn McKay
Ross Elliott as George Beaumont
Owen Cunningham as Jonah Whittaker
Lillian Bronson as Judge
Herbert C. Lytton as Mr. Corby
Martha Wentworth as Mrs. Lyle
Joan Staley as Roberta Quinn
Gil Frye as Reporter
Jack Gargan as Court Clerk

Trivia Edit

CARS: 1958 Cadillac convertible, black, top down (Mason), 1958 Chevrolet Delray 4dr sedan, black & white (Police), 19?? Packard ambulance. From The Cars by Greg Cockerill.

+For some reason the courtroom is flip flopped in this episode. The witness box is to the judge's right, not left and Perry and Della sit to the judge's left instead of right.

+First episode where Della wears a pendant with the initials D S in script.

+First episode where Lillian Bronson plays a judge. She had appeared the season before in TCOT Sulky Girl as a housekeeper.

+Joan Staley makes her first of four appearances on Perry playing Roberta Quinn. Joan Staley was playmate of the month for November 1958 in Playboy magazine. Submitted by PaulDrake33.

+When Laura Beaumont is on the witness stand she calls her secretary by the name of Roberta Walker. The final credits list her secretary's name as Roberta Quinn. Submitted by PaulDrake 33. 12 August 2009.

+When Laura Beaumont is testifying she states that the last time she saw her husband was an hour before his plane crashed on November 19, three years earlier. Earlier when Perry was relating the story to Della, he stated that George Beaumont's plane crashed into the Atlantic with no survivors. It would be impossible for a plane to get from Los Angeles to the Atlantic in an hour. Submitted by PaulDrake 33. 12 August 2009.

Comments Edit

Perry goes to Laura Beaumont's office ostensibly to see if she wants some old files related to George's estate. She doesn't or intimates she doesn't. As Perry is exiting the office, you can plainly see a light colored (white?) tripod bowl next to a lamp. Both objects are on a credenza or shelf adjacent to the door. These tripods turn up in various places in the series. Perry's office for one, e.g., on a low bookcase on the "mystery or long wall" roughly opposite the balcony. See pictures 3 and 4 from episode 47 here. Also in evidence is a pottery figure of a dog (less probably a pig). I think both the tripod bowls and the dog are inspired by pre-Columbian forms, e.g., Colima and what-not. I say inspired because the tripods appear highly finished and likely modern interpretations. Also note in picture 3 the bowl or dish on the wall above the bookcase, I propose this is the same object that appeared on the wall near Perry's desk before the "African Mask" took up residence. billp 12/30/08.

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