Show70
Gotta love Burger’s bow tie in this one! Submitted by Ed Zoerner, 3/18/2011.
+ Snake Eyes! jfh 31Jan2023
I thought I heard Las Vegas attorney Hibberly say that the residency requirement, for filing for divorce in Nevada, was 44 days. The current requirement appears to be six weeks, or 42 days. Submitted by MikeM, 11/08/2012.
As Tragg leads Chapman away from the crashed car, it looks like the back of Chapman's jacket has straw all over it.
At about the half way mark there is an establishing shot of Reno that is obviously stock footage - not a car in it much later than 1940.
This is the only episode I recall with a scene in a morgue.
It looks like Perry has a new lamp by that long sofa. The original lamp had a matte finish; this one is shiny.
In the courtroom scenes, the women are far less glamorously dressed than usual. No furs, just a few simple hats, and Ginny wears not a single piece of jewelry. DOD 07/23/18
+ TCOT Violent Vest shows Ida Albright in the morgue identifying the body of her late husband, Herman Albright. jfh 31Jan2023
+ + TCOT Frightened Fisherman shows Perry in the morgue with Randolph James idenitifying the body of his wife, Natalie. jfh 20Mar2024
IMHO, especially in profile, Mary La Roche bears a striking resemblace to Joan Crawford. jfh 13Jul2017.
Person-to-City Call after receiving his divorce papers, Bruce Chapman attempts to place a call as follows "...I'd like to place a person-to-person call to Mrs. Marie Chapman. No I don't know where she's staying"(emphasis added) No problem, right... I mean: how many places could she be?? Amazed and Bemused, Notcom 080719.
Burger asks Grace Norwood questions about the argument between Bruce and Marie Chapman that only Bruce, Marie and Grace knew about. How did Burger know about the argument? Marie is dead and Bruce is the defendant. And Grace didn’t tell him or else she wouldn’t be deemed to be a hostile witness. Kilo 4/20/2021.
Hibberly seemed VERY jovial for someone who knew he'd killed a person! Brrr! Submitted by MikeReese, 9/20/2013
As usual, a few gaps in logic: If Marie and Hibberly drove to the cabin together, how did he get back to town? If they drove separately, wouldn’t Bruce have been curious about the extra car? Wouldn’t the Spragues have recognized Hibberly in court? And we never do learn why Marie was desperate for $2000. DOD 08/07/19
+ I believe I can answer a few of the gaps. Perry states in the epilogue that Hibberly drove his own vehicle to the cabin. It's possible that Bruce did not see the car depending on where it was parked since he came from the other direction. Given that Walter Sprague signed a really bad agreement for the divorce, it's possible that only Marie went to Las Vegas to establish residency and finalize the divorce so Walter would never have met Hibberly. But more importantly, that is how Hibberly met Marie and they established a relationship as implied again by Perry in the epilogue. Submitted by Kenmore 8/06/2021
Question: Was Virginia Hobart charged as an accessory in the murder or just fraud? Submitted by H. Mason 10/22/14
Kudos to director Arthur Marks for his use of film noir styling in this one -- there's lots going on with mirrors and shadows. JohnK 17 November 2016
Audio changes The audio quality changes in the 3rd season. The sound almost sounds like it is in confined space (compressed, less bandwidth) compared to the airy sound of prior seasons. I listen with headphones and can easily hear the difference. Submitted by Perry Baby 1/11/18
Yes, sounds muffled to me. Submitted by Clothears 2/2/20
During Raymond Burr's June 3, 1962 appearance on What's My Line (the night after this episode repeated), host John Daly said that he was a devotee of the series and commented that he "never would have figured that lawyer (Ralph Hibberly) last night," claiming that he thought the murderer was "the character that rode up on the horse" (neighbor Greg Evans). However, I must say that if Daly had been on the witness stand, no doubt that Perry Mason would have noted Daly's claim to be "a devotee" of the show, and given that the episode originally aired in October of 1959, Daly would have known that Hibberly was the killer, thus Daly's statement of being surprised at the identity of the murderer was suspicious, revealing to the shocked audience that Daly was the guilty party! [KrazyKarl82 1/3/2023]