Show2
CARS: 1957 Ford Skyliner retractable, black (Mason), 1957 Plymouth convertible. From The Cars by Greg Cockerill.
Darryl Hickman makes his only Perry appearance here playing Steve Harris. Darryl Hickman was a prolific child actor appearing in among others, Grapes of Wrath, The Human Comedy, and Leave Her to Heaven. Upon entering adulthood, however, his star was surpassed by his little brother Dewayne Hickman, staring as Dobie Gillis. Submitted by PaulDrake 33, 25 August 2009.
+ Heaven also starred Ray Collins (as a defense attorney!); this episode will be the first of many where PM cast members are "reunited". Notcom 112122
The (shooting?) script for this episode is dated 27 June 1957. Scripts for at least 9 episodes are dated earlier. So, while it was aired 2nd, I believe this episode was no earlier than the 10th filmed. There was about a 3 month lag between filming and air date. Submitted by billp, 3 November 2009.
+ Note the Ford Skyliner. Other early episodes have that great big Cadillac which supports the shooting date/airing date discrepancies. Submitted by HamBurger, 9/20/2020
Fred Graham (Sheriff) played a detective in Rear Window, where Raymond Burr has his most famous film role. Graham is also in “TCOT Credulous Quarry” where he plays a fire chief. Submitted by billp, 15 November 2009.
In this episode, Perry drives a 1957 Buick. In early episodes he drives a 1957 Ford. I hypothesize that in later episodes he first drives a 1957 and then 1958 Cadillac. He winds up the season in a 1958 Ford. So 1957 Ford marks early, 1957 Cadillac marks middle episodes, 1958 Cadillac marks late episodes, and 1958 Fords is the last show or so of the season. Although an early script, it’s not particularly early. I believe this episode marks a transition between early (Ford) and middle (1957 Cadillac) episodes. No earlier than the 12th filmed. But more likely no earlier than the 15th filmed. Submitted by billp, 29 November 2009.
Continuity: The Sleepwalking Jury: This episode involves a jury trial (a relative rarity), the first jury trial in broadcast sequence. But magically, these jurors seem to be in two places at once. During Mason's cross examination of Frank Maddox (John Archer), we can clearly see 10 of the 12 jurors. A few story minutes later during his cross of Frank Duncan (Thomas B. Henry), Mason sends Paul out on an errand. During Paul’s exit, 9 of the 10 jurors we saw earlier are also recognizable in the gallery as he passes. (Are they trying to see the case from all angles? Or have they been sleepwalking?) Slow motion, quick pauses, and DVD clarity help considerably in spotting them. In other shots, some of the jurors are more clearly seen, but their seating arrangement is not always consistent. Presumably there were 12 jurors all doubling as spectators, but only “sleepwalking jurors” out 10 are confirmed. And presumably this double-duty was to observe economy in the casting budget. Greater economy was usually observed by having Mason win his case at the preliminary hearing so that the producers wouldn’t have to hire a jury at all. Submitted by alan_sings, 9/27/2010. Some photographic evidence here.
Sightings / Uncredited Actors: Two of the jurors are familiar faces. Juror #7 (back row left end) is frequent uncredited actor Don Anderson, who also sits in the front row of the gallery behind the defense table near the window. Juror #9 (two seats to the right of Anderson) is Distinguished Gentleman #1, described on the Who Is That? page. He can also be seen in the back row of the gallery seated with some of the other “sleepwalking” jurors. Submitted by alan_sings, 9/27/2010.
+ At the airport, the aforementioned Gentleman #1 also appears as an extra just as Mr. Cole is arrested. A bit earlier in the scene, another man walks by who might be Burr’s stand-in, Lee Miller. Submitted by gracenote, 8/23/2011.
++ Back in the courtroom, Distinguished Gentleman #2 sits in the back of the gallery. (He also appears as a juror. See Sleepwalking Jury item, above). Submitted by gracenote, 8/23/2011.
+++ Room for one more: Distinguished Lady #4 is a juror, too. You can view her clearly in the Sleepwalking Jury pix (see above). Submitted by gracenote, 9/6/2011.
++++ The actor known as Distinguished Gentleman #1 is Rudolph Salinger. Submitted by catyron, January 26th, 2021.
Syndication cuts: Conversation between Paul and Della at Gertie's desk; conversation between Paul and Perry as Mason's lighter doesn't light including Paul's report about Maddox's involvement in a scandal and Duncan getting him off five to ten years; Mason flying out to a Las Vegas Airport; Della rubbing Perry's shoulders and informing him Doris wants to see him; entire scene between Steve and Tragg in the lieutenant's office; Burger giving his opening statement.
+ Additional Hallmark cuts: entire scene of phone call between Doris and Maddox at 11:10 pm; entire scene of Maddox, Duncan and policeman as Maddox tries to leave to phone Doris again at 10:45 am; 29 seconds where Duncan signals to Burger to object to Mason's questions about lawyer ethics and Burger refuses; Perry whispers to Paul and Drake leaves the court. Submitted by Wiseguy70005, 7/03/12.
++ Some time in October 2021, MeTV extended Perry Mason's timeslot to a few minutes over an hour; this is now allowing them time to show the episodes without the syndication cuts. OLEF641 11/6/21
Cast Note: Hillary Brooke, a New York girl who crafted a cultured accent, appears in this episode in one of her last TV roles. Besides her film work, including three Sherlock Holmes films for Universal, she'd done scores of TV roles in the '50s, especially light comedy, including one season on The Abbott & Costello Show, and three seasons on My Little Margie. After retiring in 1960 she enjoyed another 40 years in private life. Submitted by francis, 5/13/14.
+ In one of those film roles her co-star was John Archer; a scene with them appearing together bears quite a resemblance to the one here. Notcom 111123.
It's for you, Mr. Mason: They were the good old days, before cell phones. For the first time in the series, someone tracks down Perry in the field. At the Cole Ranch house, it's his legal assistant Jackson calling from Santa Barbara. Submitted by francis, 5/25/14.
+ It may not be a cell phone, but it's still a mobile phone (even it if takes two people to carry it around !!) Mirthed by Notcom, 080117.
++ They introduced Jackson as a legal aide but it seems like they didn't continue with one (or didn't like his style) until David Gideon was his aide for a short while later in the series. Submitted by HamBurger, 9/12/2020
++ Personally, I like Jackson, wish they'd kept him on. jfh 15Sep2022
+++ I’m guessing the ladies preferred David Gideon. Submitted by Rickapolis 07/03/23
Temperance: Quite often in the series, Perry is offered a drink; he seldom accepts and rarely drinks it. This time he accepts a tall drink from Doris Cole but hands it back to her moments later. Submitted by francis, 5/25/14.
+ Ditto for Perry with cigarettes, we sometimes see Perry fiddling with a cigarette, rarely smoking. In episode 1, for example, Perry takes out a cigarette, fumbles with a lighter, ultimately asks Tragg for a light (a ploy to look at a document Tragg is holding) but Perry did not smoke the cigarette. jfh 23Apr2018.
Closed-Caption Anomaly: On the CBS/Paramount DVD set, at 21:56 when Paul submits a monthly statement to Della for the Paul Drake Detective Agency the closed-captioning indicates the Fallgrade Detective Agency. Submitted by Wiseguy70005, 8/31/14.
+ This is likely to be due to the use of VR (voice recognition) captioning. "Fallgrade" and "Paul Drake" sound enough alike. Caption errors are a favorite spectator sport of mine; the local news a good place to hunt. My favorite (not from Perry Mason): ". . polluting flying suspect down . ." (= "bullets flying, suspect down . .") OLEF641 8/1/2017.
++ I am not sure they use voice recognition for closed captions. Captioning was probably done years ago for these shows and the station gets a version already captioned. Captions are typed using a court-reporter-type machine, and are typed phonetically, and I suppose it's easy to mis-hear something and that you should have known. This scene was cut from the MeTV version I watched, so I can't tell what it said on this version. I always have the captions on (have someone in my house who has English as a second language, and I just find it helpful) and I do find myself reading them. MeTV likes to censor the 'bad' words, which sometimes makes for interesting captions, because they don't do a good job of filtering correctly. Like instead of "cocktail," the caption will be "xxxxtail", "suspicious" will appear at "suxxxxious", and then there was that episode where one of the main character's name was "Dick" and whenever he was mentioned, it was "xxxx".--yelocab 04MAY19
+++ Not to say you are entirely wrong, but the censorship examples you cite support the case for automation. Have you ever used "change all" when editing a Word document and found unintended changes like the obviously non-offensive examples of words redacted given above? I'm not saying that stenographers weren't used in the early days of closed captioning, but compared to the hourly pay rate for a skilled steno, voice-recognition software is ridiculously cheap and most certainly was put into use as soon as practicable. And, yes, a transcript created by a person could be run through a censoring program later to remove offensive strings of letters. OLEF641 11/6/21
Although this is a full-length episode at 52:30 (although a few first-season episodes run longer) at two places the music stops so abruptly it seems a scene was cut out (as in syndicated episodes). First, at 9:22 after we see Perry Mason's door, followed by Mason already talking to Edna and Peter; and second at 26:36 after we see the McCarran Field sign. Perhaps the episode ran long and scenes were cut shortly before the original airdate. Submitted by Wiseguy70005, 8/31/14.
Although we hear Gertie's voice saying "Yes, sir" on the intercom, it obviously isn't Connie Cezon's voice who hadn't yet appeared on the series at least in the aired order. Submitted by Wiseguy70005, 8/31/14.
This was the first of 43 episodes where Paul called Della "beautiful". In some of the stories he did it more than once. Submitted by H. Mason 9/25/14
+ According to Jim Davidson's book The Perry Mason Book, the "Hello, beautiful" line originated with the Perry Mason radio series. ESG must have liked it because it continued in the TV series and ESG started using it in the novels! Submitted by Wiseguy70005, 3/29/15
The case of the misplaced kiss:Twice in the first scenes where Maddox and Doris kiss, it looks like Hillary playing Doris kisses him both times on his upper lip rather than on lips. When you see it (thanks to a large TV), it looks odd but possibly because she turns her head so much during the kiss. Submitted by Perry Baby 9/25/14
+ I see I'm not the only one who thought that kiss looked a bit odd ... Submitted by MikeReese 8/14/17
++ She absolutely kisses him on the upper lip. Perhaps it was a technique taught to avoid any hint of the dreaded "open-mouth kiss" so anathema to censors of those days? OLEF641 11/6/21
Technical goof: Toward the end of the show when the camera is on Drake as he enters the courtroom and then the camera pans to Perry who is front of the judge's bench, you can easily hear what sounds like a plastic cup hit the floor. No one seems to react but you can clearly hear it. Submitted by Perry baby 9/25/14
+ It's right after Steve Harris says: "Outside the house, right beneath Mrs. Cole's bedroom.". OLEF641 8/1/2017.
Kenneth MacDonald, the Judge in this and many other episodes is also known as Hammond Egger in a Three Stooges short Three Dark Horses 1952. Submitted by HamBurger, 10/11/2014
+ No, Hammond Egger is the candidate for President (running against Abel Lamb Stewer). Bud Jamison's photo is on the Hammond Egger campaign posters. MacDonald is Egger's campaign manager, Wm. "Bill" Wick. See for example your link and/or the Stooges short on DVD. I'll take a steak and French fries. lowercase masonite, 2/1/16.
++ OK, I stand corrected! How about a rib eye with twice baked potato. NYUK NYUK NYUK ;-) Submitted by HamBurger 5/29/2021
John Archer appeared in 4 more Perrys, most notably as the Finance Corps Major in Sardonic Sergeant, my favorite episode! Mike Bedard 3.23.15
Incorrect show summary: "Now he's been accused of stabbing a man who was attempting to extort money from him and block the progression of his divorce." Not true. It was another man who was stabbed. Submitted by Duffy, 3-23-15.
+ Yet another inaccurate description from "two of his biggest fans" from an episode widely syndicated in the twenty years before the book was printed. Submitted by Wiseguy70005, 3/29/15.
No "so help you God" at the end of the oaths....MikeM. 7/12/2016.
At Parker Center, the "Homicide Division, Lieutenant Tragg" office is across the hall from the "Fingerprint Division, Sergeant Bent" office...MikeM. 7/12/2016.
Suppose I: The infamous line use by Perry in several episodes "suppose I told you" is used by Frank Maddox in a slightly different manner, he says, "suppose I show you" when talking to new fling Doris Cole. Submitted by HamBurger, 07/16/2017
+ Tragg uses the same line on Steve when questioning him. Kilo 11/22/2018.
Ambient sound: In the early seasons, the microphone picked up a lot more ambiance on the set than in later seasons. You hear more sounds like foot steps, cups clinking, etc. and voices seem to be fuller. For example, the footsteps in the airport as they walk are quite noticeable. I assume they started using a more directional mic and then added sounds like foot steps when necessary. It probably meant fewer retakes due distracting noise. Submitted by Perry Baby 8/1/17
ESG: "The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece" was Perry Mason novel # 8, published in 1936. Submitted by catyron 11/2/2017
This is the only PM appearance for Helen Mowery who, if IMDb is correct, will celebrate her 96th birthday on 28 April 2018...MikeM. 4/23/2018
IMDb seems to have updated their information on Helen Mowery. She passed away in 2008 at the ripe old age of 86. Submitted by Kenmore 01/19/2022
This is the first of three appearances for Thomas B. Henry, the other two being TCOT Dubious Bridegroom (1959) George Denby, and TCOT Treacherous Toupee (1960) Hartley Basset (the one with Robert Redford). He very much reminds me of Al B. Lewis, aka, "Grandpa" of The Musters fame