Perry Mason (TV Series) The Case of the Singular Double (1960) User Reviews

A bribe delivery that goes wrong plays out well for us viewers.

[kfo9494 · 8/10 · 15 June 2012]

The episode begins as we see Lucy Stevens delivering a suitcase with $60,000 of bribe money into an unoccupied car at the airport parking lot. She calls Hugo Burnette all distressed saying that her involvement with money is over.

Meanwhile Marjorie Ralston picks up the car at the airport and delivers the suitcase to Whitney Locke. When Mr Locke opens the suitcase there is only cut up newspaper and no money. Mr Locke calls Mr Burnette to tell him that he has been double-crossed.

Lucy Stevens is so distressed that she fakes her suicide by writing a note to her cousin, Carol Morgan, and then drives her car into the ocean. She left the door open so that the police would think that the ocean's current move the body out into the deep water.

Lucy changes her hair color and changes her name. She is present when the police lift her car from the ocean and to her surprise there is a dead body inside. And after Lucy's identity is found out- Lt Tragg believes that Lucy killed the women in the car and covered it up by faking her suicide. Perry agreed to take the case as charges of murder are brought up against Ms Lucy Stevens.

During the course of the trial, we not only have to find the true murderer but we also get into the situation of the missing money. And the money will finally lead to a courtroom gallery confession that ties all the loose ends up and ends nicely for Perry's client.

This episode is another good watch for any mystery buff. Perhaps not as exciting as the last few shows- but it leaves us feeling satisfied with another 'Perry Mason' episode. Good Watch

Mr. Ed's Sister

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 11 January 2022]

I liked this one because in addition to the usual murder case, there is an underbelly of corruption, bribery, and graft. The opening scene of a young woman, reaching the end of her rope, delivering a suitcase, supposedly full of cash to an unlocked vehicle, is very well done. The Mason show often was built on these rich people peddling influence and throwing money around. Invariably, there is someone victimized by this who has no way out. I wasn't aware that Carol Post, Wilbur's long suffering wife from "Mr. Ed" was the blonde who gets caught up in this. I remember her thinking her husband was nuts (and rightfully so since he was routinely talking to a horse).

Disguised Blondes Don't Have More Fun

[DKosty123 · 9/10 · 26 December 2009]

The fourth episode of season 4 is another good outing. In this one, $60,000 dollars and a disguised blonde figure into the intrigue. Arthur Marks who would direct 58 episodes of Mason does good work here.

Besides the twist of the plot, Mason in this one gets the Prosecutor to do a lot of his work in the court room helping him to eliminate suspects until he draws the confession out of the guilty party. The guilty party is called to the stand & with the judge & Mason staring at them from the front of the court, they say "Mason, you have been trying to deliberately point everything at me specifically...so yes, I did it. You have found me & been pounding at me all this time." "Since your the murderer, yes, all this time I have been looking for the murderer."

I am going through viewing season 4 an episode at a time, & so far, it appears each one is pretty much knocking things out of the park.

Small Thing.

[darbski · 10/10 · 23 August 2017]

**SPOILERS** Besides the victim, here, there is a small thing that has to be discussed. Exactly WHERE did the tire iron (favorite movie murder weapon) come from? Did the killer ask Marjorie to wait while he got it out of the trunk? Bring it with him? Did Tragg check to see if Lucy's was in the trunk of the decoy/dead body car? Why didn't Tragg say "It has my mark on it"? Ruskin was so suspicious, determined, and cool about setting up the plan to bust Locke for taking bribes, that it strains the imagination to think that he'd fail at this critical point, when there were other, more juicy targets available. Easy to understand his anger at Marjorie who upset his plans with her own greed and willingness to ruin another person's life.

In the end, though, the coolest character turned out to be Burnette, who cut his losses by telling his side of it right out. It's really refreshing to find an honest political crook who peddles influence and then admits it. Today, we call these parasites lobbyists, and they help corrupt our poisoned political system. No doubt he'll lawyer up, go states witness, get a slap on the wrist for turning over his cronies. He'll absolutely set up shop in another prosperous city, and run the same game again; wiser, and slicker.

Locke? Finished. He, and all his snooty, snotty, imperious attitude swept into the cesspool of politicians ruined by their own self interest; don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out, creep. I liked the way it turned out; except the fate of Ruskin who let anger ruin his noble crusade.

Connie Hines

[kdspringer-72759 · 8/10 · 12 February 2021]

This episode features the drop-dead gorgeous Connie Hines in the role of Mason's client, about three months before she became famous as Carol Post on "Mr. Ed." So we get to see her a lot.

The end.

Location location location!

[gkimmarygleim · 8/10 · 11 January 2019]

Several scenes were shot at the edge of the San Pedro Harbor.

How to loose everything and influence corruptible politicians

[duskdog-32745 · 10/10 · 9 February 2023]

I noticed one very small goof in this otherwise excellent episode. The year of the car tag is 1956 for the car where the briefcase was left. But, this episode was aired on. Oct. 8th 1960. I still wonder how the body got in the car and why the murderer chose that car to. Looking at all those classic cars in that parking lot was like 7th heaven to me. So, many cars with fins like they were rocketships. So many perfectly good suspects that I never guesed who the murderer was. A plot about bribes for real estate rezoning is perfect for the construction boom in California that started after world war two. I just wonder how many shows used that same plot device of forwarding a telephone call in Los Angeles to a switchboard in New York City then back to Los Angeles lol.

There are several loose ends left untied here

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 2 January 2023]

Lucy Stevens (Connie Hines) discovers that her professional activities - carrying money that is associated with bribes - is so distasteful that she must end it all because her boss refuses to let her go. She dyes her hair blonde and invents a cousin - whose identity she assumes. She then fakes her death by driving her car off a pier with her ID inside. And she then goes to Perry Mason pretending to be Lucy's cousin, concerned that Lucy would do something drastic. Two things she wasn't counting on. First, this ruse is something that Perry Mason is going to figure out in a hurry. Second, when the police find her car in the water, it is retrieved with an actual body in it. Seems like something you'd notice, huh?

The case gets rather bogged down in politics and payoffs and bribes and put my feet to sleep because, in the end, it all seems pretty tame. Plus the resolution never explains how that body got in the car without Lucy noticing it. I guess they just don't make big roomy cars like they used to.

Inexplicable surprise

[elliotjames2 · 6/10 · 26 February 2022]

The divers pulling the murder victim out of the submerged car is a good twist that helps to ruin the fake suicide scheme but it's never explained how the killer could sneak it in or why Connie Hines doesn't see it in her car before sending it into the harbor. Yeah, those annoying details.

Bribery and corruption

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 3 October 2012]

This episode of Perry Mason took us into the realm of politics, bribery, and corruption and basically saying that's how things get done if someone has a big interest. Raymond Burr's client here is Connie Hines later of the Mister Ed show who tries a real dumb play when the bribe money she was supposed to deliver winds up missing.

It turns out some other woman whose relationship to the various characters in this film I can't reveal or else it would completely spoil the show for a future viewer. But she steals the money and she winds up dead. And Hines figures that she should pose as her own cousin and identify the dead woman as herself. This after retaining Burr to find out about the missing money.

At one point during the hearing which in the Mason shows and I assume in California at the time takes the place of a grand jury here. They decide whether to bind over for trial. Anyway during the course of the examination of one witness, he gets caught in a really clumsy lie about his time of arrival in Los Angeles. I'm surprised that the writer's let that one go.

Highlight of the episode however was the unmasking of the real killer when the ADA Harry Townes put the wife of one of the suspects on the stand. Andrea King basically cleared everyone, but the murderer. After that it was the inevitable confession.

Some holes in this story prevent it from being top drawer Mason. Still the fans of the series will like it.