Perry Mason (TV Series) The Case of the Stand-In Sister (1962) User Reviews

Excellent mystery that produced a great show.

[kfo9494 · 9/10 · 11 September 2012]

This episode has all the qualities you expect from a 'Perry Mason' show. Good script, interesting characters and a mystery that is entertaining. Made for an enjoyable 52 minutes of viewing pleasure.

It starts off rather strange when Stefan 'Big Steve' Jahnchek has been let out of prison to testify before congress on mob activities. But during a break in the action, Big Steve is able to escape and makes his way to the LA area.

He wants to get in touch with a local fisherman named John Gregory. Big Steve had a baby daughter and John had agreed to care for the baby while Big Steve was imprisoned. Big John had even set us a trust fund for his daughter Helen that included thousands of dollars when she reached the age of 21.

However John tells Big Steve that his child died in an automobile accident which did not seem to bother the convict. All Big Steve is wanting is the thousands of dollars that was in the fund.

John also had trouble from a retired Swiss bank employee that was blackmailing for some secret that John wanted kept quiet. But when the bank employee ends up dead on John's boat all evidence points to John being the killer.

Perry will defend John in court which will produce some interesting results. Inside the courtroom we learn that all may not be what they seem. People identity will be discovered and people's true friendship will be tested. By the time the proceeding end we have learned more secrets than people in the script.

An excellent mystery.

A Fishy Situation

[zsenorsock · 8/10 · 15 April 2008]

What does a Washington DC congressional investigation on organized crime have to do with a fisherman on the west coast? Plenty when the key witness, "Big Steve" Jahncheck (Peter Whitney) escapes from the committee (he was taken out of prison to testify) and winds up on John Gregory's (R.G. Armstrong) boat in San Pedro. He wants $100,000 from Gregory, safe passage to Mexico, a fake passport and his daughter to accompany him. If this wasn't enough trouble for Gregory, a Swiss banker shows up to try and blackmail him and ends up dead, with Gregory accused of the murder.

A complicated and well written mystery with good performances all around, highlighted by Armstrong and the underrated Whitney. We also get to see something rare: Paul Drake pulling a gun on a suspect. The final confession by the killer is rather subdued compared to some of the more recent episodes, and of that, I'm grateful.

Too Many Layers!

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 28 January 2022]

The lineage of a young woman is at the center here. She was in an accident as a child and her parentage has come into question. Throw in a big time gangster and his close-mouthed brother and the murder of an extortionist and you have this story. The problem is that there are too many cooks in kitchen and sorting it out is very difficult. Also, the solution is really quite unsatisfying.

So-Long, Steve

[darbski · 10/10 · 17 November 2017]

**SPOILERS** Yeah, just saw it again, and it occurred to me just WHY Big Steve did what he did. Tell ya later. Good acting, and the other reviewers pretty much tell the story; naturally there are loose ends. Nobody mentions the fact that Della's hairstyle is pulled back, and NO bangs shows off even more of her beauty. Almost hard to believe how Big Steve got away. Except that I saw a program on I.D. right before this episode in which it was pointed out how lax security could be in those days.

The blackmailer got what most blackmailers deserve when they take on those risks, but John Gregory is caught up, and busted. Perry defends, since he is already his attorney. John is Big Steve's brother. Steve was paying into a Swiss bank account for her (thinking that she was his own kid), it sits and is supposedly going to be ready for him when he gets out of prison (for various forms of being a creep); legal and financial trickery, and everything comes to the payoff window at the same time. Perry has to sort it all out, and when he does, there is one person that Paul dug up who HAD to be the killer.

****SECOND SPOILER**** If you haven't seen this episode, go no further, please. Captain Paolo is just kinda screwed, here. See, while John's daughter visits her dad on the dock, driving a nice new Ford Thunderbird, captain Paolo's been doing without in long term yeoman service to John. Looking at things from his point of view, it's justice to bump off the guy who wants to wreck things by being just as crooked as John's brother bye, bye, louse. Unfortunately, he couldn't get rid of the body, and they grabbed John. Perry figures it out and traps him into admitting it had been an accidental killing. Probably so, uh huh; not really, but, hey... prove it. Murder 2. He was gonna make a pile of dough finally after years of hard work. It would have been good, but then comes the extortionist, whose name is Moray (like the eel; nice).

Well, like I said, Perry fixed him good, and everything he worked for was gone, anyway. Doesn't matter, though. Even though Big Steve supposedly has all that money in the account - $200Gs - He'll NEVER get it. See, before he escaped, he'd been brought before a senate sub-committee on crime, and had perjured himself, and trapped himself on advice from the crooked lawyer paid for by the Mob. If he ever gets out, it'll be in a pine box. He tells John that the money is still his, but Perry will figure out a way to get it. His daughter MAY have some of it coming, too.

Now, the judge is played by S. John Launer. I've remarked before that he looks a lot like John D. MacDonald (a very famous crime writer of the Travis McGee series of books), especially with his glasses on. In this episode, in chambers, he actually reproaches Perry (in a raised voice), about wasting the court's time with vituperative, vicious, insults between the brothers. I loved it. Perry, cool as a cucumber, gets Big Steve back on the stand, where he lies in everyone's face. Burger says "Do you know the penalty for perjury?". "Yeah" Steve replies "They put you in jail, don't they?". Droll acknowledgment of the consequence. He's caught, he's done, and he knows it. That's why he lied. I bet he willingly turns over all the assets to his brother. His Underworld friends have sold him out; no where else to turn ever again. Might as well tell the Feds to shove it.

Good nostalgia episode.

[nicholsonlarry-72025 · 8/10 · 11 January 2022]

Decent mystery and plot. Seen as a rerun so many years later it's fun to watch Mayor Stoner and Courtney from the original Heat of The Night movie and a couple of others who seemed to be in every TV show ever made but nobody can remember their names.

Not the best plot ever since not knowing whose kid is who has been overdone but still worth watching.

Switched at Death

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 12 September 2012]

***SPOILERS*** Real dozy of a Perry Mason episode has Perry,Raymond Burr,get involved with this extortion & murder case where his client fisherman John Gregory, R.G Armstong, is both the victim & accused. First Gregory was being blackmailed by this former swiss bank investment broker Franz Moray, Steven Gray, and then indited in Moray's murder! An obvious case of the person being blackmailed getting back at the blackmailer. But wait there's now Geregory's 20 year old daughter Hellen,Susan Seaforth Hayes, whom a $200,000.00 trust fund was set up for by what seemed to be her dad John Gerogery after she was born. That trust fund is to be paid ,half was already paid out to Hellen when she reached her 10th birthday, to Hellen at her 21th birthday that's just weeks away! But the problem is that the money just ain't there! That remaining $100,000.00 is the exact amount money that the late Mr.Morny was shaking down or blackmailing Gregory for!

Things get even more complicated when the on the lamb from the law "Big Steve" Jahnchek,Peter Whitney, comes on the scene. It in fact was "Big Steve" not Gregory who had set up this trust fund! But not for Hellen but his daughter Susan! The problem is that Susan will never get a penny of it since she's been dead, killed in an auto crash, for some 20 years when she was an infant!

There's a number of skeletons in the closet that Perry uncovers in this very confusing murder case that involves the two girls who one of them Hellen is supposed to get the money $100,000.00 when reached r the age of 10 and the reminding $100,000,00 at the time she reach their 21th birthday! But Helen is suspected to be an impostor and if proved in court is not entitled to the trust fund! As for "Big Steve" he's fit to be tied in that he set the trust fund up for himself using his 3 month daughter Hellen as the beneficiary. That so the Feds can't grab the money due to back taxes that he owes the US Government! With all this going on you almost forget about the person who was murdered and who Gregory is accused of murdering former Swiss banker Franz Moray!

***SPOILERS*** Leave it to the great Perry Mason to tie up all the loose ends in tracking down not only who murdered Mr. Moray but the confusing circumstances behind the two girls involved, Hellen & Susan, in the trust fund that "Big Steve" set up. Steve who was sent up the river, or prison,for 20 years expected to have that cash withing for him when he got out! Now with extra time to serve,in perjuring himself in front of a Senate Crime Commission, that money won't be there withing for him when he finally does his time! It also become very clear that "Big Steve" and John Gregory are actually brothers who've been on the outs with each other for years! And it also becomes very possible that it was "Big Steve" who was at the scene of the murder who in fact did in Mr. Moray and framed his brother for it! We as usual have to wait until the end to have Perry uncover who the real killer is who turned out to be someone that nobody ever suspected! But if you checked out his shady dealings and how they brought him to the the brink of bankruptcy, which Perry did, and even more critical in how Franz Moray was screwing things up for him it would have been a slam dunk to smoke him out!

Who's daughter is it?

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 29 December 2012]

This episode was way overplotted with complex motives and the ordinary viewer might get a bit lost here. Peter Whitney who is a notorious gangster from Boston after appearing at a Senate Crime Committee hearing, bolted and headed west to see his brother R.G. Armstrong. Years before Armstrong left the Boston area and changed his name, but before that Armstrong set up a trust fund for Whitney's daughter. Now Whitney wants to break the trust and use that as both getaway and living money in some no extradition country.

Seems as though the money is in question as the child may have been killed in an accident long ago with Armstrong's wife and daughter. But was it Whitney's daughter? Whoever it is she grew up to be Susan Seaforth.

It's a blackmailing Swiss banker Steven Geray who is the victim, but who did it? Armstrong didn't because he has Perry Mason representing him.

The story has the real murderer coming in from the bleachers. Not the best Mason story.