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» » Perry Mason The Case of the Glamorous Ghost (1957–1966)

Short summary

Eleanor Corbin is arrested in a public park, half-naked and acting somewhat irrationally. After fainting however, she tells the police she has no idea who she is and is suffering from amnesia. Her sister, Olga, approaches Perry Mason for his help worried about the impact on their father's jewelry business. She tells him that Eleanor had gone off with her fiancé Douglas Hepner two weeks before to get married. At the hospital, Eleanor has regained some of her memory but the two weeks she was away is a complete blank. Perry sends Paul and Della to talk to Eleanor. Upon hearing her story, Paul has Eleanor transferred to a private sanitarium as he and Della start tracking down the facts which leads them to other women, some of whom were also engaged to Hepner, plus a stash of hidden jewels. When Hepner is found dead in the park, Eleanor is charged with murder. To win the case however, Perry will first have to get the truth out of his client.

Evidently, Hamilton Burger has been taking Latin lessons. After pronouncing the legal phrase 'prima facie' PREYE-ma FASH-ee for five seasons, he finally renders the correct Latin pronunciation PREE-ma fah-SEE-ay.

The amnesia victim, Eleanor, wakes up and mentions Tuesday the 3rd, and her sister Olga corrects her and tells her it's Tuesday the 17th. This episode aired on Saturday, February 3, 1962. The closest "Tuesday the 3rd" would have been 4 months prior in October 1961, when both the 3rd and the 17th fell on Tuesdays.

Olga Corbin, the defendant's sister, appears in the credits as Olga Jordan.

User reviews


  • comment
    • Author: Gralinda
    A lot going on in this episode as we get a little taste of blackmail, smuggling, falsehoods and murder all combined in 52 minutes. Then add a terrific mystery and you have a show worthy of a great 'Perry Mason' episode.

    The story begins with a young women being found wandering around a park in a very strange state of mind. When the police arrive, the women passes out only to awake telling that she does not know her name.

    Later her name is discovered to be Eleanor Corbin and was last heard when she called her family on her way for a quickie marriage in Las Vegas with a man named Douglas Hepner. Now she is in a hospital and the Corbin family wants Perry to investigate her whereabouts for the last few weeks.

    It will not be long before Douglas Hepner's body will be found by police. He had been shot in the head with a gun that was owned by Eleanor. And to make matters worse, Perry finds out that his client, Eleanor Corbin, has been faking her memory lost and actually knew where the body of Douglas was located even before police. It will not be long before Lt Tragg and Lt Anderson come calling with warrants for murder.

    With Paul Drake doing most of the investigating, Douglas Hepner will prove to be more than just a guy wanting marriage. Seems that he has done the Vegas marriage plan with more than just Perry's client as we are introduced to a women with the exact same marriage proposal as Eleanor's. This will lead Paul on a path of smuggled gems and blackmail.

    By the time the show ends the viewer has been treated to a very nice mystery that is positively entertaining. Good watch for viewers.
  • comment
    • Author: Dranar
    When I saw Glamorus Ghost I had to check this out & sure enough it is an Erle Stanley Gardner script. It involves jewel smuggling, murder & a Defendent who lies constantly to Mason to the point that he almost loses confidence in his client. Then he gets a major break.

    The break he gets is Paul Drake who does much more than his usual leg work in this case. Drake is involved from the beginning & provides Perry with his main witness to crack the case. Jeanne Cooper, Mrs. Chancellor to Young & Restless Soap Opera fans is the most well known of the guest cast to a very good episode.

    At the finish of this one, Della & Paul Drake get rewarded for their efforts in helping crack the case. For the first time in the series, Della offers to buy dinner out.
  • comment
    • Author: Perilanim
    ***SPOILERS***Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, is forced to deal with a number of glamorous babes here that involves a jewel smuggling operation that his client Elenore Corbin, Mary Murphy,is accused of murdering her future husband Dough Hepner, played by what looked like a storefront dummy, just before the two were to elope to Las Vegas. Elenore is found wondering around in her nightgown in the vicinity of Dough's body who claimed to have had amnesia and can't remember a thing that happened.

    It soon becomes obvious to Perry that Elenore knows a lot more then she's letting on to but is somehow being framed in her being a pasty for Hepner's murder by those who murdered him. It's Hepner who turns out to be a jet setting gigolo as well as diamond smuggler who uses beautiful woman to get the goods on other diamond smugglers by blackmailing them and forcing them-In him claiming he works for law enforcement- to give him a cut of their ill gotten gains.Elenore who in fact was one of his victims by unknowingly working with him who's now being charged with his murder.

    ****SPOILERS*** Perry soon finds out that before Hepner was murdered he was kidnapped and drugged by his killers in order to have him tell them where he had the hidden cash of jewelry hidden he's been smuggling. Not in the apartment as suspected that shared with his accomplice but in her make-up kit where it was hidden all along. Despite the almost incomprehensible story-line the hot looking women in the "Perry Mason" episode made it more then worth watching. It was easy to spot the one involved in Hepner's murder in that she was the least glamorous-just a run of the kill plain Jane-of them all. Watch for "Perry Mason" regular Douglas Dick as the snide and creepy looking Apartment manager Watler Richey who spent almost all his time not doing his job but hiding in the women's closets, who live in his apartment house,and spying on them.
  • comment
    • Author: Hadadel
    Some of the most beautiful starlets of the day grace the cast of this Perry Mason episode including Mary Murphy, Jeanne Cooper, Merry Anders, and Ziva Rodann. It's Murphy who is Raymond Burr's client in this episode which involves Murphy faking amnesia after supposedly running off with a charming gigolo.

    The charmer is never seen, in fact he's found shot to death in a park across from an apartment where several of these women live. The victim in fact had a nice charming racket where he had a nose for smuggling. Depending on the amount and what was being smuggled he and an accomplice would either turn the guilty party into customs for a reward or blackmail the perpetrator for a share of what the item might bring.

    In this case it's smuggled diamonds and the deceased thought that Murphy could have been doing the smuggling. Of course it isn't, but apparently he got her involved in his scheme in any event. He must have been a charmer.

    Sad to say the writers messed up with this one on two accounts. First the deceased was shot and dumped in the park and that was never an issue during the trial. Sloppy police work from Ray Collins and Wesley Lau. Secondly the murderer was really rather obvious in the behavior. Usually that means a red herring, but in this case definitely not.

    William Hopper came in for more than his usual kudos for his detective work in locating the accomplice whose testimony broke William Talman's case apart.

    Did you think it wouldn't?
  • comment
    • Author: Thetalen
    **SPOILERS**In this episode, Perry, Paul, and Della play equally important roles in finding evidence. There are certainly several good looking young women in various roles, notably, Ziva Rodann. An Israeli beauty queen with an exotic accent and looks very memorable - WOW! A complicated (naturally) plot involving stolen gems, blackmail, and murder all get dumped into Perry's lap like a kid's toybox that's been overturned. No worries; the team of Della, Paul, and Perry sort it out, and in the end, it works out alright. Anyone think it wouldn't?

    However, there is a point that doesn't add up. Two weeks of a point. ***SPOILER*** No matter how Hamilton and the police try to work it out, they can't account for two weeks of time of the dead guy, Hepner. I know, morphine, and all that. NOBODY knew where he was? Why didn't his wife notice that his apartment was tossed? Or are we to believe that she didn't have a key to it when it was right across the hall? She was his partner in the theft, blackmail, extortion, and God only knows what other petty crimes; and she didn't know where he was? Bulloney.

    In the end, she confesses on the stand to their racket, and good luck figuring out who all they swindled, but she was definitely NOT any part of the murder. She'll probably take a fall for some customs violations and get a slap on the wrist. See, they're gonna want everything she can tell them about THIS crime, the crime of Capital Murder (Murder 1). Planned, and executed by Walter and his accomplice who will face the death penalty; good riddance. Perry can recommend a good attorney for her. His client? Borderline nutcake. After they're paid, they'll be smart to distance themselves from involvements with her and her family; her stepmom is just a little too hinkey if anyone were to ask me.
  • Episode cast overview, first billed only:
    Raymond Burr Raymond Burr - Perry Mason
    Barbara Hale Barbara Hale - Della Street
    William Hopper William Hopper - Paul Drake
    William Talman William Talman - Hamilton Burger
    Ray Collins Ray Collins - Police Lt. Arthur Tragg
    Mary Murphy Mary Murphy - Eleanor Corbin
    Jeanne Cooper Jeanne Cooper - Ethel Belan
    Ziva Rodann Ziva Rodann - Suzanne Granger
    Merry Anders Merry Anders - Sadie Hepner
    Douglas Dick Douglas Dick - Walter Richey
    Wesley Lau Wesley Lau - Police Lt. Andy Anderson
    Coleen Gray Coleen Gray - Olga Jordan
    Vinton Hayworth Vinton Hayworth - Homer Corbin
    Kenneth MacDonald Kenneth MacDonald - Judge
    Jon Lormer Jon Lormer - Dr. Oberon
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