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» » Perry Mason The Case of the One-Eyed Witness (1957–1966)

Short summary

Marian Fargo has been blackmailed by Samuel D. Carlin for the last 10 months and has already paid him $10,000. He tells her that for a lump sum of another $10,000 he will give her what she wants: a file he has on Charles Gallagher, her brother. She finally breaks down and tells her husband Arthur Fargo what has been happening. She's supposed to meet Carlin in a restaurant for the exchange but when he leaves a message with the Maitre d' for her to come to his house, she gets Perry Mason to deliver it for her. When both Carlin and Arthur Fargo are found dead, Marian is charged with murder and Perry defends her.

A running joke through the story is how could a restaurant charge $1.00 for a cup of coffee. If adjusted for inflation that would be equal to almost $8.50 in 2014.

In the opening scene, we see a newspaper with a headline containing the words "Prominent Attorney." A sub-headline mentions Perry Mason and perjury. This appears to be a prop that was used in an earlier episode, "The Case of the Sunbather's Diary," in which Hamilton Burger tries to charge Perry with perjury.

User reviews


  • comment
    • Author: Swift Summer
    Angie Dickinson guest-stars in the episode playing Ms Marion Fargo a women seeming meant to be in trouble. She is married to Authur Fargo (Peter Adams) and is being blackmailed by Samuel Carlin (Luis Van Rooten). When both men end up dead guess who is the main suspect in a double murder.

    In the shortest terms-- that is the story. But there is more going on here than meets the eye (and I do mean one eye).

    Ms Fargo has an alibi. She is seen on a bus before the murder's happened. But having Lt Tragg and Hamilton Burger get through talking with the witness, we are back to all fingers point to Ms Fargo.

    Thank goodness that Ms Fargo had chance encounter with Perry because he ends up defending her in court. And for once it is a difficult job. Ms Fargo has a family secret that she will not reveal making Perry's case much more difficult. But as we know - when court time comes Perry has done his homework.

    This is a good episode. In my opinion one of the better shows. Good acting with a good storyline. I give this a high mark.

    Note- Two things to watch out for The first time we see Paul Drake he is stopping his car to make a phone call. He must not have been use to the brakes because he nearly sends the passenger through the windshield. And that was before seat belts.{This scene was removed in syndication} -Also Della gets some good face time in front of the camera. Instead of being in the background taking shorthand, in one scene, she is only person in the office when a man arrives with a problem. She may, or may not, give advise that is helpful to the man's problem. That is a scene you have to see.
  • comment
    • Author: Oparae
    Angie Dickinson is the Perry Mason client in this story. She's a young woman who has been paying systematic blackmail to Luis Van Rooten and finally she calls in Raymond Burr.

    She gets herself in a nice jackpot when she's charged with both the murder of her husband Peter Adams and Van Rooten. When both William Hopper and Ray Collins meet Dickinson at a bus station and Collins arrests her, another woman played by Dorothy Green offers to be an alibi witness for Angie. Too good to be true, well it is.

    The reason for the blackmail is Dickinson's brother played by Paul Picerni who has one scene in the episode with Barbara Hale. Picerni drops by Perry Mason's office and finding him not there, he tells Della Street his story about how he is a fugitive from state back east where he was arrested as a juvenile on a minor offense and broke jail. He is in fact a fugitive just as Paul Muni was. In the end his state showed a lot more sense than Georgia where Muni escaped from a chain gang in that classic film.

    Of course Dickinson didn't do it and in fact this involved an intricate scheme to frame her. It all unravels in court where Raymond Burr gets a little help from William Talman involving a witness.

    One of the top Perry Mason stories.
  • comment
    • Author: Ylal
    **SPOILERS** Title is a good one. Angie Dickinson shows her basic good looks as a light brunette, and good acting skills, also. If you've read the other reviews, you've got enough of the plot to make you want to see this fine episode. It's better than it sounds, but, as usual, I've got a fine point here. SPOILER Now, I know that a lot of people smoked in those days, but it is ridiculous to show someone who has just said he has Tuberculosis lighting up and NOT hacking his lungs out. I remember this from seeing this episode as a kid; one of my old-west heroes was Doc Holliday, and the idea that someone who suffered with those symptoms not noticing what happens when they ingest smoke is just too painfully stupid to contemplate.

    I would also, well, yeah; I'm gonna mention it. Beautiful Della just doesn't take enough shorthand. This is empirical knowledge. My mother was a legal secretary, and a shorthand sharpshooter. She taught my sister , too. Gregg Shorthand was the text they used, and I can tell you truthfully, once she had her hand centered on her book, she never really had to look at it. It's another one of those pedantic observations that I make that I feel good about. Della should ALWAYS have her book with her; as many business lunches, dinners, and meetings as she is required for. And, yeah, she would have a serious notebook, not just the basic pages, as usually shown. Of course, I forgive her, she's perfect.

    HOWEVER, in this case it shows just how smart she really is, because if she had been taking notes, it would have shown that she indeed did know about this side of the case before Perry had an opportunity to tie down those pesky legal details.... Yeah, coffee really is expensive anymore, isn't it? The courtroom ending is great, with Perry separating the accomplice from the scumbag, and with Della's assistance, clarifying the one important detail. The main rat in this episode was truly evil, and You have to watch it yourself. The witness that Perry was relying on turned to be an accomplice, and would probably take at least a fifteen year hit even with her testimony. The ending exchange between Della and Perry is a solid closer. Great acting, and as always, Barbara Hale shines.
  • comment
    • Author: Iphonedivorced
    I'm not sure if this review contains a spoiler, but with Perry Mason stories, you never know.

    If ever there were a Perry Mason "jump the shark" episode, this is it. And it's from one of Erle Stanley Gardner's novels!

    You know something is Really Weird when a primary witness is a woman with an eye infection who wears a patch to protect the eye. Mason's cross-examination of her is based on the possibility that a person with one impaired eye sees more poorly using both eyes than just one (which contradicts my own experience). One gets the feeling that Gardner started with this theory about human vision, then worked backwards to concoct this story.

    Though the resolution is perfectly logical, it's so abrupt -- and with so little foreshadowing -- that it's reminiscent of Adam and Jamie crashing two semis together.

    This is undoubtedly Martin Crane's favorite "Perry Mason" episode, as Angie Dickinson is the defendant.
  • comment
    • Author: Kelerius
    ****SPOILER*** Unintentionally funny like an Ed Wood directed movie Perry Mason episode that among other thing has to do with the price of a cup of coffee as well as a fugitive from Justice who invented a refinement for the calibrator of the internal combustion engine that will revolutionized the automobile. It's the sweet and lovely Marian Forgo, Angie Dickinson, who's being blackmailed about her fugitive from justice brother Charlie,Paul Picerni,who ends up on the short end of the stick here. Both State prison investigator Samuel D. Carlin,Luis Van Rooten, and Marion's greedy husband Arthur,Peter Adams, have been shaking her down for hush money in keeping her brother's past from becoming public. And sure enough both end up dead with Marian as the #1 suspect in their murders.

    Perry Mason,Raymond Burr, who interrupted an important luncheon date at a swanky and very expensive French restaurant, where coffee sells for $1.00 a cup, with his private secretary Della Street, Barbara Hale, to take on Marian's case has to prove that she wasn't at the scene of both her husband Arthur and investigator Carlins murder and get her off the hook or out of the San Quentin gas chamber. And the only person who can prove Marian's innocence is a passenger who was sitting next to her on the L.A to Harristown bus when the two murders took place. The rub in all this is that the mystery woman Diana Maynard, Dorothy Green, wears an eye patch because of a severe eye infection that may make her testimony highly suspect!

    ****SPOILERS*** Worth sitting through just for the presence of the beautiful 26 year old Angie Dickison being in the cast as well as the utterly insane as well as highly entertaining surprise ending. You just knew it would happened but didn't quite know how it was going to be pulled off. As it turned out one of the still alive co conspirators in both Arthur Fargo and Samuel D. Carlin's murders just couldn't contain himself in seeing just how ridicules all this, the blackmail & murder plot, was and spilled the beans as Perry was cross examining him.
  • 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
    Angie Dickinson Angie Dickinson - Marian Fargo
    Luis Van Rooten Luis Van Rooten - Samuel Carlin (as Louis Van Rooten)
    Dorothy Green Dorothy Green - Diana Maynard
    Paul Picerni Paul Picerni - Charles Gallagher
    Eve Miller Eve Miller - Nora Kelly
    Peter Adams Peter Adams - Arthur Fargo
    Vincent Perry Vincent Perry - Judge (as Vincent G. Perry)
    Richard Benedict Richard Benedict - Steve Daniels
    Jan Arvan Jan Arvan - Pierre Renaud
    Sam Gilman Sam Gilman - George Danvers
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