The Case of the Treacherous Toupee (17 Sep. 1960)

After a mysterious two-year absence, Hartley Bassett returns to reclaim his company. His wife Sybil is at a stockholders' meeting to vote with company president Peter Dawson to restructure ... See full summary »

Director:

Richard Kinon

Writer:

Maurice Zimm

Stars:

Raymond Burr, Barbara Hale, William Hopper

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Raymond Burr	...	Perry Mason
Barbara Hale	...	Della Street
William Hopper	...	Paul Drake
William Talman	...	Hamilton Burger
Ray Collins	...	Lt. Arthur Tragg
Peggy Converse	...	Sybil Basset
Philip Ober	...	Peter Dawson
Bert Freed	...	Ken Woodman
Cynthia Chenault	...	Teddi Hart (as Cindy Robbins)
Thomas Browne Henry	...	Hartley Basset (as Thomas B. Henry)
Robert Redford	...	Dick Hart
Nelson Olmsted	...	Arthur Colemar
Dee Arlen	...	Lorna Grant
Jonathan Hole	...	Stanley Roderick
Frank Wilcox	...	Judge

Storyline

After a mysterious two-year absence, Hartley Bassett returns to reclaim his company. His wife Sybil is at a stockholders' meeting to vote with company president Peter Dawson to restructure the business after accusations that her husband embezzled funds. Bassett bursts in and breaks up the meeting. Sybil's son and Bassett's stepson, Dick Hart, is in San Francisco on company affairs. While there he marries gold-digger Teddi. Dawson consults with Perry Mason about the situation, confessing that he is in love with Sybil. At the company offices Perry, Dick and Teddi find Hartley Bassett murdered, clutching a tuft of hair from a toupee. Dawson wears one, but is not the only owner of a renegade rug. Teddi disappears, Tragg arrests Dawson, and Perry runs a desperate con to flush out the murderer.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 September 1960 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Stage 4, 20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paisano Productions, Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is an adaptation of Erle Stanley Gardner's novel "The Case of the Counterfeit Eye." However, a glass eye would've been too gruesome for 1950s television, and so a toupee was substituted.

User Reviews

Rather Clever Trap

For reasons never made clear, Tom Browne Henry took a powder on his wife Peggy Converse and left his company high and dry, but at least the business was salvaged by General Manager Philip Ober who is also seeing the deserted wife as well.

So imagine everyone's surprise when Henry returns in a melodramatic fashion accusing a lot of people of a lot of things. He's not the most pleasant individual in the world so these things might have a basis.

Later on Henry is murdered and a piece of a torn toupee known to have been worn by Ober is found near the body. That makes Ober the prime suspect and he retains Perry Mason.

There was a witness, the new wife of Robert Redford who is Converse's son by a first marriage. But now she takes a powder and Hamilton Burger is throwing around hints that Perry disappeared her out of town.

There are two reasons to watch what I think was a Mason episode that was a bit over the top. First is for Robert Redford before he became a superstar. Secondly for the rather clever trap set by Raymond Burr to nail the real culprit. It's a beauty.