Perry Mason
Erle Stanley Gardner's The Case of the Duplicate Daughter
TV Flash files “Erle Stanley Gardner's The Case of the Duplicate Daughter” as hour 121 of 271 in the TV Flash guide — Perry Mason (1957–1966) on CBS, season 4, episode 26, aired 1961-05-20, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E26: listed hour 121 of 271 in the Perry Mason guide, hour 26 of 28 in season 4. It aired 1961-05-20 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Case of the Misguided Missile” (S04E25). Next is “The Case of the Grumbling Grandfather” (S04E27).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
A mixed up mess awaits Perry as he struggles to put all the pieces together. Blackmail, murder, a boyfriend who spent the night, all add up to one great case.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Erle Stanley Gardner's The Case of the Duplicate Daughter sit in the Perry Mason guide?
S04E26 is listed hour 121 of 271 — hour 26 of 28 in season 4, season 4 episode 26.
When did Perry Mason S04E26 air?
Erle Stanley Gardner's The Case of the Duplicate Daughter aired 1961-05-20 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start?
Start with the 1957 restless-redhead opener to learn the grammar, then one tight first-season case. The pleasure is structure, not a serialized mystery box.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Burr’s stillness is the camera’s argument: delay as pleasure, court as stage, the last witness as a kept promise. Watch a weekly legal machine that made justice appointment theater — then the rare hour the rails fail, which is how you learn the contract was always a contract.
Watch the stillness first. Raymond Burr does not play brilliance as sweat. He plays it as furniture that has already been placed. Perry Mason, from the 1957 opener onward, is a legal procedural that understands delay as pleasure: investigation as a corridor, the courtroom as a stage, the last witness as a structural promise. The tabloids will say Burr’s public image was a managed cathedral — and they are not wrong, as gossip. The cut says something dryer. The camera trusts a man who barely moves, then lets the…
Filed against
- Raymond Burr as Perry Mason
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- Barbara Hale as Della Street
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- William Hopper as Paul Drake
William Hopper’s Paul Drake is Perry Mason’s investigator as a kept promise — nine seasons of courtroom architecture, Raymond Burr’s stillness, a killer who almost always rises, delay as pleasure. On TV Flash he is the last-witness…
- William Talman as Hamilton Burger
William Talman’s Hamilton Burger is Perry Mason’s district attorney as a formal contract — nine seasons of courtroom architecture, a last witness who almost always rises, delay as pleasure, Burr’s stillness as the camera’s argument. On TV…
- Ray Collins as Lt. Arthur Tragg
Ray Collins’s Lt. Arthur Tragg was Perry Mason’s necessary other department — the cop across from Raymond Burr’s stillness, investigation as a corridor, court as a stage. Nine seasons of a killer who almost always rose. TV Flash still…