- [last lines]
- Hamilton Burger: That's the first time I ever heard of a lame canary turning out to be a stool pigeon.
- [first lines]
- Ruth Prescott: Walter, please listen to me.
- Walter Prescott: I'm all ears.
- Ruth Prescott: I've tried to make a go of our marriage. It just hasn't worked.
- Walter Prescott: I'm not complaining, Ruth.
- Ruth Prescott: It's been more than two years. A long time to pay for a mistake. I want a divorce.
- Perry Mason: Why did you bring this with you?
- Ruth Prescott: Well, I couldn't leave him. I could see that something was wrong with his foot.
- Perry Mason: Your husband was lying there, apparently murdered, and yet you were concerned about a lame canary.
- Perry Mason: Did you ever work with Mr. Prescott at your apartment?
- Margaret Swaine: No.
- Perry Mason: I'm not talking about your Halsted Street apartment, which you rent for eighty dollars a month. I'm talking about an apartment in the Westwood Arms, which you're leasing under the name of Maxine Sterit, for three hundred and fifty dollars a month.
- Lt. Tragg: How come the luggage is all initialed MS?
- Della Street: I told the man my name was Miss Street.
- Lt. Tragg: And he thought you wanted them all monogrammed MS?
- Della Street: I guess I just wasn't thinking.