World famous magician David Katz (Peter Scolari) is accused of murdering his assistant (Nancy Lee Grahn) while performing a trick at a charity show.  The prosecution says that David killed her to cover-up a pregnancy that was the result of a drunken, one-night stand.  However, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) and Ken Malansky (William R. Moses) discover that there were many people who might have a motive for killing the victim.

After the previous emotionally-charged Perry Mason movie, this entry felt pretty bland.  I liked Peter Scolari as the accused magician but otherwise, this was a little boring.  I guessed who would be playing the murderer as soon as I saw their name during the opening credits.  I did find it amusing that Perry and the prosecutor (played by Bob Gunton) seemed to sincerely dislike each other.  That added some bite to the courtroom scenes but I really do miss David Ogden Stiers’s as Perry’s regular courtroom opponent.

At the end of the movie, Perry took the jury to the theater where the murder occurred and then cross-examined the witnesses in the theater.  I guess the movie’s producers were trying to do something new but it just didn’t feel right for Perry to get his confession anywhere other than in a courtroom.