Alana Westbrook (Morgan Fairchild), the ruthless owner of a cosmetics company, is murdered after she announces that she is actually 60 years old and owes her youthful appearance to a miracle skin cream.  Her husband (Patrick O’Neal) is charged with the crime but he’s lucky enough to have Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) as his attorney.  Perry thinks that the murderer is an eccentric gigolo (David Warner) but, for once, Perry might be wrong.  Meanwhile, Ken Malansky (William R. Moses) gets involved with a corporate spy (Lauren Lane) who might know more than she says.

Lisa and I watched this one earlier today.  We really enjoyed it!  It’s the most soapy of all the Perry Mason films that I’ve watched so far.  Morgan Fairchild was great as the murder victim and all of the suspects were enjoyably weird.  What I really enjoyed about this movie was that it featured people who appeared, in different roles, in other Perry Mason films.  Patrick O’Neal went from being the victim in Perry Mason Returns to being the accused here.  David Warner went from being the victim in The Case of the Poisoned Pen to being a suspect here.  This was also a second Perry Mason film for Jonathan Banks but instead of being a tough guy like he was the first time, he was a skin cream creator this time.  This movie understood that people will kill for clear skin.

This was one of the last of Raymond Burr’s Perry Mason films (it aired the same year that he died) and, with the returning actors, it feels like a tribute to Burr and the role that he made his own.