Author Archives: Dazzling Erin

I Watched Perry Mason: The Case Of The Desperate Deception (1990, Dir. by Christian I. Nyby II)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Marine Captain David Berman (Tim Ryan, who looked a lot like Bruce Willis) gets a transfer to Paris so that he can track down Dieter Krugman, a Nazi war criminal who killed his grandparents and crippled his mother (Teresa Wright).  He is told that Krugman is now living under the name of Felix Altmann.  David confronts Altmann at a health spa but, when someone else shoots Altmann, David is framed for the crime.  Luckily, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) is an old friend of the family’s.  He and Ken Malansky (William R. Moses) hop on the first plane to Paris and Perry starts to read up on the Uniform Code of Military Justice so that he can defend David.  Della (Barbara Hale) stays behind in Denver but Perry calls her a few times.

This was a good entry in the Perry Mason film series.  The mystery was intriguing and the acting — from Ian Bannen, Ian McShane, Terry O’Quinn, Yvette Mimieux, and Paul Freeman — was excellent all around.  Especially good was Teresa Wright as David’s mother.  Some of her scenes were chilling and she gets a great moment at the end of the movie.  Raymond Burr is as good as always but, for the first time, William R. Moses really feels like he belongs in the movie.  This is the first time that I’ve seen Ken without wishing he was Paul.

It’s too bad Della had to stay back in America.  I bet she would have enjoyed seeing Paris with Perry.

I Watched Perry Mason: The Case of the Poisoned Pen (1990, Dir. by Christian I. Nyby II)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

When an arrogant true crime writer named Bradley Thompson (David Warner) is poisoned while attending a writers conference, his ex-wife (Barbara Babcock) is arrested and charged with his murder.  Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) and Ken Malansky (William R. Moses), who had their own run-in with Thompson, defend her in court and try to track down the real murderer.

This was a good whodunit.  The mystery was pretty easy to solve but all of the suspects were memorable and the supporting cast, which included Cindy Williams, Tony Lo Bianco, and Earl Boen, were entertaining to watch.  My favorite character was Max Mulgrew, a tough-guy crime writer who was played by Kiel Martin.  When Mulgrew was asked if he hated Thompson enough to murder him, Mulgrew says yes but he would have shot him instead of poisoning him!

Amy Hastings, who Alexandra Paul played in the previous three movies, is not in this movie and nobody says anything about her so, hopefully, her character has moved on.  Without Amy around, that means that Della (Barbara Hale) gets to help out with the investigation for once.  It was nice to see Della showing why she was the best assistant that Perry could have ever hoped for.

I remember enjoying this movie when I watched it with my aunt a few years ago.  I enjoyed it again when I watched it last night.

So, I Watched Perry Mason: The Case of the All-Star Assassin (1989, Dir. by Christian I. Nyby II)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Ken (William R, Moses), who is now a lawyer, is representing a hockey player (Jason Beghe) in his contract negotiation with a tyrannical team owner (Pernell Roberts).  When the owner is murdered, the player is arrested and Ken turns to his mentor, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr), for help in winning his first murder case.

This was pretty forgettable.  The mystery wasn’t interesting, there weren’t enough suspects to keep me guessing, and even the wrongly accused player was unlikable.  Amy (Alexandra Paul) returned to help out Ken and was annoying as ever.  I don’t understand the Amy/Ken relationship.  They’re in love.  They’re getting married.  But they always act like they hate each other.  Give me sex addict Paul Drake, Jr, any day!  I read that this was Amy’s final appearance in the series and I hope that’s true.

This movie also features some of the worst courtroom dialogue of the series.  Poor Bruce Greenwood plays Pernell Roberts’s son and gets stuck with the worst lines.  Deidre Hall plays Pernell Roberts’s unfaithful wife, which is appropriate because this movie was just a bad soap opera.

I Watched Perry Mason: The Case of the Musical Murder (1989, Dir. by Christian I. Nyby II)

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Terry Franken (Dwight Schultz), the arrogant director of a new musical that is playing out of town tryouts on the way to Broadway, is shot and killed at the theater.  Recently fired stage manager Johnny Whitcomb (Jim Metzler) is arrested for the crime but Perry knows that Johnny is innocent.  At the same time that Terry was getting murdered, Perry was in a hospital room recovering from knee surgery.  He looked out the hospital window and saw Johnny across the street.  Despite Perry providing an alibi, Johnny is still charged with murdering Terry.  Broadway legend Amanda Cody (Debbie Reynolds) asks Perry to take Johnny’s case.

This Perry Mason movie featured Perry on the stand, testifying to having seen Johnny.  The District Attorney (Valerie Mahaffey) tried to humiliate Perry by suggesting that he was on too many pain killers to be sure what he saw.  Never try to humiliate Perry Mason!  He’ll not only beat you in court but also make you look like a fool by getting the real murderer to confess while on the stand.

The key to proving Johnny’s innocence was finding the security guard (Rick Aiello) who worked at the theater the night that Terry was killed.  Ken (William R. Moses) and his annoying girlfriend Amy (Alexandra Paul) handled that part of the case.  Ken is still no Paul Drake, Jr. and his bickering with Amy is like nails on a chalkboard.

I actually remember watching this movie with my aunt when it came on Hallmark one weekend.  My aunt enjoyed it.  She liked Debbie Reynolds.  This one was better than the previous movie.  Along with Debbie Reynolds, the cast includes Jerry Orbach and Lori Petty.  Dwight Schultz was great as the victim.  I still miss William Katt and David Ogden Stiers, though.  Perry doesn’t have the same connection to Ken that he had to Paul.  David Ogden Stiers was great because, even though he always lost the case, he still seemed like he was a good enough lawyer that he could have won if things had gone differently.  These new district attorneys never even have a chance against Perry.

So, I Watched Perry Mason: The Case of the Lethal Lesson (1989, Dir. by Christian I. Nyby II)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) has spent a semester teaching moot court at a law school.  When one of his students, Frank Wellman Jr. (John Allen Nelson), is murdered, the accused is another student named Ken Malansky (William R. Moses).  Despite being a close friend of the victim’s father (Brian Keith), Perry thinks that Ken is innocent and agrees to defend him.  Ken’s ex-girlfriend, Amy Hastings (Alexandra Paul), pays Ken’s bail and helps him and Perry investigate the crime, even though Ken spends the whole movie talking about how “crazy” she is.

No William Katt.  No David Ogden Stiers.  Barbara Hale’s barely in it.  The Case of the Lethal Lesson was the start of a new era in the Mason movies and I didn’t like it.  Ken and Amy are Perry’s new assistants but I didn’t like either one of them.  Amy was stalkerish but Ken still cried too much about her being the one who paid his bail.  Did Ken just want to stay in jail?  Ken just wasn’t very likable and it bothered me that the movie never explained why Paul wasn’t available to help.  Both Paul and William Katt deserved better.  Meanwhile, the new prosecutor (Marlene Warfield) didn’t have the same friendly rivalry that her predecessor did.  The mystery element was okay until some cartoonish gangsters showed up.  I didn’t buy any of it.

Give it up for my sister, though.  A few minutes into the movie, Lisa said, “I bet that’s the murderer,” and she was right!  If Perry Mason had her helping him instead of Ken and Amy, he could have solved this case a lot quicker.