Author Archives: Dazzling Erin

I Watched Perry Mason: The Case Of The Ruthless Reporter (1991, Dir. by Christian I. Nyby II)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

When arrogant news anchor Brett Huston (John James) is shot and killed, his co-anchor Gillian Pope (Kerrie Keane) is arrested and charged with the crime.  It looks like an open-and-shut case because Brett was shot with Gillian’s gun.  Luckily, Gillian is friends with Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) and soon Perry is on the case with Della Street (Barbara Hale) and Ken Malansky (William R. Moses).

Now this is how you do a Perry Mason movie!  Brett’s murder is linked to a memo that he wrote in which he criticized the other members of the news team and argued that they should all be fired.  All of the suspects are enjoyably eccentric.  There’s a weatherman (Peter Jurasik) who wants to be a stand-up comedian.  There’s the sports reporter (Philip Michael Thomas) who used and sold steroids.  There’s the producer (Susan Sullivan), who was also Brett’s ex-wife.  Brett even insulted the station manager (Jerry Orbach, who previously appeared as a different suspect in The Musical Murder).  Ken, as usual, finds time for romance, this time with reporter Cassie Woodfield (Mary Page Keller) who appears to have someone trying to kill her as well.  Along with a great cast of characters, this mystery had a solution that took me by surprise but which also made sense when I looked back on it.  The final courtroom reveal was perfect.  This is also probably the only Perry Mason film where the hours of a hamburger restaurant proved to be instrumental to the case.

The Case of the Ruthless Reporter was a good one!

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

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) and Ken Malansky (William R. Moses) are in Las Vegas for a boxing match but you know how it is when you’re the world’s most famous defense attorney.  Perry can’t even go to Nevada without getting drawn into a court case.  This time, David Benson (John Posey) is accused of shooting a blackmailer named Richard Stuart (Robert Culp).  David’s teenage daughter, Melanie (Jenny Lewis), convinces Perry to take the case.  She also tries to investigate on her own.  It turns out that Richard Stuart was blackmailing several people.  The suspects include Robert Vaughn, Jere Burns, Ken Kercheval, and Kevin Tighe.

I went back and forth on this entry.  The best thing about this movie were the other suspects, who were all flamboyant Las Vegas characters.  However, Melanie was sometimes annoying, even though it was understandable that she would be upset about her father being accused of murder.  But I do think it was interesting to see how Perry related to Melanie.  There’s a really sad subtext to the movie because Perry’s entire life is about his work.  His friends are other attorneys.  He doesn’t seem to have a family.  While defending David, Perry became a surrogate father for Melanie but, at the end of the movie, Perry was once again alone.

In the end, The Case of the Desperate Daughter won me over.  It was entertaining to see Perry in a different setting and dealing with characters who were more memorable than the usual cast of suspects.  Even Perry Mason needed an occasional change of scenery.

I Watched Perry Mason: The Case of the Silenced Singer (1990, Dir. by Ran Satlof)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

When singer Terri Knight (Vanessa Williams) is shot and murdered, her husband and manager, Jack (Tim Reid), is arrested.  It’s a good thing that Jack’s professor in law school was Perry Mason (Raymond Burr)!  Perry and Ken Malansky (William R. Moses) take the case and investigate to see who silenced the singer.  (Does Perry know anyone who hasn’t been accused of murder?  Someone even tried to fame Della!)

This Perry Mason movie was slightly different than those that came before it.  It was full of flashbacks, showing how Terri became a star and went from being nice and innocent to being a diva.  Every time that Perry or Ken would interrogate someone, it would lead to scene of Vanessa Williams wearing a wig and playing Terri at a different time in her life and career.  There was also a lot singing and the movie actually seemed to be more focused on the music and showing Terri’s rise to fame than it did on solving the actual mystery.  It was was if Perry Mason got dropped into the middle of a production of Dreamgirls.  It didn’t really work for me because Terri wasn’t an interesting enough character to carry the flashbacks but it was still interesting to see a Perry Mason movie trying to do something different.

The most memorable thing about this movie was Angela Bassett, playing a fellow singer and a former friend of Terri’s. She even told off Perry Mason at one point!  It was early in her career but it was easy to see that, from the start, Angela Bassett was obviously going to be a star.

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.