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.
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.
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.
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.
Back when Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) was a judge, he rejected the appeal of Kevin Parks (Larry Wilcox), an Air Force colonel who was accused of stalking and killing Amy Beth Sawyer (Dotty Coloroso). Even though Perry had his doubts, he did not find any legal grounds for an appeal. In the present day, when Parks is accused of killing a new witness who could have provided him with an alibi, Perry agrees to represent Parks in court and tries to prove that Parks was not guilty of either murder.
This movie was much more complicated than the typical Perry Mason movie but it was a good change of pace and the mystery itself kept me guessing. I was sure I knew who the murderer was and I turned out I was wrong. Perry’s guilt about turning down Kevin Parks’s original appeal added a new dimension to the movie and it was interesting to see Perry doubting himself, even if it was just for a few minutes.
Again, Raymond Burr spent most of this movie either sitting or leaning against something. Even unwell, he still gave a good performance and his chemistry with Barbara Hale was as charming as ever. Paul Drake, Jr. (William Katt) did the leg work and got involved in a few good chases. The only thing more interesting than the mystery was Paul’s hair, which gets bigger and bigger each movie.
Sleazy magazine publisher Harlan Wade (Robert Guillaume) has made a lot of enemies through his scandal sheet. He just published a story suggesting that Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) and Della Street (Barbara Hale) are more than just friends. Well, duh! Everyone knows Perry and Della are in love! Perry still wants to sue him but then Harlan turns up dead in his swimming pool. It would have been interesting if Perry had been a suspect but instead the police arrest Michelle Benti (Susan Wilder), a reporter who was recently fired by Wade. Because Michelle is the ex-girlfriend of Paul Drake, Jr. (William Katt), Perry defends her in court.
This is another case of someone close to the Mason crew being accused of murder. The D.A. should know better than to arrest anyone who knows Perry, Della, or Paul. Michelle first appeared in The Case of the Shooting Starbut she was played by a different actress. It’s still good that, for once, the series actually acknowledged one of Paul’s ex-girlfriends. I worry about Paul and the way he falls in and out of love.
This one had a good mystery and a really memorable supporting cast. Morgan Brittany, Yaphet Kotto, Wings Hauser, and George Grizzard all played potential suspects. I liked that this was one of those mysteries where the victim went to a party before he died and everyone there threatened to kill him at some point. This movie also featured one of the better courtroom confessions. Raymond Burr uses a cane in this episode and is usually filmed either sitting down or leaning against something for support. Even though Burr obviously wasn’t feeling well, it’s nice to see him and Barbara Hale share some sweet scenes together.
Who sent Della flowers, champagne, and perfume? Watch to find out!
Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Mondays, I will be reviewing CHiPs, which ran on NBC from 1977 to 1983. The entire show is currently streaming on Freevee!
This week, Ponch takes a deep breath and he gets real high.
Episode 1.2 “Undertow”
(Dir by Christian I. Nyby II, originally aired on September 22nd, 1977)
On tonight’s episode of CHiPs, a true crisis breaks out.
The California Highway Patrol’s basketball team loses a game!
Now, they would have won the game if Ponch had been playing. I’m only two episodes into this series and it’s already pretty obvious that there’s apparently nothing that Ponch can’t do. However, while at the scene of an accident on the highway, Ponch stood right in front of a leaky cannister of nitrous oxide! He ended up getting so high that he started seeing double, dancing in the halls of the station, and basically just acting like a total jackass. Of course, he smiled the whole time. Baker was less amused.
Because of his temporary high, Ponch was sent home and ordered to stay in bed for a day. He missed the game and the CHiPs lost to some other off-duty branch of California law enforcement. Fortunately, Sgt. Getraer is able to set up a rematch and, with Ponch now able to play, the CHiPs win by two points! And, of course, the winning shot is taken by Ponch because there’s nothing that Ponch can’t do. This episode ends with a series of freeze frames of Ponch winning the game and proving that California has the best highway patrol in the country.
Of course, the basketball game is only the B-plot of this episode of CHiPs. The main storyline deals with fake tow truck driver (Angelo de Meo) who is listening to the police radio for calls from women who have broken down on the highway. The driver goes to wherever the women are calling from but, instead of towing their car, he instead steals their money! The first time that Ponch and Baker chase him, the crooked tow truck driver gets away. The second time, they catch him. Of course, both of the chases lead to multi-car wrecks on the highway. This episode features the first instance of a car flipping over in slow motion on this show. Apparently, that would go on to become a CHiPs trademark.
Of course, there are other little things that Ponch and Baker have to deal with. They pull over a drunk driver (Jim Backus) and Ponch, who is high from the nitrous oxide, struggles to give him a sobriety test. They also pull over an old surfer (Paul Brinegar), who has a talking myna bird in his truck. The bird was cute. These scenes did not add up too much but I imagine they were included to drive home the idea that Ponch and Baker are professionals, even if they do spend a lot of time talking about basketball.
This episode was actually kind of fun. Erik Estrada is not a particularly subtle actor to begin with and this episode actually gives him an excuse to overact even more than usual. As much fun as it is to watch Estrada bounce off the walls, it’s even more interesting to glance over at Larry Wilcox and see just how much he appears to resent having to work with someone who always has to be the center of every scene. Neither Wilcox nor Baker seem particularly unhappy about Ponch being sidelined for a good deal of the episode. Just as in the pilot, the chase scenes were genuinely well-filmed and it was impossible not to enjoy the shots of the motorcycles weaving in and out of traffic.
Next week, Ponch will probably save someone’s life while Baker seethes in the background. We’ll see!
Mystery Woman: In The Shadows (2007) – Once again, we join Kellie Martin and Clarence Williams III at the Mystery Woman Bookstore. This time the two are at a book signing when the author announces that his next book will name a KGB agent. I think this is the best of the three Mystery Woman movies I’ve seen so far (Oh Baby, Redemption, and In The Shadows). I like that fact that it involves international intrigue instead of just some local person murdered in Centerville, USA where a busybody takes it upon themselves to investigate. I also love that most of the movie Kellie Martin is in the hospital and out of commission. As much as I like her, it was really nice to see Williams shine. He knows about this secret world and it’s fun to watch him navigate it. I know there are other Mystery Woman films, but of the ones I have watched, this is the one I recommend most strongly.
Garage Sale Mystery (2013) – This, on the other hand, is the typical Hallmark mystery fare these days. It’s not good. This one follows Lori Loughlin who runs a consignment store and hits garage sales for items to resell. When a friend is found dead and it might tie in with garage sales, then this woman who can’t mind her own business begins investigating. There is a cop on the case, but he seems pretty incompetent and worthless to the film. Loughlin just seems to sleepwalk through the whole thing. There just isn’t anything here worth watching. It’s better than some of these mystery movies on Hallmark, but that’s not saying a whole lot. I really wonder who thought it was a good idea to remove all edge, suspense, feeling, and reality from murder mysteries, then decided to make tons of them. At least there is a scene where her son has her play Minecraft to clear her mind. That was interesting even if we never actually see the game or her really play it.
Garage Sale Mystery: All That Glitters (2014) – I guess since it wasn’t a total mound of caca doo doo, they thought it was ready for a full series. It still sucks. Again, one of her friends ends up dead. I guess being friends with Lori Loughlin’s character means you’re marked for death. At least Jessica Fletcher brought death to the places she visited. Loughlin’s just thinning out the population of her own town. This time the person killed is tied to a storage facility she won in an auction. Of course there are rare items and in short order a guy shows up wearing a sign that says I’m the bad guy. Luckily, he’s played by Kavan Smith of Eureka. He was a welcome sight even if by being well known it meant he was the bad guy. I’m not giving anything away here. It’s really really really obvious. Plus, I’m leaving the details out. At least this time people tell her she should mind her own business. She ignores it, but it’s nice to hear some voices of reason. Skip this one too. I wonder if the other two Garage Sale Mystery movies are any better. I doubt it.
Murder 101 (2006) – This is how you do a murder mystery! Someone is murdered, so a cop brings a criminology professor in to help solve the case. Simple! The non-police officer actually has a reason to be there investigating. And the criminals aren’t a joke. Also, this isn’t some weird Stepford Wives world where everything exists in fantasy. It even has Dick Van Dyke and his son Barry who, by the way, looks like Michael Bay in this. It’s kind of funny. A business executive is killed in an explosion. Barry brings Dick into the investigation and an investigative reporter comes along since she was there. It’s nothing amazing, but far better than movies like Garage Sale Mystery, Murder, She Baked, Wedding Planner Mystery, Aurora Teagarden, etc. I wish Hallmark would go back to doing mystery movies like this and Mystery Woman again. They are so much more enjoyable and far better made in general.
Through the Shattered Lens 