Sleazy talk show host Ted Mayne (Geraldo Rivera) writes a tell-all book about all of the famous women with whom he has had affairs. One of the women, Roxanne Shields (Amy Steel), is filmed threatening to kill him with a knife. When Ted is later found stabbed to death, Roxanne is arrested. Luckily, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) is willing to take the case and reveal the true killer of the reckless Romeo.
This was one of the last of the Perry Mason movies. (Burr only did four more after this before he died.) The plot is okay, even if this is the third movie to feature Ken (William R. Moses) getting in trouble with the mob while investigating the the murder. It didn’t take me long to guess who the murderer was but the scene where Perry got his courtroom confession was still really well-done. Not surprisingly, the main pleasure of this film was seeing Geraldo Rivera as the victim. Geraldo may have been a terrible actor but he was still totally believable as a sleazy talk show host who went out of his way to embarrass every woman that he had ever had sex with. Geraldo is in the film long enough for you to get sick of him and then he goes away and isn’t seen again. That’s the way it should always be with Geraldo Rivera.
Perry does a few more courtroom tricks than usual in this movie. As the hapless district attorney, Kenneth Kimmins is no David Ogden Stiers. He’s not even Scott Baio. It’s really enjoyable to watch him get continually outsmarted by Perry. Raymond Burr was obviously not doing well physically when he made this movie but it’s still fun to watch him trick witness after witness into identifying the wrong woman.
Through the Shattered Lens 