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.