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


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.