Tag Archives: Richard Jury

So, I Watched Perry Mason: The Case of the Glass Coffin (1991, Dir. by Christian I. Nyby II)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

World famous magician David Katz (Peter Scolari) is accused of murdering his assistant (Nancy Lee Grahn) while performing a trick at a charity show.  The prosecution says that David killed her to cover-up a pregnancy that was the result of a drunken, one-night stand.  However, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) and Ken Malansky (William R. Moses) discover that there were many people who might have a motive for killing the victim.

After the previous emotionally-charged Perry Mason movie, this entry felt pretty bland.  I liked Peter Scolari as the accused magician but otherwise, this was a little boring.  I guessed who would be playing the murderer as soon as I saw their name during the opening credits.  I did find it amusing that Perry and the prosecutor (played by Bob Gunton) seemed to sincerely dislike each other.  That added some bite to the courtroom scenes but I really do miss David Ogden Stiers’s as Perry’s regular courtroom opponent.

At the end of the movie, Perry took the jury to the theater where the murder occurred and then cross-examined the witnesses in the theater.  I guess the movie’s producers were trying to do something new but it just didn’t feel right for Perry to get his confession anywhere other than in a courtroom.

I Watched Perry Mason: The Case of the Lady In The Lake (1988, Dir. by Ron Satlof)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

Fifteen years ago, the sister of Sara Wingate (Doran Clark) was murdered at a lake near the family home.  Traumatized, Sara had a nervous breakdown.  It was only when she married Billy Travis (David Hasselhoff), a former tennis player, that Sara started to get over her fear of the lake.  When Sara disappears while walking along the lake, Billy is arrested and charged with murdering her.  Because Perry’s is an old friend of Sara’s uncle (John Ireland), he takes the case.  If you’re going to get arrested for murder, you better hope one of your relatives knows Perry Mason.

This movie wasn’t bad.  It had a twist at the end, which I saw coming but which was still unique for the Perry Mason movies.  The actual guilty party is pretty obvious but the mystery wasn’t as important as usual in this one.  The supporting cast was pretty good, though David Hasselhoff seemed to be too calm for someone accused of murder.  As Perry, Raymond Burr uses his cane again and leans against something whenever he has to stand up.  Della jokes that Perry won’t be skiing anymore.  Most of the action falls to Paul Drake, Jr. (William Katt), who gets beaten up even more than usual but who also gets to be the big hero in the end.

This was the last Perry Mason film for both William Katt and David Ogder Stiers, who played the district attorney.  I’m going to miss both of them.  William Katt’s hair was huge in this one and I was really looking forward to seeing how much bigger it could get.

I Watched Perry Mason: The Case Of The Sinister Spirit (1987, Dir. by Richard Lang)

Posted on by Dazzling Erin

David Hall (Matthew Faison) is an obnoxious horror writer who invites a group of associates and former friends to spend the night at a “haunted” hotel.  He’s invited them because all of them are on the verge of suing him for writing about them in his latest book, The Resort.  Over the course of the night, he plays cruel practical jokes on all of them.  Finally, someone gets fed up and tosses him over a railing.  The police arrest publisher Jordan White (Robert Stack) and charge him with the murder.  It’s a good thing that Jordan’s best friend is Perry Mason (Raymond Burr).

Perry uses a cane in this movie and is not that active outside of the courtroom.  That means that it’s up to Paul Drake, Jr. (William Katt) to do most of the investigating.  As usual, Paul falls for an attractive, younger woman, in this case the hotel’s owner, Susan Warrenfield (Kim Delaney).  Every movie features Paul falling for someone and then we never hear about them again.  Does Paul have commitment issues?

I enjoyed this Perry Mason mystery.  The hotel was a great location and I appreciated that the movie tried to add some horror elements to the story.  The Perry Mason movies can be predictable so I always like it when they at least try to do something a little bit different.  This was a fun entry in Perry Mason’s career.