Sheila Ivy Traister | Through the Shattered Lens

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.

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.