Perry Mason - Le retour de Perry Mason

After a long and successful career as a lawyer, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) has put down his briefcase and has picked up the gavel. However, he decides to resign his judgeship and return to the other side of the courtroom when his former longtime secretary, Della Street (Barbara Hale), is accused of murdering the wealthy businessman she was working for. Using his still sharp investigative skills and the help of Paul Drake, Jr.. (William Katt), the son of his former private investigator, Perry attempts to bring the true culprit to justice.

A solid start to an entertaining series of Perry Mason Tv films with Raymond Burr on top form - there's some exciting action sequences featuring William Katt doing the legwork. The suspects consisting of a dysfunctional family is quite good. It's quite an engaging entry:

After a 20 year absence from the small screen Raymond Burr who is now, older, stouter, and grayer and with a beard returns to television in the first of several two hour made for television films. Burr had a legion of fans as Mason and his return was heralded with high ratings every time one of these films was broadcast.

In the interim like many good lawyers and some mediocre ones, Perry Mason became a judge and was now an appellate court jurist. But when a friend's in trouble, Perry quits it all and returns to active combat in the courtroom.

Back in the original series William Hopper as Paul Drake was a defendant in one episode. Here it's the only other living cast member at the time from the old series, Barbara Hale as Della Street.

Della's gone on with her life as well. She became a secretary and later executive assistant to the wealthy Patrick O'Neal. With the kids and second wife O'Neal's got, no wonder he began relying heavily on Della Street to run his business.

When O'Neal is stabbed to death by a killer in drag to make it look like Della broke in, she's arrested and of course she turns to Perry as her attorney. Biggest mistake the perpetrator made, didn't the individual realize just who Della worked for before. Definitely should have found another patsy.

But as the case developed it turns out that not only did O'Neal have to be killed, but that Della had to be framed in order to solve get out of the potential jackpot the killer was in.

This became a family reunion in another way as Barbara Hale's son William Katt came on as Paul Drake, Jr. The script had it written that Paul Drake was now retired and the Drake Detective Agency was in the hands of his son. But it's clear that Katt only considers it a part time gig. In fact when we first meet him he's doing another gig, playing a saxophone at a jazz club.

Perry takes him on, but doesn't quite take him seriously enough. Katt has to earn his respect and that's a running theme throughout the film.

Perry Mason Returns is a good start to eight years of Perry Mason films, all anticipated by the legion of fans Raymond Burr developed for Erle Stanley Gardner's famous defense attorney.

The first Perry Mason Series ran from 1957 until 1966, In the mid eighties until it's star's (Raymond Burr) death in 1993 there was a belated revival bringing Mason a new generation of fans in several TV Movies along with original sidekick Della Street (Barbara Hale) and new P.I Paul Drake JR (William Katt). This is the first such movie and one of the better ones for it has Della street accused of murdering her boss and so Mason and Drake frantically try to find clear her name.

all in all an above-average TV Mystery

8/10

I hesitate to write this, as I am not a huge fan of reviving classics. However, three factors - the chemistry amongst the cast members, the combination of devoted former viewers and their kids who became new viewers, and the age-old American moral story that the good guys always win in the end - ensured that the revival of the Perry Mason franchise in the guise of two-hour TV movies would be a ratings smash.

As with a few other revivals of older franchises - the first Star Trek movie is a prime example - this plodded along at times, but its main purpose was to re-acquaint former viewers with an updated cast and to introduce new viewers to the show and its format. Later Mason TV movies were better than this; but after 19 years off the air, I think die-hard fans would have looked at a filmstrip of old stills from the original series. Just having Mason back in the saddle again, with his old confidential secretary at his side (and on trial for murder, no less) along with the son of his old detective pal was enough to put a grin on my face. The premise was a bit of a stretch, in that a well-respected appellate-court justice will impulsively resign his court to defend his faithful old sidekick but Mason is a stand-up guy.

The plot in a nutshell is that someone has it in for Arthur Gordon, a wealthy businessman. Any number of people want him dead, including everyone in his family and undoubtedly some of his business competitors. Someone goes to extreme lengths to not only do him in, but to frame Della Street for the murder as well. Suffice it to say that by framing her, two birds will be killed with one stone. Mason has his work cut out for him to get to the bottom of the mess.

William Hopper, Bill Talman and Ray Collins all died between 1965 and 1970. It would have been a kick to have seen them, too, but two out of five ain't bad. All things considered, not a bad watch at all.

Della Street is set up as the fallguy for a murder. Of course, everybody knows that this sweet, motherly woman wouldn't swat a fly, much less off somebody. Mason pulls out all stops in unraveling the mystery and uncovers a plot to keep a multi-million dollar scam intact. The one phony part in this film is the reaction of a lawyer at the movie's end. No attorney would do what this man did.