Perry Mason: The Case of the Avenging Ace

Perry Mason: The Case of the Avenging Ace is one of the more far fetched episodes where the murderer and the individual behind the murders will do anything, kill anybody to keep a particular family scandal from seeing the light of day.

If you remember in Perry Mason Returns, Raymond Burr was an appellate judge who resigned the bench to defend Della Street from a murder charge. This film begins with a flashback to those times on the bench where he votes to sustain a conviction for murder on procedural grounds of Larry Wilcox, a decorated Air Force colonel who allegedly murdered a woman he was allegedly involved with.

Fast forward to the present when a witness has come forward who on the day of the hearing reneges on his testimony under threat. Then Wilcox is busted out of jail and later the recanting witness is shot to death and Wilcox is found with murder weapon in hand.

This far fetched set of circumstances would defeat any lesser lawyer, but we're dealing with Perry Mason. You know this top gun will eventually be free of all charges, including the original murder that sent him up.

This particular Mason film I found a bit too bizarre for my taste, but fans of the series will love it.

Between the end of the Perry Mason TV series in 1966 and its revival as a series of TV movies twenty years later, Raymond Burr as Mr. Mason was supposed to have served as an appellate court judge -- I would imagine he was appointed to give the Los Angeles District Attorney's office a better win/loss ratio. In this movie, we see a brief flashback that time, and a case in which Air Force Lt. Colonel Larry Wilcox was found guilty of murder.

Now that Burr is returned to private practice, he is defending Wilcox in a retrial; he remarks there were no errors, but he thought the defense had done a poor job. Of course they had! Without him in the defense chair, there was no one to get a random witness to confess on the stand! Viewers can be confident that Erle Stanley Gardner's lawyer/sleuth will make that happen here.

Besides cast regulars Barbara Hale as Della Street and William Katt as Perry's leg man, we get to see Don Galloway from IRONSIDE, promoted to a General.Donald Ogden Stiers has the thankless task of prosecuting the case, and Patty Duke has a small but key role.

Air Force Lt. Col. Kevin Parks (Larry Wilcox) is aiming to appeal for the second time a conviction having been tried and convicted of murdering Amy Beth Sawyer (Dotty Coloroso). Despite having been a judge in the first appeals court, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) had to turn down his appeal but some thing didn't sit right with him and with his team has found another witness for the defence. But when that witness is murdered Perry, Della (Barbara Hale) and Paul (William Katt) find themselves not only investigating but taking over Parks' case.

This Perry Mason entry has enough intrigue to keep you interested and also benefits from an interesting backdrop of military aviation, however it can get rather contrived and convoluted. A passable entry, but not a striking one.

Perry Mason is on the appeal board when he has the case of Lieutenant Colonel Parks come before him. Parks was found guilty of murdering a girl called Amy Beth; Mason and the other judges find no reason for an appeal to be granted - although Mason holds other opinions about the guilty judgement that are outside of his scope of influence. Two years later, a new witness has been found that looks like it will free Parks, but the witness is forced to change his story and then is murdered after the court appearance. Mason takes over the case and prepares for the appeal while Drake hooks up with Captain Terri O'Malley to find the mystery man who he suspects of framing Parks for the murder of the witness and Amy Beth.

This film starts in a different vein from the rest of the Mason films; Mason is a judge of sorts on the appeal board and is part of the decision to turn down the appeal. This continues two years later when the film takes another turn. At this point the film gets back down to the usual formula of having Mason and Drake searching for the real killer. The first thing you need to do is get past the fact that it is very unlikely that Mason would be allowed to defend a man who's appeal he was involved in hearing - surely the DA would have seen the threat posed by Mason and would have looked to knock him out of the case? Despite this, the different opening does enough to make the film feel different from the formula and be more interesting.

The film is quite engaging but displays some quite shockingly lazy writing; worst is the moment where Drake and O'Malley go up in a helicopter to search for a car - despite not knowing where it would be or even really what it looks like they manage to find it in the woods after a 20 minute flight! Despite this, the rest of the film is to the usual standard without being quite as poor as that example. It is quite enjoyable even if it does rely on the usual sudden twist towards the end.

Burr does his usual stuff with confidence and seems to enjoy the fact that this case is a little different from some of his usual ones. He delivers some nice wit and humourous touches here. Katt is near the end of his `family' role (Dad was the original Drake, mother is Hale) but he seems full of energy here. Despite the fact that the guy he is hunting is the most unsubtle hitman in the world (really tall, red jacket, big beard) the action thread is actually quite good (and with added explosions!). Katt also has a good chemistry with his usual female sidekick - this time played by Buck Rodger's Erin Gray. Hale has little to do and the support cast aren't that memorable in their roles - this was the only downside of the film's approach: without the build up to the murder we never really get into the characters - we only see their motives later and it doesn't work as well in that regard.

Overall this is an enjoyable Mason movie that has weaknesses but has them mainly because it tries to do things a little differently. Some of the characters and writing is bad, but in Mason movies you pretty much know what to expect.