Perry Mason: The Case of the Desperate Deception

When the son of an old friend, a marine stationed at the US Embassy in Paris, is found standing over a dead former concentration-camp officer, with his service revolver on the ground the murder weapon, is there anyone except for Perry Mason to get him freed and the real murderer confessing on the witness stand?

This in an entry in the TV-movie series produced a quarter of a century since the TV series starring Raymond had ended. It's clear that the producers were going for something special. A lot of it is shot in Paris. The accused is Tim Ryan, who looks amazingly like currently-hot movie star Bruce Willis.

Given the Holocaust denial movement, and their rise during the era, this was clearly intended as a statement on the issue. the presence of Teresa Wright as a crippled survivor of the death camps speaks to that.

Captain Berman is in France as he tries to hunt down the Nazi war criminal who took members of his family in the concentration camp years. He is pointed to the location of this `Krugman' and confronts him - only for him to be shot by an unseen killer. As a friend of the family, Mason comes to France to defend him - and gets drawn into a world of deception in the underworld of Nazi hunters.

The films of Perry Mason usually follow the same formula every single time and, in some regards, this film does too. However the plot bravely strikes out into France and a military court-martial hearing involving Nazi's. In doing this the film appears to be more interesting but actually doesn't really succeed in what it is aiming to do. The stuff surrounding the Nazi hunt makes for more than just the usual twist at the end, but it is all a bit tidy and easy and I wasn't really gripped by it. The film scales back on Malansky's investigation and Mason's questions in order to bring in this element in terms of flashbacks, but it only seems to take the pace out of the film and make it seem rather ill at ease with itself.

The Holocaust is a difficult subject and not one that can be easily just `used' as a background for a murder mystery. The film tries to deal with it sensitively but it doesn't really know what to do with it and in the end just slots it into the formula the best it can. Aside from the weakness, I was drawn in by the film attempting to do something different for a change and enjoyed it for having the formula with a reasonable twist.

The cast is pretty average despite having quite a few well known faces. Burr is OK as Mason but parts of the film doesn't really fit his character - particularly the final shot doesn't sit well. Moses is given much less to do than normal but seems happy to just be around. Hale is not in France but, funnily enough, actually gets more lines than usual as a result! An `all star' cast is not that well used, including Ian `Lovejoy' McShane. O'Quinn is pretty good despite hamming it for all he is worth towards the end; fans of Gerry Anderson may recognise the voice of Paul Maxwell or know him from the few big American films he did (Aliens for one).

Overall this film weakens itself by trying to do something different from normal but is still worth seeing for Mason fans as the formula is still recognisable.

Not a great episode. They could have spared us the long list of clichés about Paris, including a mime in the street... Anyway, a murder is committed in Paris and obviously the French police is in no way involved... that was really absurd.

Aside from that, Ken Malansky is his annoying useless and charmless self, except he's now hitting on a girl when it's never been established that he is not engaged/married anymore.

His girlfriend was not in the previous episode but it was never established that she was out of the picture. She was the only good thing about the introduction of that incredibly bland character. It's in poor taste. She was beautiful, charming, funny, competent, courageous and intelligent. Too good for him?

For it's one and only time the Perry Mason series went abroad and where better than Paris to defend the Marine son of a Holocaust survivor charged with the killing of a former S.S. captain who personally killed members of his mother's family and crippled her. It might have been nice had Raymond Burr and Billy Moses taken Barbara Hale along, but I guess someone had to tend to the office.

An old film favorite Teresa Wright plays Tim Ryan's mother and her testimony on the stand is the best part of this TV film. Her experiences going to the death camps is most moving.

For reasons I'm not quite sure, the French cede jurisdiction to the US military in this case. Ryan is a guard at the US Embassy in Paris, but the killing was definitely not in the line of duty. I would think the French would insist on trying him. In any event Perry Mason represents Ryan at a military court martial which he's permitted to have civilian counsel should he choose.

The murderer is a choice from way out of left field or in this case I should say right field. It does have to do with the events in the concentration camp, but in a most oblique way.

I think there have been better Mason films, but this one should satisfy the legion of fans of Erle Stanley Gardner's unbeatable attorney.

This is the best film in the Perry Mason series. Wonderful guest stars like Paul Freeman and Marcy Walker bring glamour and power to he story set in Paris. A complicated case - but Perry will handle it. William R. Moses is at his best as Ken Malansky. You have to like the recurring characters like Ken, Perry and Della, and you have to accept the way the Perry Mason - movies are made. Only than you can appreciate this fine movie. Wonderful. Thank you for this one !