Perry Mason - Campioni senza valore

A story that is so slow moving that only a soap opera actor could perform. That is exactly what the audience gets. With the exception of Shari Belafonte, the cast is not exactly replete of motion picture or stage actors. In that respect, the glacially paced plot is perfectly cast. Beyond that, not much to add except that the story is best characterised as obvious.

Ken Malansky is doing a friend (ex-hockey star Bobby Spencer) a favour by representing him in very bitter negotiations with Thatcher Horton - owner of a sports arena and the teams that use it. When things go badly, Bobby storms out making threats - that come back to haunt him when Horton is murdered by a hitman. Ken goes to Perry Mason for help defending Horton while he starts looking for the hitman who was hired to do the job; tasks not made easier by Bobby's temper and the fact that Ken's fiancé, Amy, wants to be involved in the investigations again.

Perry Mason TVM's are all pretty much the same and if you like one you'll like the vast majority of them. This one is no exception as it does all the usual stuff without any of it really impressing too much, but just doing enough to get by. The plot here offers up the potential for a bit of glamour - a chase at a big game perhaps? Or a whole range of athletes being under suspicion? However it doesn't really use the venue well - at most we see one player `shooting hoops' in an empty stadium. This is still OK but I couldn't help wondering what a slightly bigger budget would have allowed. As it is, the mystery goes the usual places - Mason goes around stirring up clues and red herrings while Malansky does his action stuff in pursuit of the killer.

Mason's red herrings are quite good here and there are some good twists and turns - twists that actually fit inside each other this time as opposed to just being distractions until the real twist comes. Malansky's stuff is OK but is detracted by the presence of Amy Hastings (still kicking around from her own court case); this was her final appearance and it is for the best as it would have got harder and harder to use her effectively. Although I would have liked to see a bigger team of sportsmen, the film's small group of suspects allows them to be more interesting. They each are used well and it could be any of them. Of course - don't assume from this that the film is great - it isn't anything special, but if you like the series then this is good enough.

Burr is good and comfortable in his role, although Hale is practically invisible here. Moses continues to settle into his role and his stuff with Paul would better with a better script - they do have chemistry and she is a good actress when given the chance. The support cast is pretty good - Belafonte is unmistakably her father's daughter and is quite good, as is the basketball player despite not being that good an actor generally. The better roles are given to Greenwood and Hall as their bits are interesting, and of course Roberts as Horton himself. McEachin is good in his usual role, but Mahaffey is no match for Mason as the DA.

Overall this is a good film in the series but is not different or special enough to win over anyone who dislikes the other films. The story is good despite not being used to it's full potential and the cast is pretty good.

I have watched the original Perry Mason series since I was a little girl. Now, the 2- hour movies are coming into weekly rotation on an old movie channel and I am checking them off one by one.

This episode ranks 5 stars out of 10. Not as bad or over the top as others. But for the gigantic shoulder pads of the 1980s that Della and Amy wore, the movie was ok.

The quality of these shows declined after Alexandra Paul was added to cast. I never understood why it was necessary to add her as another annoying character. They already had James McEachin. And I think the only reason he ever agreed to play the buffoon in this series was to get a regular paycheck.

In Perry Mason: The Case Of The All Star Assassin, America's number one defense attorney gets involved in defending Jason Beghe, a star hockey player who is accused of shooting down Pernell Roberts, a George Steinbrenner like owner of both a hockey and basketball team in Denver. He's also got an interest in tennis in the person of tennis pro, Shari Belafonte.

I'm sure there are any number of folks who wouldn't mind seeing Mr. Steinbrenner done in and it's the same with Pernell Roberts. The reason that Beghe is zeroed in on as a suspect is because the murder weapon is found in his car and after Beghe storms out of deposition with his attorney Ken Malansky yelling threats against Roberts's person. Actually the only thing Beghe did was go out on a terrific drunk, the same as Jim Metzler did in the previous Mason film.

It was nice if ever so briefly to see Billy Moses actually doing lawyer like work if in fact he did then turn the case over to Raymond Burr and resume his sleuth role. This episode marked the farewell appearance of Alexandra Paul as Billy's girl Friday, Amy. I believe she started in Baywatch the following year.

The Case of The All Star Assassin not a bad entry in the Mason series. Burr gets a rather colorless female ADA in Valerie Mahaffey as an opponent here. As for the culprit, all I can say that until the very end, this suspect is probably the one least focused on during the film.

For me, all Perry Mason episodes follow exactly the same pattern; presentation of the murder, the wrong person arrested, some red herrings, and the final voilà the solution with the clues and reasoning that Mason must have been tying up together the previous night after nobody knowing when he got the sources. Always, the conjuring trick. My question here is: why did the scriptwriters or the producers take off the Amy Hastings character, Ken Malansky's fiancée??? It was the only pair of people that imbued some life into any of Mason's stories. And the only who were not wooden-like when together.