Perry Mason: Crimini di guerra

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.

I loved it, but then, I've been a Raymond Burr fan since 1957, so my opinion is a tad biased. My only comment is that I'm glad Ken Melansky is no longer with Amy Hastings, unless he was cheating on her in this one. (Not really!) I think somebody must have decided she didn't help the plots and quietly ditched her. Good idea!

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 !

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?

This story couldn't miss as it featured several big screen stars - and big ones at that: Teresa Wright (Mrs Miniver), Ian Bannen (Flight of the Phoenix), and the still-stunning and almost too-beautiful Yvette Mimieux (The Time Machine and countless others). And that they could act is an understatement. Part of the wonder of the original Perry Mason series was the creative use of senior movie stars. Here that was carried through with great effect - a wonderful relief from the mediocrity of soap opera actors who frequently populate low-budget made-for-TV movies. The story itself was somewhat reminiscent of A Place Called Midnight in the original black and white series. But here there were many new twists but still with the sinister darkness of the Nazis at every turn. This is well worth a watch for Mason fans.