Perry Mason: The Case of the Killer Kiss

Raymond Burr makes his final appearance as Perry Mason in this film. Mason finds his hands full in a case involving actors in a soap opera and a very unusual murder weapon. Featured in the guest cast are several popular daytime performers including Genie Francis as the framed defendant. Burr, as always is above reproach as Mason. Though not among the series best, there does appear to have been an effort to break the mold a bit, with a little more jeopardy for Mason's legman, Ken Malansky.

On the set of a popular daytime soap opera 'Mile High', actress Kris Buckner is being forced off by co-star Mark Stratton. When she says that she'll 'kill him before she leaves the show', she makes herself the prime suspect when Stratton is murdered by someone poisoning him. As an old friend, Perry Mason comes to the help of Kris and agrees to defend her. Meanwhile Ken goes in search of information with the help of fan of the show.

Despite suffering from Liver cancer, Raymond Burr, who visibly looked ill, delivers his typical grand performance, doing what he does best - helping the daughter of his friends' daughter. Genie Francis plays the suspect who is accused of placing walnut oil in the victim's allergy kit. It's a fun episode, mainly due to the back drop of the TV soap world.

If you know the opera "Cosi fan tutte" (music by Mozart, text by Lorenzo da Ponte) you will appreciate the theme here: a cheesy, overemotional soap-opera-type script about cheesy, overemotional soap-opera-type actors on the set of a cheesy soap-opera production. An obvious cardboard stage-drama about an obvious cardboard stage-drama, but it feels so real to the characters in it. Raymond Burr's ponderous, exaggerated gravitas is hilarious. He must have been giggling the whole time, making his character take the silly story about silly actors in a silly story so seriously.

Side note: Raymond Burr, clearly quite ill, seems to have some kind of tremor in his right hand. You can see in the final court scene, in one shot he's making a tight fist in a not-entirely-successful effort to stop his hand trembling, in the next shot, his arms are folded, concealing the hand altogether. I wasn't aware that he had this.

The Perry Mason TV movies that ran from 1985 to 1993 were not always as good as they could have been, thanks to the formulaic scripts, and the reliance on cases that involved celebrities of some kind, which made them even more repetitive. But they were always entertaining, and Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale's characterisations as Mason and Della Street developed nicely as the series went on, and along the way we get to find out more about them than we ever did in the 271 episodes of the original TV series. The penultimate TV movie, the Telltale Talkshow Host, ends with a poignant kiss between Mason and Della, suggesting a romantic relationship of some kind, and this would probably have been developed slowly but surely had Burr lived. Sadly, though, he only made one more appearance, and that was in the Case of the Killer Kiss.

This is one of the worst of the series - if not THE worse. The acting seems to mirror that of the daytime soap opera at the heart of the story, and the writing is little better, although the motive for murder is more complex than normal. Burr was so ill on set that he is always seen sitting or leaning on something - a double is used on the one occasion he is seen walking. It is such a shame that he put such effort into a script that is so poor. Even Burr himself seems to struggle to deliver his cliched and repetitive lines with any enthusiasm. The Perry Mason series were always, even at their worst, watchable, but this final episode pushes the viewer's patience to the limit in that regard. It is notable only for Burr's final screen appearance and the inflated role for Della Street - again, probably a result of Burr being ill. A testiment to Burr's professionalism and love for the character, but otherwise a sad final bow for both him and Perry Mason - both of which were extremely classy gentlemen.

When soap opera actress Genie Francis is on trial for murdering one of the actors on her show, it turns out to be a good thing that Perry Mason is a family friend. For one last time, the audience can sit and wonder exactly how Raymond Burr's client will turn out to be innocent, while the actual murderer confesses on the witness stand. Burr died on September 12, 1993, in his 74th year, after filming had wrapped.

Burr had come to the role circuitously. He was much in demand as a movie villain in more than 50 movies when he auditioned for the TV Show PERRY MASON....for the role of Hamilton Burger, the Assistant District Attorney who would lose to Mason in every show. The author of the Perry Mason books looked at Burr and said "That's Perry Mason!" Burr had to go on a diet and lose sixty pounds. He would play the role for ten years in the series, and then in the TV Movies from 1986 through this episode. Every once in a while, an actor meets the role he was meant for. For Burr, it was Mason.

One of the gimmicks in this show is that many of the roles are played by actual soap opera stars. It's an amusing conceit, and this one is up to the series standards.