Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Fashion

Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Fashion finds Perry and Della Street in New York getting an award from the American Bar Association. An undefeated trial record ought to get some recognition I would think. Anyway a friend of Della's, fashion editor Diana Muldaur gets herself arrested for the murder of a rival, Valerie Harper and in fact Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale witness a confrontation between the two at a posh eatery.

These two rivals have a thing going that makes Hedda and Louella look like school girls. Of course Harper has a number of other people who loved her equally as much.

The same perpetrator also ran down a fashion designer who could have exposed the individual. This throws Perry with his trusty investigative lawyer, William Moses in an alliance with some mobsters. Seems that the designer was a cousin of a mob boss who wants also to mete out some justice in their usual manner.

One thing I could not get is when Moses and mobster Robert Clohessy track down the perpetrator I cannot believe that the police were also not vigorously pursuing the case. Of course Clohessy has some access to sources that the cops just don't have.

But the best part of this particular Mason entry is Scott Baio as the young rather full of himself Assistant District Attorney introducing himself to Raymond Burr saying how he studied all of his cases and looked forward to beating him. Foolish Boy.

In fact my favorite scene is Burr and Baio at a sidebar with the judge. Baio was wanting to reopen his case and add a witness and came ready and prepared with precedents. Burr catches him off guard and says he has no objection to the new witness and then proceeds to demolish the witness on cross examination. Absolutely priceless.

Scott Baio is the best thing in this particular Perry Mason movie and it should be seen for him alone if nothing else.

Influential fashion magazine editor Dyan Draper delighted in exposing the slips and secrets of her peers and rivals - but was that enough to kill her? As well as defendingthe prime suspect, Perry Mason finds himself as a witness for the prosecution.

This time Perry defends Della Street's friend, a fashion editor, and the backdrop of the cutthroat world of fashion, mob as well as Ken ending up being assisted by a mobster, who is a fashion designer, to find the murderer of his cousin and a prosecutor, played by Scott Baio, intention to put Mason on the stand, so he can beat him, make this formulaic entry watchable.

Fashion magazine editor Valerie Harper annoys several people, including competing publisher Diana Muldar. When Miss Harper turns up dead, Miss Muldar finds herself on trial for murder. Perry Mason does not wish to take the case, since it's New York, but Della Street talks him into it. His competition in court is young Scott Baio, who admires Mason and looks forward to beating him. Foolish boy! Doesn't he know that all of Mason's clients are innocent and the murderer will confess on the witness stand?

It's one of the TV movies starring Raymond Burr as Erle Stanley Gardner's lawyer-sleuth, produced in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with Barbara Hale as his secretary. It's an amusing entry, with investigator William Moses dealing with mafiosi and New York City traffic. The mystery isn't as difficult as some others in the series, but Robert Janes' script plays fair with the rules of mystery writing.

Despite the fact that the plot follows the well-known recipe of "who did it", which has characterised all the Perry Mason movies so far, the characters of the present film are not so well-developed and the selected cast fails to give them flesh and blood. Of course, in general, the Perry Mason movies are not significant, but, even for their low standards, this one is weak.

Of all of the post-1985 Perry Mason movies I have seen, this one is my least favorite.

I confess I have never liked Diana Muldaur as an actress. She only seems to know how to play one type of character - a hard-bitten career woman with some undefined chip on her shoulder who for that reason is extremely difficult to in any way sympathize with. This one is no exception - it runs true to form.

The only thing that saves this movie, in my opinion, is an earnest performance by Scott Baio as the prosecutor - I actually found myself rooting for him to win, and the movie is worth seeing for him alone.