Perry Mason - Le mauvais joueur

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.

When a ruthless sports team tycoon Thatcher Horton is shot dead. Ex hockey player Bobby Spencer is accused of his murder. Ken Malansky was representing Spencer in a lawsuit against Horton.

Ken turns to Perry Mason to represent Spencer as he is an old friend of his. Perry is reluctant as first as he found Spencer to be hot headed and rude.

It leaves Ken to investigate reluctantly helped out by his girlfriend Amy who wants to be an investigator.

As it's always the case in the Mason movies; there are a number of suspects for Horton's murder which include his wife and son. There is also a hitman on the lose, even while wearing a gardener's uniform he looks like a hitman straight out of central casting.

The fun of the Perry Mason television movies was to see Raymond Burr tearing the witnesses apart in court and bring out their dirty laundry. Here he makes the actual culprit confess in court.

Bruce Greenwood is the standout in this one, obviously he looks like someone who knows he is capable of better things. A fun television movie and I had a rough idea who the culprit might be.

Thatcher Horton is owner of a Denver sports arena and a couple of sports teams. Bobby Spencer a friend of Ken was one of his hockey players. It seems that Horton verbally promised him that he would take care of him if he gets injured, which happened. Now it seems that Horton is reneging and he has asked Ken to represent him in his suit against Horton. Bobby threatened Horton and not long after that Horton was killed and the murder weapon was found in Bobby's possession. So Perry comes to help defend Bobby. It seems that Horton was not liked by other people including his wife and son, and it also seems that the killer was a professional assassin, so did one of them hire him?

Rather routine yet enjoyable Perry Mason Tv film with Alexandra Paul joining William R Moses in the snooping behind the courtroom scenes. They work well together as well as bicker - the suspects are quite good and ends competently with the unraveling of the murderer.

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.

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.