Perry Mason - La robe rouge

Following a similar tell-all book authored by television personality Geraldo Rivera, this entry in the Perry Mason movie series blurs fact and fiction by casting Rivera as Ted Mayne, who is murdered after publishing his own scandalous tone. The suspect is a TV actress, who makes the mistake of blowing off steam over the book by threatening Mayne's life on camera.

Enter Perry Mason, who uses his usual methods to uncover the true killer in open court.

This is an average Mason film, with, a final clue, though plausible, seems too over the top to be believed, requiring the guilty party to go "mad" on the witness stand to pull it off.

The supporting cast is good, with Geraldo giving a surprisingly effective performance as Ted Mayne.

Ted Mayne is a daytime TV host whose show is well known for exposés and gossip mongering. He takes a step too far when he announces the publication of his kiss and tell autobiography, which features photographs and detail about his lovers - many of whom are famous women in a variety of roles. When he is murdered, all evidence appears to point to Roxanne Shields, who turns to Perry Mason for defence. While he investigates the other suspects Ken Malansky tries to find one of Mayne's lovers who is missing, with the help of TV reporter Charley Adams.

I have seen the vast majority of the Perry Mason films and have found them to be based around one formula that is repeated in each film with slight twists occasionally. Here the film investigates any number of scorned lovers and it is enjoyable the way that Mason does his stuff. As usual Ken is lumbered with a female sidekick that is irritating, but his thread has a nice little twist to it even if it is just another red herring of sorts to keep the film moving along. The twist at the end is revealed with a surprising lack of fireworks or spectacle but it is still reasonably enjoyable.

Burr does his usual good work as Mason and the film permits him some nice scenes with Hale's Della Street, a subplot that the series occasionally dips into but not often enough. Moses has his usual action orientated investigation and does OK but his lack of chemistry with the dippy and quite weak Nelson is a problem. Of the support cast only Geraldo Rivera stands out, twisting his own talk show host personae.

Overall this is pretty much what any of the film series does, it is not the best but it is about average for the series. The one major complaint I would have was that this must have been the weakest prosecution ever and in reality Perry Mason would have easily p*ssed this case without having to find the real killer to clear his client. All the evidence is very debatable and weak and `reasonable doubt' could easily have been found here.

Sleazy talk show host Ted Mayne writes a tell-all book, which enrages and embarrasses several very prominent women. One of them, actress Roxanne Shield, loses her composure during an interview and winds up making a televised death threat. Of course, when Ted is murdered, she is arrested. Witnesses claim they saw Roxanne outside his apartment that night and police later find the murder weapon in her car. Renowned defence attorney Perry Mason accepts the challenge of defending her in court.

Geraldo Rivera - Talk show host - is well cast as a, um, talk show host, who upsets certain women with a kiss and tell book about his conquests with them - his performance is quite juicy and he's guy you love to hate. As expected, he doesn't last long and there's a group of suspects, one of them gets arrested. Perry Mason comes to her rescue. It's a standard episode, but fairly enjoyable.

This particular Perry Mason television film, The Case of the Reckless Romeo, is distinguished for having Geraldo Rivera play a version of himself and well on the screen. It was almost a shame to have him killed off, he was the best thing about this film.

Like Geraldo in real life, Geraldo is the host of a tabloid television talk show and he's written some tell all memoirs about the women of whom he's had carnal knowledge of. But whereas in real life some of them issued denials altogether and some just didn't comment, these women are furious. But unfortunately one of them made the mistake of having the cameras rolling when she threatened to do Geraldo in. She's the star of an action television series, so when Geraldo is done in, she's the one who needs the services of Perry Mason.

The other thing The Case of the Reckless Romeo is noted for is the presence of Tracy Nelson who comes from a distinguished show business family, the daughter of Ricky and the granddaughter of Ozzie and Harriet, with her husband William R. Moses. Tracy plays a kind of budding Geraldo like journalist herself and she's carving an agenda all her own in this episode.

There's a cute subplot about Raymond Burr being constantly reminded that it's Barbara Hale's birthday coming up. As if someone as sharp as Perry Mason would ever forget Della Street's birthday.

When talk show host Geraldo Rivera's tell-all memoirs are published, he soon winds up dead. The police arrest and commence the trial of one of his lovers, Amy Steel. Little do they suspect that she will hire Perry Mason. His clients are never guilty! The murderer will confess on the witness stand! And so forth.

Raymond Burr returns as Erle Stanley Gardner's lawyer/sleuth in one of the TV movies that rounded out his career. It's a typically good entry in the series, although the casting of Mr. Rivera as the murder victim must have been a popular choice,,, and stunt casting, given his standing as a serious TV-newsman (on Channel 7 in New York when I was young) into the king of tabloid journalists. His real-life memoirs, in which he claimed to have slept with over a thousand women, was clearly the inspiration for the character he plays here.