Perry Mason - Un éditorial de trop

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.

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.

Fashion newspaper editor Dyan Draper has a habit of exposing those in the fashion world in her column. It's only a matter of time before she in bumped off by someone. Lauren Jeffreys is the main suspect as she had a public fight with Draper and was seen entering her building shortly before her death. Lauren is a friend of Della's so Perry takes the case despite also being a witness for the prosecution. Meanwhile Ken hooks up with a minor-Mafia hood to hunt down the real killer.

If you've seen one of these things then you've seen them all. The legal realism of these shows are always very doubtful but the drama is still enjoyable. Here for Mason is a witness but is still allowed to prosecute - also they do an unusual and unfair line up in the courtroom itself! Mason does his usual ripping into the witness stuff which is good and this time it isn't as straightforward as it usually is with a view twists making the climax different from usual (slightly). Ken's investigation is better than usual here and is enjoyable thanks to the presence of mobster Loomis as his partner - makes a change from Alexander Paul or some other dippy girl.

Burr is as good as ever in a role that he could do in his sleep with no real difficulty. Hale is as underused as always but seems happy to be there. Moses does his usual stuff and gets help from Clohessy (best known for Oz)who is quite enjoyable, despite being a bit of a caricature (`hey! Gone on get outta here' etc). Muldaur is solid and is an unusually famous defendant having been in Star Trek. DiCenzo is fun in a small role as a dressmaking mobster!

Overall this doesn't really stand out from the majority of the Mason movies but if you like them then you'll like this. It isn't the best of the series but it's as good as the rest. Worth watching if you liked any of the other ones.

Scott Baio appears in this New York Based Perry Mason tale, as does Diana Muldaur aka Doctor Polaski from Star Trek.

This is one of the Better"Malansky" eps, Moses appears without his irritating rich detective-girlfriend. Here, he is forced to make Buds with Gangster Tony Loomis (Robert Clohessy), and it is a perfect match.

Valerie Harper is Dyan Draper, who is making everyone's lives miserable. She's Muckraked up dirt on the whole planet, but it's anyone's guess who she is going to target in her next column. And several people, including Lauren Jeffrys (Polaski/Muldaur) try to get access to Draper to find out if they are to be the subjects of Draper's Muckraking festivities the next day. But Draper cleverly dodges all attempts from 4 people and she does not even tell her Girl Friday Julia Collier (Ally Walker) who is to be the special recipient of her ministrations.

So there are four possible suspects, maybe 5 even.

What is interesting about this episode, is that it talks about using a Modem to transfer a column digitally to the computer at a Magazine Office. At the desk in Dyan's apartment, is a little Macintosh, same design as the 1984 model. Back then such a modem would probably be 300 baud. In fact, I have a one of the modems that would have been used on the floor in front of my PC. It would have been an Appletalk Network.

But of course none of this is talked about in any great detail, this episode plods along while Perry deftly recuses each possible suspect - Until he is left with the last one, and even then it is not who you expect it to be.

Which makes this one of the better Perry Mason Mysterys segment. Of course, is was directed by Original Perry Mason director Christian I. Nyby's son, Christian I. Nyby II.

What I lov ed about therse later Mason TV Movies is that they finally left the confines of "Colorado" (Colorado-in-Canada?) to visit venues like France, and in this episode, New York City.

And as much as I miss William Katt as the Bumbling version of Paul Drake, and I really did like that it was Della's Real Life son, William R Moses was finally hitting his stride with this episode.

I would have liked an explanation of what happened to Paul Drake, Junior, in this series, but I never saw it. My only complaint with the TV Movies of the 80's is the hole left by Paul Drake's absence, who left us WAY too soon at age 54. Where William Hopper exuded "The Competent Man", William R Katt, excuse me, William Katt sometimes overplayed the comedic aspects, always losing his detective-prey, being smashed over the head constantly, having his wallet stolen, being hospitalized, etc. His "Father" never had that happen. But William R. Moses was able to create a Bridge between Paul Drake and Paul Drake, Jr. He does so magnificently here.

I remember watching these when they were Broadcast, I watched them with my parents. But I haven't seen these since they were originally broadcast, and now that I have a huge 50" TV, the only copies I can find are recorded from Low Quality DVR, sometimes with commercials intact. Even my original Perry episodes are on DVD, which suit me fine, except that the one colour season 9 episode "Twice Told Twist" is not in colour.

I am totally pleased however, that Mason socked it to Scott Baio.

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.