i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Beautiful, moving film.

A Brilliant Conflict

Perry Mason(Raymond Burr)decides to step down as an appellant judge and represent his old friend, Della Street(Barbara Hale)who was framed by a hired killer responsible for assassinating her current employer, Arthur Gordon(Patrick O'Neal). Mason hires a private investigator, Paul Drake Jr(William Katt), the son of an old pal. The case is an intimidating one as the killer staged the crime really well against Della, appearing in drag so that the maid could see a woman exiting the mansion, leaving a torn piece of dress on the outside(and one of her earrings in his hand), returning her muddy heels to her closet to implicate her. But Perry doesn't intimidate easy and he expects a lot out of Paul in order to nab the real suspect, the one who hired the killer. Arthur was to disinherit his entire family out of his will and any one of them could have a possible motive for wanting him dead. When the killer, Bobby Lynch(James Kidnie)is himself shot dead while attempting to run over Paul, Perry plans to turn up the heat on all the Gordons, including wife, Paula(Holland Taylor), insanely jealous of Della who had earned Arthur's good graces(not an easy feat). Richard Anderson represents Paula and Perry later discovers that he is having an affair with Kathryn, Arthur's opinionated, bluntly honest(and has expensive taste)daughter. The aha moment at the end is an essential aspect to all the Perry Mason movies and it's a humdinger here as well. The most amusing scene could be when Perry proves his "dressed in drag" theory in court to the surprise of those in the room. Katt does most of the leg work, while Mason, with his usual towering strength, confronts the Gordons, plenty of questions and accusations which has them on the defensive, the anxiety ever present even from those who weren't behind the hiring of a hit-man. The case goes all the way to the wire with Paul popping in just in time to confirm who Mason expects is the real killer, allowing a nick-in-time suspense even though we know Perry always gets the bad guys in the end.

(There are Spoilers) Floundering around like a beached whale in the state appellate court for the last ten or so years and getting thick and heavy around the mid section, as well as everywhere else, former defense attorney Perry Mason, Raymond Burr, was just about pooped in handing out long winded and boring opinions about the law. When Mason heard that his former private secretary Della Street, Barbara Hale, had been charged with the murder of her boss millionaire businessman Arthur Gordon, Patrick O'Neal, the guy just jumped at the opportunity. Perry had to resign in order to defend Stella in open court where the real action is and that's just where Perry Mason want's to be.Finding Arthur Gordon dead of a stab wound in his study all the evidence lead to his private secretary Della Street as being his killer. We already saw that it was the creepy ex-convict Bobby Lynch, James Kidnie, dressed in drag who was the real murderer and the one who left clues to incriminate Della in Arthur's untimely death. Arthur had earlier threatened to cut out his wife Paula, Holland Taylor, and all his ungrateful and greedy children, Kathryn David Laura & Chris,from his will. Arthur was going to have Paula replaced from his charitable foundation, where the majority of his fortune is in, by Della so why would she want to murder Arthur since Della was to end up as the hostess with the most-est! This fact is what Lynch seemed to have completely overlooked and in the end it would lead a very determined and no holds barred Perry Mason straight to Arthur's killers :the guy who did it and the guy who paid him to do it.Working overtime without pay Perry gets his very competent former, but now deceased, private investigator Paul Drake's overly eager son Paul Drake Jr, William Katt, to do the legwork for him in finding out who framed Stella. Junior comes up with a dead Bobby Lynch who tried to run him down in his car in a garage but was shot between the eyes by an unknown assailant; not to save young Paul's life but to keep Lynch from talking in just who hired him if he ever was caught and put on trial.The road to Arthur Gordon's killer leads to not only one of Arthur's spoiled and rotten kids the very sexy Kathryn, Kerrie Keane, but also her secret lover Arthur's personal attorney and the person who's to make out his will Ken Braddock, Richard Anderson. Perry together with Paul Jr. get to the bottom of what was the reason for Arthur's murder and it had to do not with just the money he was to withdraw from giving his wife. Paula had been using the foundation as her own personal piggy bank and on top of all that someone else the person who, with or without Paula's help, had Arthur killed.A piece of cake for Perry who had no trouble at all exposing Arthur's killer and exonerating his good and close friend his former private secretary Della Street but most of all making a monkey out of the snotty and arrogant young prosecuting D.A Julie Scott, Cassie Yeats. Scott wanted to make it big as a state prosecutor thinking that the fat and rusty old man, Perry Mason, was ripe for the picking and ready to be plucked but learned soon enough that Perry is still not only the best at what he does but even better then ever in doing it.

The first Perry Mason Series ran from 1957 until 1966, In the mid eighties until it's star's (Raymond Burr) death in 1993 there was a belated revival bringing Mason a new generation of fans in several TV Movies along with original sidekick Della Street (Barbara Hale) and new P.I Paul Drake JR (William Katt). This is the first such movie and one of the better ones for it has Della street accused of murdering her boss and so Mason and Drake frantically try to find clear her name.all in all an above-average TV Mystery8/10

Della Street is set up as the fallguy for a murder. Of course, everybody knows that this sweet, motherly woman wouldn't swat a fly, much less off somebody. Mason pulls out all stops in unraveling the mystery and uncovers a plot to keep a multi-million dollar scam intact. The one phony part in this film is the reaction of a lawyer at the movie's end. No attorney would do what this man did.