Wonderfully offbeat film!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Very entertaining entry in the Perry Mason series. This is due mainly to the appearance of Ricardo Cortez who brings a whole new persona to the role. Affable and good-natured and with a ready smile, Cortez makes Mason seem easy-going and not dependent on alcohol as was the Warren William interpretation. William almost seemed embarrassed but Cortez is like an old shoe, comfortable in the role. Time and again he manages to come off as sympathetic in thankless roles."The Case Of The Black Cat" also has a very imaginative script in its favor, so much so that you won't guess the surprise twist ending. Once you see it you might feel the movie doesn't play fair by introducing hitherto undivulged information, but you will agree it is extremely clever. The cast is comprised of some Hollywood backbenchers but they are a very capable group. This picture is as good as "The Case Of The Howling Dog" which starred Warren William, which I thought was the best of the series. So you could make a pun about cats and dogs - if only I could think of one.

This is formulaic. But that is a very good thing when the formula is very good. And this formula is terrific. When it was designed — and it was very clearly specified — it was designed so that the plugged in variants were so powerful in the narrative twists that each mystery seemed unique. The setup with the characters was nothing new: a mistress/secretary, a thorough detective/colleague, the easy familiarity with the prosecutors and police.What was new was the balance between trial lawyer and murder detective. The trial is an inherently cinematic device: a place where narrative can be both shown and explained. It is a device whereby all sorts of narrative perspectives can be shifted among, allowing for shades of untrusted narration. Gardner took the Agatha Christie's device at the end of her mysteries and expanded it. Christie had all of the suspects in a single room while Poirot or Marple recounted the solved mystery, but in a way that did some fast shuffling. Gardner integrated that into a cinematic setting that allowed for the untrusted narration and discovery to be spread through the detecting.It is brilliant, and well exploited in how Gardner devised twists within each of his plot modules. Here we have an old Christie trick where neither the body nor the original murder is not as thought. The twist is at such a radical level that even today this thing thrills. Narrative structure matters. It can make up for tedious stereotypes, bad acting and poor production.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Viewers will recognize actor Harry Davenport as the ornery, crochety old man who is bellowing and storming right from the beginning of the film. (He was "Thaddeus" in the Bachelor and the Bobby-soxer.) Here, he is Peter Laxter, who is changing his will, and insists that his heirs keep on the caretaker, "Ashton" (George Rosener) AND his cat, who keeps everyone up at night yowling. We know that Sam Laxter the son (Bill Elliot) hates the cat and wants it to "go away"...and Wilma, th daughter is opening up a waffle shop. In this Perry Mason film, Mason is played by the suave and easy going Ricardo Cortez, in the role that Warren William had been playing for several years. So at 18 minutes in, Mason finally gets involved when Ashton the caretaker needs help when someone threatens his cat. Then the bodies start piling up. Supporting roles for June Travis and Gary Owen. Da-Daaa... we're in the court-room. Interesting note - the first director Alan Crosland was in a car accident (and died as a result, making this his last picture) causing the remainder of the film to be directed by William MacGann. Plot a little overly complicated... we need a scorecard to keep up... and with DNA testing that we have today, this scenario would easily be un-covered. Not bad for a Perry Mason film, but takes a little work to keep up. They DO squeeze a lot into th short 66 minutes.

Excellent pre-Raymond Burr filming of a Perry Mason novel! I was lucky enough to see this on TCM (since it isn't on video). At first I wasn't expecting much, but found Ricardo Cortez to be an excellent Perry Mason! Why Warner Brothers didn't keep him for other movies in the series I don't know! That's probably why Perry Mason wasn't that successful until the tv series came along. It would be nice to see this title on DVD.