The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Raymond Burr has indelibly etched a conception of Perry Mason on our minds that is not easily overcome. In fact Erle Stanley Gardner himself said that Burr fit perfectly what he thought his fictional lawyer/sleuth should be.God only knows what he thought of Warren William in this particular film where Mason is quite the party animal, usually partying with Della Street played here by Genevieve Tobin. When we meet him he's in his office sleeping one off when Porter Hall arrives looking to hire him.Hall wants Craig Reynolds the sponsor of the Lucky Legs beauty contest investigated. The woman Hall has been seeing Patricia Ellis was the winner of the latest contest so there's a personal angle here. Later on Reynolds is found stabbed to death.I'm wondering if Jack Warner didn't get permission from Louis B. Mayer for a lease on Nick and Nora Charles. A few more wisecracks and a wider suspect list this one plays like a Thin Man movie.And one other thing happens here that definitely not in keeping with an Erle Stanley Gardner paradigm. But if I say everything will be revealed.Fans of the principal players should be pleased.

Erle Stanley Gardner oversaw the TV series "Perry Mason," including picking the Perry - so you can see the difference between that series and a Mason movie like "The Case of the Lucky Legs." Warren William is Mason, and his Mason is 180 degrees different from his first, more serious Mason portrayal in "The Case of the Howling Dog." Here, he's extremely flippant, he and Delta flirt constantly, and it's all a game to him in between drinks. In the first entry into the series, he has a huge office with lots of associates; here, he's a one-man office as in the books.William's Mason has nothing to do with the Erle Stanley Gardner's passionate Perry Mason of the Depression, or the steady, solid Perry of later on, but he's still wonderful - handsome, charming, debonair, and very funny. He's definitely a guilty pleasure, even though I know how much Gardner hated these films.At least in title, this is an actual Perry Mason story, and it's a good one.Warren William played heavies in silent films and emerged in talkies as a leading man. He had a great persona.Very entertaining.

**SPOILERS** Perry Mason, Warren William, really has his work cut out for him in "The Case of the Lucky Legs". Not only does Perry have to find who murderer corrupt promoter Frank Patton, Craig Reynolds, but also find a square meal to keep himself from starving to death. Perry had been put on this crash/starvation diet by his quack doctor Dr. Croker, Olin Howland, who thinks that Perry, looking like he's already suffering from malnutrition, is vastly overweight.Hired by her boss Mr. Bradbury, Portor Hall, to get promoter Patton to give his client the leggy Margie Clune, Patricia Ellis, the $1,000.00 first place prize that he owe her Perry ends up defending Margie in Patton's murder. Perry discovers that Margie's outraged boyfriend Dr. Bob Doray, Lyle Tabot, who's upset that Margie, in a skimpy bathing suite, would show her legs as well as body off in public was seen hanging around Patton's hotel room just minutes before his body was found. To make things even worse for Dr. Bob the knife, thats used in surgery, that killed Patton came from his personal doctors' bag!With Dr. Bob later exonerated in Patton's death Margie, who was seen running from Patton's hotel-room, is now the #1 suspect in his murder. Perry Mason hiding Margie away at the far-off Oceanview Hotel soon finds out from another "Lucky Legs" winner, whom Patton stiffed, Eva Lamont(Anita Kerry)that he's being impersonated by the person who representing her! It's that individual who it later turns out murdered Frank Patton!Juggling between getting a bite to eat and proving his client, Margie Clune, innocent of Pttton's murder makes things a lot harder for Perry in the movie. Perry in trying to keep from passing out, from starvation, goes around raiding Margie and her roommate another "Lucky Legs" contestant Thelma Bell's, Peggy Shannon, icebox as well as helping himself to Mr. Bradbury's five course dinner at a swanky restaurant. These weird actions, why didn't he just buy himself something to eat instead of stealing it, gives those of us watching the movie the feeling that Perry is nothing but a moocher not the well heeled, in table manors, and socially refined gentleman that were used to seeing on the both big and small screen.Perry eventually proves Margie innocent of Frank Patton's murder in getting the murderer to be identified by,in his impersonation of Perry himself, his client whom the killer deal with as her lawyer! If it wasn't for Perry getting himself a well deserved meal, of chocolate cake and sardines, at Margie's place earlier in the film he may not have survived, dying of starvation, long enough to get her off from being charged with first degree murder.

A wonderful version of Perry Mason. Warren William is the perfect shyster, affiable, witty, lovable, funny and willing to bend the law a little for his client while skewering his adversaries. The dialog is great and pace never lags. A very good mystery with a great 30s setting. I wish WW had played Perry in a dozen of these Gardner stories.