Perry Mason is back in court to defend a news station's co-anchor Gillian Pope (Kerrie Keane) who has been charged with the murder of her anchorman Brett Huston. There is much circumstantial evidence pointing to her guilt, but the ace attorney discovers that just about all of Gillian's colleagues had reasons for wanting him dead. They include Huston's ex-wife Twyla Cooper (Susan Sullivan) who hated him playing her for a fool with his numerous affairs. Gary Slate (Peter Jurasik), the weatherman, was angry because Huston stole his girl from him and Chuck Gilmore (Philip Michael Thomas), the sports commentator, believed that he was trying to implicate him in a drugs scandal at Briggs College. In addition, a leaked memo by Huston demanded that they all be fired from the KGGY TV news station. Huston, it seemed, had a lot of power over the station's manager Vic St John (Jerry Orbach), but why?
A standard and largely to formula entry in the seemingly never ending series of Perry Mason revival TVM's. Fans of them will be kept more than happy and only people with the "If you've seen one you've seen them all" view will have any reason to complain.
The story plays fair with the audience (for the most part) but at the end it falls into what was the weakness of some of the other films by throwing up evidence out of thin air without any insight as to how Perry solved it or reached that conclusion. Yet, it must be said that the vital clue that finally got Perry his man is ingenious and only somebody as observant and as eagle eyed as him could have spotted it. Without wanting to spoil it for people who haven't seen it I will confine myself to say that it involves a film, fast food chains and a discrepancy involving a neon sign. Puzzled? Watch it and see.
The standard of the acting is generally of a high standard throughout, but there isn't really all that a challenging part for anyone in the supporting cast. Burr is as good as always as Perry Mason and is a commanding presence in his courtroom scenes. Barbara Hale has very little to do in her scenes as Della Street. William R Moses does his usual action man bit as Ken Malansky, which this time sees him journeying to LA to track down a TV cameraman who is a witness to a murder. In this episode, Malansky falls for a young news reporter called Cassie Whitfield (Mary Page Keller) who was blackmailed by the murdered man. Ken thinks that an explosion which killed her engineer may have been intended to kill her, but is Cassie as much of a victim or as innocent as she appears?
Overall, this should delight fans of the Perry Mason revival series, but to people who are less fond of it will most probably see it as another routine courtroom drama.
A standard and largely to formula entry in the seemingly never ending series of Perry Mason revival TVM's. Fans of them will be kept more than happy and only people with the "If you've seen one you've seen them all" view will have any reason to complain.
The story plays fair with the audience (for the most part) but at the end it falls into what was the weakness of some of the other films by throwing up evidence out of thin air without any insight as to how Perry solved it or reached that conclusion. Yet, it must be said that the vital clue that finally got Perry his man is ingenious and only somebody as observant and as eagle eyed as him could have spotted it. Without wanting to spoil it for people who haven't seen it I will confine myself to say that it involves a film, fast food chains and a discrepancy involving a neon sign. Puzzled? Watch it and see.
The standard of the acting is generally of a high standard throughout, but there isn't really all that a challenging part for anyone in the supporting cast. Burr is as good as always as Perry Mason and is a commanding presence in his courtroom scenes. Barbara Hale has very little to do in her scenes as Della Street. William R Moses does his usual action man bit as Ken Malansky, which this time sees him journeying to LA to track down a TV cameraman who is a witness to a murder. In this episode, Malansky falls for a young news reporter called Cassie Whitfield (Mary Page Keller) who was blackmailed by the murdered man. Ken thinks that an explosion which killed her engineer may have been intended to kill her, but is Cassie as much of a victim or as innocent as she appears?
Overall, this should delight fans of the Perry Mason revival series, but to people who are less fond of it will most probably see it as another routine courtroom drama.