Perry Mason is invited to the wedding of his niece, the pop idol Kaitlynn Parrish (Heather McAdam), but the big day is ruined when her uncle, Alanzo Hawkes, bursts in hurling insults at her father, Max (Ronny Cox), and brandishing an envelope supposedly containing money. "This will show everyone exactly who you are", he screams before he is knocked out by security and taken into the study to recover. Later, Kaitlynn is discovered standing over Hawkes' body with blood on her hands and a knife at her feet. Lt. Brock (James McEachin) arrests her for the murder and her motive is believed to be connected to her talent agent father who is under investigation for allegedly embezzling his clients' money. Perry, however, believes her to be innocent and sets out to find the real killer...
A strictly standard entry into the seemingly never ending series of TVM's based on the classic 1950's-60's courtroom drama series Perry Mason. But, on the whole, it is no less enjoyable for it and certainly fans of the show will love it and for those who have never watched it before it is as good a place as any to start. The only part that doesn't really work is the central theme of Mason representing his niece on a murder charge. It is meant to install an emotional element into the story, but it doesn't really have that much of an effect because in virtually all of these films the client is usually an old friend or acquaintance of Perry's. It seems very tired and repetitive and all too often we ask ourselves "How many old friends can he really have?"
The story was written by Brian Clemens, best known as one of the key creative talents behind the seminal British fantasy series The Avengers, and he laces his script with enough intrigue and plot turns to keep murder mystery fans happy. Burr is his usual impressive self as the ace defence attorney, and as usual, he goes all out to defend his client, and in the course of that he exposes other wrongdoers responsible for completely unconnected crimes to his case in order to get at the truth. In this case, as well as clearing his niece for murdering her uncle, he also clears her father of embezzling money from his clients' funds and sees to it that the real culprit faces justice.
There is some entertaining action comedy in the scenes involving Mason's attorney - detective sidekick, Ken Malansky (William R Moses), who reluctantly accepts the help of Kaitlynn's fiancé, the soap star Gary Hawkes (Adam Storke). In this feature, Malansky discovers that the murder victim was involved with a gang of ruthless gangsters whom he double crossed in order to extort money from the FBI over bootleg cassettes. The gang mistake him for the murdered man and plot to kill him since he knows too much. Hawkes employs his acting skills as a fake gangster in order to save his life in a hilarious scene. They overpower his would be assassins and Hawkes is a little miffed that Malansky seems ungrateful. "Yeah, I am, Pacino couldn't even cut it" says Malansky in a not entirely successful bid to show his gratitude. You can see that he is slightly embarrassed that he had to be saved by an actor and he never likes people interfering with his cases.
There are some interesting faces amongst the supporting cast, including Ronny Cox, Diane Baker, Linda Blair (who shot to fame as a teenager in The Exorcist) and the rock legend Stephen Stills (Crosby Stills And Nash) puts in a special appearance.
A strictly standard entry into the seemingly never ending series of TVM's based on the classic 1950's-60's courtroom drama series Perry Mason. But, on the whole, it is no less enjoyable for it and certainly fans of the show will love it and for those who have never watched it before it is as good a place as any to start. The only part that doesn't really work is the central theme of Mason representing his niece on a murder charge. It is meant to install an emotional element into the story, but it doesn't really have that much of an effect because in virtually all of these films the client is usually an old friend or acquaintance of Perry's. It seems very tired and repetitive and all too often we ask ourselves "How many old friends can he really have?"
The story was written by Brian Clemens, best known as one of the key creative talents behind the seminal British fantasy series The Avengers, and he laces his script with enough intrigue and plot turns to keep murder mystery fans happy. Burr is his usual impressive self as the ace defence attorney, and as usual, he goes all out to defend his client, and in the course of that he exposes other wrongdoers responsible for completely unconnected crimes to his case in order to get at the truth. In this case, as well as clearing his niece for murdering her uncle, he also clears her father of embezzling money from his clients' funds and sees to it that the real culprit faces justice.
There is some entertaining action comedy in the scenes involving Mason's attorney - detective sidekick, Ken Malansky (William R Moses), who reluctantly accepts the help of Kaitlynn's fiancé, the soap star Gary Hawkes (Adam Storke). In this feature, Malansky discovers that the murder victim was involved with a gang of ruthless gangsters whom he double crossed in order to extort money from the FBI over bootleg cassettes. The gang mistake him for the murdered man and plot to kill him since he knows too much. Hawkes employs his acting skills as a fake gangster in order to save his life in a hilarious scene. They overpower his would be assassins and Hawkes is a little miffed that Malansky seems ungrateful. "Yeah, I am, Pacino couldn't even cut it" says Malansky in a not entirely successful bid to show his gratitude. You can see that he is slightly embarrassed that he had to be saved by an actor and he never likes people interfering with his cases.
There are some interesting faces amongst the supporting cast, including Ronny Cox, Diane Baker, Linda Blair (who shot to fame as a teenager in The Exorcist) and the rock legend Stephen Stills (Crosby Stills And Nash) puts in a special appearance.