Perry Mason arrives in New York to receive an award from the American Bar Association but, as usual, it is not long before he finds himself defending somebody framed for murder. This time it is the owner of a successful fashion magazine Lauren Jeffreys (Diana Maulder) whom is accused of killing her bitterest business rival Diane Draper (Valerie Harper)the owner of a rival magazine. The police believe Jeffreys did it because two people - a neighbour and the security guard - saw her enter the victim's flat on the night of the murder. In addition, jewellery belonging to the dead woman was found in her desk and, at Draper's office, an article accusing Jeffreys of taking bribes from fashion designers in exchange for rave reviews in her magazine was discovered on her computer and a floppy disk was stolen from her apartment. Mason has plenty of suspects to probe - all of whom feared that Draper was about to expose them in her editors column. Meanwhile, Jeffreys estranged daughter Julia Collier (Ally Walker) and Draper's former PA is bitter that her mother deserted her as a baby in Texas and fled to New York for the good life. Will the fact that her mother is on trial for murder lead her to try and reconcile her relationship with her?
Another routine courtroom drama in the long running series of made for TV revival movies that successfully returned Raymond Burr to his best loved role as the world's most famous defence attorney. This ranks as being neither among the best nor the worst of them. As a mystery it plays fair with the audience and the clues and plot turns -on the whole - run smoothly, coherently and logically to the denouement.
But, in terms of acting, direction and overall handling it is utterly mundane and indifferent. It has the air (like many of the others) of being a mass produced product being rolled off the production line at breakneck speed with everyone just going through the motions.
The premise of Lauren Jeffreys attempting to reconcile with her estranged daughter Julia Collier has promise but it is insufficiently developed in the script and Diana Maulder and Ally Walker's performances do not do enough to stir our emotions. But, I suspect that this was shot on a fairly hectic production schedule and I doubt if there was time to expand on it even if the actors and their director would have liked to have done that.
William R. Moses' action man bit as the young attorney Ken Malansky sees him fall under the clutches of mafia boss Albert Nardone (George DiCenzo) who forces one of his heavies to help his investigations after his cousin, Marco Sabatini, is murdered. They locate a vital suspect that Mason needs if he is to stand any chance of clearing Lauren Jeffreys of killing Draper. But, Malansky is double crossed by Nardone and he abducts the suspect planning to exact revenge in his own way and the young attorney must find him and persuade the mafia lord that it is best for the suspect to appear in court and let the law take its course.
Another routine courtroom drama in the long running series of made for TV revival movies that successfully returned Raymond Burr to his best loved role as the world's most famous defence attorney. This ranks as being neither among the best nor the worst of them. As a mystery it plays fair with the audience and the clues and plot turns -on the whole - run smoothly, coherently and logically to the denouement.
But, in terms of acting, direction and overall handling it is utterly mundane and indifferent. It has the air (like many of the others) of being a mass produced product being rolled off the production line at breakneck speed with everyone just going through the motions.
The premise of Lauren Jeffreys attempting to reconcile with her estranged daughter Julia Collier has promise but it is insufficiently developed in the script and Diana Maulder and Ally Walker's performances do not do enough to stir our emotions. But, I suspect that this was shot on a fairly hectic production schedule and I doubt if there was time to expand on it even if the actors and their director would have liked to have done that.
William R. Moses' action man bit as the young attorney Ken Malansky sees him fall under the clutches of mafia boss Albert Nardone (George DiCenzo) who forces one of his heavies to help his investigations after his cousin, Marco Sabatini, is murdered. They locate a vital suspect that Mason needs if he is to stand any chance of clearing Lauren Jeffreys of killing Draper. But, Malansky is double crossed by Nardone and he abducts the suspect planning to exact revenge in his own way and the young attorney must find him and persuade the mafia lord that it is best for the suspect to appear in court and let the law take its course.