Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Movie review – Perry Mason #6 - “The Case of the Stuttering Bishop” (1937) **

Warners tried a third actor at Perry Mason, Donald Woods, and he’s the worst so far – a smooth moustached type actor who looks as though he’d be more comfortably cast playing one of the suspects – he’s got even less presence than Ricardo Cortez. There’s also a new Della (Ann Dvorak who was so great in Scarface but never seemed to make a similar sort of impact ever again) and a new Paul Drake (played by an elderly actor who looks old enough to be Mason’s father). 

The most interesting thing is the initial client is a bishop who claims to hail from Sydney, Australia – but it’s just another elderly actor in an Irish accent and not much is made of the Aussie connection in the story. 

Perry Mason fans may enjoy the fact that this is the one film in the series which has Mason reducing someone into confessional tears in the dock – something which became a staple of the tv show. Yet again, a decently complex mystery with uninspired handling

No comments: