Perry Mason steps into court yet again to defend a childhood friend of Della Street's, Tony Domenico, who is standing trial for the murder of his wife, the public relations boss Susanne. The prosecutor, Michael Reston, thinks he killed her in a rage after he found out about her criminal past as a prostitute and running a house of prostitution. Old newspaper cuttings detailing her past arrest were discovered in his car. Yet, as always, Perry has his doubts and thinks that the answer may lie in a secretive business lunch between four top bankers hosted by the murdered woman on the day before she died at her country retreat. Are the bankers Steve Reynolds, Richard Wilson, Leonard Weeks and Edward Tremaine involved in a shady deal and why has Miranda Bonner, a former call girl who helped Susanne host the lunch, disappeared?
Standard but largely satisfactory Perry Mason revival TVM, which features some nice chemistry between Raymond Burr's Mason and Barbara Hale's Della Street. There's a little scene where the prosecutor discredits the latter's evidence as biased by revealing that Tony Domenico had once proposed marriage to her. Perry looks a little jealous and,as she returns to her seat having stepped down from the witness box, she reassures him that "it was a long time ago." Throughout the series we were invited to wonder if there was a romantic side between Perry and Della.
William Katt's Paul Drake is on the trail of Miranda Bonner who holds a key to helping Perry win his case and, as usual, he encounters many amusing dices with death and close shaves along the way. Apart from trying to save Miranda who is being targeted by Susanne's killer, he tangles with a gangster nightclub owner called Harry Long who, it has to be said, is very poorly and unconvincingly characterised, but that sort of adds to the enjoyment of it.
The central thrust of the plot about fraud and theft being committed by prominent bankers is fairly engagingly worked out and Burr plays his part with his customary authority in his courtroom scenes. He gives the witnesses/suspects both barrels: "Isn't it true?" and "This will prove you killed her, won't it?", etc. The storyline is generally capable of being followed playing fair with the audience, but one can't help but think that Mason tracking down the mystery man who was at the lunch with the bankers by cigar butts and seeing which one takes the bait by offering them a box of Havana cigars as a gift is a little old hat. The supporting cast is pretty average in this one, but most of them play their parts more than competently with Anthony Geary, Bill Macy, James Noble and John Rees-Davies especially noteworthy as the shady bankers.
All in all, The Case Of The Murdered Madam emerges as a standard but largely satisfactory in this long running and phenomenally successful series, which will do the business for the fans and its not a bad place to start for someone who has never seen it before.
