Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Framing

In this Perry Mason mystery, Raymond Burr's client is Mark Moses who is the husband of a Christina Faust whom he catches fooling around with the victim David Soul. A victim who's supposed to be dead.

Soul is a painter who decided that he's not going to wait for posterity for acclaim for his work. He fakes his own death and stays in Mexico for five years and with the help of art dealer John Rhys-Davies sells his work at a considerable profit.

On a trip to Denver Soul comes out of hiding when he sees a copy of one of his paintings and rips it to shreds denouncing it as a fraud. Seems as though someone has been taking advantage of his 'demise' which like Mark Twain's proves exaggerated.

Not for long though when Soul winds up really dead Mark Moses as the jilted husband zooms to the top of the list of suspects.

In the Mason feature films I used to like how first William Katt and later Billy Moses used to get a lot more physical than William Hopper did on the TV series. Billy Moses has a real nice fight with another artist Scott Valentine with Valentine using a chain saw. Valentine isn't wrapped too tight and he's clearly a suspect.

Turns out two of the cast were in on the real demise of David Soul. You figure out which two.

Truman York (David Soul) was once as notorious for his drink and drug problems as he was for his artwork. So when he ends up thrown into a river during a police chase he decides to fake his own death and head down south to start a clean life in anonymity. But after many years in hiding, presumed dead, Truman returns to the city have become aware that someone was faking his artwork and making a fortune off of them. His return does not last long as after seeing his wife, who also thought he was dead, whilst the angry husband of a woman who died in the crash with him tries but fails to kill him, someone succeeds in murdering him as he slept. That angry husband finds himself charged with the murder but having a friend in Ken Malansky (William R. Moses) leads to Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) fighting his corner, with the usual help of Della Street (Barbara Hale).

Art, forgeries and a dead man coming back from the dead- the latter is played by David Soul, who fakes his death, lives out in Mexico and returns to expose some forgeries, and dies for it. A competent mystery with a neat set-up and some good suspects- scott Valentine as a barmy painter stands out.

This Perry Mason film held a significance for me as it was the last of them that I had not seen and reviewed on this site. The film franchise itself was something I remember with affection as I used to watch it on Saturday afternoons with my father when I was younger, so I did want to be able to have seen them all. As it happens I don't think I had ever seen this one before, which was a nice find but unfortunately didn't mean much in terms of the film itself being good and it is a shame for my approach that this is actually a quite weak film in the series.

It is thus because it lacks bells and whistles in the most part and it seems to plod along doing the basics – in particular there seems to a very small amount of time spent in the courtroom itself. The biggest problem is that we spent the vast majority of the film meeting suspects in the usual parade of red-herrings. I like this part of the film, but not when it is the entire film – normally this occurs while the investigator (Drake or Malanksy) chase down a lead with some action and comedy in there; in this film Malansky really has very little to do and his time is mostly spent on a nothing lead. This means we mostly are left with a lot of talking which doesn't actually fill in the viewer very much because this film franchise is rarely about making it possible to guess from the start. This makes the majority of the film a little lacking in spark and energy – in particular those that know the formula will be waiting for the rest of the film to start for the majority of this one.

The courtroom section of the film is also rather lacking, again partly because the film doesn't deliver the qualities that the majority of the series do. The device of using a video interview (accessed by "electronic keyboard" if you believe such a thing) is poor and the whole section lacks energy. This is partly because the narrative has lacked energy but it isn't helped by a lack of tension in the courtroom itself. Burr gives a decent account of himself but he is not in top gear here, but to me a bigger drain is Macaulay as the DA – he seems bored from the very start and there is no fight in him, he made me long for the films where Stiers is the opposite number. Even McEachin only has one very brief scene here – so it is clear that the formula is a little watered down in terms of delivering the standard. The rest of the cast are mixed – David Soul makes an impact by virtue of him being a big name that is hardly in the film, while Mad Men fans will get a kick out of seeing Mark Moses very young looking (although his voice hasn't changed). Otherwise the rest of them do the basics while Moses as usual isn't as good as Katt was.

Overall this is a rather disappointing Perry Mason film. It lacks spark even by the "TVM" standards of its own series – the majority of the film just talks without much building and even the courtroom drama is rather lacking. A weak example of the formula here then; too basic and really doesn't have much about it to engage even for fans.

David Soul is an artist who faked his own death. He shows up and is killed hours later. Mark Moses is on trial for the murder. Fortunately, he is a friend to William Moses (no relation), Perry Mason's associate/investigator. With Raymond Burr on the case, we can be sure he is innocent and the real killer will confess on the witness stand.

It's a typically facile entry into the Perry Mason TV movie serious starring Raymond Burr as Erle Stanley Gardner's lawyer-sleuth, with Barbara Hale as Della Street. There are, as usual, several people whom to suspect, but as usual for the series, the final clue will be uncovered during the trial.

Other familiar faces include John Rhys-Davies as an art dealer and Kelly McGillis as the accused wife. Fans of the series will be pleased.