Perry Mason: The Case of the Lost Love

When watching it, The Case of the Lost Love felt like two movies spliced together in alternating scenes. One movie stars Jean Simmons as a beautiful, classy politician, up for a Senate seat after her predecessor's sudden death. Before her appointment, secrets in her past threaten to catch up with her. This movie is interesting. The second movie is a cheesy, poorly acted, cringe-worthy television crime drama. That movie, the Perry Mason part, is pretty lousy.

I've never seen a Perry Mason TV movie, so maybe they're not all this bad, but if Jean Simmons hadn't been in this movie, I would have turned it off. As it was, I'd frequently walk out of the room for bathroom or snack breaks during the Perry Mason scenes, without bothering to press pause. If you actually happen to like his series, you'll probably like this one. But if you're just looking for an interesting crime/detective show, you have dozens of other shows to choose from. My favorite is Agatha Christie's Poirot. And if you're in the mood to watch a Jean Simmons thriller, try Angel Face instead.

The most ambitious and personal entry in the "Perry Mason" TV movie series. This time Mason comes to the defense of the husband of the woman he apparently loved and lost for the murder of a blackmailer who could have ruined her political career. The acting is top notch with Jean Simmons having great chemistry with Raymond Burr. Direction and production value is above norm for this series.

Raymond Burr congratulates Jean Simmons. She is about to be appointed a senator to fill a vacancy. However, a private detective tells her husband, Gene Barry, that unless he gets $30,000, he'll release proof that Miss Simmons had spent time in a mental institution a few years earlier. When the detective is found dead, and Mr. Barry's cigarette case and fingerprints are found in his room, Barry is on trial for murder. Good thing Perry Mason is a family friend. His clients are rendered innocent by his presence on a case, and random strangers confess in the courtroom.

It's the fourth TV movie that Raymond Burr starred in, reviving his handling of Erle Stanley Gardner's lawyer-sleuth from the classic TV show. He's still aided by Barbara Hale as Della Street, and there's some catty remarks between the two ladies. Donald Ogden Stiers plays the self-assured ADA who will get his surprise drubbing in court. The mystery is a good one and it's a pleasure to see these old pros going through their numbers.

In The Case Of The Lost Love we find that Perry Mason indeed had an old flame, another attorney in the person of Jean Simmons. Simmons has become quite successful and is even now having her name bandied about with speculation she might get a temporary U.S. Senate appointment from the governor.

But the publicity surrounding her appointment has led a blackmailing private detective, Jonathan Banks, to demand some hush money. It seems like he stole her medical records from years earlier when she was in a mental facility. Stuff like that is what got Thomas Eagleton tossed off the Democratic ticket in 1972.

When husband Gene Barry goes to meet Banks with a pre-arranged rendezvous he finds Banks dead and no incriminating medical records. When Barry is arrested for the homicide, it's Perry who offers to defend the husband of his old flame.

There are quite a few of the usual red herring suspects, but the ending is a twist that might surprise viewers who expect things to go a certain way in a Perry Mason story.

The Case of the Lost Love is one of the most original and best of the Perry Mason films. Helped in no small part with the presence of Jean Simmons who back in the day seemed like she was in every good movie of the 1950s.

She's reason enough to see The Case of the Lost Love.

Not usually a fan of this series, I was pleasantly surprised by the great acting (esp. Simmons/Burr) and mildly entertaining story line.

However I would still bracket this type of television with 'Murder She Wrote' and 'Father Dowling Mysteries' as being large unpalatable but pleasant in small doses - when its raining :)